TOPIC: Saber makes an uncharacteristic hum

Hey all!

I had a question here, as I haven't experienced this yet with my saber over the last year.

What is going on is when I am turning the saber off, I get this odd, low volume slight hum as it's powering off. Not the typical 'power down' hum, but another one that occurs just as it powers off.

I haven't charged my battery in a long time (a long time, as in about 7 months) so perhaps it's just making that slight pitch because of a low battery. I don't want to start charging it until it's right good and dead as I'm just finicky like that having grown up on old school rechargeable batteries.

I haven't heard it make this sound before, so I thought I'd ask here of those that make far more extensive use of their saber than I have. It's probably nothing, but I'd rather play it safe.

That could be from not enough "juice". Charge the battery and see if it goes away. That battery is probably not discharging at it's normal rate due to being low and that can cause all sorts of weird stuff.

That's what I was figuring as well, just getting low on battery power. This summer has been hectic so I haven't used it as much as I wanted outside hahaha. I will try to finish off the battery and start charging in the next few days if I get a chance.

Hopefully it's nothing major. It sees very light usage (mostly spins and practicing my old kata techniques outside) with some bashing on children's sabers with the kids once in a while, so I doubt it's from getting smashed around and I haven't dropped it. So the odds are high it's just a low battery.

Sorry for the necro, but this issue has come back and it is continuing through a fully charged battery now. The humming occurs when the LEDs are flickering, switching on or switching off. I went into diagnostic mode and muted the sound entirely, and the sound is in sync with when the LED is going on/off.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? It's mostly a shelf queen and has not seen actual contact besides kiddie plastic sabers with the kiddies any help is appreciated.

Hi Zeddicuus,

Sorry you're having problems (but I hope you're well otherwise, haven't chatted for a while). I'm no expert but here's a possibility.
I read elsewhere that some sabers had a humming noise even when muted and I thought it may be the result of electrical "noise". All circuitry and wiring give off a magnetic field when current flows through them. If a wire that is unshielded gets close to a Microphone or Speaker (and their wiring) the magnetic field in that wire can interfere with the speaker and cause a "Humming" This is a big problem for guitarists and people like me who play keyboards and synths. A similar thing could be happening in your saber.

I don't know which board you have or how it's wired but it's possible that the speaker leads are routed/laid across the circuit board to reach the speaker. The electronics make this "Noise" all the time they are switched on but when you trigger a change in your saber's volume or current flow powering up/down etc you may notice the noise more. On my Champion board when I have my saber on mute it has a very quiet buzzing when I have it set to flicker.

It may be this electrical "Noise". Hopefully you could check the board and where the wires are placed to see if adjusting their positions will fix (or at least lessen) the problem.

Hope this helps,

For Tyeth

Hello Tyeth, thanks for responding! I've been doing good myself. Super busy but doing good!

Originally when I posted about this it was only when the battery was low so I didn't think much of it. It's not horribly loud, you can really only hear it as it turns on, during shut down or when muted. It never used to make this sound when going through the configuration menu. It is most noticable dealing with the optical frequence (first setting). It does make sense the wires may have moved and cause the hum, given that it gets swung around a fair amount by myself or 4 other kids.


This is a pre ASP saber with Champion electronics, Crimson board. Getting too deep into the electronics may be difficult given the saber will not easily come apart. I can remove the C-Ring and nudge the speaker I think though and see what I can about the cables. I was hoping there was a known fix for this without gutting the unit, heheh. But I can see what I can do to open it and examine the wiring.

I really should have thought of it sooner but I just charged the unit last night and previously that resolved it due to a weak charge. I'll see what I can do this weekend and try to get back to this thread with an update.

If anyone else has had this issue and knows other things to test, I'd appreciate hearing about it!

Does your saber have vibration?

It does not have vibration. This is a pre-ASP blade, about 2-3 yrs old now, before they had vibration. It never used to do this when I first got it, then about 10 months ago it only did it when the battery was low. Now it's all the time, but the volume of the hum is low enough you can only make it out when the sound is muted, when it's powering up or shutting down.

I haven't updated on this in a bit. unfortunately I can't find my c-clip tool so I'll have to buy a new one once I'm done some other important things such as taking my family on vacation. I did move the speaker around a bit and give it a few firm shakes to see if I can jiggle cables a bit. The sound has decreased so I'm pretty sure it's due to cables causing a magnetic field near the speaker and it's just an after effect. I feel silly for not thinking of this sooner.

Tyeth confirmed this suspicion with a private message stating the exact same thing so I am pretty dang sure once I go buy this tool so I can move the speaker I can make the appropriate adjustments, probably tape cables up to the interior of the saber so they stay away from the speaker. It should be a super easy fix once I get around to it.

I hope it's nothing like a broken solder joint as I don't have the tools for this kind of precision haha. I doubt that's the case though.

Once I manage to get the tool to remove the c-clip I will update here, but that may be a bit due to summer shenanigans.

Saber is working great otherwise and I really do love it!