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TOPIC: Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2?

Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 1 week ago #65529

  • Ishwa
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While wiring up my first Spark Color 2, I was startled by family and long story short, I have continuity between LED+ and BAT+. Looking at the board, it seems possible that it was built that way, but that wasn't something I thought to test before I started and I want to make certain before I get too carried away. As always, any insight is greatly appreciated.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 1 week ago #65530

  • Kouri
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Pretty sure you're fine, as I can see the circuit bridging both positives on the basic Spark 2 I've got in front of me.

Besides, it's the LED- contacts that determine whether or not your LEDs are getting any power.
Last Edit: 2 months 1 week ago by Kouri.
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The following user(s) said Thank You: Ishwa, ToyKeeper

Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 1 week ago #65531

  • Ishwa
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Thank you Kouri. Once again saving my rear end.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65651

  • Ishwa
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I figure rather than start another topic, I'd just reply to this one with another question that still pertains to the Spark Color 2 and my lack of experience. I have a R/G/rB/rB LED hooked up to the board on C4/3/2/1 respectively. I have a 1.2 ohm 3W resistor on only the RED- lead. Everything seems to work fine, however when I mix Red and Blue (both blues together or each blue seperatly), I get a flicker. Any single color, both blues together alone, or even mixing blue/green or red/green it doesn't happen. I first thought it might be the battery, but even today after a full charge I'm still getting it. Is this to be expected because of the adjustments, or did I miss something? Thanks again guys.
Last Edit: 2 months 5 days ago by Ishwa. Reason: wrong resistor value
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65657

  • Khang
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Can you describe the flicker more clearly? Are you talking about an obvious dip in color of one LED and the other or?
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65658

  • Ishwa
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I probably should have done this in the first place... In the video, I go through all the color mixtures I've set up, but in the last few changes (notably pink and purple, particularly while actually changing) you can see what I'm talking about. It's MUCH more noticable in person but, as you can see, it doesn't do it at all for the first bunch of colors.



And while I'm at it. My purple lighted switch is awfully dim. It's wired up to accent pad 1 with a 1/4W 39 ohm resistor.
Last Edit: 2 months 5 days ago by Ishwa.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65659

  • Khang
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Have you changed any other settings? That's pretty intense.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65660

  • Ishwa
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Only the blade effect to static, and turned up C4 to 95% because by default it was off.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65662

  • Khang
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So the colors are stock or did you set them up yourself?
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65663

  • Ishwa
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I set all the colors up myself. I was first trying for a nice deep purple, when I noticed the issue. So I went through the different color sets to get different mixes of all the dies. I spent A LOT of time trying to find the right purple, also while trying to figure out how the darn thing worked. Lots of Copy/Paste, lots of in and out with the card. Should I maybe try reformatting the SD card and starting from scratch?
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65664

  • Khang
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Make a backup of your card first. Then load a default set in to test colors. If you don't see the issue happen, it's something with your settings. Without your actual settings though, I can't tell exactly what settings are off.

If you could, post up what your setts are for the pink and purple color profiles in the colr folders.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65669

  • Ishwa
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I hope this is what you mean

Pink
sc1=167
sc2=161
sc3=0
sc4=255
sc1Clsh=0
sc2Clsh=255
sc3Clsh=171
sc4Clsh=0
sc1Blst=98
sc2Blst=208
sc3Blst=30
sc4Blst=0

Purple
sc1=55
sc2=55
sc3=0
sc4=20
sc1Clsh=78
sc2Clsh=255
sc3Clsh=0
sc4Clsh=255
sc1Blst=184
sc2Blst=155
sc3Blst=14
sc4Blst=255
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65689

  • Ishwa
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So after a little further testing, it seems as though I get flicker with any combination of 3 LED's running at once, and also if I use both Blues turned all the way up. Not sure if that is helpful at all or not, but I'm gonna keep testing and see what I come up with.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65694

  • Khang
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That's really strange. That would make me thing there's a power draw issue, but that shouldn't be the case.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 5 days ago #65706

  • Ishwa
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In all honesty, I kinda rushed the assembly just to see it work. Lo and behold, it doesn't fit in the hilt. The Force is telling me to rewire it, patiently, and see what happens. I will report back once I've finished.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 4 days ago #65723

  • Khang
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If you have a chance, show me how you have it wired up/ diagram you're following. Realistically, since you're using two royal blue dice, you should be wiring one each to a pad, but then joining them to a single channel.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 4 days ago #65728

  • Ishwa
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I followed Naigons drawing from the SC2 pdf for an RGBA hookup, and I hooked each blue up to its own Cpad. So you're saying I should pigtail both the blues and only use 1 Cpad for the both of them? I just got home from work and am gonna try that first before I dismantle the whole thing (which is gonna happen anyway but, darn it, I just want to see it work nicely.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 4 days ago #65761

  • Khang
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Sorry for the late reply. What I meant was that you can use all 4 C# pads, but join the blues into a single channel. This would be done at the pads that join the smaller board to the larger board.

If your blues are on pads C1 and C2, you'd solder both 1 and 2 on the small pad to 1 on the large pad.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 3 days ago #65813

  • Ishwa
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Thank you Khang, for all your help. After a complete re-wire, I am still getting some un-explained flicker. Seeing as this is my first full bore electronics install, I can only assume I messed the board up of my own mishandling. No big deal. I learned A TON getting all hands on with it, and will be better prepared when I finally purchase another board.

This board still works, I'll just set it to pulse anyway and it shouldn't even be noticeable. But I have also learned (again, the hard way, even though it's only posted EVERYWHERE) that color mixing really is kinda gimmicky, so I'll probably end up going single colors with spark2 (for the awesome motion tracking +extras). Anyway, thanks again for all the help, and once I finally get everything together I'll get some pics up here for you guys.
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Did I just ruin my Spark Color 2? 2 months 3 days ago #65817

  • Khang
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Good luck with finishing up your build, man.
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