Balders

I had a similar problem when I made mine, turned out that one of the switches was a "normal open" when it should have been "normal close" I can't recall which one it was, but to test, simply hold one of your current switches closed whilst powering up. If no change, shut down, hold the next switch closed and repeat. You might have a different problem, but it's worth a try.

Good luck with your build. I made this with some of my left-over/spare parts:

You may find putting the microphone right up to your lips will give it that bit more over-driven distortion effect you are after.

I want to say a huge "thank you" to Skyone/Manuel for putting this project into the public domain. I finally completed my E11 blaster tonight, it's all working exactly as designed, I'm amazed how loud it is! I power mine from a 2cell 450 lipo which fits nicely inside the now hollowed out battery tray on my Hasbro/Doopydoos E11. Rest of the electronics was a bit of a squeeze...had to trim a lot of the internal plastics away, but it does now all fit and closes nicely. Thanks again Skyone. I now have the nickname "Electro" in my local patrol! Regards, Steve

Managed to squeeze everything in and close it up. Once replacement amp board arrives, will probably trim and resolder the wires to tidy things up, and will also discreetly fit a 3.5mm jack socket so I can output to my aker if needs be.<br>

Because it's what I had to hand...and my official blaster will be a RotJ to go with my suit. Pipe build coming next New sound board arrived today, but so far no luck in getting it going. Can I just check, the mp3 files should be in the root of the microSD card right? I've used the drive tool utility to sort the files. Must the SD card have nothing else other than the files? Edit: Ignore that, the sound board and sound files are working perfectly! For some unknown reason (I must be having all the luck!) my amp has packed in! I tested it a couple of weeks back with a normal sound source and haven't touched it since, but it's just not working now. Can figure out why, gets a little warm but not "hot" but I've tested the signal gets in, power in is also good, I just get nothing out the other side. Will de-solder it and see if I can find anything amiss. Edit 2: Here's the system with the speaker wired straight to the MP3 board. New amplifier ordered. https://youtu.be/MCRod5s98WA

Can't wait for my sound board to be delivered. I've ordered 3 from different places in the hope at least one will get here quickly! In the meantime, here's how my blaster is coming along: https://youtu.be/H5VSoUWCKPw

Yup. Even tried triggering manually (ground to k1 pin for example) and nothing. The led lit up as if it was trying to play something so it might be my amp is playing up. Will try again tonight, although I do have another wt5001 en route from another supplier.

I had a quick go and got nothing out of it. I'm not an expert....would VCC on the diagram be +5v from the arduino? And should I be plugging the Tx arduino output to the Rx input on the diagram (4th pin down on right)? The docs suggest using an arduino library but I'm guessing that the wt5001 code already references serial writes?

Grrr...a supplier sent me a JQ6500 mp3 board when I ordered a WT5001M02, anyone used one of these?

Have you double checked all the grounds?

Yeah, I had trouble spotting it, I actually noticed it when I cut a square hole for it to fit in and noticed one corner didn't look right

The bar counter is kind of marked but it's very subtle...one of the corners is ever so slightly rounded off. You'll notice 3 have a sharp edge and the 4th is slightly bevelled.

Haha, you won't believe this...just about got things working for the first time, then managed to short a ground and one of the led drivers (I think, and now my nano won't power on from the Vin . Weirdly it's ok if I power from USB and I've checked voltage is getting to the pins etc. At least I have a spare arduino. Off to warm the soldering iron up! EDIT: OK, new arduino in place, nearly got it working as plan, just an issue with the LED staying on after change of weapon, but hopefully I will get that sorted. Once it's all working for me, shall I post my "upside down" code for anyone else who buys the same led drivers as I did? https://youtu.be/IV0d6BvbumI EDIT2: OK, also figured out that one (sort of). It was trying to do the fade loop inverse of my silly PWM drivers, so for now, I've simply added a number of decreasing values with a short delay to give the same appearance. I did manage to get the mathematical fade working, but it looped and I couldn't stop it.

YES! Got mine working with the same fix as above, had to swap this value: if (buttonState2 == LOW) to: if (buttonState2 == HIGH) and now it works

Thanks for the reply, however, it happens when powering from a high discharge LiPo.

Yup, have a look at post #236 in this thread. Page 12 on my screen. Thanks for looking. I'm sure the code is just fine, and it's something to do with my pwm drivers needing high for off instead of low.

OK, tonights update. I've made significant progress. I've swapped HIGH for LOW where I could find a reference such as: <br> digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); //red<br> digitalWrite(ledPin10, LOW); <br> digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW); <br><br> Now my LED is diminished most of the time with one colour flashing which I've found is based on one of the delay times (think it was set to 250 default). I found by changing the value of this, the blinking rate of the main led changed, but why it blinks in the first place is still a mystery. If I hold the "fire" button the led goes off altogether (ie stops flashing) likewise it doesnt flash during the reload cycle.<br><br> However I'm still not able to "fire" the led when pressing the fire button, so there may still be something I've not changed or done correctly. I am particularly unsure of where there is a "fade" control in the code, but I feel like I've made a little progress. At least I seem to have proven the HIGH = Off PWM setting on my particular drivers

I'm going to try a very simple sketch on a spare arduino and led/driver when I get home to prove a theory. Having read through skyone's programming, I'm pretty convinced I simply need to switch the high and low values on the digitalwrites and then sort out where there is an analogwrite value, due to my led drivers using HIGH as off.<br><br> Thanks very much for the suggestions so far. Really enjoying this project and learning about arduino. Had no experience of it or programming in general before I discovered this thread.

Just reading the specs on my particular drivers and it says "high level = off" so I'm imagining the reason mine are on from startup is because I need to reverse the setting I quoted in my previous post.<br><br> I will try swapping the digitalwrite high to low and vice versa throughout the sketch when I get home tonight and post an update.

But rather than pulse like that (in "standby") shouldn't the LED be off completely? I am only just starting to learn arduino, so forgive my lack of knowledge...is this something to do with the pulses being too "quick" for my led driver boards, hence why it's on all the time? Any help for a newbie very welcome Note in the video, I hadn't pressed any buttons. The hengstler works as per design, so I think I'm close. Edit: OK, by process of elimination, I've found that Pin D11 is the one that causes the LED to blink as per the video. It does that if I connect any of the driver-side pwm wires to D11 (regardless of whether the others are plugged into D9 and D10). None the wiser at the moment. Edit 2: Shouldn't this piece of code turn the main LED off altogether, or is it because it's not reading the PWM value? I thought pwn was analogwrite? digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // turn off the RGB Led digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW); digitalWrite(ledPin10, LOW);

Hi Skyone, I need some help please. I've got everything wired up (apart from MP3 player which I fried, new one on way down). However, my main LED RGB is always on, and gives a small "pulse". I've uploaded a short video to demonstrate. Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope... https://youtu.be/yE_YU3G6zs0

Just a small suggestion, would it be possible to have a slider/some way of setting the volume of the static burst, so that folks can adjust it to suit their own personal setup? Have made up a splitter cable, and will have more of a play with this on a troop this weekend. Will be much easier than my current "pair of walkie talkies" setup

Damn damn damn damn damn. Wired my WT5001M02-28P into Vin, not +5v. Released the magic smoke. Doh!

No they close OK,but were just riding up a bit. As mentioned above, I've fixed that with some Velcro on the front boot strap to the inside front of each shin. Worked like a charm. First troop on Saturday. Can't wait.