#4976427
what size talent cell was that based on the batteries I'm thinking at least 6000MAH. Wondering if you had a smaller 3000MAH it probably would just pop in there without the need to strip it from the case.

The 3000mah is usually just 3 batteries large.

thinking of going with a set of 3Inch speakers :)
#4976428
amistry wrote: January 8th, 2023, 2:10 pm what size talent cell was that based on the batteries I'm thinking at least 6000MAH. Wondering if you had a smaller 3000MAH it probably would just pop in there without the need to strip it from the case.

The 3000mah is usually just 3 batteries large.

thinking of going with a set of 3Inch speakers :)
Talentcell YB1206000-USB, which is 6000mAh at 12V. You are right that the 3000mAh version would fit easier at half the size, but then half the capacity…
#4976448
gpstar wrote: December 29th, 2022, 1:10 pm
Spectregater wrote: December 29th, 2022, 10:31 am Can you please make a list of the parts you bought to do this?
I used the following:

Talentcell YB1206000-USB Battery
Two 4" (10cm) Pioneer TS-G1020F speakers
XY-502 amplifier board -> Make a connection from the appropriate +/- from the 12V output on the Talentcell.
JST-2 male connector -> Goes onto the microcontroller BAT1. Solder this onto the appropriate +/- connections on the 5V output on the Talentcell.
Some 26 AWG wire for running/extending the connections.
A few JST SM 2 Pin plugs for making my connections clean and easy to remove.
Is the JST connector for BAT1 PH or XH?
#4976463
amistry wrote: January 9th, 2023, 8:03 am So the talentcell bascially is just to power the amp \ speakers.

The original D cell are still used for the pack lights etc?
No, the Talenetcell powers everything. I am not using any D cells.

The Talentcell YB1206000-USB has both 12v and 5v outputs. I use the talentcell's 12V output to power my speakers and amp, then I use the talenetcell's 5V output to power the rest of the pack.
#4976466
This post may contain an affiliate link that helps support GBFans.com when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Here is how I did the keep alive. I will update my first post in this thread with this info as well. I've had my pack and wand running for almost 2 hours now non-stop.

Now some information first about what Haslab did and how the pack functions in the standard configuration. There are 2 auto shut down timers to deal with. The pack which is 200 seconds and the wand at 30 seconds. The U7 pin on the pack microcontroller is feeding 4.33V and ground through the hose on the pack to the wand. When you turn the wand on the voltage levels from U7 pin drop and the pack microcontroller detects this. The pack will turn on. When the wand is turned off, the levels go back up over 4.3V and the pack knows the wand was turned off and now the pack does the shut down sequence and turns the lights and sound off and stays in a silent low power idle mode for several minutes. During this window, you can turn the wand back on and the pack fires back up. Now any time the wand does the 30 second timeout and turns itself off, the pack will do the same and sit in its low power idle mode. You can reset the wand's auto shutdown timer anytime a button is pressed on the wand. For the pack, the only way I found so far to reset the auto shutdown timer is when the wand's activate mode switch is turned on, and or off. Basically what is happening is the wand is drawing more power to power more lights and the vibration motor and the pack detects this and resets the pack timer. When the extra draw stops, the pack does the same thing and resets the 200 second timer. However a constant draw at any of those levels does not reset the timers. So the trick is to fluctuate the power draw up and down every X amount of seconds to trick the pack to reset the shut down timer. Then for the wand, you need to make it think a switch as been activated on/off every X amount of seconds. However the downside with the wand is every switch will make the wand play a sound effect. However, the fire mode selector switch will not play a sound effect while the activate mode on the wand is off, so this is the best one to target. However you do loose the ability to keep the wand alive while Activate mode is on.

Now the estimated voltage levels from the U7 pin feeding the wand that I found are:
4.33 (wand off)
4.30 (Above this seems to be around when the wand will shut off, and below this and the pack will turn itself on)
4.28 (wand on, no lights except slo-blo only.)
4.23-4.20 (wand on with lights, depending on how many bargraph leds are on)
4.17 (Going to this level or above after being below it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.16 (Going down to this level or lower after being above it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.13 (activate mode on and no lights)
4.09 (wand on, activate mode on with some lights)

So if you are designing or building your own keep alive mod, the sweet spot you want to fluctuate from is dropping down to 4.16 or lower and back up to 4.17 and higher every X amount of seconds. When the pack detects these thresholds being passed, it will reset the 200 second timer. There is another problem to contend with, the wand microcontroller will always have power fed to it from the pack. So if you are pigging backing off the VDD on the wand board for power, you will trigger the pack to stay on if whatever you wire in drops the voltage levels down to 4.3 and lower, even if you have the wand turned off. So this required me to redo the switches on the wand, where the switch to turn on the lights on the wand is removed and tucked away in the on position inside the wand, and the old power switch for the wand is moved up to the light switch position. Then I cut the power wire going to V4.5 pin into the wand board about halfway on the wire and then soldered some extra wire onto both cut ends and solder them onto a on/off switch which then mounts where the old wand power on switch used to go, all this is really doing is powering up the metro mini board I am using which draws it's power off the wand VDD pin, which in turn will trigger the pack to turn on or off.

Then I ended up changing some of the functions of how the wand works and the slo-blo led. The slo-blo led pulses when the wand is in certain modes and stay on full brightness during the activate mode on the wand, and is entirely controlled by the metro mini. I am using a second metro mini only for power draw consumption only. So in short, for the keep alive to work, the wand needs to be turned on, and not be idling in the ACTIVATE mode. Here is a video demonstrating how my wand/pack functions after the mods:



Now here are the parts I used:
(I will provide some links to examples usually in bulk, but you can find them individually for cheaper if you search around).

2 Adafruit Metro Mini
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2590

1 On/Off switch.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07RQ4 ... =UTF8&th=1

2 PN2222 NPN transistors
https://www.adafruit.com/product/756

1 150ohm resistor
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08FD1 ... =UTF8&th=1

Misc things to help you:
soldering iron
solder
electrical tape

wire stripper & cutter
https://www.adafruit.com/product/147

heat shrink tubing in various sizes, good for sealing off exposed wire to wire soldered connections.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B071D7 ... UTF8&psc=1

22AWG wiring
https://www.adafruit.com/product/288

JST SM 2-pin male/female connectors to make things easy to remove if required.
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08JV9 ... =UTF8&th=1

Sorry for the crude wiring schematic: The direction of the NPN transistors, are flat side up with writing on it for schematic purposes.
Image

Now on the wand board, some reference photos to match up on my schematic:
V4.5 is here: (I cut this wire and extended it to feed into the new switch I installed that I talked about above. The other end of the wire comes from the wand handle for reference.
Image

Here is the VDD, GND, P008 and Fire Mode Pin that you need to solder onto. For the P008, I went in and fed my wire from the top side of the board. VDD, GND and the Fire Mode Selector Pin I come in underneath.
Image

This is the Slo-Blo LED pins. Black = negative and Red = positive. I desoldered these from the wand board and they join up to metro mini #1 as per my schematic.
Image

To access the Slow-Blo LED, you need to remove the back cover. It's the same as the bottom of the wand, remove the 2 caps and you have access to the 2 screws, and wiggle and feed the cable around as you wish to avoid the barrel spring mechanism.
Image

This here is the new switch (ref #1) as per the schematic. Switch (ref #2) used to be where the #1 switch was. The switch that used to be where #2 is now is turned into the on position and hidden inside the wand body. For the switch that's hidden inside the body of the wand, put some electrical tape on the connectors so it doesn't make contact with anything.
Image

Here is my setup that I drop into the wand. I recommend putting some electrical tape on the bottom of the metro mini's to cover the pins from contacting anything. Then just tuck everything into the board how you wish. Make sure to avoid the barrel release mechanism area.
Image
Image

For removing the caps from the wand to access the screws, I prefer using the reamer on a swiss army knife. A few twists into the cap and pull it out like a cork from a wine bottle.
Image

Here is the code for the Metro Mini #1 board. When programming with the Arduino editor, select the Arduino UNO as the board type. The Metro Mini #2 does not need anything uploaded to it.
Code: Select all
/********************************************************
  Haslab Proton Pack and Neutrona Wand keep alive.
  December 2022.
  Michael Rajotte
********************************************************/
#include <Metro.h>
#include <millisDelay.h> 

int sloBlo = 6; // Slo-Blo LED.
int wPin = 11; // Vibration motor.
int lPin = 10; // For controlling the second metro mini to turn on or off.
int aPin = 9; // For controlling the 3V to the fire mode selection pin. 
int val = 0;

// Slo-Blo LED pulse control.
int rLED = 0; // red led starts at 0 (off).
int rLEDHigh = 255; // high light setting during the fade up.
int rLEDLow = 20; // low light setting during the fade down.
int redLEDTimer = 6; // millisecond speed control for the fade.
int redLEDPause = 125; //125; // milliseconds for pausing the red led. Used when reaching full value of low or high.
int rLEDMultiplier = 5;
boolean bLEDUp = true;
boolean bLEDPause = false;
boolean bLEDStart = true;
millisDelay redLED;
millisDelay redLEDPauseTimer;

millisDelay wpTimer;
millisDelay wpTimerDelay;
int wpTimerCount = 20000; // 20 seconds.

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);

  pinMode(sloBlo, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(wPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(lPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(aPin, OUTPUT);
  
  analogWrite(sloBlo, 0);
  
  wpTimer.start(wpTimerCount);
}

void loop() {
  val = digitalRead(wPin);

  // Vibration motor is active, activate mode is turned on. 
  if(val > 0) {
    // Slo-Blo led on full brightness.
    rLED = 255;
    analogWrite(sloBlo, rLED);
    
    wpTimer.start(wpTimerCount);
    redLED.start(1100);
  }
  else {
    if(wpTimer.justFinished()) {
        digitalWrite(lPin, HIGH);
        digitalWrite(aPin, HIGH);
  
        wpTimerDelay.start(1000);
    }

    if(wpTimerDelay.justFinished()) {
      digitalWrite(lPin, LOW);
      digitalWrite(aPin, LOW);
  
      wpTimer.start(wpTimerCount);
    }

    // Slo-Blo led.
    analogWrite(sloBlo, rLED);
    
    // Slo-Blo pulse control.
    if(redLED.remaining() < 1) {
      redLED.start(redLEDTimer);
    
      if(bLEDPause == false) {
        if(rLED == rLEDHigh) {
          bLEDUp = false;
          redLEDPauseTimer.start(redLEDPause);
          bLEDPause = true;
        }
        else if(rLED == rLEDLow && bLEDStart == false) {
          bLEDUp = true;
        
          redLEDPauseTimer.start(redLEDPause);
          bLEDPause = true;
        }
      }
      
      if(redLEDPauseTimer.remaining() < 1) {
         bLEDPause = false;
        
        if(bLEDStart == true && rLED == rLEDLow) {
          bLEDStart = false;
        }
        
        if(bLEDUp == true) {
          rLED = rLED + rLEDMultiplier;
        
          if(rLED > rLEDHigh) {
            rLED = rLEDHigh;
          }
        }
        else {
          rLED = rLED - rLEDMultiplier;
        
          if(rLED < rLEDLow) {
            rLED = rLEDLow;
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Last edited by gpstar on January 9th, 2023, 12:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Nighty80, kahuna900, jonogunn and 2 others liked this
#4976469
gpstar wrote: January 9th, 2023, 10:08 am Here is how I did the keep alive. I will update my first post in this thread with this info as well. I've had my pack and wand running for almost 2 hours now non-stop.

Wow, great job. Would love to have this but damn this is way outta my comfort zone.
trekgod3 liked this
#4976476
Now the estimated voltage levels from the U7 pin feeding the wand that I found are:
4.33 (wand off)
4.30 (Above this seems to be around when the wand will shut off, and below this and the pack will turn itself on)
4.28 (wand on, no lights except slo-blo only.)
4.23-4.20 (wand on with lights, depending on how many bargraph leds are on)
4.17 (Going to this level or above after being below it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.16 (Going down to this level or lower after being above it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.13 (activate mode on and no lights)
4.09 (wand on, activate mode on with some lights)
This smells like potential PWM control, and not voltage. Delta voltage between states is so marginal, I doubt they would have gone this route to achieve it. You wouldn't happen to have a scope to check this, would you?
#4976484
As far as coding the metro mini (I've not coded before so I'll probably have to look up a couple tutorials. But is this a copy and paste type of thing or do I have to go section by section transferring the info?
#4976486
The Joker Buster wrote: January 9th, 2023, 2:42 pm As far as coding the metro mini (I've not coded before so I'll probably have to look up a couple tutorials. But is this a copy and paste type of thing or do I have to go section by section transferring the info?
Copy and paste.

FYI Metro minis are miniaturised versions of the Arduino Uno Rev3
The Joker Buster liked this
By Thaylen
#4976488
gpstar wrote: December 31st, 2022, 3:30 pm The talentcell battery I use to power both the amp and pack is 12v. It has both a 12v and 5v output. I use the 5v to power the pack. The 12v powers my 12v amp and the 2 pioneer speakers.
How did you wire the the 5v output to the pack? This is the biggest thing that I want to do to my pack for the time being.
By gpstar
#4976489
Thaylen wrote: January 9th, 2023, 3:38 pm
gpstar wrote: December 31st, 2022, 3:30 pm The talentcell battery I use to power both the amp and pack is 12v. It has both a 12v and 5v output. I use the 5v to power the pack. The 12v powers my 12v amp and the 2 pioneer speakers.
How did you wire the the 5v output to the pack? This is the biggest thing that I want to do to my pack for the time being.
You can see it on my first post in this thread.

I solder a jst-2 connector onto the 5v usb output pins of the talentcell battery then it plugs directly into the pack microcontroller.
Image
Thaylen liked this
By Thaylen
#4976493
gpstar wrote: January 9th, 2023, 3:48 pm
Thaylen wrote: January 9th, 2023, 3:38 pm

How did you wire the the 5v output to the pack? This is the biggest thing that I want to do to my pack for the time being.
You can see it on my first post in this thread.

I solder a jst-2 connector onto the 5v usb output pins of the talentcell battery then it plugs directly into the pack microcontroller.
Image
I was wondering if that's what you did. Thank you so much for the extra help!! I really appreciate it!
#4976495
kahuna900 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 12:10 pm Possible new career for gpstar... We send him our wands , he mods them and sends them back. Oh the money to be made!!! :cool:
I may take a stab at this and if I can pull it off myself and wouldn’t mind trying it for North American busters. That is if gpstar is okay with that as this is his thing.
TobinsGuide, kahuna900 liked this
#4976497
jonogunn wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:37 pm
kahuna900 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 12:10 pm Possible new career for gpstar... We send him our wands , he mods them and sends them back. Oh the money to be made!!! :cool:
I may take a stab at this and if I can pull it off myself and wouldn’t mind trying it for North American busters. That is if gpstar is okay with that this is his thing.
I'd support it. Gonna take a whack at attempting this when I get my pack (says will arrive Friday the 13th) and I will be ordering all the supplies from Amazon probably on wednesday. I also plan to add in my smoke kit with a momentary switch, it looks doable from the pics gpstar posted of the haslab pack apart. But I'd need to have it in hand to test with my CSPropShop smoke kit.
#4976508
Xomby wrote: January 9th, 2023, 12:01 pm
Now the estimated voltage levels from the U7 pin feeding the wand that I found are:
4.33 (wand off)
4.30 (Above this seems to be around when the wand will shut off, and below this and the pack will turn itself on)
4.28 (wand on, no lights except slo-blo only.)
4.23-4.20 (wand on with lights, depending on how many bargraph leds are on)
4.17 (Going to this level or above after being below it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.16 (Going down to this level or lower after being above it will reset the pack shutoff timer)
4.13 (activate mode on and no lights)
4.09 (wand on, activate mode on with some lights)
This smells like potential PWM control, and not voltage. Delta voltage between states is so marginal, I doubt they would have gone this route to achieve it. You wouldn't happen to have a scope to check this, would you?
Sorry do not have a scope.
#4976509
jonogunn wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:37 pm
kahuna900 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 12:10 pm Possible new career for gpstar... We send him our wands , he mods them and sends them back. Oh the money to be made!!! :cool:
I may take a stab at this and if I can pull it off myself and wouldn’t mind trying it for North American busters. That is if gpstar is okay with that as this is his thing.
Be my guest. Maybe you can find ways to improve and simplify it some more.
#4976516
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 12:11 am
jonogunn wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:37 pm

I may take a stab at this and if I can pull it off myself and wouldn’t mind trying it for North American busters. That is if gpstar is okay with that as this is his thing.
Be my guest. Maybe you can find ways to improve and simplify it some more.
Thanks dude. I definitely won’t improve on it because these things are way to advanced for me. I have enough understanding and experience with using arduino, soldering, etc. in a way where I can package it together but not create.

A couple of questions.

Can I use any arduino mini’s? I have some arduino clones that I used for my own custom pack lights/sound and wonder if if that would work. I live in Canada and would be nice to save on the costs for myself and anyone else I may do it for.

For the battery power going in…If say I have a 12v blue brick battery do I need a step down converter to get it to 4.5v?

If I’m just using true AA batteries in the wand would that also work just fine without additional tweaking? (These two questions are more for my custom pack but also for me to start work on it ahead of time before my pack arrives)
#4976520
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 4:04 am
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 12:11 am

Be my guest. Maybe you can find ways to improve and simplify it some more.
Thanks dude. I definitely won’t improve on it because these things are way to advanced for me. I have enough understanding and experience with using arduino, soldering, etc. in a way where I can package it together but not create.

A couple of questions.

Can I use any arduino mini’s? I have some arduino clones that I used for my own custom pack lights/sound and wonder if if that would work. I live in Canada and would be nice to save on the costs for myself and anyone else I may do it for.

For the battery power going in…If say I have a 12v blue brick battery do I need a step down converter to get it to 4.5v?

If I’m just using true AA batteries in the wand would that also work just fine without additional tweaking? (These two questions are more for my custom pack but also for me to start work on it ahead of time before my pack arrives)
Arduino mini's, in theory yes if it has the same power draw as the Metro minis, both use the same ATmega328 chip and the same pin setup, so a good chance they are similar. I would test it out on a breadboard with the wand first before wasting any time doing any soldering just to make sure. (This is in reference when using the wand with the Haslab Pack, if not using the wand with the haslab pack, then yes it will work no problem).

You do not want to feed 12v to the pack motherboard nor to the wand direct either. We know the pack can take 6v in as 4 D cells combined is 6v, and I know the wand can take 5v. I would step down that 12v to 5v before feeding it into the pack and or wand.

If using the wand direct and or not connecting it to the haslab pack, it would work. You can skip the 2nd metro mini entirely and use just the 1 metro mini (or arduino), then remove parts in the code referencing the lPin (pin #10). You can also skip the whole Slo-Blo LED wiring and leave it be and remove that from the code as well. Basically in short, if you are not using the wand with the Haslab pack and just want a keep alive for the wand only, then do what I just mentioned.
jonogunn liked this
#4976521
^Thanks for that!

So sorry another inquiry. I was just playing with my wand and notice that turning the rumble intensity knob up and down seems to bypass the 30second shutdown. Would it be possible to send a signal to this and have it turn it up by 1 level of intensity and turn it down 1 level in 30 second alternating intervals? This way we can keep it alive in activate mode and it would be hardly noticeable.
#4976524
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:03 am ^Thanks for that!

So sorry another inquiry. I was just playing with my wand and notice that turning the rumble intensity knob up and down seems to bypass the 30second shutdown. Would it be possible to send a signal to this and have it turn it up by 1 level of intensity and turn it down 1 level in 30 second alternating intervals? This way we can keep it alive in activate mode and it would be hardly noticeable.
Yes but your intensity settings would be changing on you automatically. It's not the rumble but the rotary encoder that the knob sits on which controls which led's are turned on in the bargraph, it also signals the vibration motor to vibrate briefly. I think I went over it a few days ago on a post. It would work in way for the keep alive on the wand, but for the pack no because it will be drawing too much power already at that point.
#4976525
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:12 am
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:03 am ^Thanks for that!

So sorry another inquiry. I was just playing with my wand and notice that turning the rumble intensity knob up and down seems to bypass the 30second shutdown. Would it be possible to send a signal to this and have it turn it up by 1 level of intensity and turn it down 1 level in 30 second alternating intervals? This way we can keep it alive in activate mode and it would be hardly noticeable.
Yes but your intensity settings would be changing on you automatically. It's not the rumble but the rotary encoder that the knob sits on which controls which led's are turned on in the bargraph, it also signals the vibration motor to vibrate briefly. I think I went over it a few days ago on a post.

I will take apart my wand again today and play with it and see what comes from it.
I was just playing around with it again. My other wand is at my parents house atm and the one I have was dropped a couple of times so I can’t tell if it’s a bit messed up or not but I got my girlfriend involved and asked her if she can tell audibly when I raise and lower the rumble.
I kept switching between 2 LED bargraph and 3 LED bargraph levels and she could barely notice the change. She had to listen intensely to be able to notice it.

So I think maybe this would be another good option?

Again I am a bit biased as keeping the wand alive in activate mode is something I really want.
#4976527
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:12 am
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:03 am ^Thanks for that!

So sorry another inquiry. I was just playing with my wand and notice that turning the rumble intensity knob up and down seems to bypass the 30second shutdown. Would it be possible to send a signal to this and have it turn it up by 1 level of intensity and turn it down 1 level in 30 second alternating intervals? This way we can keep it alive in activate mode and it would be hardly noticeable.
Yes but your intensity settings would be changing on you automatically. It's not the rumble but the rotary encoder that the knob sits on which controls which led's are turned on in the bargraph, it also signals the vibration motor to vibrate briefly. I think I went over it a few days ago on a post. It would work in way for the keep alive on the wand, but for the pack no because it will be drawing too much power already at that point.
Just noticed after I posted my post that you edited your post.

Gotcha. So if I wanted to go with the rumble method for the wand ONLY I’m assuming the code would need to be altered as well as the solder points?
#4976532
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:40 am
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:12 am

Yes but your intensity settings would be changing on you automatically. It's not the rumble but the rotary encoder that the knob sits on which controls which led's are turned on in the bargraph, it also signals the vibration motor to vibrate briefly. I think I went over it a few days ago on a post.

I will take apart my wand again today and play with it and see what comes from it.
I was just playing around with it again. My other wand is at my parents house atm and the one I have was dropped a couple of times so I can’t tell if it’s a bit messed up or not but I got my girlfriend involved and asked her if she can tell audibly when I raise and lower the rumble.
I kept switching between 2 LED bargraph and 3 LED bargraph levels and she could barely notice the change. She had to listen intensely to be able to notice it.

So I think maybe this would be another good option?

Again I am a bit biased as keeping the wand alive in activate mode is something I really want.
Is it for connecting to a non Haslab pack? Honestly if it was me and I was intending to use the Hasbro wand with a non Haslab pack, I would just 3D print the q-pack mk3 wand. If that is not a option and you really wanted to use the Hasbro wand, then I would take the Hasbro wand board out and stick a Arduino Uno or Mini version of one like the Metro Mini from Adafruit, wire up all the existing lights and vibration motor to it, then add a Robertsonics Wav Trigger board for the sound and write my own wand code. No weird triggers, timers or tricks to deal with and make it do what you want when you want. I am using similar tech in my q-pack mk 3 pack build.
#4976533
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:43 am
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 5:40 am

I was just playing around with it again. My other wand is at my parents house atm and the one I have was dropped a couple of times so I can’t tell if it’s a bit messed up or not but I got my girlfriend involved and asked her if she can tell audibly when I raise and lower the rumble.
I kept switching between 2 LED bargraph and 3 LED bargraph levels and she could barely notice the change. She had to listen intensely to be able to notice it.

So I think maybe this would be another good option?

Again I am a bit biased as keeping the wand alive in activate mode is something I really want.
Is it for connecting to a non Haslab pack? Honestly if it was me and I was intending to use the Hasbro wand with a non Haslab pack, I would just 3D print the q-pack mk3 wand. If that is not a option and you really wanted to use the Hasbro wand, then I would take the Hasbro wand board out and stick a Arduino Uno or Mini version of one like the Metro Mini from Adafruit, wire up all the existing lights and vibration motor to it, then add a Robertsonics Wav Trigger board for the sound and write my own wand code. No weird triggers, timers or tricks to deal with and make it do what you want when you want. I am using similar tech in my q-pack mk 3 pack build.
I’m also building a mk3 q pack!

For the electronics I wanted the afterlife cyclotron that includes the slow boot up ramp without paying 300-400 CAD for the ninjatunes kit. The open source ones, Mike_S11 and CountDeMonet don’t have that so I couldn’t go that route. Instead what I did was create a mash up of powercell lights from CountDeMonet and the afterlife cyclotron from CFunSeth with the help of another member on this forum. Then I paid someone on fiverr to create a speed-up/overheat sequence to the cyclotron/powercell that would initiate after about 14 seconds (same length as the Hasbro wand). I’d then swap out the intensify button with a dpdt version so it triggers both the the pack overheat and the wand firing.

The problem is a ran into a hiccup where I couldnt’t get the hum sound effect to loop seamlessly. Keeping things simple I used an adafruit sound fx board with trigger pins to activate the sounds. But despite following the website’s instructions, there is a noticeable slight gap in between the sound effect loops and is not seamless at all. This is beyond me to figure out so I’ve just put it on hold while I worked on other parts of the pack.

It’s too bad because I was excited to share this setup with others on this forum.

For the wand I figured that the Hasbro wand would look better than anything I print and put together. I also figured it’ll save me on cost, time and effort as some of the parts would be be costly as they would most likely be sourced from gbfans and the exchange rate and shipping would be quite a bit. For that reason I was trying to have a nice integration between the two. The only issue I have is the annoying 30second reset. So if there was a way I could do your set up to bypass the 30reset via the rumble knob it would make sense given my current setup and inability to do any coding of my own.
#4976539
jonogunn wrote: January 10th, 2023, 7:24 am
gpstar wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:43 am

Is it for connecting to a non Haslab pack? Honestly if it was me and I was intending to use the Hasbro wand with a non Haslab pack, I would just 3D print the q-pack mk3 wand. If that is not a option and you really wanted to use the Hasbro wand, then I would take the Hasbro wand board out and stick a Arduino Uno or Mini version of one like the Metro Mini from Adafruit, wire up all the existing lights and vibration motor to it, then add a Robertsonics Wav Trigger board for the sound and write my own wand code. No weird triggers, timers or tricks to deal with and make it do what you want when you want. I am using similar tech in my q-pack mk 3 pack build.
I’m also building a mk3 q pack!

For the electronics I wanted the afterlife cyclotron that includes the slow boot up ramp without paying 300-400 CAD for the ninjatunes kit. The open source ones, Mike_S11 and CountDeMonet don’t have that so I couldn’t go that route. Instead what I did was create a mash up of powercell lights from CountDeMonet and the afterlife cyclotron from CFunSeth with the help of another member on this forum. Then I paid someone on fiverr to create a speed-up/overheat sequence to the cyclotron/powercell that would initiate after about 14 seconds (same length as the Hasbro wand). I’d then swap out the intensify button with a dpdt version so it triggers both the the pack overheat and the wand firing.

The problem is a ran into a hiccup where I couldnt’t get the hum sound effect to loop seamlessly. Keeping things simple I used an adafruit sound fx board with trigger pins to activate the sounds. But despite following the website’s instructions, there is a noticeable slight gap in between the sound effect loops and is not seamless at all. This is beyond me to figure out so I’ve just put it on hold while I worked on other parts of the pack.

It’s too bad because I was excited to share this setup with others on this forum.

For the wand I figured that the Hasbro wand would look better than anything I print and put together. I also figured it’ll save me on cost, time and effort as some of the parts would be be costly as they would most likely be sourced from gbfans and the exchange rate and shipping would be quite a bit. For that reason I was trying to have a nice integration between the two. The only issue I have is the annoying 30second reset. So if there was a way I could do your set up to bypass the 30reset via the rumble knob it would make sense given my current setup and inability to do any coding of my own.
Trying not to go off topic here, but I will just this once. The wav trigger is polyphonic, that would solve your sound problem. I am using them in my q-pack mk3 build. I communicate to them over the TX/RX pins of a Arduino Mega to tell it when to play certain sounds. Here is a example I did months ago while building my electronics for my q-pack. No jankyness in the sounds. Just smooth and seamless polyphonic overlapping.

In this example, I have up to 3 tracks playing/overlapping each other at once. The hum of the pack, the firing sound and de-firing sound and the music. I also time delay the hum of the pack to play/overlap on top of startup boot sequence into a seamless sound experience.


In my second example, I am using 2 wav triggers and 2 sound setups. My plan when completed is to have separate sound system in both the wand and pack, but they can overlap sounds and communicate to each other, etc etc. I am not going to have a overheat mode. I am setting it up so you can fire continuously forever if you wanted (except on high power mode on the wand, I will add a overheat).


I honestly think you can 3D print the q-pack wand and paint/finish it for less than the cost of a Hasbro wand. 3D Print everything and later replace pieces later with gbfans metal pieces at a later date.
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