EDIT: Found it! The Neopixel Ground Wire wasn’t making good contact to the power board. All good now!
Alright I’m getting closer! Trap is in the process of final assembly and the electronics worked great in “spaghetti mode” on the bench. However, after putting them in the trap , everything works EXCEPT the NeoPixels glow dim red instead of bright white when executing a mode. I’ve checked all my wiring and it appears correct. I just can’t figure out why it’s firing a dim red instead of the bright white that it was doing earlier. I reflashed the Metro Mini but that didn’t have any impact. Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this??
So I’m a little confused as to where I need to make the wire cut in the trap for the new pedal wiring. Am I correct in assuming (based on the uploaded image) that I should cut between the 6 PIN JST and the 2 pin JST leaving the rotary switch going to GPIO 5 and 3V on the MP3 Shield? And then connecting the foster wires to ground and Shield Pin #5?
I have built 2 Charles worth Traps and wish I would have seen your thread about this BEFORE I finished the second trap about 8 months ago. I think I want to tear into one and UPGRADE it to follow your changes. So the very first step is to buy all the appropriate things:
This is the list I have. Did I miss anything?
Neopixel Jewels (which ones, saw three versions listed on Adafruit)
Mini 8-Way Rotary Selector Switch - SP8T (PID: 2925)
Also, I know the instructions are listed in this thread, but is there a PDF or a downloadable guide for your upgrades? I must say this is a awesome trap and I am excited to do this upgrade.
I think you pretty much covered it, the details in this thread (and pictures) are very helpful. I finally finished mine and all is working perfectly. I opted to not use the protoshield and just mounted everything directly to the mega and mp3 shield, saved me some space in the trap and gave me a few less failure points (my soldering skills are just average…lol).
Side note, I may end up modifying my trap hose and connectors based on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqohsdSTQrc as I still have some connection issues with the original Charlesworth method…That damn spring inside is hard to isolate and I can’t get it to fit inside the insert that was posted on this thread.
Okay, so I am no wiring guru. I fumbled my way through the first go around. I have read and re-read this post a couple times over and made sure I have ordered the parts I need. Then I decided I want the pedal light to flash…I mean if your gonna go BIG…Might as well have all the bells and whistles. Right??
so in reference to this:
**Pedal side:
Replace the existing off - (on) switch provided by Charlesworth for a new one that is on - (off). You can get this from mouser for just under $3, the part number is: 642-MBZ101A01A02X01**
Can a STDP roller switch be used? (The one with three prongs on the bottom essentially hooking up the two outer prongs leaving the middle prong not connected to anything.
Okay…so I think I may have goofed something up. I have completed everything following the guide up to the steps to make the LED on the pedal to flash. I am waiting on the new switch to complete this step. I wanted to see if everything is working thus far. I powered on the switch by the handle and the only thing that happens is the red led on the LIPO battery board flashes. The mega board doesn’t power on and there are no sounds. I am using coded V3.1
Also, does the code already have the two library’s included in it, or do I need to add those library’s to the code when writing the code to the mega?? Also, do the code for the Mega and the Metro mini need to be in the same tab or in separate tab?
Okay, I definitely goofed something up. I unplugged the neopixels and now I have power and sounds. I clearly goofed up the neopixels.
When I power it on with the switch, it makes the boot up sound then immediately activates the front led and the red led blinks like the end of the trapping sequence. I can use the rotary switch and cycle the modes and the proper LEDs light up on the front of the unit. The servos do not activate when I press the right button in any mode. Also, when I twist the right knob, it doesn’t change the volume level.
That being said, will having the neopixels unplugged cause it to skip through some of the sequences in correctly? One thing I have NOT done yet is make the changes to allow the pedal light to flash. Could this be part of the issue as well?
I was just looking at some old production photos of Dan Akroyd holding a ghost trap, and noticed a silver piece on the trap right next to the door. Can anybody tell me what this piece is?
It was only on that one trap (sometimes called the “yellow rod” trap as in some early scenes the side rods were yellow, not red), and the consensus seems to be that was it part of the design to hold the pedal in place on top of the trap. You can see how the pedal was supposed to be attached to the trap on the foam stunt trap, in The Ghostbusters Reference Library, but was presumably abandoned as it didn’t work.
I can’t get my doors to open at all. I have double a triple checked the wires to make sure they are right. But I did notice and wonder if maybe the board is not getting power? There is a green led light that lights up next to the middle ground rail but it looks like the led on the left side of the board doesn’t light up. (Right to the left of 16x) Is it supposed to to indicate power to the board? Does anyone see anything that looks wrong from my pic?
The rotary switch does not control the volume up or down. Any ideas here?
1984 with smoke AND without smoke are not working correctly. The bargraph flickers super quickly, the lights up and the red led flashes like it would at the end of the sequence. I am wondering if there is a short somewhere in the switch.
Any thoughts or insight would be helpful. I’ve been racking my brain trying to solve this.
Already friends and fans!! I got it all complete I think for now.
There is a couple things I couldn’t get to work correctly. I think it’s my soldering/wiring skills and maybe a parts issue more than anything.
a) - I couldn’t get to work is the volume knob. I didn’t change the knob out for a knew one and just used the one on the original CD trap and wired it following the instructions.
b) - I can’t get ‘84 mode with smoke and ‘84 mode without smoke to work consistently. The bargraph leds flash very briefly and then the it’s lights up like the end of the trapping sequence including the single yellow led and red led on the rear of the trap. Both ‘89 modes and the green modes function normally 100% of the time. I also think that this might be a switch issue cause it’s super sensitive to the touch at times.
Overall, this was a great modification and I really enjoyed it!
Is there a wiring diagram anywhere? I saw a mention of one possibly being posted by gpstar… I’ve got my trap wired up and there are several issues. I’m getting closer with each attempt but tracing the wirings in the pics is hurting my brain!
No specific step by step wiring guide. I just followed the post in this thread. What are you experiencing? Can you post pictures of your trap and what you have completed so far?
I’ll post some pics tomorrow, about to call it a night. I started troubleshooting so I have some of the wiring removed. I can power the trap from both the usb and the power boost. The servo controller and the other arduino have power. I used a nano in place of a metro mini.
I get the startup audio and the bargraph chasing in red like I’m supposed to. I can get all of the neopixel jewels to glow solid white if i push in the rotary encoder. I had the yellow LED working, now it’s not. The red LED on the rear of the trap works.
I was using ver 2.2 of the code, I’m going with 3.1 tomorrow. I couldn’t find where I saved it, but I found it. Question regarding ver 3.1, I’m assuming I’ll also have to load the code for the neopixels to the nano? That will probably solve the lights if thats the case.
Correct. I also tried to put the code for the neopixels on the mega. It needs to go on the neopixel controller. I would start there and see what that fixes. Check all your wires and make sure they are secure. I had a couple that broke loose from all the moving trying to sort out issues.
