New to Forum / Need Help Troubleshooting my Proton Pack

Equipment Proton Packs
1

Hello All!

I’m new to the forums. Definitely a ghostbusters fan for a long time :slight_smile:

I’ve been costuming for a while. Joined the 501st back in 2006 (TD2596 / Florida Garrison) and my wife and I have been loving costuming and going to the Cons ever since!

I got my hands on a fantastic proton pack loaded with lights and sounds just in time for this Halloween. Found it on Ebay from a seller who I assume was a member of GBfans (given his description and details listed - see below)

The pack worked great, but then suddenly it started doing something completely weird. It happened all of a sudden without any excessive use or damage to the pack.

Here is a YouTube clip I uploaded:

When powered on, it gives the power-up sound-clip and then goes into an infinite active-thrower sound-clip. There is a flashing light on the gun, and all other lights (ie. blue strobe light, cycling red lights, and yellow thrower light) are disabled.

I’m hoping someone here can help. I LOVE this pack, and I’m praying that it’s an easy fix and not something complicated.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. See below for reference list of parts

Regards,

John

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THE PACK

•The E-Ticket Fiberglass Shell- Includes many updates from the most accurate plans available to be the closest thing available to the screen used shells. Cast with an outer layer of 1630 resin and then backed with fiberglass. The shell is both light weight and extremely sturdy. Features screen accurate texturing, which is actually built into my mold, giving this shell a leg up on its competition. Second to none. Primed with Krylon Fusion Nickel Shimmer and painted with Krylon BBQ Black. Carefully weathered to look well used!

•Screen Accurate 1/8" Water Jet Cut Aluminum Motherboard Custom Made To Fit This Shell

•Aluminum L brackets w/ Screen Accurate Large Head Rivets Securing the Shell To the Motherboard

•R2DEVO’s Light Kit

•GBFans sound module (PackBlaster)

•Accurate Aluminum Ribbon Cable Clamp from MultiMediaMayhem

•Film accurate vinyl labels from GBFans Shop

•Real Aluminum Pack Labels

•Real Clippard R-331 Valve

•Aluminum Ion Arm Cap w/Brass Rod from GBFans Shop

•Aluminum V-Hook Mounted In GB2 Style from MultimediaMayhem

•2 REAL VERY RARE Legris Straight Fittings (w/slightly larger inlets)

•3 SMC 4mm Elbow Fittings (machined and painted to closely replicate the original Legris elbows)

•All Tubing from GBFans Shop

THE WAND

•ThrowingChicken 3.0 Resin Full Wand Kit. Hands down the nicest and most screen accurate wand kit ever made available. Primed with Krylon Fusion Nickel Shimmer and painted with Krylon BBQ Black. Carefully weathered to look well used!

•R2DEVO’s Light Kit + GBFans Proton Gun/Wand Light Kit (for control of power/lights/music on wand)

•Screen Accurate Labels from GBFans Shop

•Accurate Orange & White Hat Lights from GBFans Shop

•Aluminum V-Hook from MultiMediaMayhe

•LED Cliplites (Red& Clear) from GBFans Shop

•Clear Acrylic Tube w/Frosting

•Real Clippard R-701 valve

•REAL Hat Light Socket Base

•Screen Accurate Stainless Steel “Green” Lever

•All Tubing from GBFans Shop

•Amber LED Wand Graph w/ Bezel

•Aluminum Trigger Tip

SOURCED PARTS:

• Clippard R-701 Valve From The Original Manufacturer

• Clippard R-331 Valve From The Original Manufacturer

•3 Clippard Brass Elbows

•4 Clippard Hose Barbs

•Dale PH-25 Resistor

•Pacific Resistor

•Dale RH-50 Resistor

•Screen Accurate GB2 Ribbon Cable From The Original Manufacturer

•GB2 Accurate 7/8" P-Clamp

•Accurate LC-2 Alice Frame w/ Straps

•Replica Brass GB-1 Banjo Fittings With Screen Accurate Hex Screws

•1/4" SplitWire Loom

•3/4" SplitlessWire Loom

•Aluminum Trigger Tip

SOURCED PARTS:

• Clippard R-701 Valve From The Original Manufacturer

• Clippard R-331 Valve From The Original Manufacturer

•3 Clippard Brass Elbows

•4 Clippard Hose Barbs

•Dale PH-25 Resistor

•Pacific Resistor

•Dale RH-50 Resistor

•Screen Accurate GB2 Ribbon Cable From The Original Manufacturer

•GB2 Accurate 7/8" P-Clamp

•Accurate LC-2 Alice Frame w/ Straps

•Replica Brass GB-1 Banjo Fittings With Screen Accurate Hex Screws

•1/4" SplitWire Loom

•3/4" SplitlessWire Loom

•Aluminum Trigger Tip

RESIN PARTS:

•Raytheon Crank Knob from MultiMediaMayhem

•Injector Tubes from Nickotron

•HGA from MultiMediaMayhem

•Filler Tube from MultiMediaMayhem

•Beam Line from MultimediaMayhem

•Replica Bellow from Nickotron

•Bumper from Nickotron

•Ladder Frame from MultiMediaMayhem

•Ion Arm from MultiMediaMayhem

•PPD from MultiMediaMayhem

POWER:

•All electronics are powered by a rechargeable 12v power supply mounted on the inside of the motherboard.

•Recharging cord included.

THE LIGHTS:

•R2DEVO Pack And Wand Light Kit + GBFans Proton Gun/Wand Light Kit (for control of power/lights/music on wand)

•Powered By Rechargeable 12v Battery Pack

•Amber LED Wand Graph w/Bezel

•Main Power Controlled By “Activate” Switch On Thrower

THE SOUND:

•GBFans PackBlaster Amplified Soundboard w/ Built-In 10 Watt Amplifier

•Main Power Controlled By “Activate” Switch On Thrower

•External volume control knob can be adjusted while wearing the pack (hidden out of sight behind the motherboard)

•One 4" and one 6.5" high quality speakers mounted inside the motherboard. Sound holes have been drilled through the motherboard under the 6/5"speaker. Speakers are very powerful. Sound is blasted loudly and transfers the bass rumble to the wearer’s back.

Contains the following sounds:

Pack start up – controlled by wand toggle

Pack shut down – controlled by wand toggle

GB1 theme song- controlled by wand toggle

Fire start up/shutdown – controlled by wand pushbutton

Venting Cycle – controlled by wand pushbutton
2

Check the dip switch settings on the sound board. The fire button dip might be in invert mode. It’s the #2 and it should be in the off or down position. Otherwise post some pictures of how the pack is wired.

3

JoeLuna is probably right. It’s very likely you have inverted one of the small white dip switches on your pack blaster sound kit.

If that doesn’t help, make sure your fire button and the button on the ear isn’t stuck. (when I added the heat shrink to my gun ear it was too tight around that button and it would sometimes stick)

And with all weird pack behavior, make sure you have a good battery and that it has a good charge. Low power or bad batteries can cause a lot of strange things.

Oh, and from the video it appears that both the startup and fire are inverted. It’s also kind of strange that he’s using 2 kits in the wand - gbfans and r2devo. I don’t know how you get the wand lights to come on with this setup. There must be another switch somewhere.

The strobe used to show your gun is firing also appears to have fallen inside the gun body instead of being in the barrel.