[me2016]

Another option is to go with 3 AA batteries.

[me2016]

Did test a bit and yes, it takes some current.
Put my bench supply at 2.4V and it seems to take between 0.25-0.35A and spike up to 0.6A when talking. Increasing to 3V didn’t make much of a diff.
It seems to be the letters that pulls most power so M4 takes more than M3.
Moved up to 3.6V and now it’s idling closer to 0.150-0.25A. Moving to 4.5V made it take a little less.
I also noted that it in idle M4 mode it was always around 0.8W so ohms law holds, increase voltage and current goes down.
(All current values are as the bench power supply reported = may not be that exact)
Running on higher voltage is not an issue as long as it’s under 5V since it’s a booster that provide 5V to the rest of the board. Dropping below 2V was not good and while it was on at 1.2V it died as soon as any change was made.

I think going to 3 batteries instead of 2 may be a good idea and future kits may do that by default, thanks for the suggestion.

[me2016]

Currently on the road but will be back next week and then I will take some measurements. I’m using it with 2 NiMH AA cells that works fine, at least when they are fully charged. Of course having 1.5v alkaline would be better.
I also plan on program an arduino and send to you but not sure if I have any spare to do that with.

[me2016]

The missing resistors would cause the keyboard to not work but it wouldn’t destroy anything.
When you looked at the board with your scope, look at the i2c pins, they should always be busy. If not, hit the reset button on the nano an see if that helps.

Make sure that it’s no shorts anywhere, starting with the pins on ht16k33a. If you replaced the chip it may be that the new chip is from a bad version (I had to get 3 batches before I got one working).

Try to get a connection to a pc so you can see what the arduino reports on boot, remember to set the speed to 38400 (max speed for a 3.3V arduino).

If you don’t use external power, make sure the batteries are good, pref not rechargable (1.2V) but some alkaline or lithium (1.5V).

[me2016]

It may take a while to make it from Canada to you but a new ht16k33 is now on it’s way

[me2016]

Ok, so you have a VK16K33, that basically means it needs to be replaced.
As we wrote in the email sent out we have no issues sending you a ht16k33 and unless you moved since you ordered it we still have your address. If different, please send direct message or email. If you have any questions then send email to shop@meinenigma.com

It is a software fix that makes it work a little better see https://meinenigma.com/forums/topic/troubleshooting-ht16k33/#post-2518
It only improve things, it is not a fix! The permanent fix is replacement of the chip.

/me

[me2016]

Good you figured it out. I was going to say “use the force, i mean the source” 🙂
Serial number is put in with a different program (that isn’t public) but it’s not like it’s encrypted or so, so reading the source it shouldn’t be that hard to set.

Now you mention you replace it because of lockups, that is interesting to me. Does it work better with the replacement?
The ones we get are of course clones and quality may not always be the best.
/ps

[me2016]

Right, the clock module. I was thinking sound since that is commonly removed.
I now got a batch of ht16k33 so I’m going to steal time to work on that soon.

[me2016]

Interesting regarding the sound module. No clue why it would die after 50 seconds, may have to look in to that.

[me2016]

Did try some things and it does make a change to the better. Now it’s more of a side effect than a fix. The “HT.displayOn()” call does set a bit in the chip to turn on the display but that bit is set at start and never cleared so it’s more of the repeated sending of data that makes it work better.
One thing that still doesn’t work is for example the light check, turn on all LEDs. That still doesn’t work.

To verify that I added a dummy read call “i=HT.i2c_read(0);” to the main loop and then it seems to work the same, display, lights and such work but not light test.
I added it around line 4340, just before “if (!standalone) {“.

This indicates that the chip has issues to work unless you keep talking to it, something that shouldn’t be needed. Adding that line to the main loop is at best an ugly workaround to get some function out of it so I keep looking at what the root cause is for this issue.

/ps

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by me2016.

[me2016]

It has been a few reports of same issue as you. I did solder together a L&K board and reproduced the problem so not I can do some troubleshooting. I have ordered replacement ht16k33 but it will take some time to get here.
See https://meinenigma.com/forums/topic/troubleshooting-ht16k33/ for more info.

[me2016]

Update: I did solder together a L&K board and reproduced the problem so now I can do some troubleshooting. I have ordered replacement ht16k33 but it will take some time to get here.
I will get back once I done some checking.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by me2016.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by me2016.

[me2016]

It’s hard to guess what can b e wrong but since it is a few reports of it now I’m going to put together a kit and maybe also a test jig of some kind so I can verify functionality of the chip.
If I’m not happy with what I see I will order a pile of ht16k33 as a replacement in existing kits and for anyone else here.
For the kits above – if you are willing to pay shipping to Canada and ship the just the main board I will take a look and do whatever is needed to make it work.

[me2016]

That is good news, just hope the others have a similar issue.
What pin was it that wasn’t working_

[me2016]

I am starting to wonder if the batch of chip I got (after a very long delay) was faulty.
The “PR 1” should come when you press a button and turn it on but that’s it.
1 – Do you get the “all LEDs on” when you turn it on
2 – if you put the dial in the first on position (model) can you then try some of the shortcuts and see if it does react to them. Things like “M” for morse code, “T” talk, “C” for clock, “L” for lamp test.
3 – can you connect a computer to the serial port (speed 38400) and see if you get some more info there. You can increase log level with “!LOG:2” (I think)

I’m currently out of town so I can’t really check on things that easily.

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