Troubleshooting

New system:

• Did you remember to put the Jawa sound files on the Sound Board? If you didn't, you won't hear Jawa noises!
• If you have no lights or fans, you've obviously got a power problem, maybe a broken or loose wire around the switch or after, but you may also have a short circuit somewhere. The USB battery is smart enough to shut itself down in this situation, so it may not be obvious. Check for solder bridges between the + and - pins on any of the boards or on the fans (particularly if you've had to repair the leads on a fan).
• If any one item (fan, eye LED, etc isn't on), obviously check the connections to that device.
• If everything seems to be normal but you're not getting sounds, check to see if your eyes blink on the appropriate button press. If they do, the problem is in the actual sound system. If not, you need to focus on the receiver and the custom board.
• The adafruit board has a light that comes on when it's playing a sound file. If you don't see it then the problem is with or before that board.
• It's relatively easy to accidentally wire to the wrong channel on the sound board output, amplifier input, or speaker output, or to twist the volume on the amplifier too low or even off, all of which will result in no sound being heard.
• Lastly, there is one circumstance that may seem quite weird if you encounter it, but which has a simple solution. You may find that when you press a button on the remote, you get sounds that repeat continuously, stopping only when you turn off your sound system. This probably means that your receiver got switched to a different mode, possibly by the pairing button being hit more than once when it was in pairing mode. The solution to this is to reset the receiver and re-pair it with your remote. To do this, turn the system off and back on again, and push the pairing button 8 times to clear its memory. Power off and on again, press the button once and then touch any button on your remote to re-pair.

Old system:

• Presumably you'd realize it if your USB battery had no charge and therefore you didn't have fans or lights when you hit the power switch. But suppose you have lights and fans, but nothing happens when you press the buttons on the control glove? Check to make sure you have a green light lit on the control transmitter when you press a button. If not, replace the CR2032 battery on the glove. Normally these last a long time, but maybe the glove got crushed by something in your costume bag, pressing a button continuously and discharging the battery. Carry spares just in case.
• If the transmitter shows a light, the receiver should also show a light when it gets the signal. If it doesn't you've got a problem. You don't have two jawas in the house do you? Maybe you grabbed the wrong control glove? Check and see. If not, it's possible that the receiver has become unpaired with the transmitter. Press the pairing button on the receiver ONCE (hopefully it's not been covered with tape) and then press a button on the control glove. You should see a light blink (3 times) on the receiver indicating pairing has been re-established. Subsequent presses should get you sounds. Beware, pressing the pairing button twice or three times puts the receiver in modes other than mode that we want here. If you screw that up, press the pairing button eight (yes, 8) times to clear its memory completely. This will cause its LED to blink 7 times in confirmation and then you can start the pairing process again.
• If the receiver shows a light, but you're not getting a sound, check the volume knob on the amplifier. It's possible to turn that all the way off, which isn't conducive to it working. If you still don't get a sound with the amp volume twisted all the way in either direction, you should double-check the filesystem on the FX board and make sure it hasn't been corrupted. But if it looks good, you're probably going to be pulling all your tape off to check connections and run through New troubleshooting above.
• If you've just lost a single sound (or the blink), check the wires going into your finger buttons. The solder joint there has been a common failure point for us, and it's not easily avoidable because wires and movement don't mesh well. If a wire has come off, it should be easy to solder back into place. You might also put a drop of glue where the wires travel through the hole in the button board in order to reduce the stress on the copper.