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Guardian-686: Speaker protection board for balanced, bridged, and BTL LM3886-based amplifiers (and others).
If any of you spot another error, ambiguity, or vagueness on my website, by all means toss me a PM or email and I'll take a look.
Thanks,
Tom
Guardian-686: Speaker protection board for balanced, bridged, and BTL LM3886-based amplifiers (and others).
If any of you spot another error, ambiguity, or vagueness on my website, by all means toss me a PM or email and I'll take a look.
Thanks,
Tom
Tom,
The Panasonic ECA-0JM221 is out of stock, I also cannot get it Farnell.
Looking for a substitute but I can only find another Panasonic Cap (ECA-0JHG221I)... Difference is the ripple current, the one in the BOM is rated at 240 mA ripple current and the other one is rated at 140 mA ripple current.
Can you advise if this is an acceptable replacement part or not?
Thanks, Daan
The Panasonic ECA-0JM221 is out of stock, I also cannot get it Farnell.
Looking for a substitute but I can only find another Panasonic Cap (ECA-0JHG221I)... Difference is the ripple current, the one in the BOM is rated at 240 mA ripple current and the other one is rated at 140 mA ripple current.
Can you advise if this is an acceptable replacement part or not?
Thanks, Daan
Hi. Today I kicked off my 686 monoblock project with Power686 and ISS Softstart boards. They are possibly two replace my 286 monoblocks (see separate DIYaudio thread), which sound incredible, but might be a tad bit underpowered for my future, low impedance speaker dreams.
Anyway, very nice documentation from Tom (as always).
When looking at the ISS I had a few questions though:
1) Any recommendations for a nice „doorbell“ standby switch? Possibly including the on/Standby LED?
2) In case I use an IEC inlet already including a fuse, can I bridge the fuse on the ISS?
3) In case I want to place the ISS board on its side, for space reasons. Would that be ok?
Thx
SH
Anyway, very nice documentation from Tom (as always).
When looking at the ISS I had a few questions though:
1) Any recommendations for a nice „doorbell“ standby switch? Possibly including the on/Standby LED?
2) In case I use an IEC inlet already including a fuse, can I bridge the fuse on the ISS?
3) In case I want to place the ISS board on its side, for space reasons. Would that be ok?
Thx
SH
The E-Switch PV6-series is quite nice. Do note that the LED is not polarized, i.e. even though the terminals are marked (+) and (-), the LED will light with either polarity. You can put a diode (1N4148) in series or remove one of the resistors in the ISS to select whether the LED should be on during STANDBY or during ON.
I should add that to the documentation.
Sure.
That's fine.
Tom
Thanks...
Cool switch ... even vandal-proof, for those vandals at home ;-).... btw are you sure about the LED in the Switch not being polarized or am I just reading the spec incorrectly. There is a version e.g. PV6F24011-3G1, which offers a two pin red/green led in anti-parallel configuration (see attachments) - wouldn´t that connect directly to the ISS LED connector and still provide the desired functionality (standby red, on green)?
Thx.
Cool switch ... even vandal-proof, for those vandals at home ;-).... btw are you sure about the LED in the Switch not being polarized or am I just reading the spec incorrectly. There is a version e.g. PV6F24011-3G1, which offers a two pin red/green led in anti-parallel configuration (see attachments) - wouldn´t that connect directly to the ISS LED connector and still provide the desired functionality (standby red, on green)?
Thx.
Yep. The Red/Green version will light up red in STANDBY and green in ON with the ISS (and the new Mean Well Control).
The single-colour versions do appear to be bipolar. At least the green-only switch I have on my lab bench right now is that way. It'll light up green all the time with the ISS. I found that rather annoying as the data sheet clearly shows only one (1) diode with an anode and a cathode marked + an -, respectively, on the package.
Anyway. Should you end up in this situation, you can always pluck R6 or R7 off the board. Plucking R6 disables the ON indication. Removing R7 disables the STANDBY indication.
I'll include this information in the documentation shortly.
Tom
BTW: Note that the PV6 is available with silver plated and gold plated switch points. For the low voltage control used in the ISS and Mean Well Control, I recommend using the gold version.
Prototyping of the Mean Well Control is complete. The final board version will be available by the end of the month.
Tom
Prototyping of the Mean Well Control is complete. The final board version will be available by the end of the month.
Tom
I used the E-Switch PV6-series in one of my builds. It's half the price of the similar Bulgin switches. But more importantly, the Bulgin switches require a lot of force to actuate. Enough that the weight of the amp wasn't enough to hold it in place. It would slide back when pressing the switch. Not a problem with the PV6 switches. The Bulgin switches do look a tad bit nicer though.
Thanks for your hints and comments. I ordered the PV6 together with all the parts, however it’s on 12! weeks backorder at Mouser and I could not find any alternative source. Oh well let’s see, s.t. they restock quicker.
BTW Tom: When ordering from Mouser the 5v Meanwell supply which goes into the ISS, it said, that the part would not be delivered into the EU. Now Switzerland is not in the EU, but restrictions might apply anyway and also your EU customers might run into difficulties. Let’s see what happens. So far Mouser has confirmed the order and even announced the DHL delivery.
BTW Tom: When ordering from Mouser the 5v Meanwell supply which goes into the ISS, it said, that the part would not be delivered into the EU. Now Switzerland is not in the EU, but restrictions might apply anyway and also your EU customers might run into difficulties. Let’s see what happens. So far Mouser has confirmed the order and even announced the DHL delivery.
Digikey carries the E-Switch PV6 series as well. But yeah. Stock levels are single digit for both Mouser and Digikey. I'm not sure why. I wonder if E-Switch painted themselves into a corner by offering so many options on those switches. Theoretically, there are 4320 combinations of the various options on the PV6-series. That's $65k worth of inventory even if you only stock one of each. That's $65k that you can't put into growing your company. Now, I'm sure many of those options aren't being manufactured, but you get the idea.
That sounds like a Mouser goof. According to Mean Well, there are several distributors within the EU and also two in Switzerland.
I've been using the Mean Well supplies for a few years now, both in the SMPS-86 and in the DIFF PRE. Both have been built successfully within the EU, so I'm sure you'll get the stuff you need in the Mouser order.
The Mean Well switching bricks feature the seals of approval from a plethora of international organizations, including CE, so there really shouldn't be any issue there. Weird things happen in eCommerce systems sometimes. For example, Amazon has the Dymo labels I use for my shipping label printer classified as "electronics" that can't ship from the US to Canada. Apparently shipping labels are considered a national security risk by the US (says Amazon - even after I brought this up with their customer service). Go figure...
Anyway. If you don't get your switching bricks or are having trouble ordering them, I suggest tossing Mouser an email. They're quite responsive.
Tom
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I suppose the potential US-EU customs tax war could be a reason. I have got a TPA3251EVM from TI delivered by Fedex to EU lately, the customs administration was a real pita (no tax paid at the end, though)...
I suppose that could be. That's one of the reasons I'm quite content in Canada these days. We have a trade agreement with the EU (went into effect 1.5 years ago), so the customs process is actually pretty smooth and, above all, consistent from day to day. To my knowledge, there are no customs fees to pay on import to the EU, only VAT/sales tax.
I suppose if bad comes to worse, I can buy a box of Mean Well supplies and start shipping them. It'd probably be considerably less expensive for folks to just order from their local Mean Well distributor, though. They seem to have distributors just about everywhere.
Tom