ppi tubedriver kit,issues

[robertleo]

i recently purchased a ppi 2150 td board off e-bay and ordered the remaining parts including the savior board from robot underground.
i made a few solder connections per robots photos,assembled the amp and when i fired it up 1 of the sv 83 tubes did not light up and i have only one channel,seems to get pretty warm too.the warm up light comes then the power light comes on then the fan and the 1 channnel.i double checked all my connections no problem found.
any suggestions would be appreciated.i dont even have an owners manual...thanks robert

[TO-3]

There are very few people that have worked on that amplifier. You might wish to inquire with 1moreamp. He might be able to give you some assistance with your amp.

[agent.5]

Originally posted by robertleo
[B]i recently purchased a ppi 2150 td board off e-bay and ordered the remaining parts including the savior board from robot underground.


i made a few solder connections per robots photos

Do you have a link to robot underground, when you purchased this savior board?

[1moreamp]

Originally posted by TO-3
There are very few people that have worked on that amplifier. You might wish to inquire with 1moreamp. He might be able to give you some assistance with your amp.

Thank you my kind friend


As for our new friends dead tube driver situation, I would need to see what Patrick at RU has sold him and told him to do to these PPI/Butler designs.
I went to the RU site and found nothing about Tube amps for sale to answer my burning questions of what a "Savior Board" is and how Patrick feels it should be integrated into robertleo's final working amp.


Going on the immediate info supplied of a dead filament on one of the tubes I would be concentrating on finding out why that tube has no filament operation, and verifying all of its other operating voltages. Once that issue is resolved perhaps the amp would have both channels.

If not then theres a laundry list of things to check looking for a inop channel.
As for the high heat load the amp has, well these amps had fan cooling that forced air across the bottom plate for cooling of all the semi's in the amp, this should be checked along with proper operating voltages and loads, along with the amps 12 volt idle current to see if it is on spec.
This might shed light on possible out of spec issues.if any exist. Other then the above I would be looking for cold solder joints that would act up when the amps heat load rises.

Building up a amp like this and not having the burn-in spec, and alignment numbers is always a gamble at best and using after market items like those purchased off e-bay can only add more spice to the pudding.

[robertleo]

thanks for the responses,it seems i may have become just another victom of the clever con men in a less than honest world.i felt like this board had a shady ring to it from the start,but it sure is pretty
anyway the savior board is some sort of protecton device that was not implemented in the original design.at least one channl worked and it sounded good,but the amp started getting too hot and i had to shut it down.i agree wih onemoreamp,that this amp is complex and one needs to know how and where to make the voltage test.i now feel lucky to have gotten the one channel.
i talked to ken at ru and he offerd to get it running for a nomanal fee.i sent it today ups.,ken is the guy i bought the other parts from, end plates,bottom plate, top cover etc..not the original board....things may work out after all will keep yal posted....thanks again robert

[1moreamp]

Please don't get me wrong Patrick at RU has a good business going for himself. I am just not sure of what he sold you, and I would need to see it to get a bearing on its interaction with the tube-driver.
Perhaps his board was 100% ok I don't know . Its one of those things you have to see and reverse think to get a understanding of before making any judgment calls on.

As I recall the tube-driver has relay protection for its output which is a cut above most other amps already. I am glad your getting help from someone that hopefully will take care of your needs, and give a warranty also.

The TD amps sound pretty darn good, but like all other tube oriented amps it has high idle current draw, and high idle heat loads. Thats sort of what killed off tubes for a lot of things except audio where there unique SQ has yet to be mimicked by Solid State Good luck on your amp....