Hifonics Brutus BX 2005d

[seankane]

I called maxxsonics today, and they dont stock the driver board nor do they sell internal parts for their amps.

I asked for a schematic and I got a maybe, I am suppose to call tomorrow and speak with a guy and tell him my "story".

Since its not a current model I did get a maybe. They said the last time they released one someone copied it and started building amps with it, they didnt say who or what but whatever.

So I called Mouser and ordered the 2SB1260's and they will be here this week.

I will keep you posted on the schematic results it would be way cool if they will give it to me. I am not looking to copy their amp and start building brutus amps but it would be nice to have for repairs and such.

 

[Perry Babin]

If you get a diagram from them, that would be very surprising. It would be nice to see some of these manufacturers start to relax. They should realize that anyone who wants to copy a design can easily do it, with or without the schematic diagram.

 

[noobies]

I called maxxsonics today, and they dont stock the driver board nor do they sell internal parts for their amps.

I asked for a schematic and I got a maybe, I am suppose to call tomorrow and speak with a guy and tell him my "story".

Since its not a current model I did get a maybe. They said the last time they released one someone copied it and started building amps with it, they didnt say who or what but whatever.

So I called Mouser and ordered the 2SB1260's and they will be here this week.

I will keep you posted on the schematic results it would be way cool if they will give it to me. I am not looking to copy their amp and start building brutus amps but it would be nice to have for repairs and such.

If you get a diagram from them, that would be very surprising. It would be nice to see some of these manufacturers start to relax. They should realize that anyone who wants to copy a design can easily do it, with or without the schematic diagram.

Ohh... snap. hopeless for me to get a new driver board too then.
It's a bad support for customer. Because it's an old model and not current model still we can't have the schematics too. I guess maybe because they ask third party to manufacture their amps (OEM)?

 

[Perry Babin]

Most of the amps are made by a handful of build houses. There are unique designs like those in Rockford, JL, newer Kicker and a few other amps. A lot of other amps use one of 2 or 3 designs that vary very little.

 

[seankane]

Few questions Perry

1: Installed new drivers on pwm board and re-installed board onto main board. Hooked up power and ground and remote. Blue LED came on and square wave on all gate pads......this is ok?

2: Installed all gate resistors and power supply fets, checked for bad connections by holding one probe at the end of the gate resistor and other probe on gate leg and all read near or 47 ohms and also checked for solder bridges but did not find any.....this is ok?

3: Removed shorted output fets and left the rest in the circuit....this is ok?

4: Not being that familiar with these amps is it ok to power up out of heat sink like I would a rockford amp??

5: Any special precautions I should take or anything else I should check before applying power?

Thank You

 

[seankane]

I powered up the amp all was well then poof went the outputs!!!

I can leave all the 9640's installed and it powers up fine, when I try installing the 640N's they blow instantly.

I have posted a pic of the audio driver board, you can see the drive transistors but I am not sure what is what.

There are 4 marked DK QR and 4 marked AG QR.

 

[Perry Babin]

#25:

1 and 2, yes.

3. Generally, yes but you have to make sure that none of the rest are leaking.

4. Yes if you monitor the temperature of the heatsink mounted components until you see if any are heating up.

5. Nothing that you normally wouldn't check.

The FETs should not have

#26:

DK = 2SC4672
AG = 2SA1797

Was the driver board in the amp when the FETs failed?

 

[seankane]

Yes the driver board was installed, it is removed now. Should I replace the fets and power up without the driver board installed?

Could some of the DK or AG being leaky or defective cause the 640N's to blow?

The amp idles fine and has a nice square waveform on the power supplt gates. It is producing positive and negative rail voltage of around 80v and all the op-amps have positive and negative supply voltage.

I am thinking I have an issue with the driver board???

 

[Perry Babin]

Q7, 11, 19 and 22 are generally the problem on this driver board.

I've never seen any of the AG/DK transistors fail on these boards but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.

I'd reinstall the outputs with no driver board and confirm that there is no DC voltage on the center legs of the outputs.

 

[seankane]

Will do is imperative I use 640N or will 640 work? I have both just wondering???

 

[Perry Babin]

I don't know if both will work. I'd use whatever the originals were. If you want to know if both will work, try both and test thoroughly under heavy loads.

 

[seankane]

I replaced all the irf640N's and powered up the amp without the driver board installed, everything seems fine no dc voltage on the center legs of the 640's.

Does this mean likely Q7, Q11, Q19, Q22 are possibly leaky or shorted??

as replacements all I have on hand is MMBT3904 and 3906 and will those work for replacements since they are all the same pin configuration? I have a56 and a06 but I think the a06 is different pin configuration unless my old notes are wrong?

 

[seankane]

Looking at the data sheet I dont know if the others can handle the voltage the a42 and a92 are designed for???

 

[Perry Babin]

I wouldn't try the 390xs. The MMBTA42/92 are very commonly used and it would be good to have them on hand.

The transistors open, short and leak. Sometimes, they have open junctions when tested on the board and after you remove them, they check OK (but they're not).

 

[seankane]

OK ordered 100 each from mouser have them Saturday maybe Monday for sure guess this amp is on hold till then!!!

Likely since the 640 do not have any voltage on the center leg eveything is ok on the main board?

Everything I have tested so far is within tolerance.

 

[Perry Babin]

I can't say that everything is OK but it would appear that none of the outputs are leaky. They should read ~100k between legs 1 and 3 and you should read 2x the gate resistor value (10 ohms x2?) between the gate legs of the parallel transistors.

 

[seankane]

I do read 20 ohms between parallel outputs all the way across on both sides.

I read 24.80K ohms between legs 1 and 3 of every single output on the board.

 

[Perry Babin]

24k is probably right if there are 4 parallel transistors. There is a 100k resistor on each transistor.

 

[seankane]

Yes each group has four fets. There are 4 9640's and 4 640's on each side of the amp with seperate power supplies but one pwm driver card running both supplies. I am asumming this is a dual mono block amp??

 

[Perry Babin]

It has 2 groups of FETs that drive a single output.