I have an Orion 2150GX. It was working great but the speaker wire came off the box and touched. The amp began to smoke. I took it aprt and found 3 burnt transisters, Motorola 2N6488. Also there are 2 16V 3300uf(m) capacitors, and 4 50V 3300uf capacitors. Can I change these and be ok?? Yes Im a rookie at electronics, Thanks for any help.
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LOL that must be one crap amp;as it has no protection whatsoever.
Mostly all amps have a relay against short circuit and all have a fuse on the output stage.But i guess yours is very cheap or very old that would explain for no protection circuit.
But I suggest you first, fit a relay on the just before the output stage on each channel and then replace all the transistors.
As a few blown transistors can put stess on the others and make the faulty;so thats why u replace them all.
Also the driver IC or transistor needs replacing too,as that usually goes faulty too.
Yes is the capacitors are damaged replace them with the identical value.
As your a rookie at electronics,I think you should use some tweezers as a heat shunt to hold the transistor when u are soldering.As too much heat kill the transistor.
Hope this helps.
LOL that must be one crap amp;as it has no protection whatsoever.
Mostly all amps have a relay against short circuit and all have a fuse on the output stage.But i guess yours is very cheap or very old that would explain for no protection circuit.
But I suggest you first, fit a relay on the just before the output stage on each channel and then replace all the transistors.
As a few blown transistors can put stess on the others and make the faulty;so thats why u replace them all.
Also the driver IC or transistor needs replacing too,as that usually goes faulty too.
Yes is the capacitors are damaged replace them with the identical value.
As your a rookie at electronics,I think you should use some tweezers as a heat shunt to hold the transistor when u are soldering.As too much heat kill the transistor.
Hope this helps.
Satern wrote:
Replace the output transistors, and you should be fine. Common failure mode for shorting a GX series amp. Typically, nothing else needs replacing. YMMV
Bull wrote:
Actually, it's a seriously good amp. IIRC, sold for about $750 new in 1990. Completely unregulated supply with enough current avaible for a small village. Just don't short the outputs, or you'll be replacing transistors.
Tim
Replace the output transistors, and you should be fine. Common failure mode for shorting a GX series amp. Typically, nothing else needs replacing. YMMV
Bull wrote:
Actually, it's a seriously good amp. IIRC, sold for about $750 new in 1990. Completely unregulated supply with enough current avaible for a small village. Just don't short the outputs, or you'll be replacing transistors.
Tim
Coincidentaly I'm repairing an Orion amp as well. I can't figure it out yet. The supply rails are very low, about +/- 9.5V. I think that might be ok though as the amp is supposed to be .25 ohm stable, so its meant to be loaded down to make power.
Mine has output but distorts (huge clipping). Perhaps its a blown output transistor. I was debugging the power supply initially because of the low rails and some instabilities. And then I switched to the input stage because I traced the signal to be distorting on the one op amp (NE5532). Is it possible that the op amp (its the closest one to the output stage) is for feedback or something and thats why its distorted? Or is that op amp for sure part of the input stage, and therefore thats where the problem exists.
How can I test the output transistors in in circuit?
Pete
Mine has output but distorts (huge clipping). Perhaps its a blown output transistor. I was debugging the power supply initially because of the low rails and some instabilities. And then I switched to the input stage because I traced the signal to be distorting on the one op amp (NE5532). Is it possible that the op amp (its the closest one to the output stage) is for feedback or something and thats why its distorted? Or is that op amp for sure part of the input stage, and therefore thats where the problem exists.
How can I test the output transistors in in circuit?
Pete
I think they're US made. It's a stereo amp. Supposed to be 25Wx2 but can run high power into 0.25 ohm.
What technique do I use to check the FETs?
Is the +/- 9.5V power supply correct or is that too low?
Why would both channels exibit the same problem? (which is they both clip at about 5V peak to peak)
Pete
What technique do I use to check the FETs?
Is the +/- 9.5V power supply correct or is that too low?
Why would both channels exibit the same problem? (which is they both clip at about 5V peak to peak)
Pete
Wow this is awsome, thanks for all the replies. I am going to Radio Shack now and hopefully they have the transitors there. The Amp is made in the USA and is sounds very good and powerfull but no there is no protection. I will write back soon an my outcome, Thanks again.
Hey by the way I also have a Premier GM-X822. It is like new but for some reason when I power it up, the protection light just blinks?? Any ideas?? Thanks
Hey by the way I also have a Premier GM-X822. It is like new but for some reason when I power it up, the protection light just blinks?? Any ideas?? Thanks
cm961 wrote:
225HCCA?
These early Orions used bipolar 2n6488/6491 pairs, and were fairly simple unregulated designs. Many came my way, and the only failure mode was toasted outputs. In fact, I still have several pairs of them.
Never had to open an HCCA up, but I always assumed they used the same devices as the GX's.
I'm really not much of a repair tech, and check transistors as Paradise_Ice suggests for consistency while in-circuit. R&L channels should be symmetrical. Input is buffered with op-amps and does not invert phase on one channel. IIRC, they use small transistors as pre-drivers.
The DIN input has phantom power rails of +/- 15V to power accessories. The GX's used 7815/7915's to filter this voltage off the main supply rails, so I'd expect at least that much voltage from the power supply. This can be visually confirmed by the presence of a 7815 and 7915.
The accessory rails are the outermost pins on the DIN jack, 180º apart. Start by checking for voltage there. If you get full voltage, the power supply is most likely OK, right?
Check the supply pins of the 5532, I would expect them to be at +/-15V if the phantom supply was that high. Logical?
It's 1:30AM, and there are still children running around the house. That's about all the logic I can muster right now...
Where's a cattleprod when you need one?
Paradise_Ice wrote:
I don't think there are FET's inside.
Not only was this amp made in the USA, it's part of the crop that built the USA's reputation for making great car amps.
Tim
225HCCA?
These early Orions used bipolar 2n6488/6491 pairs, and were fairly simple unregulated designs. Many came my way, and the only failure mode was toasted outputs. In fact, I still have several pairs of them.
Never had to open an HCCA up, but I always assumed they used the same devices as the GX's.
I'm really not much of a repair tech, and check transistors as Paradise_Ice suggests for consistency while in-circuit. R&L channels should be symmetrical. Input is buffered with op-amps and does not invert phase on one channel. IIRC, they use small transistors as pre-drivers.
The DIN input has phantom power rails of +/- 15V to power accessories. The GX's used 7815/7915's to filter this voltage off the main supply rails, so I'd expect at least that much voltage from the power supply. This can be visually confirmed by the presence of a 7815 and 7915.
The accessory rails are the outermost pins on the DIN jack, 180º apart. Start by checking for voltage there. If you get full voltage, the power supply is most likely OK, right?
Check the supply pins of the 5532, I would expect them to be at +/-15V if the phantom supply was that high. Logical?
It's 1:30AM, and there are still children running around the house. That's about all the logic I can muster right now...
Where's a cattleprod when you need one?
Paradise_Ice wrote:
I don't think there are FET's inside.
Not only was this amp made in the USA, it's part of the crop that built the USA's reputation for making great car amps.
Tim
These guys are right on the button, I am surprised this amp has not protection?, now about the 0.25 ohm load! no amp should have this kind of load placed on it! that is close to shorting the poor thing out, most people accept that the lower the ohms the higher the distortion figure, Trust me, I dare you to test any hifi amp, with 2 pairs of speakers and it will be louder and basser, but will lack the dynamics and attack it would have with just 1 pair on it, Have you ever tried a 0 to 60 dash in a car with a trailer attached to it? am sure it could do it! but would it be that fast or good for your car.
This amp was designed for this load. It's a competition cheater amp. Your competition class was determined by your rated power into 4 ohms. A pair of these amps kept you in the lowest power class. Just wire your speakers for an extremely low impedence and you would blow your competition away. I listed to one of these amps drive 4 Kicker 15's (about 15 years ago) and it was great.
-Robert
quick question...
Would the steps in this thread be the same ones I would follow regarding fixing a blown Rockford Fosgate Power 800.4 ?
If this isn't the appropriate way to ask this Q, and I should put my own thread, just let me know and I will.
The amp was blown due to my own stupidity. I had the amp (4 x 100W) running one channel each to my front speakers, and the other two bridged to my subwoofer. I removed my sub enclosure one day as I needed the room to transport some stuff in my car, and I sat some packages in a trunk including my gym bag, and the "D" ring on the shoulder strap shorted across the subwoofer banana plug leads and blew the amp.
I got the smell of smoke, but no real smoke visible, and the radio shut off. I replaced the fuse upline from the amplifier (which had blown). Then I got real static sounding front channels with very weak power, and it didn't want to work so well.
Suggestions? I bought a different amp to replace it, but I would really like to attempt to fix this amp and learn some things along the way.
Would the steps in this thread be the same ones I would follow regarding fixing a blown Rockford Fosgate Power 800.4 ?
If this isn't the appropriate way to ask this Q, and I should put my own thread, just let me know and I will.
The amp was blown due to my own stupidity. I had the amp (4 x 100W) running one channel each to my front speakers, and the other two bridged to my subwoofer. I removed my sub enclosure one day as I needed the room to transport some stuff in my car, and I sat some packages in a trunk including my gym bag, and the "D" ring on the shoulder strap shorted across the subwoofer banana plug leads and blew the amp.
I got the smell of smoke, but no real smoke visible, and the radio shut off. I replaced the fuse upline from the amplifier (which had blown). Then I got real static sounding front channels with very weak power, and it didn't want to work so well.
Suggestions? I bought a different amp to replace it, but I would really like to attempt to fix this amp and learn some things along the way.
Any amp that is fried by shorting the speaker leads will most likely need the output transistors replaced! So yeah, pretty much the same procedure. Check output transistors with a voltmeter on the diode setting. Often you can visually confirm a burned transistor. If one or more is disfunctional, replace all of the outputs for good measure!
Tim
Umm well ok my audioline 800 watt 4 channel amp just blew (i think) also as a cause of stupidity I was running to 2 10 inch subs and my rears off it...could I have put a lil too much strain on it? I smelt no smoke and none of the protection fuses were damaged is there anythin else anyone can think of? if not do I follow the same procedures to repair it. its an AL-2004 if anyone can help it would be much aprreciated.
it should not be to hard to repair, it ss always fault finding that is the problem, the transistors will almost always be the poor chaps to get it in the neck! I dont believe in low ohms for amps, they dont sound that great at 1 ohms, its just to much current draw, its better to run it at 4ohms for in car,IMO
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