chipamp case design (warning big pic inside)

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Just for fun here is the design for the case for my next LM3886. chipamp.com (BrianGT) amp

It is true dual mono including buffers, but apart from that is pretty bog standard BrianGT 3886, snubber PSU, seperate 100VA trafos

thought i would share the render i made of the design.

http://www.chillproductions.com/defex/img/blingclone.gif

it is 1.2 meg animated gif. that way most people can view it.

it is entirely 1/4 thick aluminium with no visible screws exept at the bottom. the mains is very nicely isolated from the rest of the electronics with this design.

the "legs" are carbon fiber (i have allready actually made them and the render doesnt do them justice)

the reason i made this render is because I was fitting all the parts together in 3d before i got the transformers, and decided to do a bit of an ambitious case but within my capabilities and what tools i have
and something that looks a bit different.

i have all the electronics built and tested, toroids on order i just need to get the metal stock to do the actual case.
(and polish and polish)
 
neutron7 said:


i have all the electronics built and tested, toroids on order i just need to get the metal stock to do the actual case.
(and polish and polish)

neutron, looks really good.....good luck. BTW, how do you polish aluminum? I have a few pieces that I would like to use, but they look bad and I had asked some aluminum shops and they tell me it can't be done and suggested for me to paint them instead.

:bawling:
 
Evilsizer said:
thats nice! what did you use to do the 3d modleing with the parts inside it?

well i actually measured the boards and capacitors etc of the Briangt boards and entered them in as objects in GMAX. But to render it you can not use GMAX (like MAX but free) so i sent it to a friend and then rendered it via windows remote desktop when he was not using the computer and emailed it back to myself :)
 

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Re: Re: chipamp case design (warning big pic inside)

safetyman said:


neutron, looks really good.....good luck. BTW, how do you polish aluminum? I have a few pieces that I would like to use, but they look bad and I had asked some aluminum shops and they tell me it can't be done and suggested for me to paint them instead.

:bawling:

well you can polish non anodized aluminium to a very high polish. sand it with finer and finer grit sandpaper (i do 800, 1000 then 2000) or start with a coarser one if its really badly marked.

for surfaces to be almost perfectly flat put the sandpaper on something very flat, such as a piece of plate glass.

i have a polishing wheel instead of one of the stones on my bench grinder. i use some metal polish ("flitz") on there and it polishes up like silver. you could use some proper jewelers rouge and it would probably be even better. the main problem is keeping it shiny after its polished.

maybe you could either spray some laquer or clear coat on there since it is not going to get rough treatment (clean it very well first) or take it to be clear anodized. (im not sure if that would screw up the polish?), how do they do car wheels and bike parts? campagnolo and shimano have had polished aluminium parts that can stand up to road dirt for ages since the 70s. anyways its not "impossible" otherwise there would be no "bling" wheels :)

by the way do not breathe aluminium dust. supposedly it can give you alzheimers. someone told me once i forgot who :D

http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/gallery.html
those are aluminium!
 
Neutron,

Great effort! Looks like you've really took the time to work out something original and unique. Great job!

Well, I can't help myself, but do you mind if I take this opportunity to offer some thoughts, impressions, ask some questions, and offer some constructive criticism? (it's part of my art school training :) )

I really love that you're thinking "outside of the box," literally in this case. ;) I think that's very cool.

One thing that strikes me, though, is that the chassis reminds me of 1. a hair dryer and 2. Boba Fett's ship from Star Wars. I don't know if you intend to evoke those associations, but they did come up for me and I'm sure others might see that, as well. Just a personal impression at first glance.

Are you going to design some sort of complimentary case for a preamp or DAC? I think it would be very cool to see a collection of 2 or 3 complimentary pieces based on the same asethetic as part of your system. Like a furniture or industrial designer designing a coffee service or component grouping, you could have several components working off of the same design idea, slighly different in form, but based on the same materials and look. If you make speakers, these could be made to order, as well.

Very cool stuff. Keep it up!

Best,
KT
 
Thanks KT !

Lol nobody mentioned the star wars ship yet but i noticed it looks a bit hair dryer ish. since it will be usually viewed from teh front i really do not think it matters (someone else said it looked like a whistle) im sure there are a lot of other things with a similar shape

http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/gallery/HMS_Belfast_-_on_the_deck.html
(whats that thing? if i could get one it would save me some work!)


btw i just googled that ship, it is called "slave-1" a bit similar but only when it is landed, it flies at a completely different angle. anyways to solve that possible misunderstanding ill make sure not to invite any star wars fanatics into my house :)

If this works out nicely I do have a rough plan in the works for the preamp, and possibly even a CD player as well .

oh and Evilsizer, if you want to model some electronics, it makes it much easier to align everything if you use an actual scan or photo of the circuitboard as the material map for the board object.
 
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neutron7 said:
Thanks KT !

Lol nobody mentioned the star wars ship yet but i noticed it looks a bit hair dryer ish. since it will be usually viewed from teh front i really do not think it matters (someone else said it looked like a whistle) im sure there are a lot of other things with a similar shape



Yes hair dryer was the first thing that popped into my head :) but I didn't think I could say, but since you brought it up ;) I could think of other things but won't go there ;)

Tony.
 
Neutron,

Maybe we'll see your amp in a future Star Wars spinoff. Maybe Obiwan kicking out the jams on his dual-mono Neutron 5's. :clown:

I meant to ask this earlier but forgot to: what were your influences when you designed the amp? It's interesting to see where people get their inspiration.

Finally, here's some food for thought:

Two amps or component lines that I think work very well on a design and sonic level are the original Gaincard from 47 Labs and the Fi amps from Don Garber.

I think these are successful because their visual styling works in concert with their sonic character and their technology.

The Gaincard, for example, sounds very clean, direct, and fast while remaining musical. Visually, the form and lines are very clean and minimal but it's very well-made and elegant. Even the "Zen" concept that their marketing folks cultivate is simple, elegant, and unencumbered. The entire package (sonic character, form factor, and general "vibe") all work together and reinforce each other to create a product that is unambiguous.

The Fi products are tube amps: a technology rooted at the very beginnings of audio. This was also the beginning of the industrial era. The industrial, architectural, and machine look of the Fi amps mirror and reinforce their given technology. The form, sound, and technology are compatible in this way.

To me the Fi amps have a Bauhaus sensiblilty to them. The Bauhaus school in Germany was a utopian design movement from the early 20th century which tried to integrate art and design into the industrial and modern age (here's a quote from the Bauhaus website: '"art and technology - a new unity".... Industrial potentials were to be applied to satisfactory design standards, regarding both functional and aesthetic aspects. The Bauhaus workshops produced prototypes for mass production: from a single lamp to a complete dwelling.' Although Don Garber isn't designing for mass production, his amps do remind me of Bauhaus design prototypes and they seem much influenced by the Bauhaus aesthetic.

Like the Gaincard, the Fi amps work to integrate the sonic and visual aspects of the amp. In the case of the Fi, I would even say that technological and historical considerations are also well integrated into the mix. Like 47 Labs and the Gaincard, Don Garber creates an unambiguous statement with his Fi amps.

So to me good industrial design takes all of these factors (historical, funtional, visual, etc.) into consideration and melds them into a form that is unambiguous, integrated, and appealing.


Best,
KT
 
KT - I have been pondering different designs for a while and have come up with a few interesting ones, the main problem that has been annoying me is that i like a case that is deep rather than wide, but to do that the mains wiring has to be too close to the amplifier. Im not sure it really matters to this extreme but i just want to be sure!

the other things were, i wanted it to be different, and be really solid.
now the reason for this is probably quite stupid. i have built a couple of identical original 3875 apart from one is in a pair of heavy back to back car amp heatsinks (its on brians gallery) and the other one is in rather ordinary electronics box. the solid one seems to be much nicer to me even though all components, l wires and everything are exactly the same (even the same pot)

I had that case design as a box, on its side with 1 big transformer (in a round housing) on top. this design was changed again as a result of getting 2 smaller transformers from apex jr (thanks great service BTW apexjr) I tried various angles and curves till i got something that i liked the look of..

the only thing that really could change the "style" were: to have the cutout at the back, what shape it should be, the curve at the front had to be round ot angled, due to materials , the design changes could be round or angled, or left square. and most importantly of all, what height to have the indicator bar at! (i think it has something to do with how humans see a face on things ?)

eLarson: i like that name :D thanks! that is now what it is called :)
the Gain-Cannon :spin:

enzedone: because it is 1/4 inch aluminium it can accept enoug threads of a bolt to make it strong, ill see if someone can weld it and keep it in perfect alignment, or if not i will just bolt it from the inside with some "L" extrusions.
 
Interesting

How will you deal with the tranformer outer casings? How do you make that alluminium round like your plan picture. Sorry for the questions, but i real like to find out how people have actually built things. I mean i have some plans, but with limited tools and no experience with al. its difficult to work out how to get things made that require bending into shape, or even worse circular.
 
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