Hi all
I really hope some of you can explain to me if my brand spanking new Yaunjing Tripath TA2020 MKIII was faulty on arrival of I have made myself look stupid
I received my package with the amp yesterday and immediately proceeded to hooking it up.
Found a 12v 1000mA adaptor survivor from an old charging station for my car, and hooked it up to the amp - all was well so far, powered on and the power LED was pretty and red
Removed the power plug and proceeded to hook up my speakers (Alpair 7 Gen 2) to the amp, phono to my phone and powered the amp up again....
This did on the other hand not go as planned, snap crackle and pop, the TA2020 chip exploded and my new amp was toast....
This brings me back to my original question, faulty amp or me stupid??
From what I have been told, the only thing which I could have gone wrong is not using the correct adaptor plug. The package with my amp did not include any diagrams or anything telling me where +/- should be on the 12v plug. On my adaptor the + is on the inside, but should it be like that to power up my amp??
I really hope some of the diy folk in here can help me, as I have next to no knowledge about how to figure out what has gone wrong.
Thanks in advance for your help
I really hope some of you can explain to me if my brand spanking new Yaunjing Tripath TA2020 MKIII was faulty on arrival of I have made myself look stupid
I received my package with the amp yesterday and immediately proceeded to hooking it up.
Found a 12v 1000mA adaptor survivor from an old charging station for my car, and hooked it up to the amp - all was well so far, powered on and the power LED was pretty and red
Removed the power plug and proceeded to hook up my speakers (Alpair 7 Gen 2) to the amp, phono to my phone and powered the amp up again....
This did on the other hand not go as planned, snap crackle and pop, the TA2020 chip exploded and my new amp was toast....
This brings me back to my original question, faulty amp or me stupid??
From what I have been told, the only thing which I could have gone wrong is not using the correct adaptor plug. The package with my amp did not include any diagrams or anything telling me where +/- should be on the 12v plug. On my adaptor the + is on the inside, but should it be like that to power up my amp??
I really hope some of the diy folk in here can help me, as I have next to no knowledge about how to figure out what has gone wrong.
Thanks in advance for your help
Found a 12v 1000mA adaptor survivor from an old charging station for my car, and hooked it up to the amp - all was well so far, powered on and the power LED was pretty and red
The keyword here are "old" and "car". It's probably not a stabilized supply. Not a problem for the TA2020 under no load. Under load however, you get the result you have now.
You must use a stabilized power supply of 12V to 14.5V. 3A minimum.
Nonsense !... Chip is Fine but it IS an IC chip and just like the Processor in your Computer is easily damaged by inept handling and or installs. Not to mention poorly installed ancillary circuit components.
Centre of the power pin is typically + , outside is - If anything a 12v 1 amp PS is underpowered , 12v 5amp is the preferred one.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-5A-LCD-...=916370965316883705&pid=100011&prg=1016&rk=1&
Make sure the PS itself is not messed though !
New Ta 2020 chips are $5 'delivered' on ebay.
What exactly blew up?? Open it up and look for the burnt/damaged bit and ultimately Replace it/them?
Centre of the power pin is typically + , outside is - If anything a 12v 1 amp PS is underpowered , 12v 5amp is the preferred one.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-5A-LCD-...=916370965316883705&pid=100011&prg=1016&rk=1&
Make sure the PS itself is not messed though !
New Ta 2020 chips are $5 'delivered' on ebay.
What exactly blew up?? Open it up and look for the burnt/damaged bit and ultimately Replace it/them?
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Since this is a blatant bastardized copy of arjen helder's design and I loathe companies that sell copy-ware, I will only give the advice that there is no minus (there is only + and GND), and + is usually on the inside. But as noted above, it's a copy of an original design so it could be reversed. You'll have to check for yourself.
@Bare: The TA2020 chip itself blew up, so no more sweet sound will ever come out of it ;-)
@Saturnus: I absolutely agree with you, I have been ripped off by a copy cat - and will do whatever I can to return the amp and get my money back, but probably not the easiest task
So if I kill my piggy-bank, where could I get a hold of the original Arjen amp?
Should have gone that way from the start, but you live you learn
Anyways, greatly appreciate your replies - super fast and super to the point!
@Saturnus: I absolutely agree with you, I have been ripped off by a copy cat - and will do whatever I can to return the amp and get my money back, but probably not the easiest task
So if I kill my piggy-bank, where could I get a hold of the original Arjen amp?
Should have gone that way from the start, but you live you learn
Anyways, greatly appreciate your replies - super fast and super to the point!
I am running one of those as we speak, in a similar "temp" setup - hooked to a non-recommendable variable 500mA wallwart adapter. Luckily I did a check on the adapters' output voltage before connecting it to the amp, and as it turned out, @12V setting it supplied well over 16V with no load, which was well over the top, so I dialled the selector back to "9V", which is in the upper 13V range -no load, and less while playing (doing low volume listening only, atm).
My next to no knowledge guess is that it was overvoltage that caused this?. In any case both would do ourselves a favor with heeding the advice of going with stabilized PS with appropriate voltage/current. Mine is going battery power soon, so hopefully it will sustain some more of this walking on the edge treatment
Center pin is + in my case, also. Hope that helps!
My next to no knowledge guess
is that it was overvoltage that caused this?. In any case both would do ourselves a favor with heeding the advice of going with stabilized PS with appropriate voltage/current. Mine is going battery power soon, so hopefully it will sustain some more of this walking on the edge treatment Center pin is + in my case, also. Hope that helps!
So if I kill my piggy-bank, where could I get a hold of the original Arjen amp?
Should have gone that way from the start, but you live you learn
Anyways, greatly appreciate your replies - super fast and super to the point!
New MKIII Tripath TA2020 PCB 25watt Class-T amplifier | eBay
Please note that he offers a matching power supply for £14 extra. Read the text carefully.
Sounds like it was simply connected up wrong then.
In 32 years in electronics I have never had a chip just blow up, something else has always taken it out like a short on the output or a bad/incorrect power supply.
Yeah, I also think it ends up with what I dreaded it being - me stupid
I think I will put the slightly burnt version of a TA2020 away for later use, and save up for what apparently is what I should have gone for in the first place - Arjens TA2020.
Thanks for all your help, and next time I will make sure that everything is in perfect working (and fitting) order before hooking anything up
I think I will put the slightly burnt version of a TA2020 away for later use, and save up for what apparently is what I should have gone for in the first place - Arjens TA2020.
Thanks for all your help, and next time I will make sure that everything is in perfect working (and fitting) order before hooking anything up
Your $$ of course.
But Going from available info the YJ is.. Not.. inferior to the Arjen.
Plus it has a volume pot.
Mistakes happen ..possibly it was a miswired unit?
Half (most?) of the production of China is copies of copies and often 3rd generation copies.
Good luck in getting anything original or sanctioned
IF you want pick 'o the litter'? Just Buy a 41hz.com Amp 6 and be done with it.
http://shop.41hz.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=43
But Going from available info the YJ is.. Not.. inferior to the Arjen.
Plus it has a volume pot.
Mistakes happen ..possibly it was a miswired unit?
Half (most?) of the production of China is copies of copies and often 3rd generation copies.
Good luck in getting anything original or sanctioned
IF you want pick 'o the litter'? Just Buy a 41hz.com Amp 6 and be done with it.
http://shop.41hz.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=43
+1
On a somewhat unrelated note. It's always puzzled me why some people finished boards/amps to "mod the hell out of them" when they could just have bought the amp6 and applied all the mods they wanted before assembling it.
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Final update, actually I bought the amp along with a friend and both were sent to me - so I had 'his' amp staring at me all the time I tried to figure out what happened to the first amp.
Today I finally got the guts to hook that up as well, and it worked perfectly - with the exact same setup...so in the end it looks like a faulty amp....phhewww, no me stupid afterall
Thanks again for all your help, and will look into the 41Hz amp if I ever want to upgrade
Today I finally got the guts to hook that up as well, and it worked perfectly - with the exact same setup...so in the end it looks like a faulty amp....phhewww, no me stupid afterall
Thanks again for all your help, and will look into the 41Hz amp if I ever want to upgrade
Just connecting an old power supply without measuring it is probably the cause. TA2020 is very very sensitive on power supply voltage.
- please always first measure the voltage of the power supply (unloaded) before even thinking of using it. Common knowledge.
- Stop using the amp with this power supply as it will end up like the first amp (if you don't know the voltage the power supply puts out)
- obtain an decent 12 V 4 to 5 A switcher.
- please always first measure the voltage of the power supply (unloaded) before even thinking of using it. Common knowledge.
- Stop using the amp with this power supply as it will end up like the first amp (if you don't know the voltage the power supply puts out)
- obtain an decent 12 V 4 to 5 A switcher.
I agree with JeanPaul.
"Found a 12v 1000mA adaptor survivor from an old charging station for my car"
Battery charger type power supplies have a much higher low load output than a regulated (or stabilized) power supply.
The 2020 is rated for a max supply of 16V
I agree...don't use this supply on this amp
"Found a 12v 1000mA adaptor survivor from an old charging station for my car"
Battery charger type power supplies have a much higher low load output than a regulated (or stabilized) power supply.
The 2020 is rated for a max supply of 16V
I agree...don't use this supply on this amp
If the power supply is already quite high in voltage then one small peak voltage may cause TA2020 to go boom ! Also never remove cables while it is playing as disconnecting either RCA input or speakers cables make it go boom ! too. Quite spectacular booms as there are always holes burnt in the chip if it happens. It also occured to me that the boom ! most of the cases comes a considerable amount of seconds after the wire is disconnected. Quickly reconnecting comes right at the moment it will blow. Bad timing as it scares the s**t out of you when it happens and you're close to it. Nice amps if you like fireworks. I suppose people only have to disconnect one wire on new years eve in China
And what is it that some of us always want to connect things they "have laying around" that are meant for totally other purposes without even checking what that thing does ? Yes that's why DMMs were invented !
The TA2020 is best used with a 12 V 4 to 5 A switcher of decent quality. The chip can have some more volts but I would not challenge this chip if you like your speakers. TA2020 bites like a crocodile. Most of the cheapos don't have a protection circuit/relay...
And what is it that some of us always want to connect things they "have laying around" that are meant for totally other purposes without even checking what that thing does ? Yes that's why DMMs were invented !
The TA2020 is best used with a 12 V 4 to 5 A switcher of decent quality. The chip can have some more volts but I would not challenge this chip if you like your speakers. TA2020 bites like a crocodile. Most of the cheapos don't have a protection circuit/relay...
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