Newbie help on 1545 non OS DAC!

[Horizons]

I'm using this DAC:

http://www.diyparadise.com/dackit/1545dackit.html

and powering it with this 12V battery and charger:

http://www.towerhobbies.com/products/towp1250.html

I have wired the battery and charger to a switch so the battery is either powering the dac or being charged by the charger.

The DAC works and sounds very good but I am getting a low level almost constant crackling noise from the system. I suspect that this noise might be coming in from the digital coax as I am just using a cheap RCA connected to about 8 inches of standard wire to the board. Do these wires need to be short and shielded?

I was going to troubleshoot by first fixing the digital connector and wiring but maybe I should just power it with a 12V adapter and try to remove the battery as the source of noise? Another thought was to add a cap across the battery.

Thanks for any insights.

[DonJuan]

hi horizons

you got the pcb from me?

anyway, i don't think your batt is a problem.

the low level crackling noise, when does this happen? when playing low bass?

it could be a poor solder joint or just a "bad" tda1545. i realized that even these parts are all tested good, not all of them could be 100% trusted to be good.

write to me personally at tampinyeo at yahoo dot com to discuss this further, if you wish to go offline.

thx!

donjuan