Universal chassis

[wirewiggler]

The most tedious part of building a new amp is always for me making a new chassis / heat sink assembly. What I would like to propose is we as a group agree and publish chassis / heat sink design with power supply and amplifier interface that can be reused for each new project. Moving forward all amplifier cards and power supply cards submitted would incorporate the proposed interface. Heat sinking could be modular as well as output grows additional heat sink can be added.

any thoughts

Bill

[Jaac]

I'm ow planning to make a kind of universal amp chassis that you have in your mind. I will start with a F5 and would like to make the amp board swappable. My versions are mono blocks with no option to add more heat sink. This i think would not be necessary because the first watt designs are all +/- 18V ac. And if you make the PSU universal the maximum dissipation is thereby determined. I'm in the process to draw the heatsink layout. I will post them if they are finished.

[carpenter]

Yeah, but we don't want cookie-cutter copies of our projects... right?

[Jaac]

That's true we don't want to end up with all the same amps. Please lock this tread !

Butt it is nice to have a amp chassis that is able to swap your Firstwatt designs. You can also built to F5's with different components like better resistors and do a quick comparison.

[jimbo51]

Peter Daniel has given you a starting point by using a common footprint for his F series amp and power supply boards.

[AndrewT]

A group buy for a chassis has recently finished.
I'm not sure how many bought into it, but it was not well subscribed even though the originator was subsidising the manufacture and sourcing of materials.

[Melon Head]

Well I think I might be interested.
I really like the the heatsinks from conrad (MF35-151.5)

[Gordy]

Originally Posted by wirewiggler

The most tedious part of building a new amp is always for me making a new chassis / heat sink assembly.
...any thoughts...
Bill

I agree that it's a pain-in-the-nuts, but I think that you're going to have mighty problems coming up with something that accommodates so many difering requirements. Good luck with it!

Just for info, I've used the cases from HiFi2000 / Modu Shop with success. I am not connected with them, but do recommend them: http://www.hifi2000.it/default.asp?Langid=1 . If you come up with a universal design you might want to consider asking them to quote a price on your design.

[wirewiggler]

Ok people seem to favor personalizing the chassis, but the interfaces could be standardized. My original thoughts were along the lines of what Mr. Pass has done with the burning amp series, and use it as a test bed and learning tool. Jaac interesting that you don't agree with the concept so your conclusion was "Please lock this tread !" kind of rash in my opinion. My desire was to be able to make a reusable bed so that I would have the opportunity to explore all the amp possibilities offered in this tread.



Bill

[kipman725]

I don't think it's posible to be honest there are too many variables. There is a level of standardisation with rackmount but beyond that I don't think is posible. Even with regard to the heatsink some people will be using TO3 packages and others T0220.