I found all the parts for the chassis and put it together with rubber bands to see if everything would fit. The bottom and top are perforated, and I'll probably add a small aluminum plate to mount the power supply PCB. Also, I'll probably use tallish feet on it so air can flow through the bottom and out the top via convection. I'm not sure what I will use for the face plate, but I'm thinking of using wood. It's wide enough for the horizontally oriented Vfet PCB and bracket, and it's tall enough to clear the capacitors on the power supply PCB if I place the Aleph J PCB below the Vfet bracket. Seems like a go! I hadn't put together the Aleph J yet mostly because of a fear of tapping all those holes in the aluminum (and built a dozen or so tube amps instead). My least favourite part of this hobby is chassis work. I am going to practice a bit on some aluminum pieces I have handy, and give it a go in the next few days. Very exciting!
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That's 40 holes that need tapping. Do I have to use all eight holes in the Aleph J PCB that are for holding the actual PCB in place? Could I use the four on the corners, or less maybe? The Vfet brackets obviously need to have all the holes tapped. I'm starting to feel like maybe I should build another tube amp instead.....
Tyco AMP connectors or similar
You could use something like these for the chassis mount female socket:
211769-1 TE Connectivity / AMP | Mouser Deutschland
(with these, you have to buy the connector pins separately)
I haven't found them in female chassis mount 6-pin, but you get the idea ...
Mount two of them to the chassis, and use the corresponding male plug with appropriately shorted connections to select the amp ... as the connectors are keyed, no worries to plug in wrong, and nobody would plug something else in that doesn't belong there ... 😉
Best regards,
Claas
You could use something like these for the chassis mount female socket:
211769-1 TE Connectivity / AMP | Mouser Deutschland
(with these, you have to buy the connector pins separately)
I haven't found them in female chassis mount 6-pin, but you get the idea ...
Mount two of them to the chassis, and use the corresponding male plug with appropriately shorted connections to select the amp ... as the connectors are keyed, no worries to plug in wrong, and nobody would plug something else in that doesn't belong there ... 😉
Best regards,
Claas
Do not feel discouraged by tapping so many holes ...
I don't find it too bad. I drill a blind hole as a pilot hole (2.5mm for an M3 thread), and than hand-tap each hole with three consecutive tappers that get finer with each one ... it can even be slightly meditative (Zen-like 😀) ...
The important point is to use a drill press for the blind holes. Do you have one or know one in the neighbourhood with a large enough drill press ?
Best regards,
Claas
I have a full size drill press, but find it awkward to use with large pieces. I'll have to experiment a bit. The heat sinks are mostly flat, so it could work.
Does anyone have a spare set of the original VFET part 2 PCB's, and is willing to sell? The one Papa posted the gerbers for in post #3097.
I have 8 partially stuffed boards which have an error requiring 2 cuts and
2 pieces of wire. If you have a U.S. address for them, they are yours.
2 pieces of wire. If you have a U.S. address for them, they are yours.
I would like to hear the extra output device version, but I would have to cannibalize my ver.1 or find another set?
Sent a pm
Sent a pm
Ah, thanks for the offer. It's a pity I don't have any relatives or friends living in the US😱
I guess it would be possible to find a fellow US DIYer who would be kind enough to forward them (or some) to interested European DIYers. That said, I'd be interested in a set of pcbs too 🙂
Are you looking for boards available in Diyaudio store? Sony VFET PCBs – diyAudio Store. The gerbers posted in 3097 are exactly for the boards above.
I can forward the boards to you guys in Europe for a cost of shipping if Nelson sends them to me.
Oh, I thought this was about the version with parallel output VFETs, the longish green pcb, like in the part 2 article.
No, I'm looking for these original boards. With 4 outputs / channel. I have 4 pairs of matched VFET's lying around, which would be a waste not to use. They were spares for my big VFET-X build, until I received the superb matched sequentially picked VFET's from the DIYAudio store.🙂
I haven't open the Gerbers yet, I thought they were for the 4 output version?
I haven't open the Gerbers yet, I thought they were for the 4 output version?
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I’m going to France mid April. I could send them from there. Probably cheaper but I’m betting you probably wouldn’t want wait that long.
Just opened the Gerbers. They are the single-pair output version.
I am interested in the two-pair output version as well.
Ah, then that's causing the confusion. If I remember right, Nelson has posted the gerbers for the 4 output version also, some time ago. Haven't found it in this big thread yet.