| Vikash |
I needed an amp for the office. It had to be small but obvious, and cost very little.
This is my Tiny And Transparent Chip Amp, or TATCA:
I just used whatever was lying around. Speaker connectors, heatsinks and PSU to be from an old Cambridge Audio amp. Jackscrews and serial connectors from old PC cards/motherboards.
I've managed to squeeze in a stepped attenuator too. The volume knob will be made out of acrylic to match eventually.
The interior dimensions (not including heatsinks) is ~ 9cm x 10cm x 5 cm.
I'm eager to listen to it, but I've got to build the psu first :rolleyes: |
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| Peter Daniel |
That is indeed very inspiring and reflecting fresh thinking, congratulations on a very unique design.
If you would create some holes pattern in a top acrylic panel, it might look even more interesting ;) |
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| HawkeyeStoob |
Do you think you have big enough heatsinks? :bigeyes: :smirk: :xmasman:
Looks nice. |
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| Peter Daniel |
| Heatsinks are definitely fine, maybe even too big ;) |
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| Ropie |
| That is very nice - I expect everyone in your office will want one soon ;) |
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| Nuuk |
| Clearly very good stuff Vikash! ;) |
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| tg3 |
Bravo, Vikash, bravo.
A few well placed blue LEDs deep in the components would add nicely to the viewing pleasure. |
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| Vikash |
Thank you for the kind words gentlemen. I've rewired the attenuator to make it look less messy from the top view. I do like the idea of some holes in the top. I tried some sanding experiments to see if I could make some of the acylic panels less bland but it didn't turn out well. Some holes in the top may be the answer.
Ropie, I work for myself so there's no-one else in my office to make jealous (unfortunately). my precious. :devilr:
There's one white LED on the front at the moment. I probably should take advantage of the transparent case with hidden led's perhaps, although blue is not really my style ;)
NuuK, thanks for the info on the DIY stepped attenuator. I wired it using the resistor lead outs to make a ground chain.
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| Alex S |
Just Beautiful!!!
Economic, streamlined simplicity. No unecessary hubris.
I love it!!! |
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| edjosh23 |
I really like the TATCA and love the oversized heatsinks.
I see you and Peter Daniels use serial ports from the rectifier. Are they hard to wire? What awg are the serial wires? How much power can they handle?
Where did you get the knob?
Do you prefer Brian's old boards over the new ones with the Zobel or were those boards laying around the house?
Thanks,
Josh |
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| Vikash |
I was going to go with a 9 pin D type connector but then I wouldn't have enough pins to power LED's as well. The denser 15 pin version is easy enough to work with. I used 16/0.2 (0.5mm2) equipment wire for the connections. The longest runs within the amp are less than 4 inches.
I haven't made the umbilical cable yet, and interested myself what Peter used for this purpose.
The knob is from RS Components (not Radio Shack). On your side of the pond you have much more variety and accessibility to control knobs. |
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| edjosh23 |
What type of power supply are you thinking about using?
(I was just reading the thread about GC speakers) what speakers are you going to power?
Thanks,
Josh |
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| Peter Daniel |
Personally, I prefer the old boards, because Zobel network messes up the ground plane in case you are not using it (and I never do)
As to the umbilical cable, you can basically use anything: CAT5 comes to mind, I'm still using Cardas 20ga, and some ready made, computers cables are available as well (and they are already terminated). |
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| falcott |
| quote: | Originally posted by Peter Daniel
... computers cables are available as well ... |
Peter, how much current do you think computer cable/plugs can carry? Should 2 pins/wires be used for each voltage rail when used as umbilical for a 3875 or 3886 chip amp? I'm guessing that a single wire is right on the edge...
Cheers. |
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| ROVSING |
Very nice work vikash !
I am going to build my gainclone like that, using cupper flat bars as heatsinks instead of aluheatsinks to make it even smaller.
Keep up the good work - i'm inspired. |
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| peranders |
| quote: | Originally posted by ROVSING
Very nice work vikash !
I am going to build my gainclone like that, using cupper flat bars as heatsinks |
Don't forget that the surface area is the most important thing. A flat copper bar is proabaly much worse heatsink than a regular shaped one in aluminium. |
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| ROVSING |
| In this case, Per Anders, i don't think that it matters i am going to use flatbars measuring 100*50*10 mm, one for each chip/side - copper leads the heat away twice as good as aluminium, if you take a look at Peter Daniels gainclone in the BrianGT gallery i suppose that he also used copper ca. 25*25*100 mm fore both chips, the coolingarea are much smaller there, but i'm sure that it works fine. (sorry if i'm wrong Peter D i was just guessing....) |
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| Vikash |
| I believe copper conducts better, but alu dissipates heat better. Either way any heatsink that thickness I would presume to be ok. |
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| ROVSING |
Actually if you take a piece of alu and a piece of copper with identical measures, the dissipation will be exactly the same, but copper will lead the heat faster away from the heat source to dissipation.
Painting it black will make the dissipation better in both cases.
So Vikash you are right about copper conducting better. |
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| earsandeyes |
As Daniel pointed out: Surface (exposed to (free) flowing air) is the key factor in getting rid of the heat. In view of the free exposure copper will do better in the Peter Daniel design, where as far as I can see only the backside is freely exposed.
E&E |
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| Peter Daniel |
I'm using perforated aluminum top panel, and this dissipates most of heat in Patek design.
With the integrated chassis, the copper piece is connected to rear panel (which surface by itself is big enough), but it also connects to the mid plate, which in turn is connected to the top panel.
In any case, GC generates very little heat, and dissipating it shouldn't be a problem in most designs. |
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| Peter Daniel |
| As to the computer cables, I'm not sure how much current they can take, but if you put them in parallel (per rail), chances are they will work. |
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| BrianGT |
Vikash,
Looks nice!
What does your power supply chassis look like?
--
Brian |
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| Upupa Epops |
| Temperature transfer of copper ( against aluminium ) is similar as electricel conductivity - difference is a few percent ;) . |
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| Vikash |
| quote: | Originally posted by BrianGT
Vikash,
Looks nice!
What does your power supply chassis look like?
--
Brian |
More transparent than the amp. So much so that you can't see any of it :D
I'll start on it soon hopefully, and want it to be a simple dark block for the amp to sit on. |
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| jackinnj |
| quote: | Originally posted by Peter Daniel
Heatsinks are definitely fine, maybe even too big ;) |
Guestimating from their size the "Therminator" says that C/W=2.1 which is just dandy for ambient air flow. |
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| XELB |
Nice work :cool:
I Like the ideia.... small, simple and we can say original :cool:
When you finish, tell us about the sound quality ;) |
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| Sandy H. |
Vikash,
Your amp is very well done. From your attention to your own site and others you have designed, I can tell you are a designer with a keen eye.
I hope to see more of what you are doing, as it is very well thought out and is much more of a success than most comercial designs I see.
Thank you,
Sandy. |
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| Upupa Epops |
| Gentlemen, are you meaning your applauding seriously ? :xeye: |
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| falcott |
| quote: | | Gentlemen, are you meaning your applauding seriously ? :xeye: |
Yes. |
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| Sandy H. |
Upupa,
I think Vikash is a very accomplished web designer for sure. I personally thought his choice to build a nice small chassis using clear materials to show off the boards inside was much nicer than a plain black rack mount chassis.
On the other hand, I have seen some of the boards I believe you have designed and posted and they look very impressive as well. I'm not sure of the details, though, as the threads seem to often get muddled in people arguing and I stop reading at that time. If you had a website that shows some of your projects without the forum arguing, I'd like to learn more about that too.
Vikash gave both and I enjoyed it and still think congratulations are in order.
Sandy. |
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| neutron7 |
| I think that looks great in a "case mod" sort of way. are you making up for the fact you have a laptop :) |
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| pinkmouse |
:cop:
Hey guys, can we leave the negativity out please. There really is no reason for it in this thread. It is about a nice looking chassis design, not anything else... |
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| Vikash |
| quote: | Originally posted by falcott
Peter, how much current do you think computer cable/plugs can carry? Should 2 pins/wires be used for each voltage rail when used as umbilical for a 3875 or 3886 chip amp? I'm guessing that a single wire is right on the edge...
Cheers. |
Not sure how thick computer cable is, but I made the umbilical using stranded cable 0.5mm2 and it seems to be fine. I'm quite enjoying it but for the attenuator. Not nearly enough steps for my taste. :bawling:
| quote: | Originally posted by neutron7
I think that looks great in a "case mod" sort of way. are you making up for the fact you have a laptop :) |
:D It's ironic that I hate that PC case mod look but still managed to create something you might describe as similar too ;) I actually wanted something that would sit on top of my pillar of external computer peripherals (modem, router, sc break out box...) - hence the size and dimensions of TATCA. Not sure if RFI will allow this though :rolleyes:
I tried some holes in the top, but it didnt turn out too well. Probably try again with another design before reverting to plain and simple again.
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| edjosh23 |
That about a design in the top?
Maybe a little to childish but you could try doing something neat with the word "Gainclone" or "GC" besides the Gucci sign
or maybe not |
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| ROVSING |
Hello Vikash
Earlyer in this thread you mentioned that you would like to make the panels less blend, if you know someone working with stainless steel they probably have the tools for glassblasting (i'm not sure if its called that in english) it's the same as sandblasting using very fine glasspowder instead of sand, this will give the surfaces a nice diffuse look still being able to see the shadows of the components through it.
The material is to "soft" to get a good result using grindingpaper.
You have to be very carefull blasting it, the "glasspowder" is "eating" the material rather fast. |
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