So, hypothetically only, of course, assume that your cat gets sick and throws up on your Aragon 8008BB. Suppose that led to an immediate, discrete little snap from one of your speakers ( let's say that they are Thiel 3.6's). Your CD had just finished so there was nothing playing at the time, but hitting play again shows one channel gone. Continue supposing that you open up the amp to check things out and find a "bit" of said fluid shorting out the 3 leads of Q15. Where would you start to find what is blown? I have a DVM, signal generator, 100MHz scope, etc., but very new to the troubleshooting game. Any tips (step by step won't offend 
) would be very appreciated.
I've attached the appropriate schematics...
Thanks in advance!
Scott
) would be very appreciated.I've attached the appropriate schematics...
Thanks in advance!
Scott
I had that happen to an orginal sylvania superset once.
I did manage to get it running again after replace some traces and wires.
But, boy did it smell for the rest of its ownership.
An ARAGON no less, my heart goes out too you!
The very first you should do (depending on how bad it is) is take some dawn or some thing similar and wash, rinse and repeat and then let dry throughly (say few days to a week) and then you may proceed. jer
p.s. and use a small (toothbrush) brush aswell.
I did manage to get it running again after replace some traces and wires.
But, boy did it smell for the rest of its ownership.
An ARAGON no less, my heart goes out too you!
The very first you should do (depending on how bad it is) is take some dawn or some thing similar and wash, rinse and repeat and then let dry throughly (say few days to a week) and then you may proceed. jer
p.s. and use a small (toothbrush) brush aswell.
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Thanks guys, that's exactly what I'm looking for.
Given that I've got a a scope and a signal generator, does it make sense to apply a signal to the bad channel and trace back in the circuit until I see some semblance of the signal and start checking transistors from there? Or, because of the feedback, is that not going to show me anything interesting?
Continuing thanks!
Scott...
Given that I've got a a scope and a signal generator, does it make sense to apply a signal to the bad channel and trace back in the circuit until I see some semblance of the signal and start checking transistors from there? Or, because of the feedback, is that not going to show me anything interesting?
Continuing thanks!
Scott...
I'll give an example,
I got tired of the master slider on my mixer cutting out so rather than taking the whole thing apart again I decided to pour some isopropynal alcohol in it to clean the slider.
Well this worked, but as the solvent started to flow around all the other components and opamps all kinds of nasty pops ,clicks and noises started to come out of it and rendered the master section useless.
Since I run my amps wide open it became very annoying and had become a drangerous situation to my speakers and I had to shut every thing down.
It worried me that the the silder may need to be replaced as somtimes this can happen, only I wasn't up to it .
The next day after it dried out, all was well and there was no noise and it is now dead silent like it is supposed to be.
However I do needed to replace the slider as it still works and doesn't cut out in the middle of it's travel any more.
I do not suggest at all in doing what I did, as it was late at night and I was being lazy.
It is quite a job to get it apart and is fairly heavy. jer
I got tired of the master slider on my mixer cutting out so rather than taking the whole thing apart again I decided to pour some isopropynal alcohol in it to clean the slider.
Well this worked, but as the solvent started to flow around all the other components and opamps all kinds of nasty pops ,clicks and noises started to come out of it and rendered the master section useless.
Since I run my amps wide open it became very annoying and had become a drangerous situation to my speakers and I had to shut every thing down.
It worried me that the the silder may need to be replaced as somtimes this can happen, only I wasn't up to it .
The next day after it dried out, all was well and there was no noise and it is now dead silent like it is supposed to be.
However I do needed to replace the slider as it still works and doesn't cut out in the middle of it's travel any more.
I do not suggest at all in doing what I did, as it was late at night and I was being lazy.
It is quite a job to get it apart and is fairly heavy. jer
Attachments
I will be much happier if it just needs cleaning and drying out.
I pulled it apart today and cleaned the affected amp board. There was some "ash" on the collector of Q24 (one of the 2SC3281 outputs ), and some dried "residue" between the transitor and the heatsink, but no sign of any other damage ( no scorch marks, burned resistors, etc. ).
Thanks again for all the input. Fingers crossed.
Scott...
I pulled it apart today and cleaned the affected amp board. There was some "ash" on the collector of Q24 (one of the 2SC3281 outputs ), and some dried "residue" between the transitor and the heatsink, but no sign of any other damage ( no scorch marks, burned resistors, etc. ).
Thanks again for all the input. Fingers crossed.
Scott...
Standard isopropyl is 30% water. even 100% solutions wil cool and condense atmospheric moisture as they evaporate. Silicone based cleaners , such as radip shack's tuner cleaners are better for controls , especially when active (live). Using the right stuff matters.
PS - vinegar will rot the copper patterns ... I use Vinegar/salt/H2o2 to actually etch the stuff.
OS
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Oh yes ,ostripper, I'm well aware of the repocussions of using isopropyl achohol.
CRC is much better formulated than tuner cleaner.
Tuner cleaner also leaves a thin film of oil and this oil attracts dust and dirt and can cause extra wear on the resistive element if allowed to build up.
But the cold effect is much worse with a spray cleaner.
I have ruined a few controls in my day using spray cleaners improperly.
Unfortunately the problem I have with my board is cigarette tar as my friend used to smoke 5 packs a day.
You can't even imagine how P.O.ed I was when I saw its condition after not seeing it for quite some time.
Nothing worked (i mean nothing) but one or two channels and marginaly at that.
My hands were literaly black from grabbing the sides and carrying it and loading it into his truck.
I competely stripped it down and soaked all 522 knobs and washed the case with ammonia, as I found that this was the only thing that would disolve the tar.
Being that ammonia is corrosive to some electronic components I used isopropynal and a syringe to inject it into the controls and switchs, and, OMG you should have seen the black rivers flowing.
I waited till these rivers were clear before I started to swash the controls back and forth.
All 200+ 1/4" phone plugs and cables got the same treatment and all of the jacks had to be swabbed out.
I really need to do it again as it is still not perfect and gives me problems from time to time.
A few of the controls on some of the chanels quit working altogether ,but, this is not an issue at moment since I have 32 channels to work with.
The first 16 are critical as they are assigned to the 16-track tape machine.
It took the better part of a month, 1 1/2 bottles of bo-peep ,2 1/2 large bottles of isopropynal and 3 cans of CRC to get it functional and working order, on top of the ribbon cable problems that these boards inherently have.
Would I do it again?
You betcha, as it is one beutiful piece when its working right.
Anyone else would have scrapped it and bought a new one.
So let this be a lesson for anyone who smokes around their audio and electronic equipment. jer
CRC is much better formulated than tuner cleaner.
Tuner cleaner also leaves a thin film of oil and this oil attracts dust and dirt and can cause extra wear on the resistive element if allowed to build up.
But the cold effect is much worse with a spray cleaner.
I have ruined a few controls in my day using spray cleaners improperly.
Unfortunately the problem I have with my board is cigarette tar as my friend used to smoke 5 packs a day.
You can't even imagine how P.O.ed I was when I saw its condition after not seeing it for quite some time.
Nothing worked (i mean nothing) but one or two channels and marginaly at that.
My hands were literaly black from grabbing the sides and carrying it and loading it into his truck.
I competely stripped it down and soaked all 522 knobs and washed the case with ammonia, as I found that this was the only thing that would disolve the tar.
Being that ammonia is corrosive to some electronic components I used isopropynal and a syringe to inject it into the controls and switchs, and, OMG you should have seen the black rivers flowing.
I waited till these rivers were clear before I started to swash the controls back and forth.
All 200+ 1/4" phone plugs and cables got the same treatment and all of the jacks had to be swabbed out.
I really need to do it again as it is still not perfect and gives me problems from time to time.
A few of the controls on some of the chanels quit working altogether ,but, this is not an issue at moment since I have 32 channels to work with.
The first 16 are critical as they are assigned to the 16-track tape machine.
It took the better part of a month, 1 1/2 bottles of bo-peep ,2 1/2 large bottles of isopropynal and 3 cans of CRC to get it functional and working order, on top of the ribbon cable problems that these boards inherently have.
Would I do it again?
You betcha, as it is one beutiful piece when its working right.
Anyone else would have scrapped it and bought a new one.
So let this be a lesson for anyone who smokes around their audio and electronic equipment. jer
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