Apox Audio preamp reborn with the power of Arduino

[Rarkov]

Hi Everyone,

It's been a long time since I've done anything with my setup. I've been satisfied by my DIY CDPRO2 transport, Velleman K8021 Preamp, Behringer DCX2496 and generic tube amps driving my Manger Audio 109 zerobox DIYs. However, a few things have bothered me for ages:

• I have some Perpetual Technologies P3A / P1A which I'm not using
• Always wanted to try a passive preamp and gain convenience (don't have a remote at the moment!)
• Tubes are more maintenance than I can be bothered with

First things first - I bought four Icepower200ASC modules from a member on this forum and some cases from Siliconray - wired them up and I have two lovely digital stereo amps to biamp my speakers which have no crossovers in them.

Next up is the preamp...about 7 years ago I bought a full set of Apox Audio preamp boards (2x input selectors, 1x Apox 2 volume board and 2x controller boards). I got two controller boards because I used one to control my CDPRO2 transport so I was already very familiar with the source code. I implemented features such as IR programming from the menu etc. Anyway, I feel like as time has moved on, I can't be faffed with resurrecting serial cables or PIC programmers so I'm done with PICs for now. Therefore, I've decided to port the control of the Apox gear over to an Arduino and hopefully future proof the gear for anyone who is in a similar position.

Last night I got the stuff wired up and started work on the Arduino code using a Mega 2560 (I could have used something smaller, but it's what I had laid around). After a bit of Apox source code surfing and some I2C scanning, I found out how to control the input select boards which are now happily clicking away. Next up is the volume board...

Hope you like - and I'll try and keep this thread updated...

Regards,
Gareth

 

[maxw]

Nice!