So I got my stereo BTL board and kit in the mail earlier this week (thanks DUG!) and finally found some time to put it together this weekend. Sounds great! Excuse the soldering, but here are a few quick photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9dd5wz9wco0fmkg/AAB6_4KzDvMIdYcADs5lmW35a/TPA3116?dl=0
Currently I'm just running it off my bench power supply but I'll be looking to either run it off a Meanwell PSU or make my own with a simple toroidal transformer + caps + buck converter. Need to find or make a suitable heat sink for the chip too!
Final plan is to find an enclosure to fit the amp, PSU and my raspberry pi with sound card to make a small, low power media player. Might take some time but oh well, first step completed 🙂
Currently I'm just running it off my bench power supply but I'll be looking to either run it off a Meanwell PSU or make my own with a simple toroidal transformer + caps + buck converter. Need to find or make a suitable heat sink for the chip too!
Final plan is to find an enclosure to fit the amp, PSU and my raspberry pi with sound card to make a small, low power media player. Might take some time but oh well, first step completed 🙂
Have you ever considered making a card with psu caps underneath coming up into the chip legs? In my experience that solves a few problems with noise, lacking base, instability at max or compression. Power traces could also be much wider this way. My cards runs so cool at 6 ohms maxed out that you dont need a cooling fin larger than the chip area🙂 Therefor I don't see the need for putting mounting holes in the most critical area around the chip. It should be used for low esr high end caps!
Long traces(chip -bootstrap - choke) without dampening filter usally cause chips to run hot. The higher noise floor stock I have on my cards the hotter chokes and chip are.
Putting bootstaps also underneath could put them 2-3mm apart from the chip and make room for wider traces on top going to the chokes. I also have experience regarding skipping rc filter if bootstraps are even closer to chip than on your board. In 3 of my 5 boards I've made these changes to my boards with consistent good results. I have also noticed that with these mods you don't have to put the audio input caps that super close to the chip to avoid noise) And the PSU traces becomes less important regarding noise! I would like to say that most people won't notice these improvements in their budget setup, but used on good large speakers it matches two different 3K$ amps regarding noise floor, dynamics and base control.
I have also lost my foundness of ceramics. Film surface mounted caps are voltage stable, cheap and more rugged than smd ceramics. My buddy dropped a card 1 lousy cm and one ceramic sheared 🙁. I buy mine inexpensive trough ebay (from Poland/Germany) and postage only takes 2-3 days! I've posted a link way back in the tpa3116 thread if you want to use the same vendor I did.
I'am really impressed with all your efforts and I hope this could have some influence on DUG 3.0 🙂
Long traces(chip -bootstrap - choke) without dampening filter usally cause chips to run hot. The higher noise floor stock I have on my cards the hotter chokes and chip are.
Putting bootstaps also underneath could put them 2-3mm apart from the chip and make room for wider traces on top going to the chokes. I also have experience regarding skipping rc filter if bootstraps are even closer to chip than on your board. In 3 of my 5 boards I've made these changes to my boards with consistent good results. I have also noticed that with these mods you don't have to put the audio input caps that super close to the chip to avoid noise) And the PSU traces becomes less important regarding noise! I would like to say that most people won't notice these improvements in their budget setup, but used on good large speakers it matches two different 3K$ amps regarding noise floor, dynamics and base control.
I have also lost my foundness of ceramics. Film surface mounted caps are voltage stable, cheap and more rugged than smd ceramics. My buddy dropped a card 1 lousy cm and one ceramic sheared 🙁. I buy mine inexpensive trough ebay (from Poland/Germany) and postage only takes 2-3 days! I've posted a link way back in the tpa3116 thread if you want to use the same vendor I did.
I'am really impressed with all your efforts and I hope this could have some influence on DUG 3.0 🙂
Did not want the caps sticking down...makes the board too tall for my enclosures...It would work if I did not set that as a priority.
Any via's in that area takes away trace width...that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. 🙂
I did build a small board with the IC and bootstraps on the bottom and everything else on top for a mint tin amp.
No DUG3 in the works yet...I have quite a few DUG-1 boards (and IC's) left and don't know if there is a market for a third.
I may offer some variations in a 2 or 3 quantity but not in a hurry right now.
🙂
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Wow! That thing is impressive!
I see your valid points but I wish someone could make a version where size didn't matter. That chip deserves an "ultimate" edition🙂
Wouldn't soldering the via's take care of that problem?
I wonder why someone hasn't made an edition with the cooling fin turned 90 degrees so psu caps atleast could be next to the chip? Even glue is enough to do the heat transfer onto a small sink.
Is there any free simple programs(with library) that could let me design my own board with standard parts?
I see your valid points but I wish someone could make a version where size didn't matter. That chip deserves an "ultimate" edition🙂
Wouldn't soldering the via's take care of that problem?
I wonder why someone hasn't made an edition with the cooling fin turned 90 degrees so psu caps atleast could be next to the chip? Even glue is enough to do the heat transfer onto a small sink.
Is there any free simple programs(with library) that could let me design my own board with standard parts?
You can buy Rubycon PML's at Elfa, they come in sizes that fit Dugs and in values for multiple positions to make ultimate version. With little drill you could move electrolytic solid Nichicons FP a ~5 mm closer to tpa3116 if you want to and add a second pair larger value NCC electrolytics behind them again if you want to. PVCC decoupling 100nF comes in COG, I wouldn't prefer film there. Dugs have many options to mount too big parts too.
Finally finished my DUG-1 build. I posted some pics a week or two ago of the boards in "test mode" on a paper plate. Finally got the case all put together. Some features that I haven't seen much of in others' tpa311x build: balanced XLR inputs and use of the ConnexElectronic SMPS300RS power supply.
This is going in the living room; I'm replacing a modified YJBlue tpa3116 with it. I took the new build for a "test drive" last night: it powered the speakers while my wife and I watched a movie. Worked fine!
I'm flirting with the idea of moving to a bigger case where I can use the Edcor input transformers (and dispense with the input caps)... or maybe I'll have to build a whole second unit!
Enjoy the pics!
This is going in the living room; I'm replacing a modified YJBlue tpa3116 with it. I took the new build for a "test drive" last night: it powered the speakers while my wife and I watched a movie. Worked fine!
I'm flirting with the idea of moving to a bigger case where I can use the Edcor input transformers (and dispense with the input caps)... or maybe I'll have to build a whole second unit!
Enjoy the pics!
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Nice implementation, m_g! I've got my eye on that same PS for an upcoming build. Do you have an earth safety ground to your chassis and how is the music experience?
BK
BK
The smps300rs takes AC, neutral and ground for input. The documentation explicitly said that you should use metal standoffs to mount it, so I'm assuming that's part of the ground circuit?
Haven't really had a chance to listen to tunes yet, except for a couple weeks ago when I tested it in "pre finish" state. But it sounded great then, definitely better than my modded YJBlue amp.
Hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to do some more music listening.
Haven't really had a chance to listen to tunes yet, except for a couple weeks ago when I tested it in "pre finish" state. But it sounded great then, definitely better than my modded YJBlue amp.
Hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to do some more music listening.
Nice job matt_garman! You've really come a long way in your DIY building skills, and the clean work is professional. I promise I will be done with your Edcor input transformers in 1-2 weeks. I've been traveling quite a bit for work and have to go out of town this week. Oh well, at least I have had time to check out record stores in other places. If you do decide to use the Edcor transformers, and you should strongly consider it, you will need a larger chassis. Fortunately, DUG incorporated thru-holes on the input cap locations, so wiring in the transformers will be easy. Thanks for being patient.
When there is DC all the time I read it should be blocked from transformers in order not to have increased treble distortion. That doesn't help with removing the damned capacitors. Core material more expensive transformers will add less than Edcor's, but distortion added could still be considerable.
I don't know, might be true.
I don't know, might be true.
i didn't measure DC on my CineMag transformers or on Matt's Edcors. It's no problem at all. In fact, it's a great solution to getting rid of audible colorations from caps. An even better solution is having a source with balanced outputs and feeding these directly to the TPA31xx amp inputs as long as the source's output impedance is suitable. Then one wouldn't even need input transformers for balancing the inputs.
Only if the DC sits at the 3V the amp is expecting. Differences from this may (just supposition) produce DC offset at the output.
One of these days I will make a test setup to find out the answers to this and other questions about this amp.
🙂
There is 3.01V DC both on negative and positive input, the caps block that and the transformers do too, however see my earlier post.
Hi Rhing,
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words! I don't want to toot my own horn (too much 😉), but I have to say my latest builds definitely look better than my early ones. I find this work to be somewhat like painting a room: the more time spent with planning and preparation, the faster the "real" work goes and the neater the result. I usually only have a few hours on the weekends to tinker with this stuff, and my only work area is our dining room table... meaning there's an ever-present pile of junk that (particularly for my wife) gets to be an eye-sore. I think to myself, "OK, after this one, I'll take a break for a while." But then I finish, and I'm so pleased with the result, I feel compelled to start another project ASAP! While the finished product tends to have high WAF, the process of getting there, not so much. 🙂
Anyway, no hurry on those Edcors. I think I might actually be able to squeeze them in the current case if I move the amp boards around a bit. Maybe. Thinking about buying a second Edcor anyway for a possible dual-mono PBTL tpa3110 build, using either these "AC1103" boards I bought off Taobao, or maybe the new Sure PBTL boards...
This is the particular one I ordered. That's the "L-2205" aluminum enclosure, seller along1986090. USD $30 + $24 shipping from China. If you just do an Ebay search for "L-2205", you should see lots of different sellers selling the same thing, for roughly the same price. I've ordered a few cases from that seller though, often asking for slight tweaks, e.g. black face instead of silver, or vent holes on top. Always responds quickly and fulfills the order accurately.
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