Gents I’ve screwed up big time

You stated that the amplifier worked for a while. We cannot therefore rule out that the capacitor tail had not actually touched the board, but some wire or connector had been disconnected while moving the board. A common fault, as example, are cracked solders on big wire or power connectors pads.

On the worst case scenario, the high voltage supply has been shorted to a lower voltage circuit. A semiconductor device has been damaged or a non self-resetting protection device on the power supply circuits (such as a fusibile resistor) opened up. They may be on a completely different position on the circuit board. This would prevent the amplifier to turn on. A fault finding with the multimeter is then required, as stated on post #5. I would start by checking if the standby supply of the microcontroller is present. You may find useful a cheap component tester such as the LCR-T4, it will identify many components such as 3-terminal semiconductor devices with proprietary markings and check if the capacitors are still good. You may also use it to see if the original main filter capacitors can be still reused for experimental purposes or as "better than nothing" replacement parts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheFinisher
Hi Mark , thank you.
I’m presuming it’s this transistor ( blue arrow) the yellow arrow is the capacitor.

082995C5-84C5-4F84-A23C-4EA59FE0E7F8.jpeg
 
You stated that the amplifier worked for a while. We cannot therefore rule out that the capacitor tail had not actually touched the board, but some wire or connector had been disconnected while moving the board. A common fault, as example, are cracked solders on big wire or power connectors pads.

On the worst case scenario, the high voltage supply has been shorted to a lower voltage circuit. A semiconductor device has been damaged or a non self-resetting protection device on the power supply circuits (such as a fusibile resistor) opened up. They may be on a completely different position on the circuit board. This would prevent the amplifier to turn on. A fault finding with the multimeter is then required, as stated on post #5. I would start by checking if the standby supply of the microcontroller is present. You may find useful a cheap component tester such as the LCR-T4, it will identify many components such as 3-terminal semiconductor devices with proprietary markings and check if the capacitors are still good. You may also use it to see if the original main filter capacitors can be still reused for experimental purposes or as "better than nothing" replacement parts.
Hi , thanks for your input, I do have a peak component tester . Would you mind telling where the micro controller is and how I test it please?
 
Where does the connection that goes straight down to a horizonal trace/node go? Is that the negative rail, -70v? Which end of the cap got shorted? Kind of looks like it was the side connected to the transistor collector and the negative rail, is that right? If so, what did it short to, ground? Or something else?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TheFinisher
Hi guys ,
I’ve stripped it down and located the capacitor and the part that the tail contacted ( arrow )
I don’t know how to fault find with a multimeter ( I could build you a house though 😁) I can follow instructions if told what to do .
I’d love to fix this by myself but if I can’t I will have to take it in for repair.
You've encircled the wrong cap in the second photo.
But can you make another photo of the same section of the layout on the good channel, so we can compare how tracks run and how to fix the missing pad for the lifted cap.
You might have to turn the amp 180° to get the 2SA-side in view.
It's not clear yet what these caps are doing there, and so very close to the heat sink. Thankfully they're tropical (105°C) grade.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheFinisher
Where does the connection that goes straight down to a horizonal trace/node go? Is that the negative rail, -70v? Which end of the cap got shorted? Kind of looks like it was the side connected to the transistor collector and the negative rail, is that right? If so, what did it short to, ground? Or something else?
It was the negative of the cap that touched one of the transistor points
 
It is decoupling capacitor, negative rail to ground, close to output transistors to cut the inductance of tracks.
Picture shows (I could be wrong there, not showed shorted points) the ground node connected to emitter.
It would be short connection negative side and very possibly defective one or more output transistors.
If so, said that amp is not powering, broken fuse would pointed exactly that case.
Other possibility, processor watchdog, detecting anomaly not powering power section. Bot only guessing, not familiar with that unit.

P.S.
New fuse can be burned in milliseconds in case of short
circuit.