I've now ordered the snubber caps and the Nichicon 330uF caps from digikey. Once those come I'll make a little trip to Radio Shack and get the .01uf cap and the uf diode.
Basically all I need to worry about now is the chassis. How do I drill such large holes in the top plate for the tubes? What size diameter is needed? I don't have a caliper to measure this out.
Thanks,
Josh
Basically all I need to worry about now is the chassis. How do I drill such large holes in the top plate for the tubes? What size diameter is needed? I don't have a caliper to measure this out.
Thanks,
Josh
Happy Holidays!
I think that getting the power transformers and tubes into the open air would be best for cooling. For drilling holes in aluminium, I used drill bits that I had on hand. I used a small bit to start the hole and then kept enlarging the hole with a bigger bit. For 3/4 holes, I used a 5/8 bit (the biggest I had) and then enlarged the hole using a circular file. I took my time and it turned out good. I measured, drew pictures, re measured and measured again! A little to my suprise, it all fit.
Take your time, think it through and have fun.
Good luck.
GM.
I think that getting the power transformers and tubes into the open air would be best for cooling. For drilling holes in aluminium, I used drill bits that I had on hand. I used a small bit to start the hole and then kept enlarging the hole with a bigger bit. For 3/4 holes, I used a 5/8 bit (the biggest I had) and then enlarged the hole using a circular file. I took my time and it turned out good. I measured, drew pictures, re measured and measured again! A little to my suprise, it all fit.
Take your time, think it through and have fun.
Good luck.
GM.
Happy New Year
Well I finally got some work done today. Yesterday I went searching at Radio Shack for the UF diode and some caps, but was not very successful, but I decided I would solder what I could today. So here are some pictures. One of the nichicon caps is not on because I'm waiting for the diode to install that cap.
I was wondering if someone could give me some advise on cleaning the board, I ran out of the skinny silver solder, so I had to use some other thicker silver solder and it got a little messy.
Thanks,
Josh
Well I finally got some work done today. Yesterday I went searching at Radio Shack for the UF diode and some caps, but was not very successful, but I decided I would solder what I could today. So here are some pictures. One of the nichicon caps is not on because I'm waiting for the diode to install that cap.
I was wondering if someone could give me some advise on cleaning the board, I ran out of the skinny silver solder, so I had to use some other thicker silver solder and it got a little messy.
Thanks,
Josh
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I also wanted to know what the extra holes are for.
On tubes 1 and 3, coming from pin 8, it looks like there is a missing component, but I've never heard any thing about it.
In the second picture, tube 1 is on the right right. Pin 8 is on the side facing away from the camera, but when looking at tube 1, to the left of it is where C3 is, right above that is a trace that goes up between R8 and R6. By looking at the traces it looks like it might be to possibly help ground, but I might be wrong.
Josh
On tubes 1 and 3, coming from pin 8, it looks like there is a missing component, but I've never heard any thing about it.
In the second picture, tube 1 is on the right right. Pin 8 is on the side facing away from the camera, but when looking at tube 1, to the left of it is where C3 is, right above that is a trace that goes up between R8 and R6. By looking at the traces it looks like it might be to possibly help ground, but I might be wrong.
Josh
Cleaning Boards
I use isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs to clean boards after soldering. There are some cleaners specifically for soldering flux but I can't remember what they are and have always just used alcohol.
I use isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs to clean boards after soldering. There are some cleaners specifically for soldering flux but I can't remember what they are and have always just used alcohol.
Thanks, I'll try that. Time to go out and search for who sells it.
Anyone know what that open circuit is on the board?
Josh
Anyone know what that open circuit is on the board?
Josh
SY,
It ends up going to speaker out ( - ), but if the circuit is open, it still ends up going to speaker out ( - ).
I guess when I have it running, I can check the voltage of that area, if there is a voltage, then I'll close the circuit. Is that a good idea (excuse my ignorance for not knowing much about tube amps) ?
Thanks,
Josh
edit: I'm taking a subwoofer box to get rhino lined (truck bed lining), should I get the main traffo lined, so it is not so ugly?
It ends up going to speaker out ( - ), but if the circuit is open, it still ends up going to speaker out ( - ).
I guess when I have it running, I can check the voltage of that area, if there is a voltage, then I'll close the circuit. Is that a good idea (excuse my ignorance for not knowing much about tube amps) ?
Thanks,
Josh
edit: I'm taking a subwoofer box to get rhino lined (truck bed lining), should I get the main traffo lined, so it is not so ugly?
School started back up a week ago, and I'm pissed that I spent most of my time this break doing school work. I was only able to work on the amplifier for about two hours. I was very excited about the break, because I was going to build the tube amp before school started back up, but of course my teachers loaded us down with school work.
Well, I had the soldering iron out, to quickly solder some wiring harnesses together for a friend of mine, so I decided I would solder the diode and the last cap onto the board. After searching around I settled with a 1N4007 diode, instead of an UF4007. I'm hoping they are interchangable??
Well I soldered the diode on top of the board. Cutting the trace in the circuit board was superizingly easy, and I actually made a really clean cut.
Well, this weekend is a long weekend thanks to MLK. After installing some car audio for a friend, I'm going to use the money to purchase a drill press, and hopefully the aluminium as well.
Any more suggestions about the traffo?
Thanks,
Josh
Well, I had the soldering iron out, to quickly solder some wiring harnesses together for a friend of mine, so I decided I would solder the diode and the last cap onto the board. After searching around I settled with a 1N4007 diode, instead of an UF4007. I'm hoping they are interchangable??
Well I soldered the diode on top of the board. Cutting the trace in the circuit board was superizingly easy, and I actually made a really clean cut.
Well, this weekend is a long weekend thanks to MLK. After installing some car audio for a friend, I'm going to use the money to purchase a drill press, and hopefully the aluminium as well.
Any more suggestions about the traffo?
Thanks,
Josh
edjosh23 said:
Josh,
As far as voltage and current you will be fine with the 1N4007. However the "UF" in the UF4007 designation stands for 'ultra fast' which makes the recovery faster and the resulting rectified voltage a bit smoother. Some say the difference is definitely audible with the nod going to the UF4007.
You are correct that the trafos with the kit are truly ugly. I have seen some that were painted and it does improve the appearance at least slightly. However, the PTX on this amp gets very hot.
It is right at the limit for what it is being asked to do. I would be careful about coating it with anything that would tend to seal in heat.If you want to make the trafos more acceptable you might consider making/buying a metal cover. Just make sure that you ventilate it well. I would put holes in the lower front of the cover and then all over the back. If you paint the inside of the cover black it will more readily absorb the radiated heat from the trafo. Aluminum is difficult to paint so steel might be a better choice.
I just bought one of these kits from Tube Depot last week. I put it together yesterday (stock). It sounds pretty nice and worked on the first try.
I must have gotten one of the last "M" versions. I'm pretty sure mine doesn't have those extra unmarked holes. Tube depot is now selling a "G" version and it costs $30 more.
I may have to build another one of these and put it together with all the improvements and assemble it so that it fits better in an enclosure.
- Rick
I must have gotten one of the last "M" versions. I'm pretty sure mine doesn't have those extra unmarked holes. Tube depot is now selling a "G" version and it costs $30 more.
I may have to build another one of these and put it together with all the improvements and assemble it so that it fits better in an enclosure.
- Rick
Well, I just got home and I went and looked and my amp has those extra holes on the pcb too. Also, guess who soldered C10 and C11 in those holes by mistake 
I'm not sure what C10 and C11 are supposed to do, but they are definitely not where they belong on my board. I guess I'll have to fix that.
I wish whoever designed this board had used terminal blocks to connect the transformer wires instead of soldering them directly to the board.
- Rick
I'm not sure what C10 and C11 are supposed to do, but they are definitely not where they belong on my board. I guess I'll have to fix that.
I wish whoever designed this board had used terminal blocks to connect the transformer wires instead of soldering them directly to the board.
- Rick
RDL2004,
Glad you like the amp. Sorry to hear about the soldering error. I have no clue what exactly those caps do, can only guess.
Have you changed them to their right location?
Did it make a difference?
Since school has started up I haven't gotten much work done, but last weekend I did manage to purchase a drill press in my spare time and some plexiglass to practice on. I haven't had any time to practice or even to purchase the aluminium, but I'm trying to wait patiently until school work goes down a little bit.
I did manage to do some research about the hot traffo and found this possible resolution here .
Any comments on that cure?
Thanks,
Josh
Glad you like the amp. Sorry to hear about the soldering error. I have no clue what exactly those caps do, can only guess.
Have you changed them to their right location?
Did it make a difference?
Since school has started up I haven't gotten much work done, but last weekend I did manage to purchase a drill press in my spare time and some plexiglass to practice on. I haven't had any time to practice or even to purchase the aluminium, but I'm trying to wait patiently until school work goes down a little bit.
I did manage to do some research about the hot traffo and found this possible resolution here .
Any comments on that cure?
Thanks,
Josh
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I have not yet taken the amp apart to fix the capacitor placement error. When I do, I will try to figure out where those extra pads connect to and what they might be for.
Having the caps there doesn't seem to be hurting anything though.
I did find a schematic, and where the caps are supposed to be they would be bypassing the NFB resistor, to prevent oscillation is what I read somewhere.
I don't have them where they're supposed to be but I still have no oscillation. I think these later kits have better grounding set ups.
I finally hooked it up into my main system last night, I used it with some cheap speakers and a Sony Walkman CD for a week to be sure it was working okay first. Here is a pic, it still needs an enclosure.
- Rick
Having the caps there doesn't seem to be hurting anything though.
I did find a schematic, and where the caps are supposed to be they would be bypassing the NFB resistor, to prevent oscillation is what I read somewhere.
I don't have them where they're supposed to be but I still have no oscillation. I think these later kits have better grounding set ups.
I finally hooked it up into my main system last night, I used it with some cheap speakers and a Sony Walkman CD for a week to be sure it was working okay first. Here is a pic, it still needs an enclosure.
- Rick
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
RDL2004,
Can you tell me more about the amp?
How does it sound compared to other amps you've heard?
Did you do any modifications?
My past experience with chassis have been very bad so I decided I would not wire the traffos or anything until my enclosure was done. The PCB is pretty cheap so I though desoldering would end up looking bad on this board.
I've put a lot of effort and money into upgrading the components and I have been waiting a long time to get the time and money needed to finish this project. I'm very anxious to finish but I don't want to make any mistakes.
In two weeks I will do some demolition with a friends dad and will make about $100 or so, that will be enough to buy the aluminium and wood needed for my chassis design and hopefully leave me with money left.
Thanks,
Josh
Can you tell me more about the amp?
How does it sound compared to other amps you've heard?
Did you do any modifications?
My past experience with chassis have been very bad so I decided I would not wire the traffos or anything until my enclosure was done. The PCB is pretty cheap so I though desoldering would end up looking bad on this board.
I've put a lot of effort and money into upgrading the components and I have been waiting a long time to get the time and money needed to finish this project. I'm very anxious to finish but I don't want to make any mistakes.
In two weeks I will do some demolition with a friends dad and will make about $100 or so, that will be enough to buy the aluminium and wood needed for my chassis design and hopefully leave me with money left.
Thanks,
Josh
It's been quite a while, and still no progress! School work has killed me. Over the past couple weeks I have practically written a book.
Here is a picture of the design below, I took these pictures a while ago, and the traffo's will be pushed back a couple of more inches, and the speaker terminals will be in between the PCB and the traffos.
Anyway I wanted to get some ideas on how to incoorperate a headphone jack into this amplifier.
Thanks,
Josh
Here is a picture of the design below, I took these pictures a while ago, and the traffo's will be pushed back a couple of more inches, and the speaker terminals will be in between the PCB and the traffos.
Anyway I wanted to get some ideas on how to incoorperate a headphone jack into this amplifier.
Thanks,
Josh
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Hi,
I saw those standing caps and resistors on the board. That arrangement is gonna cause some unnecessary interference between coponents.
If the resistors run too hot, you can get rid of unnecessary heat by doing that. Otherwise, I suggest you should lay down those components. Please remember that signal routes are supposed to be as short as possible, so... the leads for the resistor that signal pass through are supposed to be very short.
Lhchen
😀 😀 😀 😀
I saw those standing caps and resistors on the board. That arrangement is gonna cause some unnecessary interference between coponents.
If the resistors run too hot, you can get rid of unnecessary heat by doing that. Otherwise, I suggest you should lay down those components. Please remember that signal routes are supposed to be as short as possible, so... the leads for the resistor that signal pass through are supposed to be very short.
Lhchen
😀 😀 😀 😀
contaxchen said:
The resistors that are not mounted against the board get hot. The kit instructions say that these 3 resistors shoulf be about 1/4" off of the board.
Thanks for watching out though.
Josh
I finally got a new Digital Camera. My old one has been broken for a while now. I've done quite a bit or work, but I ran into a little trouble. The AC input, I guess it is called, is a little bit deeper than I expected, it hits one of the traffos that is upside down, inside the chassis. As I was pulling it out, I broke some of the plastic on the front. So now I have to buy more aluminum, and cut a new hole in a new position for the AC to fit. But besideds getting hooking up to the wall, everything is done. Here are some pictures.
By the way, I'm not so good with my drill press, which was not easy to use with this aluminium because the drill bit would move to the side because of the ridges od the aluminium, note to self, don't use this aluminium.
Thanks,
Josh
By the way, I'm not so good with my drill press, which was not easy to use with this aluminium because the drill bit would move to the side because of the ridges od the aluminium, note to self, don't use this aluminium.
Thanks,
Josh
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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