Pumpkin preamp - ordered by Steen , official making thread

Hi,

so it's time for me to build pumpkin and shunty.

I have a problem regarding x-former / 2200 uF workin Voltage condos.

I've soldered twelve 63 V condos and I after doing that I have realized that trasfos wounded customly for me are double 50 V- 50VA: so after rectifier I will have around 70 volt.🙁

My three solution:

1) Buy another batch of 100v condos ( and, yes, desolder the older and drill new holes)

2) Buy another couple of x-former with a double 40 V secondary.

3) Put a 50 ohm 20 W series-resistor before graetz bridge for a 10 V voltage drop.

What is best solution?

Please, let me know your opinions.


Ciao,

Anto
 
My Dual-Mono Pumpkin Shuntky has developed a strange anomally.

Now, when I first turn it ON it sounds like waves at the beach. Not a high pitched scream of oscillation, but just a quiet WHOOSHING sort of sound. After less than a minute it settles down and is silent then for the rest of the day.

Has anyone got any ideas what could cause this ?

The original Shuntky boards were poorly manufactured and had problems. This manifested itself with some very ODD LED indications. However, with Zen's help this was resolved.
 
to exclude unneeded variations , try this :

ground all active inputs to Pumpkin , connect it directly to power amp and power up ;

then write do you have same situation ;

just observation - Pumpkin doesn't have any mute relays or something similar - that part was leaved as builder's choice .
usual practice is to power up source , then pre , then power amp ; that way one will not have any funny noises
for powering off - exactly opposite procedure - amp first , then pre , then source .

in any case - Ocean like sound is atypical for :Pumpkin: intended behavior
 
DMM on continuity/buzzer test
lay pcb on table , bottom side of pcb up
one probe on pad which is through-holed with upper groundplane

other probe - just move zig-zag across pcb , across all pads

there must not be continuity between any of traces/pads and upper gndplane

that is sole problem , which happened with Shunty pcbs
 
Mine was obvious. Only the top four LEDs were illuminating. Simple ohms law stated that there must be a short somewhere. I couldn't detect it with an ohmmeter nor a magnifying glass. I simply ran a craft knfife along all the gaps in the PCB tracks.

The short must have been at almost atomic level. Anyway, the craft knife did the trick.
 
If you look at Zen Mods posts about KK-PCB circuit boards, apparently he is not the only one with PCB supplier problems.

I'm now searching for my own CNC PCB cutting machine. Shame I haven't got $10K
.

Why not a light box (home brew) few kemicals and free PCB design software.

I have been brewing my own for a while and maybe £200 is enough to get started.

Altrough in pumpkin case I (but this is me and my own choice You do as you like) I rather wait for new batch and the chance to be able to pay for them if and when Pay pall let me and by doing this support a felow member.

If you rather put up with the noise and tool changes You can get cheaper one at about £4000 from RS and Elektor or build your own for £350 as RS and Rapid electronics use to sell a kit with software.

Sorry can not find links to those at present but will post eventualy