Thanks Tibi
Listening now to the vanilla version before I have at it with various Jupiter caps, silver micas, naked resistors etc. Will leave it like this as long as I can bear to before I start making substitutions.
OMG - if it is possible to go better from this base line ... all I can say is lucky me.
I am very glad of having extra laser units as I have had attempts at adding the additional caps - the one on the laser pins is no problem but those other two... enough said. first thing is to get a finer tip for my solder iron.
I am not able to skip forward to tracks - skip backwards works fine. Next time I have the iron out I will touch the connections on the mini switch to make sure they are all good. Can you suggest anything else I should look for?
Thanks again
Listening now to the vanilla version before I have at it with various Jupiter caps, silver micas, naked resistors etc. Will leave it like this as long as I can bear to before I start making substitutions.
OMG - if it is possible to go better from this base line ... all I can say is lucky me.
I am very glad of having extra laser units as I have had attempts at adding the additional caps - the one on the laser pins is no problem but those other two... enough said. first thing is to get a finer tip for my solder iron.
I am not able to skip forward to tracks - skip backwards works fine. Next time I have the iron out I will touch the connections on the mini switch to make sure they are all good. Can you suggest anything else I should look for?
Thanks again
C8
Arrgh!!
First time I go to make substitutions and I end up in a pickle.
Removed the stock C8 to add 0.1uf Jupiter cap.
Despite being as careful as could be I when the old cap came out it pulled the through hole plating lug with it!!!
Worse luck it is the leg marked +ve which only has one hole. If it had been the other leg at least I would have other holes to use!
I can see a trace going off under the chip on the IC side (bottom) of the board and that pad is still intact (I think) but now there is no pad on the top side - I could not make out any traces on that side of the board from that leg? Tibi If I need to make jumpers where does that leg of the cap connect to on both sides of the board. Thanks.
Powers up, spins and attempts to read but does not make TOC.
I'm anxious to pull the new cap out now because I know that pad on the bottom will come off with it.
Arrgh!!
First time I go to make substitutions and I end up in a pickle.
Removed the stock C8 to add 0.1uf Jupiter cap.
Despite being as careful as could be I when the old cap came out it pulled the through hole plating lug with it!!!
Worse luck it is the leg marked +ve which only has one hole. If it had been the other leg at least I would have other holes to use!
I can see a trace going off under the chip on the IC side (bottom) of the board and that pad is still intact (I think) but now there is no pad on the top side - I could not make out any traces on that side of the board from that leg? Tibi If I need to make jumpers where does that leg of the cap connect to on both sides of the board. Thanks.
Powers up, spins and attempts to read but does not make TOC.
I'm anxious to pull the new cap out now because I know that pad on the bottom will come off with it.
Phew
Took a deep breath and had another look.
Could see the pad was broken but scrapped the screen off the top of the connecting trace and bent the end of the cap lead over it and was able to make a connection.
Not pretty and I hope that is the only near miss I have to deal with. But it is back singing again which is the main thing.
Took a deep breath and had another look.
Could see the pad was broken but scrapped the screen off the top of the connecting trace and bent the end of the cap lead over it and was able to make a connection.
Not pretty and I hope that is the only near miss I have to deal with. But it is back singing again which is the main thing.
Thanks for your reply. i will cut it and add a pin and socket join. My other problem now is as I've dismantled my unit to get it ready to install it into a case, I find that the unit will not read toc, the CD spins one way then the other way. My mobile phone camera cannot detect the laser. I've used contact cleaner but have not realigned the laser height and no difference. I have ordered a few spare 16 pin flexible ribbon cables to try. I've even reversed the ribbon cable and no difference. Your circuit board is thing of beauty and I'm glad I didn't attempt to solder it together. Genius work!
Laser is extremely sensible to static discharge. You may need to replace it.
Regards,
Tibi
This is usually happen if you listen to a 8 track cd and later change CD without reading toc again. Before listening to a CD, make sure to push toc button every time.
Regards,
Tibi
Evening
Successfully made the 4 cap additions to the laser and feeling proud of myself but..
Used values and types according to suggestions in this thread - the cap on trimmer pot is this 1000pf or 100pf? Think I have seen both values, I have 1nf CD silver mica
Now finding a few CDs that do not read TOC probably 1 in 5 from a random selectiOn from my collection. It consistently will not read specific disc though last night was able to get it to read one after a number of tries.
On pressing close door or turning on the laser briefly moves then sits in one place popping up to kiss the cd surface. It does not do the usual back and forth that it does with CDs that read - it very quickly decides whether or not it is going to read. I can imagine the disc spins up to be faster than normal ? but then there is no stopping it without turning off the power. Tibi Any suggestions which of the new caps are the likely culprit for this kind of behaviour?
The CDs do not have obvious marks on them. I am working through a few more to find others that exhibit the same behaviour so I can compare a number of discs.
Tomorrow will put back a vanilla mechanism to test the flaking CDs. Once I have ruled out substitutions on the main board I will start looking at the ones on the laser etc.
Thanks
Successfully made the 4 cap additions to the laser and feeling proud of myself but..
Used values and types according to suggestions in this thread - the cap on trimmer pot is this 1000pf or 100pf? Think I have seen both values, I have 1nf CD silver mica
Now finding a few CDs that do not read TOC probably 1 in 5 from a random selectiOn from my collection. It consistently will not read specific disc though last night was able to get it to read one after a number of tries.
On pressing close door or turning on the laser briefly moves then sits in one place popping up to kiss the cd surface. It does not do the usual back and forth that it does with CDs that read - it very quickly decides whether or not it is going to read. I can imagine the disc spins up to be faster than normal ? but then there is no stopping it without turning off the power. Tibi Any suggestions which of the new caps are the likely culprit for this kind of behaviour?
The CDs do not have obvious marks on them. I am working through a few more to find others that exhibit the same behaviour so I can compare a number of discs.
Tomorrow will put back a vanilla mechanism to test the flaking CDs. Once I have ruled out substitutions on the main board I will start looking at the ones on the laser etc.
Thanks
Last edited:
Findings so far >
Vanilla mech/laser exhibits no problems. Plays 100%
On laser where I have 4x mods >>
I removed 1nf from trimmer to find 50% improvement. But will continue to test more cds because at the moment the study pool is only 2 cds that are troublesome! So maybe I just give up on the one that doesn't read! no wait ... I will not accept less than 100% and I want to hear Michael Hedges on my new toy with all the mods.
Next I get a chance I will start again from scratch with a new laser unit adding and testing mods one-by-one (starting with Vishay MKP on laser pins because this is the least problematic to solder)
Will get 100pf to try on trimmer rather than 1000pf that I have currently. I remember reading that the value/setting of this trimmer did not have much of a noticeable effect but the SQ benefited from a cap bypass here.
Vanilla mech/laser exhibits no problems. Plays 100%
On laser where I have 4x mods >>
I removed 1nf from trimmer to find 50% improvement. But will continue to test more cds because at the moment the study pool is only 2 cds that are troublesome! So maybe I just give up on the one that doesn't read! no wait ... I will not accept less than 100% and I want to hear Michael Hedges on my new toy with all the mods.
Next I get a chance I will start again from scratch with a new laser unit adding and testing mods one-by-one (starting with Vishay MKP on laser pins because this is the least problematic to solder)
Will get 100pf to try on trimmer rather than 1000pf that I have currently. I remember reading that the value/setting of this trimmer did not have much of a noticeable effect but the SQ benefited from a cap bypass here.
Got it. 100% playable including the most stubborn one from previous.
Must be some issue with how I soldered the previous laser.
Also with components on new laser managed to use my preferred silver mica which I had put aside due to the thickness of its leads -- flattened the end of the lead by clamping hard in pliers, additional consequence is that the lead is now in contact with a more of the trace.
Sounds great of course. Nice bass, nice detail.
Must be some issue with how I soldered the previous laser.
Also with components on new laser managed to use my preferred silver mica which I had put aside due to the thickness of its leads -- flattened the end of the lead by clamping hard in pliers, additional consequence is that the lead is now in contact with a more of the trace.
Sounds great of course. Nice bass, nice detail.
1nF silver-mica across C19 will make things even better.
Regards,
Tibi
Yep. Thanks, Tibi, got that one in there!!
Plan to put a better tant in C19 at some point. Equipment in shared family space so they are being driven mad with my need to listen to music at the moment.
Might come back to you for the remote at some point.
Can you please share instructions for fitting Dexa neutron star clock?
Remove XO+C67+C58 or Tentlabs and feed clock from Dexa via XO3 with an as short as possible pigtail connector. Make sure that your Dexa have a completely separate power supply from trafo to regulation.
Some more info here http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ii-black-builders-thread-119.html#post4352711
Regards,
Tibi
Some more info here http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...ii-black-builders-thread-119.html#post4352711
Regards,
Tibi
Hi Tibi,
Been listening to the Black Shiga transport for a couple of days now (had it on 24/7).
Very nice. Some things it may be doing better than my own shiga version (pics attached). A bit more clear and the upper midrange may be more resolving. =)
The bass prowness and easyness is still not quite there (maybe the more robust power supply in my own version), along with that enveloping soundstage. I'll have to test the effect of changing the transformer also - from torroid to the Hammond in picture. At least changing from 96V to 120V with Hammond made a clear difference.
I quess it's time for tweeking some of those parts and laser you guys are talking about.
Thanks Tibi!
Been listening to the Black Shiga transport for a couple of days now (had it on 24/7).
Very nice. Some things it may be doing better than my own shiga version (pics attached). A bit more clear and the upper midrange may be more resolving. =)
The bass prowness and easyness is still not quite there (maybe the more robust power supply in my own version), along with that enveloping soundstage. I'll have to test the effect of changing the transformer also - from torroid to the Hammond in picture. At least changing from 96V to 120V with Hammond made a clear difference.
I quess it's time for tweeking some of those parts and laser you guys are talking about.
Thanks Tibi!
