UGLY Looking Amp! - but good working

CBS240 said:

.... mounting the SOT 23 parts upside down ....
.


speaking of 'upside down'
Just glue one Op-amp upside down
with pins in the air
... and so you can solder components + wires directly to pins

This works very good, if you need a circuit quick
and do not want to start messing with making boards.

( of course, do not use more heat than necessary
especially at small ICs or transistors
... not to mention LEDs ... I have melted and destroyed quite a few LEDs )
 
Today has been a rather boring day, so I wired up a better PS for this ugly amp, and after fiddling with the GND scheme a while the instability related to input impeadance has gone.🙂 I think GND loops are one of the most frustrating issue to deal with, and even more so on a protoboard.:headbash: I thought there may be a problem with both channels input & VAS stages running from the same regulator, and there may in fact be, the next version will have seperate regulator circuits, equal mono-blocks. Anyway, the wire to one of the speakers is about 25ft 18 gauge and there is no output coil on this amp and no occilations observed😎 I will have to do the capacitor tests again to confirm. There is a 100nF cap(the little green ones at the sides) in series with a 11 Ohm resistor across the output, Av is 65 and the output clips at 16V on 4 Ohms, DMM measures DC output. Some decoupling caps beside the outputs wouldn't hurt if there was only room!
I hooked up a couple of small 'surround sound' speakers in series, reverse polarity(-+ +-) across each channel's + Vout to go with my KLH 15" 4-way's. Sound is wonderful and highs are very acurate. No PS noise or hum even with 500mV of ripple from a half wave voltage quadrupler circuit that feeds the +/-36V @ 25mA or so required for reg, input, and VAS(the little transformer on the PCB at the bottom, also producing +5V for mute control with a 7805)...I wanted to see how noisy the input voltage could be and still have good results. Now I don't want to take it apart.:bawling: :smash: There is only a small audiable 'click' in the speakers when switching the mute on and off, no relays.:crazy: Maybe I should build the other two channels to use the heatsink, toss it into an old flat desktop computer case and name it "The Ugly AS_ amp":clown: Seriously though, if one of the solder tracks ever cracks or breaks, it could be a heck of a task to find it.🙄
 

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🙂

You have the same sort of lab experiment boards, as I have.
Plastic with holes matrix.

In this picture you can also see
a bit of my own designed Lab Supply
It is rated max 0.300A at +/-20 Volt DC unregulated.
I use it for my preamps, headphone amps and Op-Amps circuits.

Outputs:
* +/- 0-19V dual tracking symmetrical
* +8.0V
* -8.0V
* +5.00V
-------------------------------------------------
The dual tracking I can adjust:
- Coarse voltage level
- Fine voltage level adjust
- Fine tune the negative for perfect tracking positive voltage
Notice that some lab supply (LM317/LM337)
can not output lower than +/-1.25 Volt

Regards
lineup
 

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That is a handy test supply, 300mA is plenty for op-amps and headphones. Mine here is obviously temporary but serves this purpose. A bench supply is handy so you don't have to make a cheap mock up PS for each new project.🙂 My lab boards are old and well used. This kinda sucks for constructing anything complex.:xeye: I just have the +/-18V output supply and the input on it. The regulators are the smallest PCB. 🙂
 
you should really build yourself
a LM317/LM337 dual adjustable supply

it takes this:
1. One 2x18 0.5A, ~20 VA trafo ... they are not big
2. LM317 + LM337 in TO220 case
3. Two potentiometers
4. A few small capacitors

(LM317 / LM337 comes also in TO3 metal case, for higher powers)


There is a standard circuit for this Dual Tracking set up in the LM137 datasheet
( LM337 is an improvement of old LM137 .. like LM317 is new version of LM117 )

I guess you already knows about this. But for anybody reading this:
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM337.html
http://www.national.com/ds.cgi/LM/LM137.pdf


See my attachment for this simple But Very Good
dual tracking Lab supply circuit.

lineup
 

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Stephen Morgan said:
My GainClone. Being its mother, I think it's beautiful 😉 .

Care to guess what the base is?


I think it is beautiful, too.

Have a look at those proper details!
Like: nicely twisted wires. And Wires NOT longer than necessary.
It is not that you just throw it all together.
You definitely had a plan.
And a good one!

I am sure you can figure out a nice case.
Maybe something in some beautiful wood ... 🙂

lineup
 
adason said:
you guys obviously do not know how ugly looking amp looks like
most of those posted are quite decent
i must take picture of my Son of Zen and post it
get ready!
🙂
adason said:
here it is, Son of Zen after years of service, /without power supply/ now retired
adason said:
for completion, the power supply /withour variac, that one is in service/

adason
yes, we can say: you are right on TOPIC here!
always nice with people who understand what a thread is about 😉

I your second image, however,
that loudspeaker cable is really smelling 'Good & Adequate'
-- no problems for many Amperes to travel in that one!


lineup, regards
 
XEAGLEKEEPER said:
My first DIY amp, ESP P101
Hi power version
2SK1058/2SJ162 4 pair lateral mosfet
50-0-50 800VA xformer
44,600 mfd per rail, rail voltage +/- 69.8 vdc
Igla said:
My 1st regulated LM3875 GC experiment.
Ugly enough?


XEAGLEKEEPER,
if that's your first ... looking so good
I cant imagine what your other amps look like

Igla,
your amplifiers are too good looking for this thread
Maybe you should post in this thread:
'Beautiful Solid State Amps images'
instead.

But thanks - looking at nice amplifiers is always interesting.

.... so called
😀 Hard AmpCore pictures 😀