So did you get your goodies yet? I've got mine up and running just fine. I'm still working on the power situation for the DSP unit though.
A day or two after I placed my order for the 1200AS2, I received the following response to an inquiry I sent to Profusion regarding my planned use scenario
"The 300A2 is designed to be powered as a hanger module by the 1200AS2. What the datasheet does NOT tell is that the default delivered version of the 1200AS2 has got a too high hanger voltage (Typ. +-63V) for the 300A2. If customers want to drive a 300A2 (which the datasheet says it can) they must order the +-57V hanger voltage version of the 1200AS2. Unfortunately, the datasheet does not say anything about this.
The 1200AS2´s we´ve got in stock are the default 63V versions so they will not work with the 300A2
Whether the 1200AS2 can drive more than one 300A2 I guess it is just a matter of how much the 1200AS2 can deliver. Two 300A2´s must share so I assume they can only run at max half power or something."
"The 300A2 is designed to be powered as a hanger module by the 1200AS2. What the datasheet does NOT tell is that the default delivered version of the 1200AS2 has got a too high hanger voltage (Typ. +-63V) for the 300A2. If customers want to drive a 300A2 (which the datasheet says it can) they must order the +-57V hanger voltage version of the 1200AS2. Unfortunately, the datasheet does not say anything about this.
The 1200AS2´s we´ve got in stock are the default 63V versions so they will not work with the 300A2
Whether the 1200AS2 can drive more than one 300A2 I guess it is just a matter of how much the 1200AS2 can deliver. Two 300A2´s must share so I assume they can only run at max half power or something."
The 1200AS2 arrived, but I’m still fabricating it’s case. However, I’ve got what I need to power it up and make the required audio connections, so I’m going to rig it up out of the case and give it a spin this weekend.
So are you pleased with your amps?
So are you pleased with your amps?
Got the 1200A2 running and it sounds fantastic. I haven't dived into hooking up the 300A2s and will probably hold off until I do some further research.
Yea they sound great but I'm a little concerned with the heat they are generating. At the moment I'm only running two of the channels with my two way speakers that have passive x-overs as I'm still building the speakers that this amp is meant for. When I'm done building the speakers all of the channels will be driven but at the moment it's just the two bridged channels that are being driven. The other channels are hooked up just not being used. I think the temps are getting pretty hot for just having the two modules working. I'm seeing temps in the 60 to 70 degree C and that's with a cool ambient temp and hardly pushing them, all be it it is with a 4 ohm load. I don't know if that's normal or not but I think I'm going to need active cooling at this point.
Another thing I just noticed today there seems to be some DC getting through to the speakers because I noticed that while I was watching a youtube video that just had dialog going on so the woofers where hardly moving much at all but every few seconds/mins the woofer cones would either push out or pull back in without making any noise just kind of slowly and unrelated to what was playing. Both speakers are exhibiting this behavior and it's got me concerned. It's got to be DC because it is acting just like it does when you put a 9 volt batterie to the terminals of a speaker. I'm going to start a thread about that and see if anyone can tell me what is going on.
Those 300A2 amp modules take a 57 volt rail voltage. I was going to use the 300's at first but Icepower didn't have any of the 57 volt PSU's in stock so they sold me the 69 volt version with the 400A2's for the same price instead. I suppose you could always run a power regulator and bring the voltage down. Let me know how it goes.
Another thing I just noticed today there seems to be some DC getting through to the speakers because I noticed that while I was watching a youtube video that just had dialog going on so the woofers where hardly moving much at all but every few seconds/mins the woofer cones would either push out or pull back in without making any noise just kind of slowly and unrelated to what was playing. Both speakers are exhibiting this behavior and it's got me concerned. It's got to be DC because it is acting just like it does when you put a 9 volt batterie to the terminals of a speaker. I'm going to start a thread about that and see if anyone can tell me what is going on.
Those 300A2 amp modules take a 57 volt rail voltage. I was going to use the 300's at first but Icepower didn't have any of the 57 volt PSU's in stock so they sold me the 69 volt version with the 400A2's for the same price instead. I suppose you could always run a power regulator and bring the voltage down. Let me know how it goes.
So what's the status on your proposed amp build? Have they restocked the 57V 1500S PSU yet? AVDD/AVSS (+/- 7V) definitely go to the VDD/VSS on the amp modules even though the amps, according to the data sheet, would like to see +/- 12V nominal with 11V being the min. So the data sheet for the amps say it is 4 volts shy of the min voltage needed but they seem to be working fine.
I put a DC/DC voltage booster hooked to the DVDD to boost the voltage to 14V to run my DSP unit and it did work but the noise from it was really bad so I'm still going to have to figure this one out. When I use the power supply that came with the DSP unit (wall wart) there is no noise that I can hear. To use that to power the DSP would mean another cable running into the case and I'm trying to keep the wires down to a minimum. I'm thinking I might need to put some capacitors in the circuit to filter out the noise but I'm not sure where.
Unfortunately they have not been back in stock 🙁. I check every week but no luck so far.
I've started doing a little bit of the CAD layout for the chassis (modushop dissipante), I really wanted to cram it in to a 3U chassis but the support brackets limit the useful height so have resigned myself to using a 4U.
Michael
As time passes, I am leaning more and more towards the Micro-Audio SMPS630-G. I have a half-rack 3U Hammond enclosure that may fit the two 300A2 amps as we ll as two SMPS630-Gs, with a little finesse.
As for the 1200AS2, I am still fabricating the power and audio connections for the case. It's a true DIY item - a converted stepping platform from a server rack system. I should be done in two to three days.
Here's the old set up as well as the current modification in the works - the 1200AS2 is going inside the case with the oak facades. Please excuse the hack job on the top panel, which is fortunately covered by the oak top deck. Those cuts were made in the infancy of my fabrication days, hence the inclusion of the oak panels. BTW I stained the oak with Tru Oil. Fantastic stuff!
It's looking good so far but you might want to ventilate the box though because I think it's going to generate some heat. I've been kind of surprised at just how much heat mine is generating and I'm only using two of the Amp mods at this point and they are not even being driven hard at all yet. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to put at least two fans in my box. One on the PSU that blows across the transformers and the switching mosfets and the other one blowing across all four 400A2's at the chokes that are getting hot. Upwards of 60 to 70 degrees C or 140'ish in freedom units. I just need to figure out how to use the PSU_Temp pin out to control the speed and usage of the fans so they only come on when it gets to be about 145 degrees C. I assume that I will need a 4 pin PWM fan controller but I'm not clear on how it works with regard to the PSU_Temp pin out.
I tried to put a DC/DC voltage booster in the box hooked up to the DVDD +9 volt power supply from the PSU and boost it to 15 volts to power the DSP unit and it worked but man it made a terrible racket and is completely unusable. I don't know if I need filter caps to filter out the noise or what. I might just have to get a separate shielded power regulator that runs off mains power but still fits in the box to power the DSP unit because I don't want a wall wart on a hard mounted power cable attached to the outside of the case.
Did the two toroidal chokes on your 1200A2 get hot when you where testing it at all?
Have you considered moving up to the 69V PSU and 400A2's like I did? Those are both in stock at Icepower and a couple other places that I saw on line.
You must have missed the stack of 40mm fan filters in the upper left hand corner of the second photo! I have room for three 40mm fans side by side on the short ends. So I picked up a six pack of filters, a high static pressure tackling Noctura (40x20) for intake and an old Scythe for exhaust.
The plan is to start with one fan on each side running a cross current the length of the module. If it needs more cooling, I'll drop in two more 40s and then two more if **** stays nuclear...
I haven't run the unit inside the chassis as of yet, but I'll get back to you with some true performance type temps by Thursday...
The folks at Apollon sure don't seem to have any concern regarding heat when packing four 1200AS2s into their chassis...
https://www.apollonaudio.com/icepower-1200as2-based-class-d-stereo-multichannel-amplifiers/
I have considered it but besides the 400A2 being 20% more expensive I do not need the extra power and prefer the lower noise and lower gain of the 300A2.
Michael
To whom it may concern,I have the new 300a2 (ICEdge chipset) connected with my 1200as2 (VS,VD about 62,5VDC) for about a week now and works perfectly.I went up for it,but not before asking the sellers which they assured me that it would work just fine.
Of course I do not recommend it as there is a suitable version for it and I may be just lucky.
I will post if any problem occurs.
I live in europe if that matters in any way.
Of course I do not recommend it as there is a suitable version for it and I may be just lucky.
I will post if any problem occurs.
I live in europe if that matters in any way.
Oh Okay. No. I didn't see those. Have you put a thermometer on yours yet. Do you know how hot it's getting?
WOW. That is a lot of power to be packing into such a confined space without even any heat sinks much less fans. Typically the amps outputs will start clipping at 87 to 97 degrees C and I can see them getting that hot easy. Packing all of those amps in there like that......I don't know if I would do that without some serious cooling. But then again what do I know. This is my first one so maybe it's fine?
Icepower gave me the 400a2's and the 69V PSU for the same price as the 300A2's and the 57V version of the PSU because they where out of stock. I was originally going to use the 300a2's for the same reasons as you are but to be honest the noise floor is so low on the 400a2's that I seriously doubt one could tell the difference between the two modules based on that. These 400a2's are dead silent to my ears. But I am 54 years old so maybe it's there and I just can't hear it? A little extra power is always nice especially when it isn't expressly "needed".
So I completed the structural elements of the case and decided to give it a run just to check for any humming or similar grounding issues. Again, the 1200AS2 sounds fantastic. Contrary to the 300/400 amps, the 1200 incorporates a bottom plate that acts as a heatsink. I currently have it mounted to an 8" by 21" steel plate with 18 M3 screws as per spec. It generates a lot of heat and raises the temp of the entire case well above 105 F degrees. I rigged up some external fans as I have yet to wire up the internal cooling system. It cooled off quickly when I ran air under the bottom steel plate. I will certainly be incorporating some sort of permanent digital thermometer going forward as I was taking readings using an IR temp gun. In short - the amp gets hot, real hot
Final Steps:
Apply Thermal Pasts to heatsink
Wire up cooling fans
Install digital thermometer
Final Steps:
Apply Thermal Pasts to heatsink
Wire up cooling fans
Install digital thermometer
Yea I still need to get a couple of fans and a PWM fan controller and figure out how to hook it up to the temp control pin so that the fan only comes on when it is needed. I'm just not sure how to do that. The temp control pin has a certain voltage like around 2.3 volts or there about, I would need to check the data sheet but it's roughly that and as it heats up the voltage drops down to a little over 1 volt at thermal shutdown so I'm not sure how a voltage drop is used with a PWM fan controller. I'm hopping someone could help me here.
I have installed a voltage booster to push the 9 volt DVDD to 12 volts. I was originally wanting to use it to power the DSP unit but it is way to noisy to use for that but it should work to power the fans I imagine. I have a separate power supply coming today or tomorrow that will be run off the mains power to power the DSP like it is now only everything will be in the box.
For cooling the 1200AS2, I ended up going with two Noctura (40x20) one for intake, one for exhaust. Used Noctura paste on the amp and heat sink. More or less a steel coffin with forced air. Humming along at 28.1 C.
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Oh wow. You bought a 12 pack. Are you planning on making more then one amp then? I know the 1500s can power 8 of those amp modules so that leaves 4 extra. So are you a COSCO shopper and only buy in bulk?🙂
So have you talked to the folks over at Icepower to find out when the 57V version will be back in stock? It sure seems to be taking them quite a while to restock. Well I hope it won't end up taking to much longer because having the amp mods without the PSU would be enough to drive me nuts. I suppose you could always find another PSU that fits your needs or get the bigger one like I have and just regulate it down to 57 volts. You might even be able to change the voltage on the board because I think it is only a matter of changing a resister but I might be wrong about that. Anyways congratts and keep us up on any change in the PSU department. Look forward to seeing what you do with it.
I went ahead and did a bit of wire management on mine the other day and wrapped all of the power wires. I'm moving right a long with the speakers that will be powered by the amp and can't wait to hear them together.
I still might try and design a PCB to run down the middle to eliminate those power wires and the bus bars and clean things up a bit but we will see.