Plugging the ribbon cable on the main board gives 4 or 5 faint clicks at startup. I took the jumpers off and tried it without the cable and it sounded about the same as when the cable was connected, so the 4 or 5 clicks seems the result of not grounding the volume pins. Just for grins, I tried grounding all four input pins and did not get any clicks. I then put the cable back on the main board and giggled it with power on and received some clicks.
On the display board, I traced all four "buttons" from before the inverter pins to the ribbon cable outputs and they are working properly.
Things are pointing towards the cable. It seems strange as I and traced continuity on all pins before and checked for shorts between pins, as I had suspected the cable from the beginning,
On the display board, I traced all four "buttons" from before the inverter pins to the ribbon cable outputs and they are working properly.
Things are pointing towards the cable. It seems strange as I and traced continuity on all pins before and checked for shorts between pins, as I had suspected the cable from the beginning,
I have always hated that type of connector. I can usually get them to work fairly easily with 8 or 10 pins, but I when it gets to 24 pins, all bets are off. I have a hardwired cable coming from Mouser tomorrow along with parts for two more sets of boards. I figured I should get one, just in case. The only problem is it is 11" long, but I wanted something for testing that I could rely on.
Hi Vikram,
Yes and no. I tried a pre-built cable and the volume display problem remained but the relay clicking at startup problem went away. I then built two more main boards and controller boards which worked properly, so the problem is in the first main board that I built.
Now that I have experience with properly operating main and controller boards I can say that the volume relays in the problem main board seem to be working properly but the screen stays at the weird starting sequence, generally 555, rather than starting at 000. I haven't had much time recently to play with troubleshooting the display update issues because of the holidays but I expect to get to it shortly.
I built one remote board and it didn't seem to work so I will be interested in how John's boards turn out. I am missing a part that will not be in until next Wednesday to finish off the other two remote boards. It could just be me, the surface mount receiver/transmitter was a real pain to get right and I could have damaged one in the process. Having a larger sample size will give me a better idea. I have done enough surface mount work in the past that I am not exactly clueless to the process.
Regards,
Roy
Yes and no. I tried a pre-built cable and the volume display problem remained but the relay clicking at startup problem went away. I then built two more main boards and controller boards which worked properly, so the problem is in the first main board that I built.
Now that I have experience with properly operating main and controller boards I can say that the volume relays in the problem main board seem to be working properly but the screen stays at the weird starting sequence, generally 555, rather than starting at 000. I haven't had much time recently to play with troubleshooting the display update issues because of the holidays but I expect to get to it shortly.
I built one remote board and it didn't seem to work so I will be interested in how John's boards turn out. I am missing a part that will not be in until next Wednesday to finish off the other two remote boards. It could just be me, the surface mount receiver/transmitter was a real pain to get right and I could have damaged one in the process. Having a larger sample size will give me a better idea. I have done enough surface mount work in the past that I am not exactly clueless to the process.
Regards,
Roy
I resolved the main board volume display problem. The 5K oscillator which clocked U14 and controlled the volume refresh on the display board wasn't working because I had inadvertently cut the trace between R3 and C5 by nipping too close on the C5 side when cutting wires. It looked like it had continuity but was open when I measured it. A small piece of wire resolved the issue.
Now to solve the remote board problem.
Now to solve the remote board problem.
Hi Roy,
For the remote, I changed the values to higher values for the 7555 oscillator but still should still be 38KHz. If you have a way to check that, oscope or freq counter, it should be close though the receiver TSOP has some leeway. The resistor values came from one of the online calculators. You can always go back to the two resistor values in the earlier BOM.
For the remote, I changed the values to higher values for the 7555 oscillator but still should still be 38KHz. If you have a way to check that, oscope or freq counter, it should be close though the receiver TSOP has some leeway. The resistor values came from one of the online calculators. You can always go back to the two resistor values in the earlier BOM.
Hi John,
I have built two of the remote boards and have not gotten either one to operate. I tried to check if the the oscillator was operational but wasn't getting anything but high frequency garbage (10-40 mV in a rapidly varying frequency range of 10-100 MHz) out of pin 3 on the 7555. I didn't try changing the resister values as I didn't have for the oscillator as I don't have 18.4K in that form factor.
What were the results with your build?
Regards,
Roy
I have built two of the remote boards and have not gotten either one to operate. I tried to check if the the oscillator was operational but wasn't getting anything but high frequency garbage (10-40 mV in a rapidly varying frequency range of 10-100 MHz) out of pin 3 on the 7555. I didn't try changing the resister values as I didn't have for the oscillator as I don't have 18.4K in that form factor.
What were the results with your build?
Regards,
Roy
Thanks John,
Sounds like quite a project if your doing it from scratch. I put a 1200 foot addition on my house a couple of years ago, but I contracted out the shell and the plumbing. Still took me a year by the time I had finished all the tile work in the bathroom and laundry room.
Regards,
Roy
Sounds like quite a project if your doing it from scratch. I put a 1200 foot addition on my house a couple of years ago, but I contracted out the shell and the plumbing. Still took me a year by the time I had finished all the tile work in the bathroom and laundry room.
Regards,
Roy
This is essentially a full house rebuild. I have gutted and torn down most of it. The new sound room will be 18'x24' interior with 8" thick walls and triple glazed windows, no sound is getting in or out of the room. I wanted to make it bigger but it is all the space I have. And two bedrooms and baths are being enlarged while I am at it. I usually do all the trades but for speed I am trying to find sub-contractors for framing, the fun part, and drywall, the tedious part. Once the house is done I can start playing with some Silicon carbide MOSFETs for a new Amp in the Aleph-X style.
But in the mean time I will find some time to test the new remote board.
But in the mean time I will find some time to test the new remote board.
Sounds good, it may be a little live until you add furniture, drapes, and rugs.
What speakers will you use?
for speakers I am using the PBN Audio Sammy's for front speakers, Sammy – PBN Audio
and if I want to go surround sound with 5.1 I will connect the Thiel 3.6s on the sides and Dahlia Debras in the rear.
I still need PBN Audio to make a center channel speaker using the B741 speaker components to match the timber of the Sammys.
I plan to have oriental wool rugs on the floor and bass traps in the corners and High Freq diffusers on the sides. I will adjust after listening.
Have a good one.
and if I want to go surround sound with 5.1 I will connect the Thiel 3.6s on the sides and Dahlia Debras in the rear.
I still need PBN Audio to make a center channel speaker using the B741 speaker components to match the timber of the Sammys.
I plan to have oriental wool rugs on the floor and bass traps in the corners and High Freq diffusers on the sides. I will adjust after listening.
Have a good one.
Tonight I finished stuffing and soldering the new display and remote boards. I had forgotten the "fun" it is to solder a SSOP chip. Got back into practice on the display board and didn't have a problem on the remote board. I found using a liquid flux and a fine tip in the MetCal soldering station with almost no solder flows the leads nicely. The next small block of time I find I will open my preamp and install the display board and test the remote.
Last night I opened my preamp and connected the new display board to the power and ribbon cable from the main board. When powered on the LED displays came on properly but the buttons didn't have any affect. First problem out of 25 display boards built. Today I ohm-ed out the board and did a close visual of the solder joints and found a wisker of solder wick between two legs of the SSOP although I don't see how that could cause the current problem. Will retest when I get a few minutes and troubleshoot if still an issue.
Spent a few minutes this evening and reconnected the original display board in the preamp. Didn't work either even though it had worked before. I found the ribbon cable connector was flaky, removing and reinserting it a couple times wiped the contacts clean and it worked. So I put the new display board back in and it worked fine. I then tried the new remote board and the up button worked with the valid transmission LED flashing on the display board and the volume incrementing, but it would go up and stop, then you push the button again and it would go up some more. I have seen this behavior before when testing the first remote. Turned out to be the TSOP receiver not liking the encoder data. The other remote buttons didn't get a response from the Valid transmission light. Now I need to break out the oscilloscope to watch transmission data verses received data.
Last night I setup the Oscilloscope and watched the transmitter pulse train. All buttons worked. Then I setup the preamp with the new display board in the same area and found that all the receiver functions worked fine. Getting it out from under the direct light of the Compact Fluorescent Light which was interfering did the trick. Also display board was not installed in the preamp behind the smoked plastic window which helps. Having the preamp directly under and within 3 feet of a CFL was the problem.