Pictures of your diy Pass amplifier

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bcmbob:
For mosfet output transistors, more and more bias means less and less distortion (until they blow up). See NP's paper 'Leaving Class A.'
 

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O.K. Here's the story Andrew. I connected the same Walkman and DIY speakers that I always use for initial turn on testing. I soon realized there was some distortion that was not there with other setups using the same two boards.

My first thought was low power from the batteries in the Walkman. New batteries - no change.
Then maybe bad CD seating. Different CD - no improvement.
Source at max volume - lower levels = a bit better but still edgy.
Bad interconnects. different set - same problem.

That's when I considered low operating temps. Now whether it is the power transistor itself or the output stage as a unit, I had never experienced any amp measuring that low.

The new system is already disassembled for improvements, but today I was able to attach one board to the aluminum tube with no water flow, simple metal mass heatsink. There is none of the distortion that was present at the initial full flow test. I'll know if Mustang Sally is the cause of the problem once I get the smaller 120 mm fan and radiator installed. The F5s sounded great using the dual 80 mm liquid system I mentioned, but the heat removal factor was less than air/convection without increasing the fan speed to an annoying level. Certainly not adequate if I eventually want to take on a BA. ;)
 

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Bob,
An easy way to control the temp if too cool is to use paper to block air flow to portions of heater core. You can also put a constrictor flow hole in the liquid circuit on the pressurized side. A needle or globe valve is useful for dialing in the temp. You can do this and measure temp and listen to or measure distortion if you have a distortion meter. Easy to do poor man's distortion measurement: record voltage into a load resistor using sine test tone using sound card mic input. Run that through FFT analysis in Audacity or other program. Measure peak amplitudes of harmonics of test tone as function of temp. The amplitudes of the freq sum upmto the total harmonic distortion. Usually second and third harmonic are enough to see.
 
Parting out your prototype

Bob,

If you ever tire of your last prototype, I think you can split it into two parts, and have:

1. A hefty welder, from the power supply.....

2. A small still, to make your own moonshine....!!


Very interesting work...... I'm wondering if cryogenics, liquid hydrogen, and superconduction is next......
 
X, that valve addition sounds good. I will install one somewhere along the 5/8" tubing. I'll PM you when I get to the measurements phase.


" I'm wondering if cryogenics, liquid hydrogen, and superconduction is next......"

CanAm Man, Very funny, but I'll need you by my side tomorrow when I open the C-H-S thread.:D

The comments are helpful, informative and a kick to read, but let's move the conversation over to the other thread as suggested. We can post a link and picture back here if/when there is something significant to report.

Thanks All.
 
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That's when I considered low operating temps. Now whether it is the power transistor itself or the output stage as a unit, I had never experienced any amp measuring that low.

The new system is already disassembled for improvements, but today I was able to attach one board to the aluminum tube with no water flow, simple metal mass heatsink. There is none of the distortion that was present at the initial full flow test.

Comparing your water cooled setup to a conventional heat sink, I can't imagine that the distortion should be that noticeable with low operating temps.........it should be the same as a conventional heat sink for the first five minutes or so of operation, since the heat sink will stay relatively cool until the FET transfers lots of heat into it.

In both cases, nothing is ever cooler than room temp.

Consider a conventional setup on startup, the heatsink has lots more thermal mass than the output FETs, and they both start out at room temperature. The FET transfers it's heat to the sink via conduction, and slowly over time the sink warms up to an equilibrium point where it can lose the heat to the surroundings via natural convection at the same rate that it's receiving heat from the FET. From the FETs standpoint, several pounds of aluminum will stay relatively cool/cold for the first few minutes of operation.

I understand that a typical amp's distortion can measure better after reaching thermal equilibrium, but in your case the amp reaches thermal equilibrium relatively quickly, as you don't have much temperature rise with water cooling.

I suppose one way to test this would be to bolt a few output FETs to a block of ice, or better yet, a block of dry ice......
 
A constrictor in the water circuit is not a good way to control temperature.

That's the way cars/automobiles did it for the heater circuit, until Ford came up with the air flow mixer (about 1962). Nearly every manufacturer copied Ford and that is still the most common form of heat temperature control.
 
Hopefully adding the constrictor valve will also help verify the effects of temps on distortion.

Why not just vary the fan speed on your heat exchanger, perhaps down to zero rpm?

No fan/zero rpm puts you back at free convection at the heat exchanger, much like a conventional heat sink. You may find that your heat exchanger is too small, though.

You may be able to accomplish the same effect as a coolant restrictor by varying the speed of the coolant pump. Assuming the other components are sized adequately, higher coolant flows generally yield higher system temps but more heat transfer to the surroundings.

On another note, with the proper geometry (water inlet low and outlet high at the FET block) you may want to experiment with eliminating the water pump; ie a "thermo-syphon" system. I suppose that it would be possible to make a system without a fan or water pump but it would get large....but it would be quiet and have better reliability than a pump and fan system.
 
Andrew - Just did a Google search for "air flow mixer" but couldn't find any design info. Can you elaborate?

BW -I'm soldering the plug to use the 5 volt PS for both fan and pump as we speak. I bought a speed controller for the project but it is defective. I have two rheostats to try but not sure about the correct resistance value to use. The pump specs are 12V 10w and the fan is designed for speed variations so there shouldn't be a problem.. I'll have something hooked up later today.

xrk971 also suggested and I believe is working on a siphon cooler but for much smaller amps.

I'll have more to report in a couple hours.
 

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A busy afternoon. Everything is modified as I had a pump failure, probably due to trying too many different voltages carelessly. Fortunately I had a backup, but it was the louder of the two and has a higher flow rate. So I couldn't duplicate the initial tests exactly.

What I did find was encouraging and productive. With the fan on 5 V and pump using the 7.5 volt wall wart, temps reached 63 C on the bolt and 51 on the cooler. The pump has a 25 ohm pot and was set to highest speed.

Running both pump and fan on the 7.5 PS, and the pump at it's lowest speed a good operating range was achieved. The bolt settled at 47 C and the cooler at 38. A measure of the heat removal rate involved powering off the amp at 54 C and it took 30 minutes to bring everything back to 27 C ambient. In short, it's logically more effective to make sure the cooling system is avtive at power-on - as compared to trying to bring temps down.

One new problem appeared with the pump. There isn't enough power to start rotation at the low setting. It's necessary to initialize at the high current and dial back manually. I need to work on that.

Even with the louder pump and the higher fan speed the noise level is completely acceptable. I did a few recordings to illustrate. Remember the fan draws in so what noise there is will be dampened by the chassis.

Up close - Full Operation

Pump - On/Off cycle

Fan - Run and Off

For reference I did a recording of the background/room noise. consider it when listening to the last two vids. Here in the room the the system can't be heard beyond 2 ~3 feet even with the open chassis. Used a Gallaxy II phone.

At 2 feet from F5

And finally some music. There are pluses in the sound as an artifact of the upload process. I tried, unsucessfully, a couple times to remove it, but I hope you can hear through it. I can do an audio only if anyone is interested.I cycled though several tracks on a CD for variety of sounds.

MUSIC :)

That's all for now. Going to take a few days away from Sally to recharge. This will be the last post on this thread. New developments will link here.

Thanks all for your support, interest and encouragement.:D :up::worship:
 
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...........One new problem appeared with the pump. There isn't enough power to start rotation at the low setting. It's necessary to initialize at the high current and dial back manually. I need to work on that..........
I hope my Email mentioned how important this is.
Low voltage to fans and pumps risks non starting and the consequences that follow. Inserting a resistance to control speed from a higher voltage is just as bad at non starting.
 
I hope my Email mentioned how important this is.
Low voltage to fans and pumps risks non starting and the consequences that follow. Inserting a resistance to control speed from a higher voltage is just as bad at non starting.

very high risk. the fans may start when you try them. but 1 year and much dust later, they will not run. multiple fans (at full voltage) with only half running at low temps is a better way to go:)