A guide to building the Pass F4 amplifier

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Hello, unfortunately I had no luck with my build :-( Here are pictures of the faulty channel, hopefully you can see them:

f4 | Flickr

Everything worked perfectly so I decided to solder R9 properly through the holes on the board and then close off the chassis and enjoy the amp. The 8k resistors were merely riding on the leads of the previous 5k. So I did. And then (fortunately) I ran a last test before closing the box and on the left channel bias was strange, too much too soon, then it went over 1500mv all of a sudden and the fuse blew. I tried everything in my power, resoldered a different 8k, made sure there were no bridges etc. Nothing works, With 60V from the variac and P1 at lowest, bias sits at 160mV and rising fast if I raise the input voltage (from variac). P2 does not seem to have any impact on dc offset, which behaves erratically, going up and down. Bias also sort of fluctuates slightly without any visible cause (not so on the other channel, which seems to work beautifully). I have no idea what to do.... P1 and P2 measure proper, they seem to function) Any help will be greatly appreciated, I 'm sure you can tell!


Hello, I seem to have a similar problem as I start to bias my right channel. I'm using a Variac [thanks God] and at 50V I quickly get over .222+ in bias with the trimpot set all the way down. Offset works normally.

I'm using:
R8 27.4K
R9 4.75K
P1 5K
P2 500R

I checked all the mossfets for continuity. All the Mossfets were warming up.

I read thru the forum, but can't find something to guide me forward.

Appreciate any thoughts.
 

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On one of my FW builds I had a similar problem. After extensive searching, it turned out that while fiddling around with the transistors and screwing down the PCB too hard, I had fractured one of the transistor legs. It was still put but not well enough to give consistence measurements / bias values.

Just a thought. :)
 
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Dennis,

The reason it is 4.75K is it looks like I mistook your direction back in post 1712:

"I had a closer look and it seems you have 22.1K for R8? If so, I suggest changing that to 27.4K (as in the latest schematics) and leave R9 at 10K. If you change R9 to 4.75K then even with max value of P1, you will have significant current flow (since you already have 110mV across 0.47 in your current setup)."

My mistake. I will change R9 to 10K and try again.

Thanks,

Chip
 
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With A Little Help From My Friends

I'm happy to report I've successfully biased my right channel.

All on my own, by researching thru the forum, I figured out I had expertly reversed the trimpots, so that was fixed.

And thanks to Dennis for sorting out my error on R9.

It's all good.

Now on to the left channel.

I can't recommend using a Variac. It really lowers the stress and limits frying parts. I will never leave home without it.
 
then you either didn't read or understood what I wrote in #2623

it could save you of massive search

I have noticed in prior posts that you often assume the newbies on here know more than we do. In this case my IQ isn't high enough to know what Iq means or why it matters. My guess is Chiptech didn't understand what you meant either :). Sadly, most of us have no idea what we are doing when we build one of these DIY amps.
 
Official Court Jester
Joined 2003
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I have noticed in prior posts that you often assume the newbies on here know more than we do. In this case my IQ isn't high enough to know what Iq means or why it matters. My guess is Chiptech didn't understand what you meant either :). Sadly, most of us have no idea what we are doing when we build one of these DIY amps.

I'm practically using small number of abbreviations, and those I'm using are worthy of becoming every DIY-er common knowledge ....... they're so important;

further , when technical matters are in case, I'm really trying to be responsible ( not serious, not same thing), so always investing some energy to be concise and clear

exactly because of that - I'm not objecting nor having difficulty to answer any further question, leading to things being more and fully clarified

that's also why I'm always insisting to call things with right name - bias is not Iq , bias is ( in most cases) voltage which is controlling Iq

while Iq is nothing else than quiescent current

I'm not having problems differentiating these two, but novices can have problem, and in most cases difference between is crucial , not just for understanding , but also for not-emptiness of someone's wallet

so - Ask And Ye Shall Receive.......

:clown:

at least, that was and still is my policy, and it works :)
 
all the way down

clarify your procedure of establishing "all the way down"

when P1 is set to max resistance, Iq is smallest possible

when P1 is set to minimal resistance, Iq is highest possible

What Choky is saying here, is that - regardless of inverse or correct orientation, the resistance provides IQ. I have no God damn clue about the physics, but I understood what he meant. I never care extremely much about pot orientation, simply measuring voltage drops and turning the pot the way that avoids blow-ups, is enough. So I don’t agree that Choky assumes too much knowledge. On the contrary, I regard him as quite patient with people like me (complete novice).

Of course, he sometimes makes it clear he is running out of patience, and remarks when lack of knowledge stops further progress. But he is never rude, and most of the time, he is very funny.

I have learned that a fair share of self-irony is good to have meeting some of Chokys advice. But he is «never» wrong. But sometimes he makes us have to think ourselves. And he absolutely ALWAYS helps us.

He is what he is, and I like it.

Like Zardos, unbeatable.
 
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Official Court Jester
Joined 2003
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Taking in account what Pa is doing to me all these years, I'm little Kitten, comparing to him.

whenever I had some question to him, best I got ( in 99% of cases) was one-liner

and then, after my tremendous struggle, some time after, I always realized that he gave me direct answer to third or fourth next logical question.

go figure

that's exact reason why I'm often writing something and asking just one question - expecting direct answer, so we can proceed further

why I'm not blasting with tirade is from various reasons - one of them is that I respect someone's lack of mileage, and want to give him right to breathe and take one thing at a time

second ( less important reason) is that I have no patience for long tirades ; longer it lasts, greater lag between my brain and what I managed to type

though - Papaway is best - you want to learn? glue sandpaper on the bench, put your elbows on ........


:rofl:

relax Boyz , feel free to ask, whatever you're not sure of
if residents see that you really care, they will always reply
 
Official Court Jester
Joined 2003
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you nutz, two reasons:

-I'm in eternal Potential Adoptee status, never to be resolved
-XS300; even in case that you know exact schematic (crumbs around, say that I can guess at least 90%, rest is always Babelfishing area), sheer amount of hardware is frightening ......... not even taking in account that powering up The Beasts is justified only when you want your Sauna functional ......

:rofl:

even XS30 is way above my head.... and needs
 
I always wanted a sauna of my own. To be clear: the XS300 clone-thing was purely a joke. I barely have a single project that hasn’t gone wrong at some point or another. I’d say that amp is maybe the one closest to impossibility of the bunch, but willing to stand corrected of course. You might have forgotten, but the joke is a reference to a joke you yourself made one time a guy -presumably a newbie - asked what was the best Papa amp to build. One of your better jokes imho :clown:

I’ll stick with my ACP+ and finishing that BA-3 reiteration :D
 
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