Yeah... Maybe.... He has oviously "left the "building" ..... (get that??)
after his 3. post, so guess there´s no reason to continue
why?
nothing sweeter than continuing ruining already doomed thread ....... that way thread is not doomed anymore , it have therapeutic purpose
I'm glad you got the amp built and it's working. Starting out here can be overwhelming. I think this is the best site with the most knowledgeable group of members. The info and help is all here. But finding it or asking your questions in the right place, can be tricky.
I'm sorry things got a bit snarky on the thread. Like anything on the internet, things can go downhill quickly when we are all sitting behind a keyboard.
I'm a junior member here. Certainly, not knowledgeable enough to answer complex build questions. I can point you in the right direction for more help with specific questions about how the site works, how the Diyaudiostore works, it's relationship to First Watt and how Papa keeps us all entertained with his generosity.
Send me a PM, if I can help. Maybe we can get you straightened out off line, with the hope of getting you back online, soon.
So What did you find that was wrong? It is highly unlikely that out of four 0.47 ohm resistors that you would have two that were fine and two that were faulty and manage to put the two good ones into one channel and two bad ones into the other channel. I'm also trying to work out how the 100 ohm gate resistor would have burned. The most likely thing I can think of is a short around the output mosfet, either it wasn't insulated from the heatsink properly or perhaps a solder bridge.
So If you didn't just replace the resistors and it worked. What did you need to do to get the amp working?
For anyone reading this thread, it appears the OP bought and F5 parts kit and this is the thread where he posted his problems. F5 resistors blown
Tony.
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You would probably be better purchasing a pcb from a diyaudio member that has a running thread and is providing help for people.
When you buy parts, buy at least 2 more of virtually everything.
It's good to have spare parts on hand. Saves a lot of frustration.
You could allways buy a fake A S S e-bay kit with no support and all fake parts and instructions. that would be your ONLY option. Good luck.
BTW. Don't expect much support from the forum with those kits.
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For the sake of completeness and openness I will respond publicly to this thread. Philip has an extensive communication history with the store's helpdesk.
They are totally unrelated.
The diyAudio Store started stocking (and currently stocks) clones of some First Watt boards for the benefit and convenience of the community, so there is a ready "board library" of high quality PCBs the community can trust and rely on.
First Watt products are only sold on the FIRST WATT website and via First Watt dealers, domestic and international here: FIRST WATT
We do appreciate your feedback, however I note that you do not appear to have been happy with the quality of any of our boards. I find this feedback, which has been noted, very interesting.
Here is a quote from another customer I received not 12 hours ago about the very same board you said was "not very good quality":
"I built my PSU yesterday – the board is a work of art, really nice quality!".
We receive these kinds of messages regularly. It's really interesting how two people can see the same thing but come to such wildly different conclusions, but I do appreciate your feedback and it has been noted and I'm very sorry that you have not been satisfied. I would suggest that none of our boards will meet your expectations.
You are absolutely correct that technical electronics support is not offered by the store. The helpdesk is manned by myself and Elena, to whom I am forever grateful. She has been my rock over the years, holding the fort for both diyAudio and the diyAudio store's customer service helpdesk. Neither of us are electrical engineers and we don't provide any kind of technical electronics support for which we are not qualified. Orders, shipping, missing parts - we got you and revel in putting a smile on customer's faces. Elena's new title is "chief happiness officer" and that sets the tone for what we're trying to do - make builders happy.
For all technical questions for which we are not qualified to answer, there are hundreds of amazingly generous and entirely qualified forum members who are only too happy to give builders the answers to technical questions that they need.
The forum is the place to get that support. This is clearly documented throughout the store - technical support from the forums, all non-technical order stuff from the store's helpdesk.
If you would like to buy from a store that can resolve all your technical problems, particularly with mains powered projects, you definitely should not buy from the diyAudio Store. I agree with you that we can't provide you with the support you need, and have suggested to you that you refrain from making any more purchases from us for that reason. You should only purchase from the diyAudio store if you are comfortable with getting your technical questions answered here.
However I believe these issues are not the only issues you have been upset with.
If I go through your ticket history I can see you have been unhappy with numerous things, right from the moment you joined the forum. Perhaps this is a language issue, but your tone with the helpdesk staff has always been very sharp and abrupt.
At this point, I'm really not sure what to say. I think there might be a gap in expectation here. You have not noticed several well documented warnings. The PCBs you used (F5 and PSU) are made by our Dutch partners to the highest standards and we receive rave reviews of them. We provide tested and matched JFETs and MOSFETs. We collate parts from Tier 1 suppliers (Primarily Mouser and Digikey), to ensure builders get genuine, fake-free parts, conveniently all in one bag.
If something is missing that's on us. If you start soldering stuff and powering stuff up connected to mains power, without having done enough due diligence to check you are using a BOM or build guide that matches your board, and not relying on either your experience or the community to ensure everything is perfect before you power it up, and especially if you hire a 3rd party to do that for you, that is not something we can help with and I agree with you that you should look elsewhere to get the kind of support you're looking for.
They are totally unrelated.
The diyAudio Store started stocking (and currently stocks) clones of some First Watt boards for the benefit and convenience of the community, so there is a ready "board library" of high quality PCBs the community can trust and rely on.
First Watt products are only sold on the FIRST WATT website and via First Watt dealers, domestic and international here: FIRST WATT
We do appreciate your feedback, however I note that you do not appear to have been happy with the quality of any of our boards. I find this feedback, which has been noted, very interesting.
Here is a quote from another customer I received not 12 hours ago about the very same board you said was "not very good quality":
"I built my PSU yesterday – the board is a work of art, really nice quality!".
We receive these kinds of messages regularly. It's really interesting how two people can see the same thing but come to such wildly different conclusions, but I do appreciate your feedback and it has been noted and I'm very sorry that you have not been satisfied. I would suggest that none of our boards will meet your expectations.
You are absolutely correct that technical electronics support is not offered by the store. The helpdesk is manned by myself and Elena, to whom I am forever grateful. She has been my rock over the years, holding the fort for both diyAudio and the diyAudio store's customer service helpdesk. Neither of us are electrical engineers and we don't provide any kind of technical electronics support for which we are not qualified. Orders, shipping, missing parts - we got you and revel in putting a smile on customer's faces. Elena's new title is "chief happiness officer" and that sets the tone for what we're trying to do - make builders happy.
For all technical questions for which we are not qualified to answer, there are hundreds of amazingly generous and entirely qualified forum members who are only too happy to give builders the answers to technical questions that they need.
The forum is the place to get that support. This is clearly documented throughout the store - technical support from the forums, all non-technical order stuff from the store's helpdesk.
If you would like to buy from a store that can resolve all your technical problems, particularly with mains powered projects, you definitely should not buy from the diyAudio Store. I agree with you that we can't provide you with the support you need, and have suggested to you that you refrain from making any more purchases from us for that reason. You should only purchase from the diyAudio store if you are comfortable with getting your technical questions answered here.
However I believe these issues are not the only issues you have been upset with.
If I go through your ticket history I can see you have been unhappy with numerous things, right from the moment you joined the forum. Perhaps this is a language issue, but your tone with the helpdesk staff has always been very sharp and abrupt.
- You had problems trying to create an account and work out how to post on diyAudio
- You had difficulty finding parts for the speaker protection kit and took issue with us because you couldn't find alternative parts
- You didn't read the warnings on the old (and clearly marked) build guides and used the wrong one for your F5, despite clear warnings on the product page of "Build Guide revision 1.0 for use with diyAudio F5 V2.0 PCBs" and "This is V3.0 of the boards, and it should be assembled using the F5v3 Build Guide".
- You soldered in a blade pin into your PSU PCB, but then couldn't manage to get it out, eventually purchasing a whole resoldering station to do so. I do understand that removing a blade pin might be so difficult and you may have soldered and desoldered so many times that you need a whole new PCB. We offered and you accepted a 50% discount on a new PCB because the absolute last thing we want to do is make money from someone having some difficulty. I can tell you right now however that if you had been more polite to my staff we would have sent you a replacement for free. However I'll be honest with you - we don't roll out the red carpet to people being aggressive. Again, perhaps this is a language issue.
- You told us you used a 3rd party to complete your F5 kit, which you soldered yourself but did not test. This 3rd party who took over the work you started is something over which we, nor you, had control, but you blamed us for a defective diode, despite you hiring this 3rd party to perform thorough tests of the work you had done on the board
- I see via the links in this thread you've had issues with resistors blowing up, I'm not sure if that is the same issue you were explaining to us about your diode or (yet) another issue
- You asked us if our MOSFETs were actually tested. Yes, they are, by either an electronic technician with 20 years experience or a certain gentleman who has a four letter last name.
- We offer a cheap shipping method for shipping to the UK. It has some problems, but because it's so much cheaper than anything else we still offer it with a clear warning "Customers have reported problems with these local couriers, you may need to call them yourself to handle any problems". You clicked on that, it's in your invoice, but then you got angry with us that you had to do what you knew you had to do (or perhaps you didn't read the warning)
At this point, I'm really not sure what to say. I think there might be a gap in expectation here. You have not noticed several well documented warnings. The PCBs you used (F5 and PSU) are made by our Dutch partners to the highest standards and we receive rave reviews of them. We provide tested and matched JFETs and MOSFETs. We collate parts from Tier 1 suppliers (Primarily Mouser and Digikey), to ensure builders get genuine, fake-free parts, conveniently all in one bag.
If something is missing that's on us. If you start soldering stuff and powering stuff up connected to mains power, without having done enough due diligence to check you are using a BOM or build guide that matches your board, and not relying on either your experience or the community to ensure everything is perfect before you power it up, and especially if you hire a 3rd party to do that for you, that is not something we can help with and I agree with you that you should look elsewhere to get the kind of support you're looking for.
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I don't believe you'll be able to find them any more. I think you are after a full kit (one that contains everything) backed up by phone support...?
This place here is not too bad, once you get to know it. You can get all the parts that are crucial (PCB's, most of the parts, unobtanium JFET's), and the support is also available. In particular, the Pass Labs forum is truly exceptional.
Also, you'll truly appreciate things in life... if you struggle a bit to get them, so a bit of learning, mistakes, corrective actions, help on these forums.... makes that amp sound much better + it will pay dividends on your next build.
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My experience with the DiyAudio store has been great. Many thanks to those who are involved in making the store work! When I first started DIY in 2009, the only option to get the boards and matched transistor sets I needed was through a group buy, and as a new diyer, I didn't know who I was sending my money to or what I would get back in return, and there was certainly no thought about a "warranty" on the parts or boards. All of these group buy experiences turned out very well, and I am grateful to those who organized them, but having these parts readily available to order from a "store" is very convenient.
Thank you Extreme_Boky for your encouragement. Yes, you are correct. I am after a full kit with phone support. E.g audionote kit.
I did not want to get into details with my problems and the private correspondences with the store because I do not think this forum is the right place to do it and it is, after all, a private matter but I will address Jason's points since he has brought it up. Just to be clear, these are my experiences when I built the amp. Others are more likely to be skillful.
Just so you know, I started this project in Jan and it has taken about 6 months to complete. I had to buy 2x F5 parts kits, 2 sets of F5 boards, 2 PSU board, 1 quad JETs set, one soft start board, one speaker protection board from diyaudiostore + all the other components from the recommended companies Mouser and Digikey. I also had to buy transistors from another source to replace faulty ones... all to build one F5 amp.
On delivery: I received 3 separate orders from Diystore. Each time paying custom fees and handling charges. The first order took about 2 months to get to the UK. I contacted royal mail myself to ask where the order was (as requested in your clear warning), I was told by royal mail that only the sender can do this so I contacted diyaudiostore to request that you contact royal mail to trace the parcel because the parcel was in your name. I was then told by the store that it was my problem and I should not expect any help from the store. Regardless of the method chosen (FedEx, UPS, Royal Mail, DPD), at least in the UK, it is the sender's responsibility to ensure that the goods arrive as I had explained to you in my emails. I do not have a problem with contacting the local courier as asked (and I did this) but they told me that only you could contact them. If the package was lost, only you could claim the insurance. Even if I had used the expensive delivery option, it would be the same. Only the sender can claim.
Quality of goods: I had problems with the F5 and the PSU boards specifically to do with the tightness of the blade fit and the small sizes of the holes for the transistors and the LEDs. Initially, I used desolder strips to remove them. This did not fully remove the solder and left a film of solder in the holes. When I tried to remove it with a tool, the copper track, or the contact lifted. It was not a one-off occurrence. As you mentioned, I even bought a desoldering gun to help me but because the holes were too small, the gun could not suck the solder out properly and the same problem remained.
components: 2 blown MOSFETs, and one ZXT500 which behaved like a resistor. I don't know why these were blown and I don't know how to test the transistors and this was why I asked the question if the transistors were tested. I had to throw away all the JFETs for safety reasons. Replacement parts bought elsewhere work fine.
On documentation: I informed the store that the relay listed in the BOM for the speaker protection kit was out of production and asked if the store could update the BOM for the benefit of other users. I was told that it was not the store's responsibility to maintain even though it is listed on your website.
I bought the parts online in Jan/Feb and asked the store when they arrived and searched the Diyaudio forum for the build guide as it was not included in the bought kit. I searched and the v2 version came up. I did not notice the link on your website because the parts arrived 2 months later so I had forgotten by that time otherwise I would have used it.
The net result of all of this is that I wanted to see if there was another shop that serves my needs better. That was why I posted the query. As we both agree that the Diystore is not suitable for me so I will not build another amp using the store again. I am grateful for all the generous support received by the members.
I understand now that there is not an alternative place to buy firstwatt clone parts.
I have said all I want to say on the subject so I will not post again.
Philip
I did not want to get into details with my problems and the private correspondences with the store because I do not think this forum is the right place to do it and it is, after all, a private matter but I will address Jason's points since he has brought it up. Just to be clear, these are my experiences when I built the amp. Others are more likely to be skillful.
Just so you know, I started this project in Jan and it has taken about 6 months to complete. I had to buy 2x F5 parts kits, 2 sets of F5 boards, 2 PSU board, 1 quad JETs set, one soft start board, one speaker protection board from diyaudiostore + all the other components from the recommended companies Mouser and Digikey. I also had to buy transistors from another source to replace faulty ones... all to build one F5 amp.
On delivery: I received 3 separate orders from Diystore. Each time paying custom fees and handling charges. The first order took about 2 months to get to the UK. I contacted royal mail myself to ask where the order was (as requested in your clear warning), I was told by royal mail that only the sender can do this so I contacted diyaudiostore to request that you contact royal mail to trace the parcel because the parcel was in your name. I was then told by the store that it was my problem and I should not expect any help from the store. Regardless of the method chosen (FedEx, UPS, Royal Mail, DPD), at least in the UK, it is the sender's responsibility to ensure that the goods arrive as I had explained to you in my emails. I do not have a problem with contacting the local courier as asked (and I did this) but they told me that only you could contact them. If the package was lost, only you could claim the insurance. Even if I had used the expensive delivery option, it would be the same. Only the sender can claim.
Quality of goods: I had problems with the F5 and the PSU boards specifically to do with the tightness of the blade fit and the small sizes of the holes for the transistors and the LEDs. Initially, I used desolder strips to remove them. This did not fully remove the solder and left a film of solder in the holes. When I tried to remove it with a tool, the copper track, or the contact lifted. It was not a one-off occurrence. As you mentioned, I even bought a desoldering gun to help me but because the holes were too small, the gun could not suck the solder out properly and the same problem remained.
components: 2 blown MOSFETs, and one ZXT500 which behaved like a resistor. I don't know why these were blown and I don't know how to test the transistors and this was why I asked the question if the transistors were tested. I had to throw away all the JFETs for safety reasons. Replacement parts bought elsewhere work fine.
On documentation: I informed the store that the relay listed in the BOM for the speaker protection kit was out of production and asked if the store could update the BOM for the benefit of other users. I was told that it was not the store's responsibility to maintain even though it is listed on your website.
I bought the parts online in Jan/Feb and asked the store when they arrived and searched the Diyaudio forum for the build guide as it was not included in the bought kit. I searched and the v2 version came up. I did not notice the link on your website because the parts arrived 2 months later so I had forgotten by that time otherwise I would have used it.
The net result of all of this is that I wanted to see if there was another shop that serves my needs better. That was why I posted the query. As we both agree that the Diystore is not suitable for me so I will not build another amp using the store again. I am grateful for all the generous support received by the members.
I understand now that there is not an alternative place to buy firstwatt clone parts.
I have said all I want to say on the subject so I will not post again.
Philip
Misrepresentative nonsense. You said you'd missed a delivery, we told you you needed to get in touch with the courier and we apologized for having to ask you to do some "annoying legwork" (which you acknowledge you were forewarned about).
We are not mind readers, and you never contacted us again.
Everything the store sends is fully insured and customers are guaranteed to get their goods or a refund, period.
The rest of your comments contain similar fantasy, bordering on slander and totally misrepresentative to other people reading this thread. You can't go around saying people said things they didn't say. You can say "I got the feeling that X" but you can't say "The store told me X" just because you got that "feeling".
Thread closed. Please be more careful with your words when you post in public.
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