[BUILD] Hairball Audio - Elements

[Echo North]

thanks, will do

Your site seems to be down, getting error: "Cannot connect to database"

Ya it's down for a few minutes.  You can email "info (at) hairballaudio (dot) com" with your address and part missing.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[mrtomcat]

site is back up

I sent the message

thanks

Thomas

 

[Sinkia]

Hey Mike !

I have double check all the soldering point and have turn Q600 & Q601 in the right side, everything appears to be in good order ! I'll have a session on tomorrow where I'll have a chance to test it… hope everything will be fine !

Thanks for your help !

Best
Adrien

 

[mrtomcat]

missing resistor arrived.

Thank you!!!

 

[Sinkia]

Have done my first session today with the element copper.. the sound of this unit is AWESOME !

female singer -> telefunken ak-47 -> element copper = tons of love !

Thank you so much for developing some great stuff like it !

Next stop is gonna be a lola I guess.. just for different flavor !

Cheers !

 

[mrtomcat]

Hi Mike,

I am in the process of stuffing my second Element Copper and on R604 and R605 it states to use 3R5 resistors however my kit came with two 4R5 Resistors instead.

Is that safe/ok or do I need to get the 3R5 ?

thanks

Thomas

 

[CiaoPatsy]

Been having a strange issue with my Copper.

Works fine and sounds great until the output randomly goes down by around half. Audio isn't distorted when it does this, it just gets way quieter and I have to jack up the gain to get it to a nominal level.

It will work perfectly for hours and then do this seemingly at random, or other times it may be turned on and right away be like this.

I've reflowed all solder points multiple times with no luck....any other ideas?

 

[Echo North]

Have done my first session today with the element copper.. the sound of this unit is AWESOME !

female singer -> telefunken ak-47 -> element copper = tons of love !

Thank you so much for developing some great stuff like it !

Next stop is gonna be a lola I guess.. just for different flavor !

Cheers !

Awesome!

 

[Echo North]

Been having a strange issue with my Copper.

Works fine and sounds great until the output randomly goes down by around half. Audio isn't distorted when it does this, it just gets way quieter and I have to jack up the gain to get it to a nominal level.

It will work perfectly for hours and then do this seemingly at random, or other times it may be turned on and right away be like this.

I've reflowed all solder points multiple times with no luck....any other ideas?

That does sound like a loose or cold joint. Something making intermittent connection.  I would check everything including the output stage.  If you have any Grayhill boards reflow all of that those connections including to the main PCB.

 

[mrtomcat]

I just finished my second Elements Copper Pre Amp...(my 5th Hairball build all together )
I ran into a problem with this one.
After I was done there was no sound at all, so I started checking and the capacitor in C401 was dead. So I ordered a new one from Mouser.
It came today and I replaced it. Now I am getting sound but not even close to the volume of the first copper.
I have to up input and output by 3 steps each more than on the first copper.

Is there anything you can think of to check. This is where my electronics knowledge ends...

Could it be the capacitor in C401?  I thought I had the exact one of the kit but the one that came with the kit shows .1 uf and 63v and one that came from mouser says .1 uf 100 volt (mouser part 594-2222-370-22104)
since the BOM didn't specify the voltage I did not pay attention to this...I probably should have.

Could that be the reason or is there anything else you can think off

The unit works and it's not the end of the world but I would really like to get them both as close as possible.

thanks

Thomas

 

[Echo North]

I just finished my second Elements Copper Pre Amp...(my 5th Hairball build all together )
I ran into a problem with this one.
After I was done there was no sound at all, so I started checking and the capacitor in C401 was dead. So I ordered a new one from Mouser.
It came today and I replaced it. Now I am getting sound but not even close to the volume of the first copper.
I have to up input and output by 3 steps each more than on the first copper.

Is there anything you can think of to check. This is where my electronics knowledge ends...

Could it be the capacitor in C401?  I thought I had the exact one of the kit but the one that came with the kit shows .1 uf and 63v and one that came from mouser says .1 uf 100 volt (mouser part 594-2222-370-22104)
since the BOM didn't specify the voltage I did not pay attention to this...I probably should have.

Could that be the reason or is there anything else you can think off

The unit works and it's not the end of the world but I would really like to get them both as close as possible.

thanks

Thomas

The cap voltage would not cause that.

Low volume could be a lot of things:
-Gain resistor swapped values
-Any improper resistor value or cap value
-Improper transformer wiring
-missing a link
-bad op-amp (switch the op-amp with your other build...does the low gain follow the op-amp?)

We also have a $50 flat rate repair on those.

Mike

 

[mrtomcat]

I just finished my second Elements Copper Pre Amp...(my 5th Hairball build all together )
I ran into a problem with this one.
After I was done there was no sound at all, so I started checking and the capacitor in C401 was dead. So I ordered a new one from Mouser.
It came today and I replaced it. Now I am getting sound but not even close to the volume of the first copper.
I have to up input and output by 3 steps each more than on the first copper.

Is there anything you can think of to check. This is where my electronics knowledge ends...

Could it be the capacitor in C401?  I thought I had the exact one of the kit but the one that came with the kit shows .1 uf and 63v and one that came from mouser says .1 uf 100 volt (mouser part 594-2222-370-22104)
since the BOM didn't specify the voltage I did not pay attention to this...I probably should have.

Could that be the reason or is there anything else you can think off

The unit works and it's not the end of the world but I would really like to get them both as close as possible.

thanks

Thomas

The cap voltage would not cause that.

Low volume could be a lot of things:
-Gain resistor swapped values
-Any improper resistor value or cap value
-Improper transformer wiring
-missing a link
-bad op-amp (switch the op-amp with your other build...does the low gain follow the op-amp?)

We also have a $50 flat rate repair on those.

Mike

I exchanged the op amps, same result. I compared the values visually and with a Meter between the two units and only R501 was different in readings (visually the same). The Resistor on the second copper read 0.22 (20k setting) and the first one 0.33... they are both supposed to be 4.7k as you know. But I know once in the PCB readings can be off. So I took the one from the second copper out and it does read 4.7k, so I put it back in.

Both seem to be otherwise identical.  All the Caps return a similar value...again, I know on the PCB it's tough to get correct readings and visually everything looks the same.
transformers are wired correctly as well.
The other strange thing is that the second copper sounds completely different, much brighter than the first...both sound fantastic but not alike.
So I am not sure what to do... I wanted a somewhat matched pair.

Since part of this whole thing is to learn I am a bit hesitant to ship it in... but might end up doing so.

Any further ideas?

 

[Echo North]

I just finished my second Elements Copper Pre Amp...(my 5th Hairball build all together )
I ran into a problem with this one.
After I was done there was no sound at all, so I started checking and the capacitor in C401 was dead. So I ordered a new one from Mouser.
It came today and I replaced it. Now I am getting sound but not even close to the volume of the first copper.
I have to up input and output by 3 steps each more than on the first copper.

Is there anything you can think of to check. This is where my electronics knowledge ends...

Could it be the capacitor in C401?  I thought I had the exact one of the kit but the one that came with the kit shows .1 uf and 63v and one that came from mouser says .1 uf 100 volt (mouser part 594-2222-370-22104)
since the BOM didn't specify the voltage I did not pay attention to this...I probably should have.

Could that be the reason or is there anything else you can think off

The unit works and it's not the end of the world but I would really like to get them both as close as possible.

thanks

Thomas

The cap voltage would not cause that.

Low volume could be a lot of things:
-Gain resistor swapped values
-Any improper resistor value or cap value
-Improper transformer wiring
-missing a link
-bad op-amp (switch the op-amp with your other build...does the low gain follow the op-amp?)

We also have a $50 flat rate repair on those.

Mike

I exchanged the op amps, same result. I compared the values visually and with a Meter between the two units and only R501 was different in readings (visually the same). The Resistor on the second copper read 0.22 (20k setting) and the first one 0.33... they are both supposed to be 4.7k as you know. But I know once in the PCB readings can be off. So I took the one from the second copper out and it does read 4.7k, so I put it back in.

Both seem to be otherwise identical.  All the Caps return a similar value...again, I know on the PCB it's tough to get correct readings and visually everything looks the same.
transformers are wired correctly as well.
The other strange thing is that the second copper sounds completely different, much brighter than the first...both sound fantastic but not alike.
So I am not sure what to do... I wanted a somewhat matched pair.

So the issues didn't follow the op-amps?

Does the one still have low gain?

Mike

Since part of this whole thing is to learn I am a bit hesitant to ship it in... but might end up doing so.

Any further ideas?

 

[mrtomcat]

Yep the second unit still has the lower volume

 

[Echo North]

Yep the second unit still has the lower volume

That's probably also why it sounds so weird. 

Set your DMM to read resistance (Ω) and put one lead on a green lead of the input transformer. Now test the Ω between the green and each of the other leads and not the Ω reading for each color to green.  Test the other unit and see if you see anything different.

Mike

 

[mrtomcat]

Yep the second unit still has the lower volume

That's probably also why it sounds so weird. 

Set your DMM to read resistance (Ω) and put one lead on a green lead of the input transformer. Now test the Ω between the green and each of the other leads and not the Ω reading for each color to green.  Test the other unit and see if you see anything different.

Mike

thanks, will do

 

[mrtomcat]

Yellow, Grey and Violet show different readings on the units.

Bad Copper:                                      Good Copper
at 2k                                                      at 2k
Orange: .002                                    Orange: .003 
Yellow:  .002                                    Yellow:  .174
Grey:      .002                                    Grey:      .172
Violet:    .002                                      Violet:    .333

at 20k                                                    at 20k
Black:      .24                                        Black:      .24
White:    .24                                      White:    .25
Red:          .25                                        Red:          .25
Brown:    .26                                        Brown:    .26

Faulty Input transformer?

 

[Echo North]

Yellow, Grey and Violet show different readings on the units.

Bad Copper:                                      Good Copper
at 2k                                                      at 2k
Orange: .002                                    Orange: .003 
Yellow:  .002                                    Yellow:  .174
Grey:      .002                                    Grey:      .172
Violet:    .002                                      Violet:    .333

at 20k                                                    at 20k
Black:      .24                                        Black:      .24
White:    .24                                      White:    .25
Red:          .25                                        Red:          .25
Brown:    .26                                        Brown:    .26

Faulty Input transformer?

Looks that way.  Send me an email. Info at hairballaudio dot com

Mike

 

[mrtomcat]

new Input Transformer arrived today and yes, that was it... all great now.
This baby sounds fantastic!!!

 

[mrtomcat]

now that my bad copper is a great copper the other copper has a bit of humming I noticed

It's not too bad, I can lower the input and up the output to compensate but since my other copper is absolutely noiseless I would like to try to get this one there as well.

I checked the slot and cabling and they are fine so it's definitely the copper itself.
The wires on the transformers are as short as it can be and the soldering is clean.
Other than that are there any usual suspects I can check on?

thanks