[BUILD] Hairball Audio - Elements

[Echo North]

Ummmm maybe. Ill desolder it and test the continuity with a dmm after that?

You could remove and test the phantom cap with your DMM.  If that's fine, check to see if any of you transformer wires other than GRY are shorted to ground. Yellow/Orange/Violet should have low Ω but more than like 2Ω.

Mike

 

[hiegdk]

Just finished my 4th Lola and having an issue with the Line button not lighting up when pressed. Anything obvious I should check (other than the solder points of the switch)?

 

[Echo North]

Just finished my 4th Lola and having an issue with the Line button not lighting up when pressed. Anything obvious I should check (other than the solder points of the switch)?

Is the line engaging? Just the light is not working?

 

[gvalles]

Hi! I just finished building my first Hairball Element Series, a Copper. I'm getting no sound out of it (tested with dynamic mic) and the when phantom power is switched on it actually measures 103v in the XLR input of my lunchbox.

I won't have time to open the unit at least until next week but I figured that this phantom power symptom could be enough of a clue of what I did wrong to someone who knows electronics and this circuit.

Thanks!

 

[Echo North]

Hi! I just finished building my first Hairball Element Series, a Copper. I'm getting no sound out of it (tested with dynamic mic) and the when phantom power is switched on it actually measures 103v in the XLR input of my lunchbox.

I won't have time to open the unit at least until next week but I figured that this phantom power symptom could be enough of a clue of what I did wrong to someone who knows electronics and this circuit.

Thanks!

AC or DC? Measured where? Referencing what?

Power is supplied by the lunchbox. My guess is a measuring error.

Make sure your edge card is clean and you have all the shorts in...check solder connections around the big caps that attach to a ground pad.

Mike

 

[gvalles]

Thank you Mike.
Your guess was absolutely right. I measured phantom power with my multimeter set do AC volts on that day. Pretty dumb. So Phantom measures correctly actually, at 47.9V from pin 1 to pins 2 and 3 and 2 and 3 measure 0v.

The sound issue persists. All I get is static. The static does increase with raising both the input and the output trims, if that's any clue.


I'll check the shorts (Copper only has one I believe) and the solder joints on the big caps on Wednesday.

AC or DC? Measured where? Referencing what?

Power is supplied by the lunchbox. My guess is a measuring error.

Make sure your edge card is clean and you have all the shorts in...check solder connections around the big caps that attach to a ground pad.

Mike

 

[gvalles]

Forget everything I wrote so far... I decided to open it up very quickly to see if there was any obvious mistake and... voilà, one component wasn't soldered on both sides... works like a charm now!

 

[darkus]

You could remove and test the phantom cap with your DMM.  If that's fine, check to see if any of you transformer wires other than GRY are shorted to ground. Yellow/Orange/Violet should have low Ω but more than like 2Ω.

Mike

Hi Mike!

I tested the 48v switch, its good. I also changed the phantom cap, still no phantom power!!  :-\

I measured the mini 1166 output transformer wires against pad 5 GND at the 500 connector:

Brown: 34.1 ohms
Red: 0.3 ohms
Green: no reading, no beep when tested continuity
Grey: no reading, no beep when tested continuity

I got the same readings from other working pre.

Whats next? I currently have 5 working coppers and this one that doesnt want to co-operate.  ???

 

[Echo North]

Hi Mike!

I tested the 48v switch, its good. I also changed the phantom cap, still no phantom power!!  :-\

I measured the mini 1166 output transformer wires against pad 5 GND at the 500 connector:

Brown: 34.1 ohms
Red: 0.3 ohms
Green: no reading, no beep when tested continuity
Grey: no reading, no beep when tested continuity

I got the same readings from other working pre.

Whats next? I currently have 5 working coppers and this one that doesnt want to co-operate.  ???

Oh I mean check the input transformer (10468) for readings to ground (green wires).

Mike

 

[darkus]

Oh I mean check the input transformer (10468) for readings to ground (green wires).

Mike

Hi, readings are:

BRN 9.5
RED 1.8
WHT 9.5
BLK 1.8
VIO no reading, no continuity
GRY 165.7
YEL 166.2
ORG 0.0

 

[Echo North]

Hi, readings are:

BRN 9.5
RED 1.8
WHT 9.5
BLK 1.8
VIO no reading, no continuity
GRY 165.7
YEL 166.2
ORG 0.0

Your primary values are way off.  Is it possible to remove BRN, RED, WHT, BLK from the PCB and remeasure against green(s)? You can keep greens in the PCB.

Mike

 

[darkus]

Your primary values are way off.  Is it possible to remove BRN, RED, WHT, BLK from the PCB and remeasure against green(s)? You can keep greens in the PCB.

Mike

Hi, here are the measurements with brn red wht and blk removed from pcb:

BRN no measurement, no continuity
RED 18.3
WHT no measurement, no continuity
BLK no measurement, no continuity

I kept green wires in the pcb.

 

[Echo North]

Hi, here are the measurements with brn red wht and blk removed from pcb:

BRN no measurement, no continuity
RED 18.3
WHT no measurement, no continuity
BLK no measurement, no continuity

I kept green wires in the pcb.

What is the Ω between BRN and RED?  If you have a reading between BRN and RED (you should), check between BRN and green again, you should have something there.

Mike

 

[darkus]

What is the Ω between BRN and RED?  If you have a reading between BRN and RED (you should), check between BRN and green again, you should have something there.

Mike

Hi,

This is getting really strange.

Brn-red 16.8
Brn-grn 30.8

I swear god I didnt get continuity between brn-grn this morning when I posted the results above, and I tried several times. I checked a 1k resistor with my DMM and I have confirmed that its not broken.

I could try to swap the transformer from a working copper, if you do think the optrafo is the reason why Im not getting 48v. I have measured the rack slot and I know its giving me 48v like it should

 

[Echo North]

Hi,

This is getting really strange.

Brn-red 16.8
Brn-grn 110

I swear god I didnt get continuity between brn-grn this morning when I posted the results above, and I tried several times. I checked a 1k resistor with my DMM and I have confirmed that its not broken.

I could try to swap the transformer from a working copper, if you do think the optrafo is the reason why Im not getting 48v. I have measured the rack slot and I know its giving me 48v like it should

It happens, some times you don't get continuity because wires are hanging around and pads are weird.

What you're getting makes sense for a bad input tx.

Shoot us an email, we'll send you a new one.

Mike

 

[Kevinkiley]

Hello!
First time building a mic pre. I’ve built some guitar pedals and a microphone before so I’m not a complete novice.
I just finished the copper and I’m getting externally low output from the mic pre with a 57 plugged in. The DI works/sounds great but with the gain all the way up the pre barely registers in protools

Here’s a pic
https://imgur.com/gallery/6nLqY
I can upload more if needed

Thanks!
Kevin

 

[Echo North]

Hello!
First time building a mic pre. I’ve built some guitar pedals and a microphone before so I’m not a complete novice.
I just finished the copper and I’m getting externally low output from the mic pre with a 57 plugged in. The DI works/sounds great but with the gain all the way up the pre barely registers in protools

Here’s a pic
https://imgur.com/gallery/6nLqY
I can upload more if needed

Thanks!
Kevin

Does the DI sound too low as well?

 

[Kevinkiley]

Does the DI sound too low as well?

No the DI is perfect!

Thanks
Kevin

 

[Echo North]

No the DI is perfect!

Thanks
Kevin

That's super weird.

I wonder if your relay is not flipping over to the mic input.  If the relay isn't being powered correctly it just sits in its default mode which is DI mode.

Check all those DI part values and soldering.

Mike

 

[Kevinkiley]

That's super weird.

I wonder if your relay is not flipping over to the mic input.  If the relay isn't being powered correctly it just sits in its default mode which is DI mode.

Check all those DI part values and soldering.

Mike

Got it. Resoldered all the points in the DI section and it working great!

Thanks for the help mike! looking forward to building some more Hairball stuff!