[BUILD] TBDD

[horvitz]

Thanks, guys!  Yeah, I'm kind of excited for it all to come together.  ;D

 

[fazeka]

Holy delay lines, Batman! That is awesome!

 

[home_listening]

Great Looking Project! Def love the look of the rack version and am keen, but due to a few other projects on at the moment can't totally commit...

Are you planning on keeping this in stock or should I jump while I've got the chance?

Again, lovely looking project, been after one of these for a while.

 

[horvitz]

Well, it's hard to say what the future holds but at this point, I intend to restock whenever I run out.  At the rate they're going right now, I should have the 500s around for the next few months at least and when the rack version comes in, there will be plenty for a while.

  Brian

 

[fazeka]

Hi Brian,

Curious as to the rack version prototyping progress. Any news/updates/pics? =)

Thanks,
Chris

 

[horvitz]

Good timing, Chris.  I just received the second prototype boards on Monday.  Gotta find some time to get them built and tested now.  Hopefully I'll be able to report back within a week.

  Brian

 

[fazeka]

Hey Brian,

Any success?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[horvitz]

Coming along.  I've got it all build and it seems in good shape.  Ran into a snag with the left channel though that I just haven't had time to diagnose.  I think it's actually a component issue rather than anything with the layout.  Will get into it as soon as I have a moment.  Not long now!

  Brian

 

[fazeka]

Hey Brian, that is good to hear that it's coming along. I'm sure it's nothing more than a hokey component. Thanks for the update!

 

[rob_gould]

Hi Brian,

I've mostly finished stuffing the boards, but I'm just wondering about cleaning the boards.

Are the relays and trimmers sealed?  Or should I wash the board before soldering in these components?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[horvitz]

Rob,

Both relays and trimmers are sealed. 

If you want, Bourns has an extensive process document which covers soldering and cleaning:
http://www.bourns.com/data/global/pdfs/ap_proc.pdf

Also, there is a quick blurb from Omron regarding cleaning in their datasheet:
http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/pdf/en-g5v2.pdf

  Brian

 

[rob_gould]

Wow - that Bourns doc looks great!

Many thanks!

 

[rob_gould]

It's done!

And the 51x rack starts to fill up!

I just need to get some kind of test jig sorted so I can calibrate it.

Thanks Brian!

 

[horvitz]

Awesome!  Very nice, sir.  Looks like plenty of room for some EQs in that rack  ;D

 

[fazeka]

Sorry to be a pest, but it's been quiet wrt the rack version. I guess you've not had time to iron out the left channel issue?

Chris

 

[horvitz]

Hey, Chris.  Yeah, sorry it's been a while on this.  So the good news is that I did resolve my problems on the left channel and the thing works great!  Sounds really nice.  The only thing that remains is that I'm not quite pleased with how the bypass works (it's a little more complicated than the 500 version).  I've been pretty pressed for time lately so I haven't been able to truly dig into it.  As soon as I can though, hopefully soon, I'll get into that and we can get going.  I'll update as soon as I can.  Thanks for being patient.

  Brian

 

[fazeka]

Hi Brian,

Didn't know the bypass was going to be different than your 500 version.

I did sense that you're busy with other things. However, I do appreciate the update. Just more curious/more excited than anything else. I'll be patient. 

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Biasrocks]

Hi Brian

Just finished my build and powered up.

It seems IC207, 208 are getting hot as well as the 22R resistor is a bit scorched.

The IC's are inserted correctly, no bent pins. Checked the solder joints and they appear okay.

Any ideas where I can start looking?

 

[Biasrocks]

Bottom side

 

[horvitz]

Well, interestingly I've actually cooked that exact same resistor before.  In my case, it was a very foolish PSU hookup that shoved something like -40V into the thing where we want -16V.  Now you probably didn't do anything like that, but I'm not sure just how far you can push it before that R is toast so you may want to double check what you've got there.  Any chance that it saw -24V?

On one side of that resistor (toward the rear of the board), you should see -15.1V or so.  The other side goes to IC206 pin 5, IC207 pin 3, and IC208 pin 7 and on that side you should get about 14.9V.  I imagine that you are at least going to have to replace the resistor.

If the voltage isn't looking right, try removing all three of those ICs and see if it's one of those doing something bad.  Fortunately, that resistor kind of acts like a circuit breaker to protect those ICs, so hopefully they aren't damaged.

  Brian