official GDIY51PSU Help & Support Thread

[zayance]

What?  Do all channels? Did I miss something? But won't this F*ck my system or something? (voice in head ) "No. No. No. Boy! Just do all channels! "

I don't get why you're flipped out, that connection just gets the Pin 1 of the XLR, (default XLR GND BTW) to the PCB GND, nothing much, no harm, it's like simple XLR cable soldering....
Nothing is hard just put your mind to it, frustration is ok and has to be one motivation, when flipped out stop your voice in your head, calm down, drink a tea, think about it, ask yourself easy questions, like here "What is XLR ground" type it on google, search around, move on etc..... been there

 

[unwrittenmike]

Thanks silent:arts

I'll make a plan to insulate it just in case. haha

Thanks,
Mike

 

[briomusic]

@new soul rebel:
you might want to have a look at the 511 rack help thread, I had phantom power problems too, they can be solved with jumpers (or hardwiring the grounding)
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=37438.msg467434#msg467434

 

[sahib]

....., Cemal has deftly floated his way through my issues while maintaining his position as King Don of the 51x world!

With pleasure but the kingdom of 511 has 3 rulers.

.....Until I began working my way along the rack. It seems that the first two channels work perfectly but channels 3-11 don't work at all. Hahahahahah/LOL. Its F*cking typical!

If channel 1 and 2 are working fine then the problem must be on the 511 rack rather than the psu.

 

[[silent:arts]]

If channel 1 and 2 are working fine then the problem must be on the 511 rack rather than the psu.

correct.

since you left out all jumpers and have phantom power problems:
the female Neutriks Pin1 is connected to chassis internally.
it might happen some connector / screws make an electrical contact to the chassis, while others doesn't.
this would answer the question channel one and two versus others.
put in the jumpers like suggested by others, and I'm sure all will work.

 

[jsteiger]

the female Neutriks Pin1 is connected to chassis internally.

Hi Volker,

I just checked and I have no continuity between Gnd and Chassis on my assembled backplane. This is good as I do not want it there. I don't think that they are internally connected on the Neutrik PCB mount XLR. I could be wrong... ???  I don't have any raw connectors here, they are at the shop.

Best, Jeff

 

[New Soul Rebel]

....., Cemal has deftly floated his way through my issues while maintaining his position as King Don of the 51x world!

With pleasure but the kingdom of 511 has 3 rulers.

hahah, Jeff, Cemal and Volker - the sheiks of the United 511 Emirates!

 

[jsteiger]

Matt,

Did you get your issues sorted out?

Best, Jeff

 

[[silent:arts]]

I just checked and I have no continuity between Gnd and Chassis on my assembled backplane. This is good as I do not want it there. I don't think that they are internally connected on the Neutrik PCB mount XLR. I could be wrong... ???

http://www.neutrik.com/fl/en/audio/210_t2_674472471/NC3FBV1-M25_detail.aspx

however, any powder coating / lacquer might protect the contact ...

 

[jsteiger]

Oh...I just remembered. I supplied my own XLR's for my case as we were short one set on the first batch. I myself have the ones with the plastic shell.  8)

 

[horvitz]

Hi guys.  So, if I could beg some indulgence on what I'm sure is going turn out to be something stupid, I could use some wisdom here.  I got my PSU built out yesterday and all seemed well.  Everything mounted up, fired up, and good voltages at the outputs on all 5 rails.    The on-board LEDs didn't light, but I stuffed this board like 8 months ago and never could check until now.  It was working anyway, so cool.

I'm doing the front mount fuses and LEDs, so I ran all the wires up front and put in one fuse (no LED yet).  Fired it up, and nothing.. dead air.  Figured I blew a fuse maybe, or whatever so I started looking at it.  Fuses are fine.  Checked my wiring, all fine.  Disconnected the wiring to the front, still nothing. Then I started walking through the thing.. still getting 120V good on the primaries after the main fuse, so that's fine.  On the secondaries, I'm getting dead nothing.  Even disconnected from the board, no voltage at all on all five.  Pretty weird!

Now, I really can't conceive of what I did.  If I shored the secondaries somewhere, I'd expect to cook the transformer - literally.  That should make some bad noises, melt the plastic, etc.  It's not anything like that.  It just seems to have stopped working and I'd scratching my head here about it.

Like I said, something dumb I'm sure (I hope!), but I just can't gather what.  Is it even possible for me to damage the transformer to the point of non-functioning like that without any apparent symptoms?  This is a simple thing, so there's not much to look at.  I think I could use some sage advice here.  I'm prepared for the humility of a d'oh! moment Thanks!

  Brian

 

[jsteiger]

Brian,

There is a thermal fuse built into the primaries of those toroids. It's rated 125C which is about 257F. That is awful damn hot. If the thing is totally dead, this could be why. I would gather there is something seriously wrong if they blew after a few seconds. I don't see how they could heat up that much in such a short time.

I am not positive. Just looking for a reason.

Jeff

 

[zayance]

I got some weird experience a couple of days ago with a Power transformer that was defected, and what happened to horvitz was my same case, nothing on secondary, the thing was working great weeks before out the box with PSU, i get back to work get the thing cabled up in the box, and nothing, test the secondary no continuity on the windings, but primary seems ok from continuity, so bought another one, and problem solved, but anyway had the same experience not long ago, very weird, in my case i was nice to the transfo leads, but it seem they can be fragile if you've pulled on them and my toroid didn't even get hot, no short nothing, i always touch it while checking PSU output, so who knows maybe same case, anyway try to test continuity on each windings of the transfo unplugged from the mains of course!!!!! If it bips on each correct windings then it's ok, if it doesn't then you have a problem...

 

[New Soul Rebel]

;D 8) Well... i did it. After a lot of work last week my rack and power supply are all but finished (just got to hook up the LED's haven't got any resistors at mo).

After soldering pin1 to ground on every channel in the rack, I overcame my duff channel issues.

Hey Jeff, what do you think mate! Will look nice when i get my rack full!!!

Its sounding nice. The two vp312s on the right have MAP1731 opamps in them. They are interesting. Slightly less bottom end, grittier.


To Cemal (especially)... Thank you so much for your advice and help this past week. I hope that my build proves that somebody with ZERO experience in electronics can build this. But only with the tremendous input that you guys give. You've started me on an exciting journey toward a whole new world of audio possibilities in my studio that I never dreamed possible. 

Here she is...




Thanks guys

I am a lifer already!

 

[zayance]

Congrats 

 

[horvitz]

Hmm.. thanks, Jeff and Zayance.  I checked and I have continuity across each of the secondaries and not between them, so I'd guess that part is ok.  The only time I've experienced a dead transformer, it was DOA, not like this working one minute and dead the next.  Even then, it still gave me like .5v on the secondaries.

Regarding the thermal fuse, I don't think it would have been heat anyway.  It worked one time I turned it on and then immediately not the next time.. the thing was still room temperature.  But that being said, maybe something else could have blown it?  Is there any way I can test it?  I can't really imagine how..

I still just feel like I must be missing something foolish!

 

[shabtek]

is there continuity on the primary?
that is where the thermal fuse is

 

[horvitz]

Well, that's a big negative.  So I guess that explains what broke?  The next question I suppose, is how.  Let's say that I have a short in the thing somewhere.  I would expect the main fuse (1.6A that I have in there) to go long before it gets hot enough to blow the thermal fuse.  I'm sitting here trying to imagine how I would cause this to happen on purpose and don't really have any ideas.

 

[sahib]

Horvitz,

You don't have to do it on purpose. It could have been a bad solder or even thermal fuse. Using new components does not mean that it won't fail. I check every single component including resistors before using it.


Matt,

Great stuff. Looks really good. Lots of Jeff's babies there. I am happy that have been of some assistance. Another project is up and running. There is the buzz.

 

[Harpo]

Horvitz,
there are 2 pair of transformer primary wiring leads. For the european type of transformer each pair consist of a yellow and a white lead. Your colour coding might differ. For 120V mains you operate both primary windings in parallel, so join both yellow and both white lead ends together. Mixing this up can give you a both primary windings not connected at all config.
Ohm out all (4) disconnected transformer primary wiring leads for continiuty to get both pairs sorted out, if colour coding got mixed up at the transformer.