The official GroupDIY 511 Help & Support Thread

[kepeb]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-CORE-5AMP-CABLE-12N-Towbar-Caravan-Trailer-Wiring-/290635642753?pt=UK_Trailers_Transporters_Parts&hash=item43ab3bf781#ht_1071wt_1132

 

[Winetree]

Went to my local Electronic Store and found the same wire P-Town sold but in 18 guage.
It was a $1.02 per foot. Had to remove a few strands to fit in the end connectors but
the soldier joint connected all the strands. If this helps the wire is :
Carol  A (R) 18 Guage -- E1030S--75C E60233-8 (UL) CL3R--Made in the USA

 

[dmp]

Sorry if this has been answered, I didn't find it.. Can anyone provide a link for a suitable 7-pin power cable for this? I'm having a hard time finding anything that is sold in less than 100Ft lengths!  thanks!

I used cat-5 - it has 4 pairs (8 wires) of stranded, 22 awg (I think). It can easily carry 1 amp without significant temperature rise. Nice to work with. Not shielded, unfortunately.

 

[rob_gould]

Anyone else have any problems with the screws that attach the XLRs to the rear panel?  OUt of 44, I have four that just turn and turn - they never tighten...

 

[sahib]

Hi Rob,

That is very strange. I don't think there would be any possibility of four XLRs having bad threads. My be you had bad screws.  Can you check the threads? I can post a few to you on Monday if you want.

 

[jsteiger]

emrr had the same issue. I have not heard back from him on this though. I also assumed it was the screws not the threads on the Neutriks.

 

[JamesW]

I'm sure I had more then 4 bad threads but they were spread around and had no effect on the mounting. I used lock-tight on all.

 

[rob_gould]

Yeah sorry chaps it's certainly not a problem with the Neutriks. It is the screws that are faulty. Different screws in the same position tighten up fine.

No big deal - I can get more m2.5 screws. More that I had a scan through the whole thread and no one else had mentioned this issue - admittedly I scanned through the thread quickly. Just thought it was weird that I was the only one who'd seen this. 

 

[sahib]

I have received another complaint about the M2.5 screws. Same problem as Rob's. However, this time the member said all of them were turning lose.  Obviously there has been a contamination at the supplier end. Although I have randomly checked the remaining packs and there were no problems, as you will appreciate it would be impossible for me to check 5000 of them one by one. 

In the meantime anybody who is having this problem please drop me a pm or contact me at info at robotica dot co dot uk and I will  happily send you replacements for the entire connectors. However, I will check each set one by one to make sure they all comply.

 

[jsteiger]

I also have plenty of extra M2.5 screws here in the US so if anyone needs more, drop me a note and I will gladly send you some.

jsteiger1965 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Cheers, Jeff

 

[JamesW]

as I recall all my bad screws were on the male connectors on the hole with the slot for grounding option

 

[sahib]

We are looking into this.

I have checked 22 screws today out of a bag of 45 which we include as part of the kit and I must admit they are a slightly rattle fit but they all tightened fine.

However, I got the wind and checked different screws that I had which were left over from the RC Servos that I use for my robot arms. They engaged perfectly without any rattle.  I also checked them on M2.5 nuts and they engaged well again. However, close examination under the magnifier revealed that the servo screws had coarser thread which indicated that they might be UNC3.
The difference in diameter between UNC3 and M2.5 is 0.001" and normally can be taken size to size, but the UNC3 having a coarser thread engaged better.

But the puzzle is that Neutrik specifies as M2.5 and it is extremely strange that we should have this problem after over nearly 300 units.

Please stay tuned and if you encounter any problems contact the 511 partner that you purchased your rack from.

 

[emrr]

I've been too slammed with work to look at the screw issue again. To sum up my experience, roughly 40% of my XLR screws simply spin in the holes as if stripped.  I put them all in by hand, and did a slight tighten down with a screwdriver at the end.  There was never any resistance on the spinners. 

 

[sahib]

Doug,

The good news is that you can not damage the XLR threads by using M2.5.

I checked it with Jeff and his records also show that Neutrik specified M2.5. We are waiting to hear from Volker for his view. However, it is highly likely that we are going to have to replace the M2.5s with UNC3.

 

[sonic02]

Hi guys, finally putting together my 51x rack, have a few q's need some help on:
1)  Are the resitors needed for the led's (front fuses) as shown on Chunger's build thred? There were none suppliued with the kit from Cemal. If so, what values?
2) Are the 3mm 'Green' led's required for the Power Supply PCB, any type / product code?
3) I got the Xformer from Ceml with the whole kit, which colour wires relate to which Voltages? The diagram on the xformer is a little confusing, could be in german

Also, as others have posted, about 40-50% of my M2.5's for the xlr's just keep turning. No big deal, they are very secure and won't move anywhere.
cheers.

 

[sonic02]

I think i have answered my q's above, took the plunge and everything seems ok, except the +24v rail only reads +3.8v. The other rails check out ok. Have looked over everything and can't find anything out of place. Can anyone help with this? thanks.

 

[user 37518]

Good God, this backplane is indeed the Olympics of solder points.

I am not sure what the record is and now I completely forgot what the exact numbers were but my bro and I assembled about 4000 LEDs and soldered over 10,000 nods in two days on an under lighting for an architectural model. After that anywhere I looked I saw nothing but LEDs for the rest of the week.

Impressive, although i must say, that the toughest thing ive ever done is resoldering every solder point in 2 MCI consoles, that includes the frame motherboards, plus modules!, took me 2 weeks to do each one, after i finished my hands looked 30 years older, with hundreds of little scars on the tips of my fingers, plus several other scrapes and cuts soldering through tight places and cabling piercing my skin, etc.. etc...

My 51x rack felt like a breeze

 

[sahib]

..... except the +24v rail only reads +3.8v. The other rails check out ok. Have looked over everything and can't find anything out of place. Can anyone help with this? thanks.

Does the voltage vary with the trimpot?

If the component values are correct then check your solders. May be you missed to solder a node.

Also remembered. The terminal blocks on the DC output normally does not have a physical contact between the screw side and the solder side. If there is no cable inserted into the terminal and you try to read voltage off the screw, you may either not read any voltage or read a stray value. So, to be on the safe side also measure your voltages directly from the solder nodes.

 

[sonic02]

Thanks Sahib. The good news is I found the problem, one of the regulator legs was snapped off. I replaced them and all the voltages are working. The bad news is all the voltage rails are reading at least 3v over what they should be, even with the trim pots turned all the way down. I did replace all the resistors, caps, diodes on the +24v rail. Tried to get them to sit as close to the pcb as possible but they are standing off a bit, this probably doesn't matter, but im at an end with solutions, any ideas?

 

[[silent:arts]]

what is your incoming AC voltage?