What did G-DIY make in 2014?

[buildafriend]

I think it would be cool to see the projects that GDIY members created and or built this year.

 

[pucho812]

I made a huge hole in my bank account.  Not much DIY making this year, nothing to really write about but this coming year I got a few things up my sleeve. Maybe I'll get to finish them.... 

 

[weiss]

Huge hole as well :

 

[Rocinante]

I'll bite
Gssl with another in the works
2 x 1176 rev d (well 1 in a 1u is almost done
G1176 (phat phet) a la Gustav
Neumann 492
Bluzzis 1084 (its awesome)
2 x 1290 (with one channel having issues)
D-LA2A (one channel for now as I save up for nice xfmrs but so far my favorite project and one of my go tos for nearly everything)
G-Pultec
2 x Mitso 312
2 x capi vp28
2 x fivefish x12
2 channels of my soundcraft ghost (sending the rest to CLA but I'm gonna do the aca mod to the master section)
D-u47 fet
In the works: Helios 69, D-u87, and finishing up a bunch of loose ends.
I see the D-AOC in the near future, 500 series Harrison Ford filters,  poor mans pultec, wra ml12, and 169 mastering version.
I sold the nite eq I had worked on for a bit.
Im positive im forgetting a couple of things.

 

[usekgb]

I added tap tempo control to my Carbon Copy using an Arduino Uno.  I wrote code to replace the CC's internal clock with a tapped in tempo.  Just finished it for a school project a couple weeks ago.

 

[buildafriend]

I'll bite
Gssl with another in the works
2 x 1176 rev d (well 1 in a 1u is almost done
G1176 (phat phet) a la Gustav
Neumann 492
Bluzzis 1084 (its awesome)
2 x 1290 (with one channel having issues)
D-LA2A (one channel for now as I save up for nice xfmrs but so far my favorite project and one of my go tos for nearly everything)
G-Pultec
2 x Mitso 312
2 x capi vp28
2 x fivefish x12
2 channels of my soundcraft ghost (sending the rest to CLA but I'm gonna do the aca mod to the master section)
D-u47 fet
In the works: Helios 69, D-u87, and finishing up a bunch of loose ends.
I see the D-AOC in the near future, 500 series Harrison Ford filters,  poor mans pultec, wra ml12, and 169 mastering version.
I sold the nite eq I had worked on for a bit.
Im positive im forgetting a couple of things.

Haha! wow dude. You've been busy and that's very impressive for one year. Props. 

I know what you guys mean about being broke. I've been avoiding spending any money by making layouts and waiting to pull the trigger on them.

Anyway, I'm excited and hopeful that more people chime in and talk about what they made and like.

 

[Scodiddly]

More of a product than DIY, though it did start with me wanting one for myself.

http://scotthelmke.com/lav-amp.html

And I'll probably throw the schematics up at some point. It's nothing complicated.

 

[Andy Peters]

I think it would be cool to see the projects that GDIY members created and or built this year.

I keep dithering about with my monitor controller design. It was all done until I decided I needed to add USB ADC and DAC capability. That lead to a lot of searching for micros which have High Speed USB support (Atmel SAM3U, NXP LPC18xx, unfortunately not my preferred Silicon Labs parts), and then it becomes a small matter of firmware.*

I also couldn't decide whether I wanted it to be a 1U switching/etc rack unit with a wired (or IR wireless) remote control, or a tabletop unit in one of the sloped Hammond enclosures. (I'm leaning toward the latter.)

And last week I got myself a nice pair of Grado headphones (SR125e, very recommended) and a Grado cartridge for my turntable. Upon close listening I realized that my outboard phono preamp has a bad hummmmm to it, so I designed one, with balanced outs. That goes to fab on Monday. I suppose I should be a good sport about it and put the design up here. I did it in Kicad, so the files are all in a format that anyone (with the patience to install and deal with Kicad, anyway) can use.

I should probably build my real-good-but-simple two-channel ADC design.

Of course the work day is full of wrangling FPGAs so doing hardware design at night is, uh, just like working.

-a

* "small matter of firmware" is, of course, a joke. HA HA.

 

[kante1603]

More of a product than DIY, though it did start with me wanting one for myself.

http://scotthelmke.com/lav-amp.html

And I'll probably throw the schematics up at some point. It's nothing complicated.

Wow,that's a damn good thing,would be very useful at work,we're doing lots of musical and other stuff.
Would be really great if you'd share the schematics.


Best,


Udo.

 

[JohnRoberts]

My major DIY project for 2014 was kind of a failure but interesting none the less.

My design thesis was to use a Peltier device to heat a counter top slow cooker (like crock pot). The ultimate concept was to cook meals while pulling heat out of the kitchen air.  (I like the concept but in the course of the design I determined that Peltier technology was not up to the task. )

Long story short a Peltier device takes a few tens of watts to pump only ten watts of heat from cold side to hot side. The good news is that the waste heat from the Peltier device can go toward heating the food, but it was kind of like pointing a fan on the deck of a sailboat at the sail... The max thermal delta for single Peltier device was marginal, while stacking devices to get more temp delta means the second device in series has to also move the waste heat from the fist device, so OK for super-cooling very small masses, but not very effective for a cooker

The experiment started out well enough I bought a Peltier device and heat sunk it to an aluminum heat spreader plate. I attached a chip cooler fan to the cold side and it kind of worked. Hot side got hotter and cold side cooler, but didn't get hot enough to cook actual food.

Perhaps if I used 3x or 4x peltier devices, and fans and DC power supplies, but this was getting expensive and too large to fit on my heat spreader plate.

So rev 2 shifted gears to using simple resistance heating. 

Now instead of using several amp power supplies I drove the power resistors directly from 120v using opto isolated triacs.

For temp control I hang a few diodes off the heat plate and calibrate the temp for diode junction voltage.

The biggest epiphany while still trying to make the Peltier approach work was to contain the heat inside a thermal chamber (using some rigid insulation to form an igloo. ) With the cooking heat completely contained the amount of heat being added is far less, and heat lost to the kitchen while cooking is near zero.

So the good news it now works like a charm and I have been cooking my once a week big meal using it for several months, the bad news is I could have bought a modern crock pot for a fraction of what the parts cost to roll my own DIY, but I learned a bunch about Peltier from my failed experiment.

JR

PS I could share a recipe but nothing very remarkable if you have ever used a crock pot. I do like how the meat is fall apart tender after cooking over night.

PPS: I have a few other designs percolating in my meat computer but nothing ready for prime time yet.

 

[Scodiddly]

More of a product than DIY, though it did start with me wanting one for myself.

http://scotthelmke.com/lav-amp.html

And I'll probably throw the schematics up at some point. It's nothing complicated.

Wow,that's a damn good thing,would be very useful at work,we're doing lots of musical and other stuff.
Would be really great if you'd share the schematics.

OK, there's a new thread for it over in the Drawing Board.

 

[weiss]

this is my history 2014

Analog Allstars EQP-1S5
JLM LA500 opto comp
2x Classic API VP26 preamps
PM670 vari-mu tube compressor
Gssl stereo bus compressor
Dual-LA2A limiting amplifier
Hairball 1176LN classic limiting amplifier
Gyraf PEQ-1A passive tube equalizer
500 Module Lunchbox by Michal
Wood Rack for 19" gear (own design)

 

[Landins]

A child.

 

[kante1603]

A child.

This is about "GROUP"-DIY,are you sure? ;D


Udo.

 

[audiophreak]

2U Dual  mnats 1176 Rev.D
2U P2P Dual NewYorkDave Mila w/Kingston mods
2U Dual madriaanse EZ1290
2U Dual Bluzzi EZ1084

I've finished everything I started , I have a ton of PCBs , but not a lot of time to DIY at the moment       I've built a ton of projects over the last 6-7 years from this forum and absolutely love how it all sounds , I use this gear almost exclusively.

I cant thank everyone enough for the sharing of knowledge,  for what I have learned , what I am continuing to learn and this awesome hobby / way of live. 

 

[gyraf]

Gyraf:
G22 Dual/MS vari-mu: Almost ready
G23 Ambler Eq: Currently at revision 24, coming close.

Jakob E.

 

[Gold]

I am just about done installing the mastering console I have been building for 10 years. I am going to start a thread when I can gather some photos and do a write up. It is going well. I just have the lathe to interface as far as cabling goes. Then it's time to do a little work on speaker placement. Then sessions. It sounds really good. It's dead quiet too. With the monitor full open there isn't a hint of hum or buzz. Only hiss. I've never had that before.

 

[bernbrue]

Hi,
Complete recapping and repairing of my ADT 5MT mixing desk, now with built in ssl compressor, rude tube ivory and some experiments and improvements for  the rude tube II .
Bernd