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Just got the kit this weekend

Started by Amdthedestroyer, May 17, 2021, 11:11:03 AM

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Amdthedestroyer

I just received my kit, but I had a very busy weekend and didn't have time to work on it. I am planning to start assembling it this week and I will try to document the build on youtube. I probably won't upload anything until the amp is fully assembled and operational though.
Anyhow, I'm excited! Really looking forward to this!
:dbtu:

joecool85

Quote from: Amdthedestroyer on May 17, 2021, 11:11:03 AM
I just received my kit, but I had a very busy weekend and didn't have time to work on it. I am planning to start assembling it this week and I will try to document the build on youtube. I probably won't upload anything until the amp is fully assembled and operational though.
Anyhow, I'm excited! Really looking forward to this!
:dbtu:

Sounds great, I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out!  :tu:
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

Amdthedestroyer

I put it together this weekend and it seems to be working just fine. I can't get the aux or headphone jacks to work, but the amp drives a 1x12 just fine. I'm stuggling with a cold solder joint in the power supply and one in the speaker output. I've tried resoldering them, but it doesn't seem to be working well. I'm going to try soldering it from the other side of the board later this week.
I was thinking of installing it in a 1590c enclosure, but does anyone have other suggested enclosures for these little amp projects?

joecool85

Quote from: Amdthedestroyer on May 24, 2021, 10:38:43 AM
I put it together this weekend and it seems to be working just fine. I can't get the aux or headphone jacks to work, but the amp drives a 1x12 just fine. I'm stuggling with a cold solder joint in the power supply and one in the speaker output. I've tried resoldering them, but it doesn't seem to be working well. I'm going to try soldering it from the other side of the board later this week.
I was thinking of installing it in a 1590c enclosure, but does anyone have other suggested enclosures for these little amp projects?

If you can show some pictures of your board (both sides) we might be able to give some tips on where you are having trouble.  Also, what are you using for solder?  And your soldering iron?  Could be tip size or shape causing issues as well.

Regarding the enclosure, the sky is the limit.  I put mine into an Earl Grey tea tin.  Ideally I like to use metal enclosures to help with reducing hum/static/noise, but honestly, you could put this into most anything and have it function fine.  I like finding interesting enclosures for things.  I built a tiny amp into a wooden "treasure chest" from a craft store while in college - that was fun and looked pretty cool.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

TheBobbyElectric4

Just got mine yesterday, built it this morning, and have been digging around for cool enclosure ideas, all day today.....

I was just going to ask if there is a way to post photos, when I saw the attachments "+" just below.....

SUPER EXCITED to start seeing pics + videos get put up, soon enough!!!!!

Amdthedestroyer

sorry for my slow update.
all the pictures I took were too high resolution to post, so I'll have to downgrade them before I can post them.

I went back over the aux and headphone jacks and the In, Out, and Battery pads on the board with some rosin core solder and that seemed to fix the issues I was having with them.

I repurposed an enclosure I built for a failed Dr Boogey pedal that I just flipped upside down. I drilled out the side for the controls, I made a template using a piece of cardboard, but I was off a little with the aux and headphone jacks and I had to work on it with a file to get a good fit.

It sounds great so far! I've run it off a 9v battery and from an isolated 9v power supply from my pedal board. I'm driving my diy 1x12 cab with an Eminence gb128, and when I can get it to my practice space, I'm going to drive my Ampeg 4x12 and see what that sounds like. The tones are vintage-y, appropriate for a lot of clean and crunch tones as well as some classic rock. I've been working on getting tones with pedals so far. I've tried boosting it with an eq and running a metal zone into the front of it and I've been satisfied that I can get some decent metal tones so far. I'm going to record it now that I have the thing in an enclosure using a sennheiser mic and daw to make some good quality samples.

Amdthedestroyer

Oh, also, Call me ignorant but . . .
am I supposed to jumper the H1 and H2 gain pads? It sounds pretty good without it, but am I supposed to? What is the purpose of those points?

joecool85

Quote from: Amdthedestroyer on June 01, 2021, 10:52:19 AM
Oh, also, Call me ignorant but . . .
am I supposed to jumper the H1 and H2 gain pads? It sounds pretty good without it, but am I supposed to? What is the purpose of those points?

H1 and H2 are the gain control pins for the LM386.  Leaving them open sets the LM386 at a gain of 20.  Tying them together with a capacitor (or quite frankly, just jumpering them) will bring the gain to 200.  If you want to play with it, I suggest soldering in a couple sockets so you can try things.  By design, you don't need to do anything with them.  That said, I tried to build this board with tinkering/modification in mind.  For this reason, I added in C0 and R0 if you want to get rid of the normal preamp section and just have an input buffer.  I also have H1 and H2 for the gain control of the power amp section.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

Amdthedestroyer

oh, ok. Thats cool! I like the idea of putting a socket in there. I'll play around with that
:dbtu:

Amdthedestroyer

Ok, it's been a long time. I kinda burnt out some parts trying out a laptop charger without thinking. So, yeah, check the specs on your power supply a before trying it xP

Any dang way, I put a socket in and I've tried several different caps to boost gain. I would NOT recommend bridging that connection as I got some really bad sounding distortion (like damaging my speaker type)

After fixing it and fixing my pc, I should be able to record some tracks now.

RookieRecurve

Hopefully this isn't a zombie post.  You said you burnt up components using a laptop charger.  Was it too much voltage, or was it an issue with current?

Regarding the excess gain from the 1-8 jumper, what cap did you use?  I might dabble with this option once I get my kit, and put it together.

joecool85

Quote from: RookieRecurve on June 25, 2024, 12:54:31 AMHopefully this isn't a zombie post.  You said you burnt up components using a laptop charger.  Was it too much voltage, or was it an issue with current?

Regarding the excess gain from the 1-8 jumper, what cap did you use?  I might dabble with this option once I get my kit, and put it together.

Most laptop chargers are 19v or 20v, either is way too much for this kit.  Max voltage is 16v.  Recommended voltages depend on what the speaker load is.

4 ohm : 6-9v DC
8 ohm : 6-12v DC
16 ohm : 6-16v DC


This yields this power output:

4 ohms = Max 0.35w (clean 0.25w) @ 6v supply, Min 0.35w @ 6v
8 ohms = Max 0.85w (clean 0.5w) @ 12v supply, Min 0.3w @ 6v
16 ohms = Max 1.6w (clean 1.2w) @ 16v supply, Min 0.2w @ 6v
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com