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lab series l5 build working

Started by elijahroberts199, April 11, 2023, 09:43:56 PM

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elijahroberts199

Started out with the schematic and the board layout shown. copied the layout in adobie photoshop . sized it so the op amp sockets would fit. made it in 3 pieces, channel 1, channel 2, and so on. using pnp blue transfer sheets. copied the power supply same way. sounds awesome!!!!!. fan on power supply was hooked to raw full wave diodes positive side and ground  1k resistor on the ground wire of fan. this way you eliminate fan noise into the supply otherwize youll get fan noise. antec 22volt/ 22volt transformer.

Boprikov

Great!  I have a LabSeries L5 combo and it is nice to hear that it is possible to make one by yourself. It is really well thought design and sounds awesome at any settings!

Tassieviking

Sounds good, I would love to see some pictures of it.
It sounds like you made yours the same size as the original.
Did you make a copy of the power amp as well, or just the pre amp
There are no stupid questions.
There are only stupid mistakes.

Crossfire845

Quote from: elijahroberts199 on April 11, 2023, 09:43:56 PMStarted out with the schematic and the board layout shown. copied the layout in adobie photoshop . sized it so the op amp sockets would fit. made it in 3 pieces, channel 1, channel 2, and so on. using pnp blue transfer sheets. copied the power supply same way. sounds awesome!!!!!. fan on power supply was hooked to raw full wave diodes positive side and ground  1k resistor on the ground wire of fan. this way you eliminate fan noise into the supply otherwize youll get fan noise. antec 22volt/ 22volt transformer.
I'd be very interested in seeing more about your build. One of my main goals when starting to try to build amps was to eventually build my own L5

Tassieviking

#4
It sounds like the OP made his PCB's by using a printout of the original layout drawing and transferring the tracks to a PCB that he then etched himself.
If that is the case then he would end up with a fairly close copy of the original amp dimensions.
The original amp was 26 inches wide so the original PCB must have been over 24 inches wide (610mm), no wonder he made the PCB in 3 sections.

AIONFX has kits and bare PCB's to make a full L5 pedal minus the reverb, they also have kits for just the clean channel and just the drive channel.
If you don't want a pedal then it would be best to make a new PCB that incorporates the mod that AION made to change from the CA3080 and CA3094 IC's to a single LM13700 IC

I resized the original PCB's drawings to 150DPI approximately and ended up with this:
There are no stupid questions.
There are only stupid mistakes.

FleshOnGear

Sounds like a very interesting project! I just started looking into the Lab Series recently, and I'm fascinated by the CA3094 distortion circuit. The clips of the amp that I've heard sound really good, so naturally I'd love to figure out how that distortion circuit works.

Typical op amp distortion usually sounds pretty bad, IMO, though a lot of players can make those circuits sound good in recordings. I just hate the fuzzy trails on the note decay that you usually get from simply overdriving a regular op amp. I've heard a few clips of the L5 where the player was at the edge of distortion and it sounded very natural. Definitely an impressive design!