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Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 5:49 pm
by billshurv
Progress. Made a new umblical up. Swore at infinity for using the shield for signal carrying and hooked a 9V battery to the standby line. Relay click, standby light goes out. Now can I find my stash of PP3 battery connectors anywhere? Nope. Ah well £2.50 gets me a box with a switch so come thursday will be able to see if this beasty works. Hopefully my second most delayed project will finally get some use. At least if it doesn't go 'fzzt' with a signal.

(Wife is amazed as she never thought I would even get this far. She may be less impressed at true full range music reproduction ! ).

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:39 pm
by Gold
I got the project box and Condor 28VDC power supplies to make the external Sontec power supply. The client wants to use XLR-7 as the connectors as that’s what the GML PSU uses. The GML puts out +/-28VDC and +/-18VDC. The Sontec just takes 28VDC and regulates down to +/-17VDC on the board.

The selection of project boxes available is sorely lacking. I really need to be able to make my own enclosures. This box I got is a terrible design. It’s a standard two piece sheet metal enclosure with two U shaped pieces. If I want the connectors on the short side the box is upside down. It’s 20ga steel and flimsy for the heavy PSUs.

I’m going to mount the PSU’s on two pieces of bar stock which will attach to the ends of the box. This will give the box much more strength.

A friend has scared me from using thermal breakers on the DC side. He said they are slow and inaccurate. The boards draw 100mA. He thought I’d get false tripping if I used a 100mA breaker. I could use a 150mA breaker or use a 100mA slo blow fuse. Using a fuse leaves my options open. The supplies are 1A per leg so there’s is a lot of extra power. With fuses you could change the rating as needed.

I think I’m going to buy a $50 sheet metal brake and a pair of sheet metal shears. I’ll see how far I can get.

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:37 pm
by brianroth
I've used Hoffman "screw cover pull boxes" to house various power supplies. They are available in a variety of sizes, with and without conduit knockouts. Sold at many electrical supply houses, and I've seen a small selection at Home Depot. Nice and heavy duty.

https://hoffman.nvent.com/en/na/Product ... ver-Type-1

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:29 am
by Gold
Those look nice Brian. I’ve never used that type of cable clamp. Do you need a special tool to instal those?

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:03 pm
by brianroth
Those are made by Heyco and sold at Mouser, etc. in a variety of sizes for different wire diameters. I use ignition pliers (which is a useful tool for many applications) to install them.

https://www.sears.com/craftsman-ignitio ... 904513000P

Bri

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:04 pm
by Gold
Here is the PSU I made for the Sontec. I ended up using fuses because low current breakers are expensive. I still have to glue the IEC connector and the fuse holders to the chassis. They move around otherwise.

Using the rails to hold the supplies worked well. The chassis feels stiff now. Without them I think the supplies would have eventually torn out of the chassis.

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:27 pm
by billshurv
Had icky, vomiting non-sleeping offspring again recently so the most I have managed is to swap a US mains plug for a UK. Why would Infinity ship a unit with a voltage selector and a molded US 3 pin plug? The service manual shows an IEC so I must have had an early unit.

I hope the cross-post is ok, but here is an example of the sort of thing I really would have no time to make even if I wanted to. https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pa-syst ... nsole.html . I can't help wondering that it might not have been cheaper to restore an older desk, but have to totally admire the man hours that have gone into this. Having access to a large workshop clearly helps. 3 Phase power feed seems a little excessive when UPS are cheap though!

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:43 pm
by brianroth
Got a 404 error trying to view that link.

Bri

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:57 pm
by billshurv
Try now. dropped the last letter by mistake.

Re: entropy continued?

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 8:34 pm
by brianroth
OK, cool! That same guy posted some same/some different pix and comments at GDIY:

https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=72102.0

Some different insights in that discussion.

Bri