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Post by svart on Mar 9, 2016 10:32:48 GMT -6
Will do. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some Super Badass Extra Awesome ones I was missing. not really, I think a good habit is to leave the tip dirty after setting a component, then clean right before use, leaving it "dirty" or cleaning it, and then tinning it with some fresh solder, then leaving it at rest, will extend the tips life, maybe svart has some good tips on preserving tip life as he's soldered more than anyone on earth possibly? I find that a cleaned tip sitting there baking kills the tip much faster. You're right. If the iron is going to sit on for any length of time, leave a glob of solder on the end and it will last a lot longer. Higher quality tips generally have thicker coatings on them too, and will last longer, so avoid bargain branded replacements. I also use a "tinning block" occasionally since rosin can eat some of the tinning off of tips. Also, apply the least amount of pressure you can when soldering. Digging the iron into the board, pads and parts doesn't help heat transfer, but can damage the coating on the tips, causing it to disintegrate more quickly. One more thing, switch to a "dry" tip cleaner like this: www.parts-express.com/soldering-iron-tip-cleaner--370-369?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=plaBecause the water and heat will cause quicker corrosion. |
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Post by rocinante on Mar 10, 2016 9:30:07 GMT -6
not really, I think a good habit is to leave the tip dirty after setting a component, then clean right before use, leaving it "dirty" or cleaning it, and then tinning it with some fresh solder, then leaving it at rest, will extend the tips life, maybe svart has some good tips on preserving tip life as he's soldered more than anyone on earth possibly? I find that a cleaned tip sitting there baking kills the tip much faster. You're right. If the iron is going to sit on for any length of time, leave a glob of solder on the end and it will last a lot longer. Higher quality tips generally have thicker coatings on them too, and will last longer, so avoid bargain branded replacements. I also use a "tinning block" occasionally since rosin can eat some of the tinning off of tips. Also, apply the least amount of pressure you can when soldering. Digging the iron into the board, pads and parts doesn't help heat transfer, but can damage the coating on the tips, causing it to disintegrate more quickly. One more thing, switch to a "dry" tip cleaner like this: www.parts-express.com/soldering-iron-tip-cleaner--370-369?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=plaBecause the water and heat will cause quicker corrosion. I can't even begin to tell you how many rusty bent soldering tips that I destroyed because I didn't take heed to this simple advice. Its like in my brain the logic was: "Its not transfering heat fast enough!" "Push harder!" And that's what she said. |
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Post by ragan on Mar 10, 2016 14:20:24 GMT -6
Ha.
I just sold a couple mics and have the scratch for the kit. Not only is Hairball in Seattle, they're in West Seattle, which is where I live. We're neighbors!.
Just emailed with Mike and he said I can just swing by and pick up a kit. Very cool.
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Post by ragan on Mar 10, 2016 18:59:39 GMT -6
Goin in! Well, once a few little tools and things show up.
Mike told me they'd help me out if I get stopped up or something's not working. Not bad having the designer in the neighborhood on my first build!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 19:06:48 GMT -6
Ha, you will be proud when the new born compressor sees the wide world of the 500 Rack.
"Look, Sweetheart, it's a Fet compressor! Look how beautiful it is. Do you hear, how powerful he screams! He will be a strong, healthy and self-confident compressor!"
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Post by ragan on Mar 11, 2016 14:17:51 GMT -6
So Mike at Hairball recommended this solder (with a rosin core): www.alliedelec.com/kester-solder-24-6337-8800/70177915/He later referred to it as "no clean" which I gather has supporters and detractors. I'm going to Fry's right now to get a panavise and some other things. Any more opinions on this solder? |
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 11, 2016 15:15:02 GMT -6
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Post by ragan on Mar 12, 2016 9:40:50 GMT -6
Hey dudes. What are these? I'm trying to go through the materials and make sure I've got everything (as well as just looking at the build guide and getting my head around what everything is) and I just don't know what these are.
Edit: they're trim pots, I figured it out because THEYRE RIGHT FRIGGIN THERE IN THE BUILD GUIDE. FACEPALM to myself...
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Post by mulmany on Mar 12, 2016 12:04:52 GMT -6
There is a app called electodroid, very good resource for all things electronic. Has a resistor color code calculator along with tables to transpose all the crazy cap markings. I use it alot, to double check myself.
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Post by ragan on Mar 12, 2016 15:36:21 GMT -6
There is a app called electodroid, very good resource for all things electronic. Has a resistor color code calculator along with tables to transpose all the crazy cap markings. I use it alot, to double check myself. Ooh that's good to know, thanks. I was also having an issue with not getting some resistor values to show up on my DMM. My electrician buddy brought over his Fluke and it turned out my cheap meter just wasn't sensitive enough to get a reading on the really low value resistors. He said he hasn't used that particular Fluke for like 10 years so it's here now. |
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Post by unit7 on Mar 12, 2016 16:43:58 GMT -6
There is a app called electodroid, very good resource for all things electronic. Has a resistor color code calculator along with tables to transpose all the crazy cap markings. I use it alot, to double check myself. Oh, why didn't I know about that?!  And ragan , by now you've probably figured out that those are trimmer resistors, right? edit: ok, missed your edit, so another selfie facepalm.. |
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Post by ragan on Mar 12, 2016 17:47:06 GMT -6
Ha. Hey I've got a question. How do I know what an acceptable tolerance is for these values I'm measuring? If it's supposed to be a 27kohm resistor and it's 27.03, I'm assuming that's fine right? unit7 svart tonycamphd @smallbutfine rocinante |
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Post by unit7 on Mar 12, 2016 18:00:37 GMT -6
Ha. Hey I've got a question. How do I know what an acceptable tolerance is for these values I'm measuring? If it's supposed to be a 27kohm resistor and it's 27.03, I'm assuming that's fine right? unit7 svart tonycamphd @smallbutfine rocinante Absolutely. The way I've got it is that a resistor with 1% tolerance is pretty accurate. This isn't NASA specs you know.. For reference the carbon resistors used in my LA2 and 1176 rev A builds are 5% tolerance. |
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Post by rocinante on Mar 13, 2016 1:54:05 GMT -6
Yeah .03% is well within the 1%. Resistor values very rarely needs to be super precise. Eq's often need more accurate values and sometimes when a stereo image should be matched (for instance 6.81k resistors in the 48v feed in mic pres) but usually it will be specified).
And when in doubt you can actually stick those blue trimmers of near the same value in place of a resistor and hone in on the value needed. I saw one dude do that for his nite eq. Nearly half the resistors in his build were trimmers that he narrowed down to the 'correct' value needed. Now that's precision.
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Post by ragan on Mar 13, 2016 2:33:18 GMT -6
Good to know. Thanks fellas.
I don't care if all I get done in the next week is checking values and learning some things about what components are/do.
I've got an hour or two here and there and I don't care if the build takes forever. I'd like to learn some things and get it right.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2016 18:35:19 GMT -6
In the old times audio engineers still got precision parts where they were needed by measurement and selection, which made stuff pricey sometimes due to labor cost. For the audio DIYer the selection method makes really sense, because often you want e.g. best balanced signals or perfect stereo with matched pairs of pres/EQs/compressors. This is also a good way to start, because of the before mentioned safety of parts values, that really minimizes build errors. Carbon comp resistors usually are within precision of up to 10% from manufacturer, carbon film standard axial thru hole mostly 5% and metal film standard resistors 2%,1% or 0.5%. High precision low noise resistors for signal path duties might be as precise as 0.1% and less tolerances, have low noise and might behave better in regards of thermal noise also. (If you want to go the extra mile...) For this application, people seem to like the Vishay Dale presicion resistors, that are quite huge in comparison to other metal film resistors, can take quite more wattage than they are spec'ed with, and have the values directly printed on them instead of color code, so it's easier to avoid wrong values in the build. So these seem to be winners for signal path resistors with the least noise when it comes to thru hole DIY pro-audio. (Some people might say they just look cool and you can be totally ok with standard metal film in 99% of the application ... but well ... sometimes it really matters when noise is the issue...) Metal film resistors are still cheap, so it normally makes no sense to go for carbon film. Metal film is by far less noisy in regards to current noise, but thermal noise is inherent in all resistors. For allround duties, i recommend stocking 0.5 or 0.6W metal film resistors in most standard values. In many places only 0.25W resistors are needed, but you can't go wrong with the higher wattage. Wattage above 0.5W is mostly explicitly noted in the schematics. Just always round up the needed amounts for the actual project to the next rebate group amount. Sooner or later you can build stuff from scratch without having to make purchases each time and it pays out in the long term. Sometimes you can also get huge sortiments from insolvency mass sellings for little money, such opportunities can be much cheaper in the long term. High wattage resistors often can get very hot in the places they are really needed, there i tend to recommend parts with metal casings that can be mounted to the units case for better cooling. Here is a short but interesting intro read about resistance and nonlinearity/noise: www.ap.com/kb/show/485 |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2016 19:01:46 GMT -6
If you have to improvise for unobtainium valued resistances, be sure to understand Ohm's law, how parallel and series resistor networks work, and maybe get familiar with Kirchhoff's laws. It's electronics 101. It's really easy, no rocket science at all and comes very, very handy on many occasions when you can figure such things with mental arithmetics on the fly. Really - it is not complicated at all and once learned you can use it for many things like combining resistors when you need a higher power dissipation, manipulating potentiometer values and gain rotary switches and whatever a thousand things more you might come across in the years... www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_5.html |
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Post by ragan on Jun 14, 2016 0:59:53 GMT -6
Ok. So I got another flip house (I flip houses) and got swamped with work. I also got way into the tracking on this record I'm doing and set aside the Hairball project for a bit.
But now I'm dipping my toe back in. I built that DIYre SAFE interface kit recommended. Great fun, took about 10 min.
I'm kind of thinking of building a couple preamps before going for the Hairball Rev A 500. Is there something besides SCA that I should be considering? I have a Heritage DMA73 now, which I really like. Also have a pair of Warm WA12s. I could get the 8 space SCA rack and a pair of N72 and a pair of A12s and sell the others and come out ahead. Plus I could add some of the other SCA pres later.
This a good way to go? Should I be looking at other preamp kits?
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Post by rocinante on Jun 14, 2016 1:48:07 GMT -6
Don Classics 1073s are up there as far as amazing Neve clones. Obviously capi is just great in every sense if wanting an api type preamp on steroids with extra options you didnt know you needed. Both are relatively intense builds but have so much support you cant really go wrong.
Capi is in the states so its fast and a bit more affordable.
Hairball has the Lola which ive never used but ive heard only praise for. Kind of a neve meets api pre.
AML has the gem ez1073 in double bay 500 series format. Its not cheap but its fantastic and is as good as the heritage (some would argue thats its 'better')
Its become a very option and flavor full world in diy mic preamp land.
If not needing the 500 series format the options are also quite broad. The ez1290s are my favorite mic preamps. Great support for them too.
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Post by ragan on Jun 14, 2016 9:07:50 GMT -6
Don Classics 1073s are up there as far as amazing Neve clones. Obviously capi is just great in every sense if wanting an api type preamp on steroids with extra options you didnt know you needed. Both are relatively intense builds but have so much support you cant really go wrong. Capi is in the states so its fast and a bit more affordable. Hairball has the Lola which ive never used but ive heard only praise for. Kind of a neve meets api pre. AML has the gem ez1073 in double bay 500 series format. Its not cheap but its fantastic and is as good as the heritage (some would argue thats its 'better') Its become a very option and flavor full world in diy mic preamp land. If not needing the 500 series format the options are also quite broad. The ez1290s are my favorite mic preamps. Great support for them too. Thanks. Looking at the AML kit page the ez1290 kit says "partial kit". What does that mean? It's actually a benefit for me to not go 500 series cause I don't really have the space for it, but I do have 19" space now. What do you like sonically about the 1290 compared to 1073s? Edit: I'm assuming "partial kit" just means there's a Mouser cart to also buy or something like that? |
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Post by rocinante on Jun 15, 2016 8:15:01 GMT -6
Eh... I'd be hard pressed to find someone who could tell the difference between the ez1073 preamp section and an ez1290s. I was just offering the ez1290s as a mic preamp only solution. Both are nice. Let me rephrase that; both are super slick and sound extremely hi-end.
Yeah you got it; a partial kit is just a couple of components that are hard to get that aml sells (most specifically the xfmrs and 3 deck grayhill switches). The rest of the order can be gotten through mouser.
The ez1290 is a great build. The stages of the circuit are clearly laid out making it so you can kind of see whats going on.
Even more so (and another neve kit I ashamedly forgot to mention) are the JML Audio ba kits. Joe takes it to a really cool place in really getting one to understand each part of the 1290 circuit. He also offers a 'go between' kit which is a pcb and switches that provide the 48v, pad, and phase one would want if building an ez1290 or one of the JML neve clones. JML is in Australia but he ships fast and the us dollar is on our side right now (as opposed to GB or the €)
He also offers a whole website of support as opposed to the extensive (but easy to maneuver) thread on GDIY.
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Post by rocinante on Jun 15, 2016 8:44:11 GMT -6
You also could get a little crafty like I did with my NV-1073's. I really wanted my ez1290s to have a Neve look so obviously push buttons were necessary. I am sure you can see a Heritage layout resemblence.  |
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Post by ragan on Jun 15, 2016 9:22:36 GMT -6
You also could get a little crafty like I did with my NV-1073's. I really wanted my ez1290s to have a Neve look so obviously push buttons were necessary. I am sure you can see a Heritage layout resemblence. Very nice! Where does one get the cases/faces for these 19" options, I don't seem to see them on the sites though maybe I'm not looking in the right spots. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Jun 15, 2016 9:37:34 GMT -6
have you tried dan: collective cases ?
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Post by rocinante on Jun 17, 2016 8:47:03 GMT -6
Dan at collective cases is a great option for really nice case. The rear can even be pre-punched to your specifications which is super helpful if you don't have the tools to (green lee, stepped bits, drill, etc...). Everyone from mouser to ebay to allied has options too.
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And 