Amp10 Amplifier Project part 1
As my friends know, I'm easily bored. I have to stay busy or I go crazy and start chewing up the carpet.
My latest project is a homebrew audiophile quality amplifier that I found on Craiglslist (thanks Craig!). I started off looking for speakers and somehow this Amp10 came up in the search. The Amp10 is a T-amp sold in kit form by a Norwegian named Jan from www.41hz.com. I purchased the kit from a fellow over in Santa Cruz who bought two but only assembled one of them.
I vaguely remember a Radio Shack electronics kit from my youth. More than enough qualification to start a project of this nature. After all the thing is only about 8 inches by 3 inches. What could go wrong?
I didn't have a soldering iron so I got to buy another tool! I love tools. I could rule the world if I only had the tools. I started of with a 30 watt iron that came in a kit from Radio Shack. The tip was actually way too big for the fine work required by this kit but I didn't know that.
I started off by assembling a set of LED moon lights that came in kit form for my salt water aquarium. Though the aquarium was sold last year, the soldering made for good practice.
The moon lights allow the tank to be lit with a cool blue effect at night, simulating... moon light. Of course you can buy them ready made but for some reason I bought a kit with...60 bulbs, maybe, for $20 I think. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I never got around to assembling them because I didn't have a soldering iron.
Step 2. Bend the wire in half.
Step 3. Plug in the power supply (3 volts) and check polarity of the bulb. The bulb will only go one way!
Step 4. Twist the wires together and solder them together.
Step 5. Put plastic tape on to keep leads separated. This step is important to keep the smoke in the wires. Once the smoke comes out, the system doesn't work... This is true with all electronics.
The last step is to put heatshrink on the joint!
What? You don't use your hair dryer for heatshrink tubing?
So after 60 of these, I think I've learned how to solder.
But, after looking over the AMP10 kit, the places where I have to solder are...miniscule.
The 30 watt iron is way to big so I go back to Radio Shack to look into a soldering station with a small tip and variable heat settings. The one they have there is $80! Whew. I can buy a whole table saw (on sale) for that! I decide to try my luck at Fry's Electronics and the drive pays off with a nice little $30 number with all the features I need. I also picked up a static discharge mat, a wrist strap, a solder sucker, and some flux. All for way less than just the iron at Radio Shack which is basically a rip-off. However, they are a small retailer and I can see the difference of scale playing a part in what things have to cost. However, I have a Fry's in my area, so...to Fry's I go.
The first part of the instructions on the AMP10 is to line up everything on a labled piece of paper.
I carefully put the resistors in their places and try to make my solder joints look like the ones they show on the website. I have about a 50/50 chance of making any one joint look good. However, the odds are getting better.
Here is a slide show showing some of my soldering and the components as they appear on the board. I tried to get them tight to the board as it says to do on the instructions. I may have been a bit overzelous at times.
I only made two mistakes and had to remove the components. It turned out I only made one mistake and had to reinsert one back where I took it out from... Pay attention!
Here you go:
My latest project is a homebrew audiophile quality amplifier that I found on Craiglslist (thanks Craig!). I started off looking for speakers and somehow this Amp10 came up in the search. The Amp10 is a T-amp sold in kit form by a Norwegian named Jan from www.41hz.com. I purchased the kit from a fellow over in Santa Cruz who bought two but only assembled one of them.
I vaguely remember a Radio Shack electronics kit from my youth. More than enough qualification to start a project of this nature. After all the thing is only about 8 inches by 3 inches. What could go wrong?
I didn't have a soldering iron so I got to buy another tool! I love tools. I could rule the world if I only had the tools. I started of with a 30 watt iron that came in a kit from Radio Shack. The tip was actually way too big for the fine work required by this kit but I didn't know that.
I started off by assembling a set of LED moon lights that came in kit form for my salt water aquarium. Though the aquarium was sold last year, the soldering made for good practice.
The moon lights allow the tank to be lit with a cool blue effect at night, simulating... moon light. Of course you can buy them ready made but for some reason I bought a kit with...60 bulbs, maybe, for $20 I think. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I never got around to assembling them because I didn't have a soldering iron.
The kit consists of some pre cut wire, a power supply, heatshrink tubing, some solder, and LED bulbs.
Step 1. Strip the pre cut wire where the bulb will go.
Step 2. Bend the wire in half.
Step 3. Plug in the power supply (3 volts) and check polarity of the bulb. The bulb will only go one way!
Step 4. Twist the wires together and solder them together.
Step 5. Put plastic tape on to keep leads separated. This step is important to keep the smoke in the wires. Once the smoke comes out, the system doesn't work... This is true with all electronics.
The last step is to put heatshrink on the joint!
What? You don't use your hair dryer for heatshrink tubing?
So after 60 of these, I think I've learned how to solder.
But, after looking over the AMP10 kit, the places where I have to solder are...miniscule.
The 30 watt iron is way to big so I go back to Radio Shack to look into a soldering station with a small tip and variable heat settings. The one they have there is $80! Whew. I can buy a whole table saw (on sale) for that! I decide to try my luck at Fry's Electronics and the drive pays off with a nice little $30 number with all the features I need. I also picked up a static discharge mat, a wrist strap, a solder sucker, and some flux. All for way less than just the iron at Radio Shack which is basically a rip-off. However, they are a small retailer and I can see the difference of scale playing a part in what things have to cost. However, I have a Fry's in my area, so...to Fry's I go.
The first part of the instructions on the AMP10 is to line up everything on a labled piece of paper.
I carefully put the resistors in their places and try to make my solder joints look like the ones they show on the website. I have about a 50/50 chance of making any one joint look good. However, the odds are getting better.
Here is a slide show showing some of my soldering and the components as they appear on the board. I tried to get them tight to the board as it says to do on the instructions. I may have been a bit overzelous at times.
I only made two mistakes and had to remove the components. It turned out I only made one mistake and had to reinsert one back where I took it out from... Pay attention!
Here you go:
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