Chienmortbb

Well the beauty of DIY is that you learn as you go. You might say you learn by your mistakes and anyone reading this thread will know that I am learning lots. From trying to use a vinyl sheet cabinet covering rather than Tuffcab to not fusing the auxiliary supplies from the ICEPower module. In the case of the speaker cabinet tuning I have also made a mistake. A casual glance at the excursion graphs showed significant extra excursion around 40 Hz. This is roughly the fundamental of the E string on a four string bass tuned EADG. I tuned the cabinet too high and tried to use a commercial 75 mm (3”) tuning port, rather than designing the cabinet for optimum performance and then sourcing the best port for the job. It appears that standard 68mm rainwater downpipe would have been better and I will be trying that later. As the hole for the existing port is approximately 80 mm there will have to be some cabinet reworking. That is the part that hurts the most as the cabinet looked really good and I’m going to have to work really hard to get it anywhere near that good again. Revisiting the cabinet modelling, I have also decided to incorporate a High Pass Filter to further tame the response and ultra low frequencies. Implementing the High Pass Filter will require another small board so more metalwork to add to moving the power module. The question the is, do I go the whole way and replace the tatty strip board power regulator board? That means more metal work. Hey ho!

Separate supplies do offer more flexibility i layout i agree but thwe overal size of two modules is likley to be bigger espescially when the extra real estate for monting is considered. Of course the Hypex topology should be superiior.

I have looked at HYPEX before but found them just as hard to get information as ICEPower. I contatcted them and they pointed me to their DIY site.Sdaly that only has separate power amplifiers and the beuaty of the ICEPower and OEM Hypex modules is the intergrated mains and auxilliary power supplies.

i have never heard of those Pubs. Are tyhey Nortjh Somerset way?

Sounds good to me Mike.

This morning I looked at the chassis and I have got room to move the power board about 10mm. That will allow the Speakon to be put inside and will make a much neater job. I have also found some pcb built power regulators that I could use instead of the lash-up I built. It would look neater but it is more work as they are designed to take ac in and I would need to remove some components. I will think about that some more. To get a feel for the cabinet( I have heard the amp part through another speaker) I decided to connect it to my Bugera Veyron. Plugged my bass in and .,,, chuff chuff chuff. There was a noise when I played most of the E String on my bass. Went to bed feeling grumpy ( put your own punch line here). The picture above shows the top of the cabinet. This morning I was determined to find out what was causing the noise so hit the cab and amp put again and using a signal generator app on the iPad, fed various frequencies to the cab. The noise was worse at 42Hz, approx Low E. I remembered we had a similar problem on another cab that turned out to be the jack socket. A ported or tuned cab is designed to have a hole in it called the port. The port is not seen as a hole by the speaker, more like spring and so at most frequencies the cabinet is effectively sealed. However even a small hole like a jack socket with no plug in. or the handle mounting holes ( look closely at the picture above) can ruin the seal and sound. Putting a thumb over each of those two holes got rid of a lot of the chuffing. Next step, install handle. However was still some noise and I am in the process of sealing around the port( it was just pushed in) and sealing the hole where the speaker cable goes through the back panel. I am waiting for those to dry now. Then I will check that the speaker is seated on its foam gasket properly.

David I will reply later via pm so as not to clutter the thread.

Yesterday I had some successes and a few issues. The Speakon fitted nicely in the hole I cut with my new QMax cutter and I was so pleased with myself. That was until I tried to reinstall the power module. The Speakon was so tight on one of the coils that I dare not try that. So the Speakon had to be installed from the front. It covers the legend slightly and does not hide my drilling inaccuracies and does not look so good. So I either accept it and move on or move the supports for the power board. If I do, I will lose the ability to install a fan if needed. While I have tried to keep the thermal design that Ashdown employed, and that Class D is more efficient than Class AB, the static power consumption of the ICEPower module is slightly higher than the original 15W amp. The difference is only likely to be a watt or two and I do have another fan option. Looking back, I should probably used the more powerful 125ASX2 module. It lends itself to static cooling better than the 50ASX2. I will look at cooling and moving the module tomorrow.

Can you explain what you are trying to do? Is it solely run on12V or dysl 230ac/12dc?

Yes even her friend likes it.

Oh yes and as this project is a parallel project to the Active version of Stevie's 1x12 FRFR, most of the work I have done will find its way into that project ban hopefully that will be at the bash At the moment the my lady is having coffee with a friend in the workshop AKA the conservatory so there is no progress although the DI board is out ready to have the phantom power protection mods fitted.

It is a minor niggle I agree but the two threads I am interested in just get ignored as they are two long. I suppose the only other way is to suggest that people start a new thread when they have something new to say. This would prevent threads being hijacked or just ranbling on. Socially distanced threads

Some threads become too long and just a public chat between members. the Interesting FRFR thread inAmps and Cabs is one such thread. Anyone wnating to get info on FRFR could wade through thoosands of posts that go off in all directions. Anotgher of these is the DIY Effects thread. As I see it there are two solutions, either limit threads to a certain nymber of posts ( I believe they limit threads to 1000 posst on the other place). Alternatively, if there is enough interest on one thread, it should be considered for its own category,

I heard that Trace often used MDF for the cabinets, is that why the are so heavy.

The. cabinet is now complete and even SWMBO is impressed. The last thing is the grille but as the new speaker is deeper than the original one, it has to be farther away. I Have an idea but will sleep on it.I also need to fit the cabinet corners if I can find the black wood screws. I have decided to replace the External Speaker Jack with a Speakon. I would have preferred the ext speaker connection to be on the back but I found I could cut the hole for a Speakon so that the legend is visible. So the only things on the rear panel are the male XLR out and the ground lift switch. All to be fitted tomorrow. Tomorrow.....I must stop promising progress the next day. Something always pops up but hopefully there will be progress today

Thinking outside the box? I was thinking about the port. I will not move it now but adding 600 grams to the from (the new speaketr is much heavier than the old) and taking out thetransformer and heatsink from the rear, the balance will have shifted forward. It may well be that I have to move the handle forward. That would have alloud the top port I had originally planned. I could also have put the handle(s) front to back or even on one side. Today I will check the paint job and decide whether I need another coat. If not, I will fit the port and connect the amplifier to hear the real sound of the new rig fo the first time.

Painting has commenced. Three coats of Tufcab.

True. The prices charged by ProFusion in the UK are eye watering.

Hard to argue with that quality and pricing.

Yes, Klotz have a reputation to maintain as one of the three best cable manufacturers in the world. I would not expect them to put their name to poor quality goods. The fact that the cables are moulded is not in itself a bad thing, just that for many cables it is sleight of hand hiding poor quality.

Hats off, That looks great. Where did you get the logos printed?

@Passinwind and @nilebodgers have valid points above and I would hate to think I have encouraged anyone to rush headlong into building a low cost, home brew amp from modules purchased from Ebay, Ali Express or Bangood. I have added a safety warning to the first post. Please read it. John

Wrong link, here is the correct one https://www.stakesys.co.uk/hole-punches-hole-saws/q-max-cutters/q-max-cutter-round-metric

I hope I did not suggest the use of some of the suspect eBay amplifiers and power supplies. I am only using ICEPOWER modules as they are properly certified for EMC/EMI and safety. My two concerns with ClassA/Band a linear Power supply are excess weight and heat. Following the ICEPower Designers manual allows that.