Millett "Starving Student" hybrid amp - Page 315

Yes, absolutely shure. They light but don't shine very much. Just a bit on the bottom and on the top

By the way, I had the power source made so it's not bought from a dealer. I get 46v instead of 48 and I' starting to worry about the amper measure but i have no idea how to use the tester to get that value. I'm a beginner sorry

You will only see a slight glow from the heaters.

Most of the people here have put LED's underneath their valves, so don't be fooled by how bright they look.

I know, I've studied a lot of light and have seen many kinds of glow (non led) so just wanted to check on that. Had a lot of truble while building but learnt a lot, and it was my last doubt

Welcome to the world of Head-Fi, Meliphcient. Sorry about your wallet.

I would urge you not to go too far and too fast with your newfound fun. Enjoy the Starving Student for a while, and the consider moving up carefully and thoughtfully. If you jump straight to the top of the heap, you miss out on a lot of the wonders and wonderful, "Oh, yes, that sounds fantastic!" moments that you get to experience on the way.

I just finished building my kit! It is fantastic!
Thanks Tom!!!

It doesn't count without pics.

Here are some pics!


With flash..

Alright, tonight was a fun Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I was so anxious upon completing the amp, because the only other amp I'd ever built was dead as soon as I turned it on.

With the SSHA, I hoped it would be different. It wasn't However, I checked this thread, and saw the issues people were having as a result of insufficient insulation of the MOSFETs. I quickly disassembled, and added the extra washers, which I didn't remember, in the guide.

{quick question: did I irreversibly mess something up, but just don't know it yet?}

Then, I was only getting volume in one of the ears. I checked around the PCB, and by chance, happened to touch the green electrolytic on the left side, and suddenly: SOUND IN BOTH EARS!!! I was extatic, so I disconnected everything, and fixed the capacitor's leads.

Now, the only issue was, that only one of the two LEDs was being illuminated {this isn't a result of the cap. only one was being illuminated the whole time}. I remembered that I put the left side LED through some trouble while assembling it {testing out different ways so it would fit properly}, so I cut it out, and replaced it with a amber one I had.

Rather than try and explain what's going on, I figured a video might be more useful.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm too tired to do anything right now, but I look forward to your suggestions/solutions, in the morning!

+ YouTube Video

Btw, thank you, Tom. I would not have made it without your guide, or your beautifully crafted kit. I also feel confident, after following the guide, that I can move onto projects that are a bit more involved, now!

EDIT: Ok, so my amp just took a fall, beacuse I tripped over the power cord. Thankfully, the tubes were out, but not so thankfully, the case wasn't on. I didn't see any major damage, except for the pot breaking almost completely off. I'll check in the morning for any other damage, but cosmetically, I don't see anything.

So, my question is: should I get this or this to replace my broken pot?

I ask, because on the BOM, the first link is what it has under Dsavitsk's outline, but the description corresponds to the second link.

I feel so terrible about this, I really want to order it ASAP.

I can't seem to find the SSMH PCB anywhere, has it been discontinued?

All gone.

You'll have to do a point to point build I guess.

ah right i see! I think I may buy some of that holey stuff for a cmoy build and practice soldering first. Then build the cmoy.

Then when I have read up on what capicitors and resistors actually are I may feel more confident.

I'm one of those people that must understand what each part does before I wildly start soldering

I was too busy today to do more than basic troubleshooting as per everyones suggestions.
First up the volume pot makes no difference where it is. Max, min, middle, all favour the right channel.
Secondly swapping the tubes did....nothing!

I'm guessing bad workmanship on my part, or a bad cable from the source (I only own one mini-to-rca cable) but I bought some connectors and cable when I was out today so I'll knock together another cable and see how that goes.

I can't see the cable being the culprit (although it's possible).
Have you checked that you have the correct value resistors in all positions?

The volume pot is a possibility. Do you have another you can test?

Get the 50K. We tried both in the prototypes and I couldn't tell a difference. However, it really just ends up being what input resistors you used. Since the input resistors that came with the kit were sized for the 50K pot, you should get that one.

EDIT: Your LED's definitely are wired badly. You need to work on the connections to the PCB - that's why the other one is going out when you put pressure on the amber one. It's forcing one wire to connect and in turn, forcing the other wire to disconnect. That means shoddy connections on both, unfortunately - at the PCB. Those are pretty small holes on the PCB, so you have to be careful what wire size you use, etc. 22ga will fit, but you have to do everything just right. Maybe you could get some smaller wire - 24ga or even smaller. It's not going to hurt, the LEDs draw very little current.