Wow, thats an awesome budget project. Thanks again for your continued commitment to the diy community.

Quote: Originally Posted by jarensberg I bought 4 12AE6As from Antique Electronics Supply and they all had side getters. They're also the best sounding AE6s I've tried. good deal, I will give them a shot. Thanks

Quote: Originally Posted by jarensberg If you want that look you'll need tubes with side getters. If you don't know what that means look at the pictures of the tubes on beezar.com. The 12AE6 has the getter on top and the 12FK6 is on the side. I've found tubes of all types with side...

Its ALIVE! Thanks everyone for your fantastic help. It is working but I am noticing some static in the sound, when using the touch pad or a usb mouse. I got about 15 hours on the alien so far and I am impressed. I found that the static issue was only in win xp pro sp2, so I installed vista...

You guys ROCK! I removed c31, cleaned it up, reattached it and the regulator and bam, I got 3.3v on the 3.3v pad. I'm out of desolder braid, so I gotta run to the store and get some to re attached everything else. Cross your fingers but I think we are headed in the right direction. Thanks again...

Quote: Originally Posted by Pars That doesn't sound right... I don't have a schematic in front of me right now though. You shouldn't have a short there though, as a cap in parallel with a short is... a short. You might try running an xacto knife or whatever between those pads, and also...

Quote: Originally Posted by Pars Check the resistances between pins 3 and 4 of IC2 and IC3 ic2 pin3 to pin4 measures 0L ohms without c22 installed (meter does not react) ic3 pin3 to pin4 measures 9.664k ohms with r32 installed between g1 and one pad for l12 i measure...

Ok, I removed the voltage regulators, l12, and c22 to check for bridges. I found none. FallenAngel, yes I have checked for voltage on the 3v and 5v pad with both 9v battery and usb connections and both read 0 volts. Anything I can check while the voltage regulators are off to eliminate them as...

Quote: Originally Posted by FallenAngel Whoops, sorry, keep S1 jumpered This still doesn't explain why you get nothing out of those voltage regs though. Do they get warm at all? hooked to 9v alkaline with s1 jumpered i measure 0v and the only thing that gets warm is the...

I have not soldered on the pcm2702 at all, it was pre soldered. I tried a 9v as you said and i measure 0v between the 3.3 and 5v pads and g1.

I re flowed all the joints on the pcb. I still have the same error when connected to xp pro sp2 machine and no voltage. When I hook to a vista home premium machine no errors or pop ups and no voltage. Also L12 gets very very hot when connected to computer! do the ic2 and ic3 regulators look like...

Here are some pictures. Maybe someone can spot the issue.

Quote: Originally Posted by Pars What do the voltage test points look like? OK? I get this immediately upon connection to usb. No voltage. I tried taking pics of pcb, but my old camera won't take a good picture of the small board.

Quote: Originally Posted by Pars Well, then that leaves the 2nd part... ohm it out. the ics solder joints check out good