[FallenAngel]

The PINT is VERY hard to do and definitly not recommended as a first project, and before you do your pimeta, practice soldering. Whach tangen't soldering tutorial first, then do the tread and make sure everything works, only then do the pimeta, it'll give you some knowledge into soldering. Also, make sure to get DIP8 sockets when you're ordering pimeat parts, they'll let you swap opamps if you ever feel the need to, plus you don't have to worry about overheating sockets whereas you can fry your opamps with too much soldering.

 

[soloz2]

thanks for the info. I was thinking about starting with a tread and then doing the pimeta before I saw the PINT. So I guess I'll go back to that plan. That'll be better too since money is a little tight this month anyway

would it be worthwile to try the double psu tread or should I stick w/ the regular one?

 

[FallenAngel]

For a pimeta a single tread works great, you don't need (and with most opamps don't want) that much voltage to justify double.

 

[soloz2]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/69d3/
is this a good sodering iron?

 

[BradJudy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soloz2 http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/69d3/ is this a good sodering iron?

No. Do a search here and you'll see plenty of negative feedback.

 

[quicksilver96]

Not really. A friend of mine won one of those in a raffle; I tried it to see what it was all about and didn't like it at all. A good low priced soldering iron is the Hakko dash, many people here like and use it. Can be found here for $30+s/h

 

[soloz2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradJudy No. Do a search here and you'll see plenty of negative feedback.

oh ok, thanks. someone is selling one from another forum and I thought it might be better than the $10 weller one that I have.

 

[slwiser]

Check this thread out. This will be a very good DYI amp. If appears to be fairly easy to implement in the way it is being set up.

http://ipastudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3027

 

[soloz2]

alright, well I think I'm going to go with the TREAD and PIMETA. I've done quiet a bit of reading and am just about ready to tackle the project... I just need to wait for some more funds to show up and do a bit more reading.

I plan to get just get the tread kit, and anything else that will be helpful for my pimeta from tangensoft to save on shipping. however I'll need a few more things I imagine.

1. heatsink... please give suggestions for a good heatsink
2. wallwart... where is a good place to get one? I believe I want an AC-DC one somewhere around 24v
3. I'd like to put it in a hammand case... so what would be a good size to house both the amp and power supply?
4. some sort of connector for the walwart to plug into... what jack do I need for this?
5. some wire... 18gage I think, or would something slightly smaller be better?

please let me know if there is anything else I need or am overlooking

 

[FallenAngel]

1) Don't need one unless you're planning to be running TONS of current (which you probably woun't with a Pimeta) or you're planning to drop quite a few volts from your wallwart to output.

2) With a Tread, you can use either one, 24V is good, go for a few hundred mA. You should be able to pick one up for around $10 - $15 basically anywhere, I got my 24VDC 600mA for $13 at Mouser, but you seriously wouldn't need 600mA, I just wanted to make the Tread standalone and use it to power everything I have.

3) I put my Pimeta in a 1455K1202BK with 2x 9V's but there just enough room to fit a Tread in here instead of the batteries. It's a tight fit but managable, whether you want a PSU that close to the amp is another story though.

4) DC power jack depends on what wallwart you're getting, standard plug/jack sizes are 2.5mm and 2.1mm, so find your wallwart first, then just grab a matching power jack.

5) 18AWG is pretty huge, I use 24AWG for everything inside all amps and power supplies, never had a problem. You can use thicker, but again, unless you're running huge volts and lots of current, you just don't need to.

Good luck.

 

[soloz2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel 1) Don't need one unless you're planning to be running TONS of current (which you probably woun't with a Pimeta) or you're planning to drop quite a few volts from your wallwart to output. 2) With a Tread, you can use either one, 24V is good, go for a few hundred mA. You should be able to pick one up for around $10 - $15 basically anywhere, I got my 24VDC 600mA for $13 at Mouser, but you seriously wouldn't need 600mA, I just wanted to make the Tread standalone and use it to power everything I have. 3) I put my Pimeta in a 1455K1202BK with 2x 9V's but there just enough room to fit a Tread in here instead of the batteries. It's a tight fit but managable, whether you want a PSU that close to the amp is another story though. 4) DC power jack depends on what wallwart you're getting, standard plug/jack sizes are 2.5mm and 2.1mm, so find your wallwart first, then just grab a matching power jack. 5) 18AWG is pretty huge, I use 24AWG for everything inside all amps and power supplies, never had a problem. You can use thicker, but again, unless you're running huge volts and lots of current, you just don't need to. Good luck.

thanks a lot! I guess I'm not used to small gague wires... the last time I really bought wire it was for my amp in my car... yeah I dropped some big $ on 4 gague

I was going off of what it said on the tangentsoft site... said it can accept up to 18 gague. well, time for some more research and putting together some parts lists and trying to figure out how much this is going to cost me...

 

[FallenAngel]

Even for my car amp, 4AWG is HUGE! I used 12AWG and it was more than enough.

 

[soloz2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel Even for my car amp, 4AWG is HUGE! I used 12AWG and it was more than enough.

yeah, but I'm talking like 80amp fuses, a 1 fared cap, a Kicker ZR 360 (555watts at 4ohms... and I'm running it at 2Ohms so it's pushing quite a bit more than that!) and 2 10" Kicker Solo Baric S10D (the last year Kicker made round solobaric subs)

 

[FallenAngel]

The S10D's are only 275Watts RMS at 2Ohms, did you wire them in series or parallel?

Kicker ZR360 specs:

4Ω stereo : 90 x 2
2Ω stereo : 180 x 2
1Ω stereo : 200 x 2
4Ω Bridged : 360
2Ω Bridged : 400

2 Subs at 2 Ohms each:

Stereo Mode:
180Watts RMS at 2Ohms is underpowering your subs and you'll blow them after some time.

Bridged:
Impendence = (subA x subB) / (subA + subB) = (2 x 2) / (2 + 2) = 1Ohm
Here, since your amp is not 1Ohm stable when bridged, running in this config is definitly not recommended.

Series:
Impendence = (subA + subB) = (2 + 2) = 4Ohms
Here you're running the amp at 4Ohms and it's outputting 360Watts RMS which is more than enough power, just make sure to output around 80% of the subs rated RMS power handling and they'll be great. So you'll need to turn down the amp to around 250Watts and it'll be great.


About your speaker cables though, this amp only has enough room to safely attach 8AWG wire, I bet you had fun fitting the 4AWG.

 

[soloz2]

Quote:

Kicker ZR360 specs: 4Ω stereo : 90 x 2 2Ω stereo : 180 x 2 1Ω stereo : 200 x 2 4Ω Bridged : 360 2Ω Bridged : 400

yeah, those are the official specs... but unlike many amp manufactures that overrate their amps and then have them underdeliver... Kicker underrates them. the 'birth cirtificate' that came with my amp shows it better each and every spec that Kicker had and it benchmarked 555w at 4Ohm bridged instead of the 360w rated power

I have 2 4Ohm subs wired in parallel so there is a 2Ohm draw off the amp... which is clearly within specs

I have all Stinger interconnects and wire:
4 gague power and ground
8 or 10 gague speaker wire
also a 1 fared Audiobahn chrome plated cap on the power wire

the amp has 2 40amp fuses and I believe I have a 60 amp inline between the battery and the cap

so, since real life performance is always slightly less than benchmarks my amp is probably only putting out around 600w into 2Ohm which is very close to the 275w RMS rating of my subs. Keep in mind they do have a 450w peak power rating. so I'm pretty safe with them the way they are.

I also feel better knowing that they have a 24db low pass filter at 100hz on the amp and an my headunit is set with w/ a low pass filter on the sub outs as well. it also has 4v preamp outputs so my amp is getting nice clean power

I also never max the subs out. I'd rather have good sound quality than thundering bass... but I do like my bass