[kingoftown1]

Quote:

Why skeptical?

No measurements yet

, along with the fact that it looks like he's made a deal with someone and could potentially stand to make a profit from sales of the DAC board.  I hope this isn't the case though.
 

 

[Magedark]

I was hoping he would make a DAC...We will see how this turns out...

 

[francisdemarte]

 
For everyone's reference here are  the suggestions offered to troubleshoot the regulator issues a couple of us were having.
This is the first time ever I asked for help with an issue and was met with a deluge condescending b.s. from the designer. 
 
I've edited the reply and stripped out all the drama. 
 
 
...unless there's a problem upstream of the regulators like too high of a wall transformer voltage or bad/wrong diodes (D3/D4). The correct 1N4002 diodes are bulletproof but if someone put the 1N5818 in those locations by mistake, they may well fail shorted.

Someone else pointed out the regulators touching the top of the enclosure could be a problem if they're soldered in too "high". I agree with that although it's still unlikely to kill the regulators. 
 
 
FOR THOSE HAVING PROBLEMS: I would suggest the following:

Hopefully your op amps are in sockets. Remove all 4 of them, and the batteries, and see if the voltages across the battery terminals return to normal and the regulators are both barely warm. If so, you have at least one bad op amp. Replace them one at a time to find the bad one, or for less than $2, just replace all of them. If not, you likely have a solder bridge, something touching the case, or (unlikely) another failed component somewhere--the most likely suspects are the 0.22 uF caps (C17, C18). 

If your op amps are not socketed, heat and lift up (desolder) one end of D1 and D5 and measure the voltages across C6 and C7. If they're normal, see above about dead op amps, solder bridges, etc.

If with no load on the regulators the voltages are still not normal, measure the DC voltage across both C4 and C5. It should be around 18 - 29 volts on each cap. Set the DMM for AC voltage and measure again. Each should be under 1 volt. If you measure high AC, replace D3 and D4. If you measure more than 30 volts DC you need a different wall transformer. 

IMPORTANT: If anyone has had a regulator fail and deliver over 15 volts to the entire board (it's not clear anyone has), you should replace all the op amps after verifying the power supply is working correctly per the test procedures in the O2 Details article. 

REMOVING OP AMPS: For socketed op amps carefully pry them up from each end a little bit at a time with a very small flat screwdriver. For soldered in op amps (hopefully there are not any), cut the chips out with small diagonal cutters and de-solder each pin individually.
 
 

 

[wakibaki]

As far as the regulators are concerned, I built an independent PSU on a small board for one of my projects in the last few days, +/- 15V regulated, it worked fine for maybe 30 minutes, I switched it off to make some changes on the main board, when I turned it on again the positive regulator had failed short circuit. I didn't agonize over whether I'd designed the circuit correctly, I just replaced it.
 
Most failures in parts occur early in their life, if you buy a commercial product it will most likely fail early within the warranty period if it's going to fail at all, or it will survive a few years until thermal stress from switch on/off kills it. That's why the salesman tries so hard to sell you a 3-year warranty, because with electrical goods they're almost all profit.
 
Many products, especially military ones, are soak tested before release, this is a reflection of the propensity to fail early in life if at all.
 
There are a large number of O2s being built, many of them first time builds. There will be failures. It doesn't mean anything. The O2's PSU design is entirely conventional and hence has drawn no comment from the no doubt dozens of engineers who have seen it.
 
w

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

No measurements yet

, along with the fact that it looks like he's made a deal with someone and could potentially stand to make a profit from sales of the DAC board.  I hope this isn't the case though.
 

Why is that a problem?  The dac is still extremely cheap....  Everything doesn't have to be free. 

 

 

[Twinster]

If you had been reading this thread in the pass weeks and you were the designer's maybe you would have had the same reaction.  Also you  forgot to mention the part he said he was sorry if you felt offended. There is always two side of the story. 

 
Here's the quote:
 
"The post wasn't aimed at you Konga, it was intended as a summary of everything I know so far about this issue and you're just one small part of that. I'm sorry if you're offended but put yourself in my shoes. Something seems not quite right with at least some of what's been posted. I tried to divide the issues up by what I know about them."
 
Quote:

 
For everyone's reference here are  the suggestions offered to troubleshoot the regulator issues a couple of us were having.
This is the first time ever I asked for help with an issue and was met with a deluge condescending b.s. from the designer. 
 
I've edited the reply and stripped out all the drama. 
 
 
...unless there's a problem upstream of the regulators like too high of a wall transformer voltage or bad/wrong diodes (D3/D4). The correct 1N4002 diodes are bulletproof but if someone put the 1N5818 in those locations by mistake, they may well fail shorted.

Someone else pointed out the regulators touching the top of the enclosure could be a problem if they're soldered in too "high". I agree with that although it's still unlikely to kill the regulators. 
 
 
FOR THOSE HAVING PROBLEMS: I would suggest the following:

Hopefully your op amps are in sockets. Remove all 4 of them, and the batteries, and see if the voltages across the battery terminals return to normal and the regulators are both barely warm. If so, you have at least one bad op amp. Replace them one at a time to find the bad one, or for less than $2, just replace all of them. If not, you likely have a solder bridge, something touching the case, or (unlikely) another failed component somewhere--the most likely suspects are the 0.22 uF caps (C17, C18). 

If your op amps are not socketed, heat and lift up (desolder) one end of D1 and D5 and measure the voltages across C6 and C7. If they're normal, see above about dead op amps, solder bridges, etc.

If with no load on the regulators the voltages are still not normal, measure the DC voltage across both C4 and C5. It should be around 18 - 29 volts on each cap. Set the DMM for AC voltage and measure again. Each should be under 1 volt. If you measure high AC, replace D3 and D4. If you measure more than 30 volts DC you need a different wall transformer. 

IMPORTANT: If anyone has had a regulator fail and deliver over 15 volts to the entire board (it's not clear anyone has), you should replace all the op amps after verifying the power supply is working correctly per the test procedures in the O2 Details article. 

REMOVING OP AMPS: For socketed op amps carefully pry them up from each end a little bit at a time with a very small flat screwdriver. For soldered in op amps (hopefully there are not any), cut the chips out with small diagonal cutters and de-solder each pin individually.
 
 

 

 

[francisdemarte]

 
Twinster:
 
  True he eventually apologized, the reason I didn't mention it in my first post was because I made that post before he posted his apology and I don't have the ability to foretell the future. He asked someone from h-f to step and report the issue, I did and got a huge rant. Which I clipped from my post. At any rate it's done and over with.
 
 

 

[kiteki]

Quote:

No measurements yet

, along with the fact that it looks like he's made a deal with someone and could potentially stand to make a profit from sales of the DAC board.  I hope this isn't the case though.

 
Uh no.......... it's fully DIY'able and will cost only the sum of it's components, that said most people should buy it finished just like with the Epiphany Acoustics O2 and JDSlabs O2 unless they want to learn some DIY.
 
In that diary thread I recommended a DIY DAC earlier today, and then I realised the finished version with an enclosure actually costs less lol.
 
 

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

No measurements yet

, along with the fact that it looks like he's made a deal with someone and could potentially stand to make a profit from sales of the DAC board.  I hope this isn't the case though.
 

 
Given the amount of time and effort he has put into both products, what precisely is the issue with his making a profit ? 'Open Source' and 'DiY' are fantastic, no question, but does the designer have to completely forego any financial reward for his efforts ?

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

I'm a little more skeptical about this one, but I guess there's nothing to do but keep following and see how things progress.

Again, what is your problem precisely ? Skepticism is all well and good, but to just throw a line like that out there and bail ......... Jesus wept.

 

[kiteki]

Quote:

[/] ......... Jesus wept.

 
Nice 5000th post there.
 

 

[SobbingWallet]

Quote:

 
Given the amount of time and effort he has put into both products, what precisely is the issue with his making a profit ? 'Open Source' and 'DiY' are fantastic, no question, but does the designer have to completely forego any financial reward for his efforts ?

I don't think anyone was saying there's a problem with that.  I think the point was simply that business interests can and do introduce additional bias regarding presentation of information, measurements, etc.  Third party measurements are especially important when money is involved, and You Know Who would be the first to agree.  Either way, his newest blog post indicates his personal desire to stay 100% non-commercial, even though his partner for the DAC will obviously end up making some money.

 

[wakibaki]

Quote:

 ......... Jesus wept.

...as well he might.
 

 
w
 

 

[francisdemarte]

 
Quote:

...as well he might.
 

 
w
 

He must have been reading this thread! 

 

 

[maverickronin]

Mine's been on almost 24/7 for about 3 months now with several hours of use every day and it still works perfectly.
 
Of course mine was built by Voldemort himself so it must be magic...