[bballas]

New arrivals here:Sotm Tx usb ultra+sps 500.Highly recommended!!

 

[bballas]

Good isolated Sotm sps500 (2 isolation transformer between audio stacks) compared my Diy U cap Psu :
Sonically no differences.

 

[abartels]

Still no sound here, didn't debug, will do so within 2 weeks, hope I can get 8xR2R to work again...

How about your projects?

 

[motberg]

Still no sound here, didn't debug, will do so within 2 weeks, hope I can get 8xR2R to work again...

How about your projects?

Great to see you back in action!

Looking forward to your progress report... good luck..

 

[alamakazam]

I notice there are no balancing circuit for the ultracaps... or did I miss it

 

[abartels]

Great to see you back in action!

Looking forward to your progress report... good luck..

Yeah, I'm glad too I took some time for myself, from now on I will slowly start all up again
Have lots of DIY projects and upgrades in mind, tons of materials and ideas are waiting to find there way into my equipment

Cheers!

 

[abartels]

I notice there are no balancing circuit for the ultracaps... or did I miss it

No, you didn't miss it, you are correct, we don't use balancing circuitry for ultracaps because we never use more than 3 in series (following Maxwell's advice)

@bballas has some 16V modules which he used for output stages and Class-D amp, those have balancing circuitry built-in.

It also is important NOT to use the U-Caps up to their limits (2.7V). Try to keep it at a max of 2.5V per cell, this will take care of balancing problems
when using 2 or 3 cells in series, and, not using them up-to their limits will increase their lifespan A LOT.

I had some defective U-caps which were put in series of 2 to create 3.3Volts. The defective U-Caps had 0 Ohms resistance, thus a short, putting them in series
resulted in 3.3Volts on ONE U-Cap. Yes, the good U-Cap did die eventually, but not within hours or days, it took much longer.

 

[bballas]

Nice to see you again Alex!!!
Somebody on C.A. think real expert,find uptone lps1 use ballast resistors reach lower impendace.
Also Motberg visited me last weekend,and tested lps1,have better air and details than pure u caps.
Also 10 farad in lps1 vs 100, the spec ,not same......

 

[abartels]

Hi Balazs,

Yeah, I'm back
Can you send link on CA about lps1-ballast resistor? Is it ballast resistor or balancing resistors?

Good to hear Tom visited you last weekend! Hope you two had a good time

LPS1 has completely different schematics. I think it has lower output impedance in comparison with your own ucaps psu.
What kind of ucaps psu were you comparing too? One without balancing resistors, a self made psu? How many ucaps were put in series, and on what voltage level did you compare (3.3V - 5V or even higher)?
Or did you compare with ucaps DIRECTLY connected, without relays???

LPS1 has regulation after ucaps. It probably has lower impedance because of bad relays in self made psu's.

Be aware when compare, can't compare apples with pears, I'll explain below:

You know all the troubles I had (and still have) building my R2R dac with ucaps, they all were related to creating shortings in psu's, thus stressing relays, wiring and ucaps.
In my case, in the beginning I wasn't aware of the danger when measuring all electronics with INPUT wires (output of DC-DC converters) still connected to the psu's.
Any shorting on input-side of psu's also means shorting on output side!!!! EVERY shorting results AT LEAST in damaged relay contacts!
Damaged relay contacts can dramatically increase output impedance, thus decrease sound quality!!!!

You ONLY can compare a freshly built, measured and 2 weeks burned-in ucaps psu because in that case you have a 100% ucaps psu.

Related to all these troubles, I am thinking on a full redesign of my ucaps psu's. A redesign in which I can remove ALL relays before tampering in the unit
This means that I MUST start over, from scratch............

This also means that I am planning to design a PCB instead of using hard-wired test-boards. Good thing is that assembling those PCB's would only take a fraction of the time
in comparison to hard-wiring the test-boards!

 

[bballas]

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/...v-now-with-parallel-lt3045-regulators/?page=2

 

[bballas]

Sotm clocked singxer,uptone lps1.2 -4pcs lt 3045 -dam1 digital,
Ac choke-gd r core transformer-lt 1084-lt1963-lt 3045’s-dam1 analog 3.3

 

[bballas]

 

[yildiray]

Hi ,

I sent this message to bballas but couldn't get an answer yet.I want to share and ask to you also.

I have 4 Pcs PCM1704 and JLsound I2Sover board and I have been started to make a referance DAC. I planed to pay too money for linear power supplies and transformers then I saw your great works!

I read some disadvantages of supercaps here;

https://www.mojo-audio.com/power-supply-faqs/

Do you agree especially supercaps life?

If you say don't pay money to linear supplies and make supercap, could you share board brands, bom list and wire diagrams/circuits?

Do you agree to all of these finish will be a high end device?

Thank you and Best Regards

 

[abartels]

Superaps / Ultracaps have a VERY long life expectancy, if used correctly. They can easily cycled 1.000.000 times before esr rises to an unacceptable value, depending on your design.
They have an INFINITE shelf life.
One cycle contains 1x fully charging and 1x fully discharge. In hour applications we won't discharge to 0% (maybe to 75%) and we wont charge them to 100% (90% to 92%)
It is very important to "let them rest" between discharging and charging, this way they won't get "hot". Also, take an acceptable margin to maximum charge voltage, charge 2.7V cell to 2.4V-2.5V max will increase their life big time.
Also, if designing, calculate a buffer size that keeps voltage between threshold for about 10 to 15 minutes before switching between the charged and discharged banks.
If you respect these design rules, your Ultracap psu probably exceeds your OWN life expectancy.....
Ultracaps are used in windmills and electric cars, and these are examples of applications were they are beaten-up heavily.....
If you want to know more about Ultracaps, please read all those whitepapers from Maxwell.

About Mojo, it is very obvious they want to sell their linear psu's, absolutely not knowing what they are talking about in relation to Ultracaps.
Mojo talks about Saw Tooth when switching between the banks, B S, maybe they tested with NO buffer cap at it's output, just a very badly designed Ultracap-Psu, not sure what they did, but I really can't take their article very serious,,,,,,

If you should go the ultracap route, I don't know. Maybe try batteries instead, those are easier to handle, Ian Canada has LiFePo4 based psu's which almost perform as well as ultracaps, soundwise.
Designing Ultracap psu takes a lot of time to investigate, mine are prototypes, no pcb's available, no schematics since I don't want to burn my hands. I am thinking on designing new ones for multipurpose, based on switching mosfets.
But, it probably will take at least one year before I have a prototype, or even much much longer, or even worse,,,,,,,

Ever heard of Vinni Rossi? Nagra? Naim? Esoteric? Jeff Rowland? Ask them if Ultracaps have a good use for Ultra High-End audio

Cheers and good luck!
Alex

 

[bunkbail]

Ever heard of Vinni Rossi? Nagra? Naim? Esoteric? Jeff Rowland? Ask them if Ultracaps have a good use for Ultra High-End audio

Rob Watts utilizes Ultracap banks inside his Chord Hugo TT 2 and DAVE designs as well.