linuxworks
Member of the Trade: Sercona Audio
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2008
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I'm building yet another amp, it seems. this one is finished up to the point where it needs the motors to be controlled. here's an internal view of what I have so far:
details on internal space:
you can see I don't have a lot of extra space to spare. but at least I did allocate room for the pots and their motors
if you were at this point and had a nice PPA amp all boxed up but wanted remote control over those 2 pots, would you prefer RF or IR? I have receiver modules for both.
here's a shot of an RF module that I have handy and have used a few times before (shown inside a plastic box I used to build with):
IR has the advantage that its learnable and so I won't need my custom remote once its learned by my main one. but IR needs a window cut in the front and also line of sight to have it work.
RF can work with a hidden antenna easily. RF isn't learnable (normally) and so I'd need to keep this remote around when I use the amp. the RF receiver circuit is very very small and pretty plug-and-play.
I think the RF receiver will take up less space and also not dirty up my nice front panel (once its done). I have a few spare rf receiver modules and so that is a good choice for me. as for not being learnable, I'm not sure how annoying it will be to have to handle 2 remotes if I want to use my headphones.
other issue: noise inside the chassis. right now I have only 'analog' power in my chassis and nothing for +5v for control circuits. I don't think I want to regulate OFF of the existing TREAD supply I have in there, do I? I assume for higher end design, I want a separate trafo, bridge, filter and 7805, right? I'm a bit tight on space and the power supply 'area' is mostly full, too. then there's the whole issue of having the opto receiver or RF receiver inside the chassis and how to keep it from affecting the high end sound of the amplifier, itself.
so, I wonder - how acceptable would it be to just feed the control wires from the motors OUTSIDE the chassis (via some molex's on the rear panel) and then 'defer' the problem to some other shielded metal box that sits outside this one, has its own +5v for control logic and motor voltage (or a 2nd 12v line for motors if needed) and then this box would 'add' control to this 1U rackmount thing I built and the 2 features would be in 2 separate boxes. no sharing of ground or power supply or even proximity.
but it sounds clumsy to have the control stuff in another box and also some wall wart supplying power to it.
should I try to knock myself out trying to shoehorn control INSIDE my nice 1U rackmount box or is it 'ok' to just doing it outside the box?
what would you do?
I'm trying to balance elegance in design, low hassle factor (to install and use), and of course purity of sound.
opinions?
details on internal space:
you can see I don't have a lot of extra space to spare. but at least I did allocate room for the pots and their motors
if you were at this point and had a nice PPA amp all boxed up but wanted remote control over those 2 pots, would you prefer RF or IR? I have receiver modules for both.
here's a shot of an RF module that I have handy and have used a few times before (shown inside a plastic box I used to build with):
IR has the advantage that its learnable and so I won't need my custom remote once its learned by my main one. but IR needs a window cut in the front and also line of sight to have it work.
RF can work with a hidden antenna easily. RF isn't learnable (normally) and so I'd need to keep this remote around when I use the amp. the RF receiver circuit is very very small and pretty plug-and-play.
I think the RF receiver will take up less space and also not dirty up my nice front panel (once its done). I have a few spare rf receiver modules and so that is a good choice for me. as for not being learnable, I'm not sure how annoying it will be to have to handle 2 remotes if I want to use my headphones.
other issue: noise inside the chassis. right now I have only 'analog' power in my chassis and nothing for +5v for control circuits. I don't think I want to regulate OFF of the existing TREAD supply I have in there, do I? I assume for higher end design, I want a separate trafo, bridge, filter and 7805, right? I'm a bit tight on space and the power supply 'area' is mostly full, too. then there's the whole issue of having the opto receiver or RF receiver inside the chassis and how to keep it from affecting the high end sound of the amplifier, itself.
so, I wonder - how acceptable would it be to just feed the control wires from the motors OUTSIDE the chassis (via some molex's on the rear panel) and then 'defer' the problem to some other shielded metal box that sits outside this one, has its own +5v for control logic and motor voltage (or a 2nd 12v line for motors if needed) and then this box would 'add' control to this 1U rackmount thing I built and the 2 features would be in 2 separate boxes. no sharing of ground or power supply or even proximity.
but it sounds clumsy to have the control stuff in another box and also some wall wart supplying power to it.
should I try to knock myself out trying to shoehorn control INSIDE my nice 1U rackmount box or is it 'ok' to just doing it outside the box?
what would you do?
I'm trying to balance elegance in design, low hassle factor (to install and use), and of course purity of sound.
opinions?