[TaffyGuy]

hey what the hell. i finally get off my lazy ass and get a wall wart for my meta and it doesnt work. you all use radio shack wall warts, but which one? since the concensus seems to be 18-22v, the closest i could do was an 18/24 which i know is dangerous because they are notorious for going overboard on small loads, but instead of going overboard this one just refuses to produce power.

so is my load too small and it goes into some sort of psudo-intelligent auto-shut off? what a great feature.

EDIT: more specifically it goes to 5 volts for a second then just shuts off, like it doesn't bother to charge up the caps before it judges weather its a short or a load or something. well i don't get it.

so am i right? i guess i'll go back and get the 12V one, since 6V is enough anyway, and if it sucks enough maybe it'll put out 16 or 17 volts which would be perfect... or is the 12v gunna auto-shutoff too. or did i just wire the **** wrong? (hell no i didn't wire it wrong) eh, do all my radio shacks suck and yours all carry a nice 18v or 16v only adaptor that works fine?

dono if this has ever been covered in the past, but i never read it so i'll go ahead and arrogantly assume it wasn't. if i'm wrong, sorry for the spam.

teach me to try and do something productive on a saturday.

EDIT: oh and for reference the amp works fine (i'd even say great) powered by my bench voltage source, in case you think i did something that stupid...

 

[eric343]

Do you have the polarity right?

If you have the crowbar diode installed (I hope!) and you connect it the wallwart in reverse, then the wallwart will see a dead short and (hopefully) shut off.

 

[TaffyGuy]

grr no i said don't assume that stupid =p

you guys use these same rat shack warts? this thing is monsterous. personally i hate it, but i want to mobilize my meta once and for all. maybe the 12v will work and maybe its not so damned big. bleh. wonder if rat shack will let me trade back for it. it lights up the LED and gives voltage for like a second and then just splits. it just doesn't like the circuit for some reason. like i said if i just grab the dinn thingy with my voltage source the amp works fine. some property of the wall wart i don't understand. maybe this one just sucks.

 

[Dreamslacker]

You could try creating a load using some high power resistors though.

 

[TaffyGuy]

yeah i was thinking about testing it out but i don't really have any big or high power resistors. so i guess i'm kind of useless on the matter. oh beans... if you look closely enough you can see that to even reach 200kohms on my amp i stuck in 2 100k and connected them in midair, and have since been too lazy and distracted to upgrade my resistor collection

**** i don't even deserve advice heh.

 

[ppl]

Measure the Voltage from the Wall wart unloaded if it is less that it's rated DC Voltage then it is becaues the Wall wart is only a half wave Rect. designed to charge Batteries. if this is not the case. and you do get the required voltage and suspect the Adaptors has short circuit Protection then put a 20 ohm series resistor so as to allow the caps to charge without overloading the Unit BTW do you have a Part #

 

[TaffyGuy]

what the hell are you doing up at this hour ppl?

okay i studied the product a little more and came to the conclusion that i am a complete *******. i won't elaborate out of sheer embarrassment.

what the hell would i possibly want 18vac for anyway? god damnit. from now on i stay in bed all day during the weekend.

*hangs head in shame* at least i had the polarity right

 

[ppl]

"what the hell are you doing up at this hour ppl?"

Hopefully helping you out with your wall wart Problem, But I gess you figured it out all on your own. calm down Everyone makes stupid mastakes, **** happens.

 

[TaffyGuy]

hey man it was intended in good fun (notice i was up too...) and you did help, since it was your hint that tipped off my retardation.

so if i was a normal human being i'd just say thank you and continue, but i felt like being a sarcastic ******* instead at the hope of inducing a mild smirk.

your tha man ppl. rock on.

(at 6am! thats marathon stuff there... my body won't accept that anymore...)

 

[TaffyGuy]

well i went out and got a new wall wart and -- yippee we've got slight 60hz hum. oh well its probably only audible on eys and with no music playing, and might come from being plugged into the wrong power strip, so whatever.

in conclusion: radio shack is stupid AND i screwed up again. who would have thought... at least its in form enough that i can build an enclosure for it finally. we'll see how many months that takes me.

 

[Voodoochile]

Quote:

okay i studied the product a little more and came to the conclusion that i am a complete *******.

I congratulate you on your complete honesty in sharing that with us!
Thanks also for the chuckle

... I'm glad you have it figured out.

 

[ppl]

"hey man it was intended in good fun (notice i was up too...) and you did help, since it was your hint that tipped off my retardation"

Taffy Guy This is what i thought. so i responded in somewhat a sarcastic way.

"Hopefully helping you out with your wall wart Problem, But I gess you figured it out all on your own. calm down Everyone makes stupid mastakes, **** happens"

so it's all good. I could detect your frustration on this and that is why i responded the way i did since i also get frustrated at Circuits People and Lots of other things. It often get's in the way of the Subject at hand and can lead to not getting the Issue resolved.

 

[TaffyGuy]

hehe yeah i didn't really care that much other than i figured i was doing somethin stupid, since i've been quite distracted by school and really put my hobby on hold... too bad i'm always so fickle and jump from thing to thing... really ought to start playing my flute, or guitar, or sax, or... again as well. bleh. no regrets, eh? as long as i'm still clean from counterstrike.

so it sounded better with the power source i had on there all along, but i figured i'd better get off my ass and build an enclosure and get it all cased up so i can actually use it like a product finally

anyway thanks again for your help. i was just in a dark mood becuase markl coerced me into being bitter in music forum thread, and someone just showed me www.fitshaced.com (back issues since its down right now) and if you've seen it... you'd understand...

well if i entertained voodoo it was all worth it

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by TaffyGuy okay i studied the product a little more and came to the conclusion that i am a complete *******.

As a relatively experienced DIYer, let me tell you that this is one of the most common realizations to have when debugging (or making) an amp.

 

[elnero]

Hey Taffy,

Don't feel bad, I made the exact same mistake with what sounds like the exact same wall wart from Radio Shack. Sad part is I fried my opamps and PS caps. I had just got my Cmoy from JMT and didn't even get to hear it. It's now been fixed and on it's way back but I must admit I felt like a complete moron. At least I'm not alone anymore.