General DIY thread (post your project pics!)

[rayk]

Damn dingo you beat me!

I have 4 Caps to solder still, volume pot and jacks and mine will be done! Albeit probably non functional as I will be very surprised that I didn't fry the chips from all the soldering and de soldering.

Moral of the story, use something thinner than 1mm solder for this, and a 0.8 or finer tip is a must! Agree very fiddly build but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Also I forgot to thermal paste the AD chip, so now I will be having fun pushing thermal past underneath it with tweezers.

[dingostolemyipod]

Agree very fiddly build but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

The problem with the mini3, for beginners, is that you must do the hardest part first.

Also I forgot to thermal paste the AD chip, so now I will be having fun pushing thermal past underneath it with tweezers.

i actually wouldn't bother, unless you plan on running rather inefficient phones from it. For iem's, and your average portables, it's gonna produce stuff all heat, so yeh.

[ihasmario]

How loose are the knobs on the portables the people are building anyway?

I sort of need one for volume control from a line out on portable gear so I figure I might as well aim for moderate quality and get an P-S adapter, but my main concern is the volume knob going way up. On a pair of ER4s thats instant death, basically.

Are there any without knobs? This includes commercial amps too, if you know any. Yeah, I am aware you can remove knobs, but are they still turnable? lol

Cheaper the better, I guess.

Blatant noob

[kimbo]

I feel sorry for anyone who attempts one of those as a 1st project.
Very fiddly, and would be worse for someone with lesser tools, it would be a nightmare with a cheap and nasty iron.
But anyway for someone of my calibre, was a breeze

Geez, I'm so happy I didn't attempt it as a total noooob.

I'm happy for it to do the rounds if people are curious for a listen. Maybe it'll 'burn in' before it finally gets to me. Otherwise if no-one's interested, I'm also happy to use it at my desk at work!

[rayk]

i actually wouldn't bother, unless you plan on running rather inefficient phones from it. For iem's, and your average portables, it's gonna produce stuff all heat, so yeh.

Ahh cool, saves me some trouble.

Actually I'm only building one to get some practice before I get started on the CKKIII. Which it has served it's purpose. If it turns out functional then great, nice back up amp. Perhaps I will build it a y1 for company later.

[Naka]

I feel sorry for anyone who attempts one of those as a 1st project.
Very fiddly, and would be worse for someone with lesser tools, it would be a nightmare with a cheap and nasty iron.
But anyway for someone of my calibre, was a breeze

Geez, I'm so happy I didn't attempt it as a total noooob.

I'm happy for it to do the rounds if people are curious for a listen. Maybe it'll 'burn in' before it finally gets to me. Otherwise if no-one's interested, I'm also happy to use it at my desk at work!

Pick me pick me! I'm gonna get a standalone amp eventually, may as well start researching now.

[dingostolemyipod]

i actually wouldn't bother, unless you plan on running rather inefficient phones from it. For iem's, and your average portables, it's gonna produce stuff all heat, so yeh.

Ahh cool, saves me some trouble.

Actually I'm only building one to get some practice before I get started on the CKKIII. Which it has served it's purpose. If it turns out functional then great, nice back up amp. Perhaps I will build it a y1 for company later.

I would strongly suggest you get someone qualified (experienced) to check your mains wiring before plugging it in initially, when it gets to that stage.

[dc]

DIY is for those with patience

[Beefy]

Perhaps I will build it a y1 for company later.

If you thought the SOIC on the Mini3 was hard....... well, the SMD on the y1 is a whole shitload more difficult.

[dc]

even though you will probably never use the thing, a CMOY is probably a more suitable 1st DIY project

[rayk]

I would strongly suggest you get someone qualified (experienced) to check your mains wiring before plugging it in initially, when it gets to that stage.

Yeah I sure as hell will be getting all my wiring checked!

If you thought the SOIC on the Mini3 was hard....... well, the SMD on the y1 is a whole shitload more difficult.

After looking at that tutorial video I suddenly fee more confident about soldering them. But we'll see, planning on the CKKIII has already got my hands full.

What are some good recommendations for RCA jacks? The ones in the kit are Kubiconn, but they don't look too nice or sturdy .

Thanks for all the help so far guys, makes DIY a less dark and scary place to venture into.

[Dave_Ease]

If you thought the SOIC on the Mini3 was hard....... well, the SMD on the y1 is a whole shitload more difficult.

But having learned a lot with the Mini3, a lot more doable. Based on my experience, I would almost put the CKKIII before the Mini3 on build progress, its nice and big and through hole. The big caveat being the 240VAC thing, which is NOT first project material, which is why I love the MiniMAX.

[Ludwig]

The M3 build was my first encounter with diy electronics aside from some minor things I did in highschool. I guess I got lucky avoiding any major circuit issues.

I did make a couple of stupid mistakes. Firstly I soldered the diode bridge and bridge capacitors to the TREAD despite having a DC power adaptor, I had to remove them because I was loosing to much voltage. The other one was soldering the heatsinks down before securing the mosfets. I had to stick the mica pads down with a pair tweezers, paste on thermal compound with a fine brush and tighten the bolts with a couple of needle nose pliers .

Both mistakes were due moreso because I was rushing. After replacing a cooked jfet at Q6- the amp worked perfectly and have'nt had a problem since.

[rayk]

Okay I failed at my first DIY,

The mini3 is borked. Front LED doesn't light up and battery becomes very hot while operating. It did produce a nice sound when I tried it briefly but I don't want to risk my headphones getting blown.

Well gonna troubleshoot it while I move on to the CKKIII. At least I got some soldering experience, shame the amp isn't "functional". Maybe a Cmoy would have been better for a starter project.

[dc]

pics!