Leaderboard

Cheers all. Pretty normal day -- driving kids around, feeling hella creaky. The Beard took me out for lunch and some advice on aging disgracefully. I'll try to live up to his high standards. Now if you'll excuse me, this cab ain't gonna gargle itself!

This wins for best listening chair. "John Holliday Perry started diving at a time that he called a few years B.C., Before Cousteau developed the aqualung. He built most of the submarines for the James Bond movie Thunderball, and kept a few for his own use on a private island in the Bahamas. At right is his shark hunter which he used to access a private underwater habitat in 1990. The house was about 30 ft down, and entered through an opening on the floor. He liked to spend time down there listening to Brahms, Beethoven, and Belafonte, while watching the fish swim by. RIP John, an American original."

Police say they have nothing to go on. [emoji6]

I found a nice Amazon packet on top of my BH with this inside 😎😛

I knocked a minute per mile off my speed on my evening walk. You real runners aren't going to be impressed, but I'm very happy I have my aerobic base back. https://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/3790273684?fbclid=IwAR1rg02aAxnT44NGOPrj-zJHUOhlP8nrnEOjLn46l1KQpyJLVf5DBZXFRSY

I left my new omega book on my wife's desk at her clinic with a note. This is the response I got later.

Amazon Launches Amazon Music HD https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/hd Ooh , more bits ... For less .. https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/17/20869526/amazon-music-hd-lossless-flac-tier-spotify-apple Oh, Hi Neil, Pono? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/business/amazon-music-hd.html Earth will never be the same again, apparently. https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-music-hd-launches-to-compete-with-tidal/ https://variety.com/2019/music/news/amazon-music-unveils-hd-highest-quality-audio-streaming-1203338552/ 90 day free trial. Nice.

First impressions of the new watch are very positive vs. the 3rd gen one I had been using up until I broke it over the 4th of July weekend. The always-on display is a game changer for the watch and was badly needed. Not having to do the "apple watch flip" with the wrist every time you want to check the time is a godsend. Also, won't be true for everybody but I really like the lighter weight of the base aluminum watch. There are some people who like a more substantial watch on their wrist but I prefer something I barely notice. This fits the bill. The base aluminum model is noticeably lighter than the Stainless or Edition models. Yes, it feels cheaper as a result. At least for me comfort is paramount.

Can I pay an extra $5 to get Neil Young to stop talking about compression?

Sand dunes with ice melting near the North pole of Mars

My rare post to this thread..... Bean-less Chilli, made with "alterna-meat" of Ground Camel. Really quite yummy, even as leftovers....

Blue hawaii build notes for the kgsshvpssicfetdual2new PSU The kgsshvpssicfetdual2new is based on version 1.6 of the kgsshv psu single boards and does NOT have the cpc1117N or resistor required for simple B+,B- delayed start. (it’s still possible to implement delayed start but it requires a relay(s) which the cpc1117N avoids). In all other ways its similar to the v1.7 single boards. The single boards put the b+ on one board and the b- on another and split the -+15V and bias between them. The kgsshv ps dual has all the dc voltages required to power the blue hawaii and apart from the notes above is topologically and componentry identical to the single psu boards. The notes bellow applies to BOTH the single and the dual psu boards. Construction is straightforward other than 1. the silkscreen shows 15-0-15VAC input for the + and 15VDC outputs, Since the -+15V output is a simple DC supply with a bridge rectifier and voltage regulators 15-0-15VAC is NOT sufficient to provide -+15V output... I have verified this using a variac. There is about 0.6V drop across each diode in the bridge *plus* the voltage regs need between 1V and 1.5V more input DC than their output in order to regulate properly. so 18-0-18AC is actually required to get a properly regulated -+15VDC output... Any more VAC input will be converted into heat by the voltage regs. However, with 18VAC-0-18VAC centre tapped input the voltage regs run very cool with the small heatsink they are bolted to. 2. the blue hawaii amp boards -400VDC lines draw more current than the +400V lines. If you connect a single channel up to the psu board for testing there will be no problems. Connecting two channels results in the -400V line on the psu going into current limit and the voltage dropping to (im my case) about -175VDC. The fix is fortunately easy. The 5.1ohm 3W or 5W resistors are the current sense resistors for the over current protection. On the -400V psu side either replace the 5.1ohm resistor with about 2.6ohm or similar wattage and type or parallel another identical 5.1ohm around the existing one. The +400V does not need modification. the lower the resistors value the more current supplied before the current limit cicruit activates. I don’t have anyway to variable load a line that has such a high voltage but I would guesstimate that the 5.1ohm resistor current limits at about 100mA since two amp boards +400V together draw around 81mA and there is no problem with 5.1ohm and 2 -400V boards draw between them around 129mA and that causes current limiting with 5.1ohm sense resistors. 3 make sure none of the metals tabs on the transistors are shorted to the heatsink/L bracket that mounts to the heatsink. Use electrically insulated spacers between the back of the transistors with metal tabs and the L bracket/heatsink AND use a nonconductive gromet to insulate the bolt from the transistor. The psu transistors do not get that hot with a reasonable size heatsink attached. 4. if you are building in a u2 high case the largest main psu caps you can put in are Kemet 500V 470uF long life at 65mm tall. Beware they also do an 80mm tall 470uF cap - this will NOT fit in 2u. Similarly 680uF caps at 500V are 80mm high and will not fit. 5. if you want to check the bias is 580V use the bias test point. Dont measure at the bias screw terminal. Why, typical multimeters have a 10M ohm input impedance and assume whatever they are measuring across is much less than 10Mohm... this is NOT the case for the bias line which has a 4.7Mohm resistor. result the multimeter will NOT give the correct voltage reading between the ground screw and the bias screw. Measure from the bias pad nearby to the ground screw. Also, don’t measure the bias with headphones attached. 6. there is only one screw terminal for +400V, -400V, +15V and -15V so you will need to connect two wires to each screw terminal. This limits the gauge of the wire. Also make sure you are screwed the terminal down well, its easy to have one wire firmly affixed and the other one lose.... 7. to adjust the B+ and B- lines the two 390K resistors (R8 and R9) in series with the 20K resistor (R7) just after the 1N007 diode that have the 0.047uF cap across them need to be changed. Approximately (for my psu) I got the following 442K for 450VDC (note requires a transformer with 360VAC output to have enough voltage input to get proper regulation) 390K for 404VDC (transformer 330VAC or more output) 365K for 375VDC (transformer 310VAC or more output) the approximate equation for me was the total of the 2 resistors in ohms/(20,000-700)*10 (the 20,000 is the resistor in series with the resistors you are changing, the 10 is the output of the voltage reference LT1021-10), the 700 is the fudge factor to make the numbers accurate for me... (variation in voltage reference, variation in the 20K resistor etc etc...) 8. To test for proper regulation connect a volt meter to the nominally +-400V output and a ground screw terminal and either power the transformer from a variac OR if your variac can go high enough you could go from the variac output into the 300VAC input of the psu. There is no need to have amp boards connected at all and its safer if you dont. Slowly increase the AC and you should see the DC output rise. At some point increasing the variac by some volts will result in very small output increases (in the order of few milli volts) now the psu is regulating. Measure the 330VAC input of the psu and that’s the minimum transformer output voltage you need for regulation. Both the + and - 400V sides of the psu should have similarly behaviour and similar minimum VAC input requirements since they are almost identical in topology and are identical in components. 9. I would recommend initially testing the psu board without amp boards connected in case voltages are way off. However, with no load on the psu the b+ and b- lines, they will take some minutes to fall to 0v and with no headphones the bias line will stay high for a long time. Fortunately the bias line can be discharged just by connecting a multimeter to it and ground and set to DC volts. Even a meter with 10Mohm input impedance will drain the bias line in a few minutes. the -+15V lines will be drained by the voltage regulators. 10 I would recommend a variac for initial testing it allows you to bring voltages up slowly and make sure that voltages are going up in symmetry (-+400V, -+15V) and becoming stable. 11. If the outputs look good with no amp boards attached, connect one board and repeat the tests. Better to put in channel in danger than both... especially if the amp boards have not been tested. 12. if test with the other amp board only. You don’t want to blame the psu if one amp board only is miss behaving... 13. test with both amp boards. Remember if the -400V line goes down in voltage significantly only with 2 amp boards attached and is fine with one you probably have a current limit problem and did not implement item 2 here! 14 don’t plug in headphones unless 1. you have a spare pair you don’t mind frying. 2. you have tested voltages, dc offsets are nulled and you are happy. ideally look at the outputs on a scope and put some sine waves in.... 15 Before you plug in anything visually inspect for solder bridges... I had a partial bridge it only started conducting when the input AC to the psu went above about 26VAC... thank you variac... 16 use probes with insulation, there is lots of high voltages don’t short out things with you probes.... 17 Before you power up anything double check the wiring the - and + on the silkscreen are quite small and you dont want +400V going to a place expecting -400V.... 18 temperatures are low, with the psu attached at a 200mm by 80mm heatsink with 40mm fins, (both amp boards running constant current 20mA and -+400V B-+), the centre of the case of the +400V side transistors are about 40C, the -400V transistors are around 3C higher at around 43C. The cases on the C2M1000170D transistors take some time to become as hot as the mounting screws. The 10M90S cases reach the mounting screw temperatures far faster. 19 I know the board has been made as small as possible and around the screw terminals its rather crowded. But it would be nice if there was sepertate screw terminals for the -+400V and -+15V for each channel, this would allow for the use of thicker wires and reduce the possibility of a wire comming out. (I have already had the situation where I though both wires where screwed in tightly to a single terminal and then one came out) Hope this is useful James

I have one again tried to get by with a video card on air.. But I hate dust busters, so had to order a water block and throw together a loop with what I had around. The sound of silence!

Book Club Chicken Tikka Masala Book Club desserts Cherry Pie, Chocolate cake, Scoop VHL. I don't mind it when Joanne hosts book club. And not being a member, I don't even have to read the book!

Satan's handiwork.

Has something changed about how high voltage electricity works that would make a new design better than an old one? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I remember listening to this album thousands of times on my 944 Turbo S

...as opposed to water camel, air camel, or the mythical fire camel?

Two more then I'm jumping back to the future. Besides the collections are going South quickly. I think Mikey is on to something. I never hear it mentioned, but was there a far lesser FM killed the more regional AM star? Dusty, the democratization seems a next step (and seemingly could have even reversed the personal branding jump). As aging and personal bias intertwined here, I'll also include a shot of a vehicle I heard many of these songs in - the '74 Plymouth Road Runner. Memory is tricky, but I'm pretty sure everything sounded better on it than my current 2011 Kia Optima (Running-It-Into-the-Ground Edition).

Hiss Golden Messenger - Terms of Surrender. This is an artist that Tidal's auto-suggestions turned me on to. Really mellow, folk/alt-rock-ish. Relaxing and nice to have on while working. I'm a fan.

That's something called "hype". If you want to fall for the hype, we won't stop you, but please don't perpetuate it here. You have to understand something about Head-Fi. Their enthusiasm for the next new thing comes in waves; we refer to it as the "flavour of the month" syndrome. Occasionally, one of those products may actually be better than the standard bearers, but we wouldn't know, because most of them are not. My advice to you is, settle on what you want, be it a KSGG Klassik or a JDS Labs Atom or a Headamp Pico Power (that's smallish) or a Massdrop Objective 2 or whatever, and get it and live with it for a while. And watch the waves.

Don't get fooled by the latest fashion. Buy one, enjoy it, and if it's not enough you can change afterwards. I bet it'll be keeping some money value in the future.

Today's Breakfast Bacon And now ... Veggie Tacos, Pulled Pork Tacos (with bacon aioli)