Mixer fetish?

[Nigel Goodwin]

I think my friend Chris has got a mixer fetish

I've mentioned previously that the band I used to do the PA for has reformed for a reunion gig, and potentially other gigs - the reunion gig went 'OK'

Anyway, it's all been organised by the bass player Chris, you used to run the band, and has recently moved back to the UK from Croatia.

So he contacted me about equipment (he'd got nothing, not even a bass guitar), but I'd got a small PA, mixer/amp, speakers, mikes, leads etc. that I used for my daughters bands, so initially we practised with that. But he wanted bigger, better

First off he bought a cheap Soundcraft mixer off Ebay, and brought it to me fix - so I repaired that. Next, while I was out of action with my detached retina, he bought a slightly larger Yamaha mixer (presumably not as cheap, as it didn't need fixing) - and that was the mixer we used for the gig.

Since then he's bought a Studiomaster mixer, because it has 5 Aux outputs, and I've currently got that for repair. It had no PSU with it, but we've managed to source a plug, and I've ordered a couple of 24V SMPSU's from China, which I'll modify to give -17V and +17V as required, currently I'm running it from my dual workshop PSU. The Aux5 control and knob was also missing, but we've managed to source a suitable control.

I'm currently working on the right LED meter, which isn't working, while the outputs are - and the meters are actually driven off the top of the headphone volume pot - via a couple of opamp rectifiers, and three LM3900 comparators per channel.

Next he told me he'd put a bid in on a larger Studiomaster mixer, which was spares or repair, no-reserve, and had a starting price of £0.01 - so he put a cheap bid in, and eventually won it for £7.50 It was collection only, so he drove to Wales on Sunday to collect it - later on I got a text, saying he needed a hand getting it out of the car, but didn't ask for me to go and help. Then the next day he sent me a picture via text, I suspect it was somewhat larger than he thought.

I asked if he had tried it, but he hadn't at that time, and I've not heard anything since - however, if nothing else it's an awful lot of knobs for only £7.50

Needless to say, I'm concerned he's going to want to bring it me for repair, and I think we might struggle getting it to my attic!.

 

[ClydeCrashKop]

And you are the champion Mixer Fixer!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

And you are the champion Mixer Fixer!

I'm doing my best

The Chinese PSU's arrived this afternoon, so I modded those - the top resistor was 20K, the bottom was 2320 ohms (nice random value) - a bit of ohms law, and I worked out 39K in parallel with the 20K gives just under 17V. I've just connected it up, and it runs about +/-16.6V - which seems pretty decent to me.

I didn't want more, as where the power goes in one of the opamp chips (headphone driver) is fed via a ten ohm in each rail, with 16V decoupling capacitors on the rails!.

 

[schmitt trigger]

The slider pots themselves should be multiples of £7.50 ! More so if they are some Penny & Giles ones.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

I'm doing my best

The Chinese PSU's arrived this afternoon, so I modded those - the top resistor was 20K, the bottom was 2320 ohms (nice random value) - a bit of ohms law, and I worked out 39K in parallel with the 20K gives just under 17V. I've just connected it up, and it runs about +/-16.6V - which seems pretty decent to me.

I didn't want more, as where the power goes in one of the opamp chips (headphone driver) is fed via a ten ohm in each rail, with 16V decoupling capacitors on the rails!.

Some smps can feed significant noise into audio systems. You might want to use a center-tapped & rectified 12v transformer to get your +/- 17v. Our old ears may not hear the higher frequency noises from cheap Chinese SMPSs but some of the audience likely will. If you use a megahertz GaN SMPS, then your likely ok with noise-free power.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Some smps can feed significant noise into audio systems. You might want to use a center-tapped & rectified 12v transformer to get your +/- 17v. Our old ears may not hear the higher frequency noises from cheap Chinese SMPSs but some of the audience likely will. If you use a megahertz GaN SMPS, then your likely ok with noise-free power.

We'll see how it goes - SMPSU's are commonly used in 'later' mixers.