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Linn Brilliant SMPS - naked!

Paul R

pfm Member
The original Linn Brilliant is housed in a transformer sized cylindrical aluminium extrusion. The one in my Numerik failed a year or so ago so I put it back in its box in the loft and forgot about it, using a Karik by itself as a rather fine CD source.

On the basis that my Karik was likely to fail sooner or later (it's subtly hinting...) this week I dug the Numerik out and took a look. If I could fix this then there is a chance that the Karik can be maintained, if not nothing is lost. Anyway,

This is what is inside the cylinder,

0.jpg


which opens up to,

1.jpg


and

2.jpg


The mains enters from the left, is filtered, rectified and smoothed. The chip is an automatic voltage sensor/selector. On 230vac the rectifier is configured conventionally and the two reservoir caps are in series. On 110vac the rectifier/caps are configured to voltage double, leading to about the same voltage on the reservoirs.

The left of the right board is the switcher, the controller chip on the other side of the board, the central yellow component a transformer, the right just contains a couple of rectifiers and some inductive filtration. There is no obvious regulation or output smoothing. Which makes sense given the conventional power supply arrangements remain in the Numerik.

David Ellwood had recommended a recap and new MOSFETs. So I ordered some bits from Farnell. Of the caps that came out only one was out of spec. The recapped boards came back to life, I've left the original MOSFETs in place for the moment. Time will tell whether we have a true fix or not but the reinstated Numerik certainly sounds OK.

FWIW if you have to ask, don't open an SMPS, and definitely don't apply mains to the open unit.

Paul
 
glad to hear you have a runner.

its that poor little black lytic that sits between the big bullying hot fets that gets the most jip.

that said all of em get fairly cooked inside the oven that is the brilliant case.

Make sure that when you change them you go for high temperature (105 degree min) caps.

anyone that has one of these still working is well advised to recap before the problems arise.


ps: you have to be really careful with the nylon screws as they also suffer and get brittle with the heat.
 
The cap that was out of line was the 47u that's sitting by itself on the right of the mains entry board. It's an 85C spec part.

Paul
 
Just want to add for anyone looking to repair their broken mid-90's Linn gear that I was able to fix the Brilliant power supply in my Wakonda using this post. Same symptoms many others have with their broken gear; power light comes on then fades out. I simply replaced that same 47uf cap in the middle of the second picture, on the left board next to the blue wires. $1.30 from Rat Shack. The original cap was discolored on top. Thank you so much for posting this!
 
This is by far the best forum entry I have ever read! I managed to fix my bricked, but otherwise nice Karik with new laser, by replacing the same 47uF cap. Thank you so much!

Kind of shitty by Linn to have such a flawed design on such an exclusive product. Hopefully I don't need to replace it anytime soon since I used a 105 C spec cap.

Magnus
 
FWIW if you look on http://www.diyaudio.com some kind person has posted schematics for this evolution of the Brilliant.

Darran, I think a lot failed a lot earlier. The Linn solution was to replace with a 'Slimline'. In my case that lasted a couple of years before exploding.

Paul
 
Very good contribution is it.

Does anyone know where to get the bits to make the Karik I drawer move in and out with less slug? I think it is a long belt there?

DS
 
No, not really Darran. I wasn't very serous about that, but it feels a bit ridiculous an expensive CD player is bricked by such a cheap component. I love my Linns!
 
FWIW if you look on http://www.diyaudio.com some kind person has posted schematics for this evolution of the Brilliant.

Paul

Hi Paul,
Please give me a direct link to that link - can't find it. I have problems with the PS of my KAIRN and have an idea to replace the complete shit with a normal toroidal PS with shottkies but I will need the schematic with the voltages/ampere - I do not believe the measuring these. If someone has an idea please help.
Thanks,
Ignat
 
Thanks but unfortunately mine is too old and version SPS - that's the picture in the first attachment of the post 5 - only a picture of it, no schematic.
Thanks anyway,
Ignat
 
I would like to thank Paul and confirm that the re-cap is easy to do. I have posted some photos of the Karik disassembled on Flickr - just search for "Linn Karik".
 
Thanks to all of the shared information.

My Linn Numerik DAC shown the same sympton last week,
After push the 'power on' button, the pilot lamp lights up about 2 seconds, and faid out.

I opened up the Brilliant SMPS, 2 Nichicon Capacitors starts to leak, I replaced the 47uF and 100uF on the triggering rails. But the SMPS still cannot start to work. :confused:

I noted the output of -24V rail is always measured at 0V; while the other two output voltage +24V and +10V are up in the very begining and fall down to 0V gradually. :rolleyes:

I measure the surface mounted 10uF/35V titian capacitor (yellow) filters the -24V DC, it is shorted; that is the reason SMPS goes into protection mode.

I removed all 3 pieces of 10uF/35V capacitors (other two might go faulty soon), and the SMPS gets up and running fine.:)
 
Very good contribution is it.

Does anyone know where to get the bits to make the Karik I drawer move in and out with less slug? I think it is a long belt there?

DS

When I was 11 years old, I used to work in a TV / Video repair shop - the "cheapskate " owner would make us "fix" slack belts by boiling them in water... Sure helped to shrink them... Better but not perfect..
 
Thanks to all of the shared information.

My Linn Numerik DAC shown the same sympton last week,
After push the 'power on' button, the pilot lamp lights up about 2 seconds, and faid out.

I opened up the Brilliant SMPS, 2 Nichicon Capacitors starts to leak, I replaced the 47uF and 100uF on the triggering rails. But the SMPS still cannot start to work. :confused:

I noted the output of -24V rail is always measured at 0V; while the other two output voltage +24V and +10V are up in the very begining and fall down to 0V gradually. :rolleyes:

I measure the surface mounted 10uF/35V titian capacitor (yellow) filters the -24V DC, it is shorted; that is the reason SMPS goes into protection mode.

I removed all 3 pieces of 10uF/35V capacitors (other two might go faulty soon), and the SMPS gets up and running fine.:)

Exellent, Thanks for that info!
 
When I was 11 years old, I used to work in a TV / Video repair shop - the "cheapskate " owner would make us "fix" slack belts by boiling them in water... Sure helped to shrink them... Better but not perfect..

Thats a good application of entropy and provided that the material is not breaking down/rotting would be worth a try. I wonder how he found this out?

Cheers,

DV
 
A big thank you is called for. My old Numerik died the other day after a power outage.... it came back on but the light went out after a few seconds....dead. I thought that was that but hey, not bad for an eBay purchase about 8 years ago to partner with a Karik (also off eBay)... total cost about £350, and the Karik was still working.

Although I have used a soldering iron and can tell the difference between a resistor and capacitor, my know-how more or less ends there. But reading the guidance here I realized there was a slim chance that the brilliant psu had one faulty 47uF cap, and the preceding photos made it look like a simple job to try.

It was:)

49pence later and a new 47uF 105C cap fitted, job done and working.:D

I haven't looked inside the Karik but I did buy a spare cap just in case! So thanks again everyone!
 


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