The Hypex nCore build thread
- Thread starter occamsrazor
- Start date
Not sure but Hypex go to the trouble of specifying a temperature so I put a data logger in mine for a few days and the temperature was exceeded. I fitted vents to the top, you cant see them in the photo as they are hidden but it has a large vent area.
There have been a few Hypex SPMS failures over the years, maybe they are temperature related? I don't know, I just did it by the book to be sure.
As for power consumption, it all adds up over a year and I did not want to fiddle with switching stuff off and on. I expect my stuff to power-up and just work if I stream some music to it and to politely power down after I stopped streaming.
Thanks, its not finished of course, non of my stuff is finished
What I'd really like to see though is some analogue VU meters on the front of a case
Yes I have that inkling also
occamsrazor
pfm Member
Wow. That is some hardcore modding, seriously. I'm very impressed. Was there no commercial module already made, that you had to deisgn and make your own? Very cool anyway...
Lots of help with that board and others from my fellow pinko bodgers as you will see in the thread.
All my system is DIY
, you just cant buy kit of this quality so you have to bodge it My DIY investment in my DAC is around 5K, so commercially it would be what 50/100K? I don't have that sort of money even if someone made the design I wanted.
But principally its all good fun being a dyed in the wool pinko bodger and thats my main reason for doing this.
Boards are now so cheap to have produced cost is not an issue (for the board), I think I sold those signal detector boards for around three squid, its in the thread somewhere.
sam_cat
C'est Crounchifique!
Apparently I am not allowed to state my opinion of his way of wiring, and I should discuss it in the audio forum instead.
Lol, carry on with that.. Its just what was turning into a circular argument which clearly neither side was going to back down from, potentially ruining a good and interesting thread.
My Connex amps are built into the 'stands' of my Ergo IXs, the speakers are bookshelf size and I added an integral stand to raise them to the right height leaving an open backed box at the bottom. The amps are built onto an aluminium plate that covers the open back. They run so cool that it is very hard to say where the amps are on the plate and they are driven from the balanced output of the MDAC which is supposed to be better. Mains power to the amps comes from an 'intelligent' plug so turning on the MDAC turns on the amps. I did use signal detector boards but took them out as mains was still on in the box to power the detector, with my system off is off. You may say that the MDAC isn't good enough to reveal differences between Connex and Hypex but at least I have tried both, at more or less the same time, and to me there is no difference, certainly no difference worth the extra £.
PA class D by mrphil42, on Flickr
I added Velleman modules for peace of mind, they also provide red / green / yellow lights for health monitoring
PA class D by mrphil42, on FlickrI added Velleman modules for peace of mind, they also provide red / green / yellow lights for health monitoring
occamsrazor
pfm Member
Thanks for the write-up. It looks like a nice job you've done, but it would appear to be a bit more "DIY" than the plug-and-play Ncores and I suspect out of my league. But interesting nonethless.
That was exactly what I was thinking to do! I was just wondering whether the sensitivity of the "intelligent plug" could be tuned properly to what I imagine is the relatively low wattage of the MDAC. Could you please post a link to the particular plug you are using, seeing as it is known to work with this combo. Thanks.
That was exactly what I was thinking to do! I was just wondering whether the sensitivity of the "intelligent plug" could be tuned properly to what I imagine is the relatively low wattage of the MDAC. Could you please post a link to the particular plug you are using, seeing as it is known to work with this combo. Thanks.
If you take out the Velleman (probably not necessary), ignore the speaker leads and the wiring for the auto switch on module (which was removed) then it looks a lot simpler, not really DIY but more 'assembly'. The mains thingy says e-on on the side and works well, bought 2 from Ebay. The other on the telly is not so good as a black screen for a few seconds drops the power consumption below its threshold and it turns off, curse these economical appliances ! (no, not really)
Julf
Facts are our friends
I agree with the cautious approach - heat is the #1 killer of electronics (in normal, domestic, non-corrosive conditions, of course - not talking about electronics installed on an oil drilling platform
). I installed a cheap 1-wire temperature sensor inside my enclosures, with a 3.5 mm jack at the back to plug in a logger/wireless transmitter. This lead me to change the box design to allow more air flow, as temperatures inside the enclosure were getting rather warm (but my boxes have 4 nc400's and 2 smps600 in each).
Julf
Facts are our friends
A very clever solution! Fortunately I can control smps standby from my digital crossover and source, so I don't need automatic signal detection.
There are several "Hypex methods". The easiest, most power consuming one is to use the nc400 nampon switched to ground. The next one down in power consumption is smps standby that requires an external voltage, but powers down both amps and power supplies. The third method, guaranteeing zero power consumption, is of course the good old mains switch.
I assume you are using the smps standby method?
Julf
Facts are our friends
I agree - and I have to admit I was unnecessarily grumpy last night, as I was coming down with a nasty cold.
As noted, the pictures of the "professional" ncore build do violate the strong recommendation from Hypex about the wiring of the speaker output leads.
As to modding of the modules, changing capacitors etc., yes, this is the DIY forum, and everyone is of course allowed to experiment as much as they want, but if you want to avoid degrading the performance you'd better know what you are doing.
The layout of a switching amp is critical due to the high frequencies and steep rise times involved, so things like capacitor lead lengths are a real issue. Likewise, capacitor inductance and internal loss are essential parameters in this circuit, so if you start changing things, make sure you understand what you are doing and why.
I also recommend you check the results both with an oscilloscope and with a spectrum analyzer, as the results might surprise you - and not necessarily in a good way.
sam_cat
C'est Crounchifique!
I run mine like that as well, using a "One Click intelliPanel". Works perfectly, turns sub on as well.
I agree with the cautious approach - heat is the #1 killer of electronics (in normal, domestic, non-corrosive conditions, of course - not talking about electronics installed on an oil drilling platform
I installed a cheap 1-wire temperature sensor inside my enclosures, with a 3.5 mm jack at the back to plug in a logger/wireless transmitter. This lead me to change the box design to allow more air flow, as temperatures inside the enclosure were getting rather warm (but my boxes have 4 nc400's and 2 smps600 in each).
I use this logger which led me to space the Galaxy top lid off by 5mm giving an annular type vent.
1
4 X 400S sounds nice
Some guys just find a touch of distortion euphoric, for them its better.
My HackerNAPs bring a little which is a nice thing not nasty, although I prefer my Hypex I understand why some opt for the HackerNAP.
Julf
Facts are our friends
Julf
Facts are our friends
Sure. A touch of distortion is fine if that is what you like, but HF oscillation is another matter.
occamsrazor
pfm Member
All this talk of temperatures is concerning me! I live in a reasonably warm country (20-30 degrees outside most days). I figured the Ncores would be ideal as I thought they run cooler than Class A/B etc.
But presumably the temperature is related to output power, yes? So if one is mostly listening at lower volumes it shouldn't be an issue, should it?
But presumably the temperature is related to output power, yes? So if one is mostly listening at lower volumes it shouldn't be an issue, should it?
I keep getting an itch to go active but then ponder analog and digital filters an run out off puff.
What crossovers are you using?
No I use smps power down, from an energy point of view it is daft to have two standby circuits with the detector and smps both consuming standby current.
The signal detector has mains relay switching.
As an aside I found the signal detector can also be bodged to get triggered from a data stream and hence a third one can shut most of my DAC off.
Julf
Facts are our friends
They definitely run much cooler than an A/B amp of the same power, but there is still some power to dissipate - so a small, totally closed box would not be ideal. I don't think your ambient temperature matters that much, it is really temperatures of 50-70C inside the enclosure we worry about, and ensuring some air circulation takes care of that.
Julf
Facts are our friends
I started out with the behringer dcx2496 to work things out, and now use the Hypex DLCP.
Makes sense.
Excellent!