Class D and Me Too!... The Hypex Path

[lovinthehd]

Update:
I found a PDF of the NC400 that had some pages my download didn't have... and with that a clearly marked instruction for Grounding Pin1 and the nAMPON to the Chassis. The Shield gets soldered to the Grounding Tab on the XLR Chassis Mount.

It seems likely I will need to prep the Chassis, as well, to properly ground the modules. That will likely be a pretty easy solution though, especially if I can get my hands on a Dremel.

Reminds me of the Buckeye issue recently....

 

[ryanosaur]

@Shanman

Ya, I deserve that.

 

[ryanosaur]

First delivery in-hand. Parts from Digi-Key! After I get my Work-Project completed, I'll be on to fixing the cabling for completing the Amps. I'm hoping I won't have to replace one set of wires with anything but my existing Hook-Up Wire I already have.

Tomorrow, I should get some Brass Ring Crimp Terminals which will be used to connect to the Binding Post terminals and fix the AC Ground which is supplied with a ring too small to fit the connection.

Power Cords and Heat Sinks come on Tuesday. It's been suggested by others that have used these Chassis that some additional heat sink love be employed to help cool the the modules.

Lastly, I got my hands on a Dremel so I can grind away some of the anodized finish where necessary to properly Ground some of the modules.

If all goes well with work, I'll be terminating cables on Sunday. *fingers crossed

 

[ryanosaur]

Amazon surprised and shipped everything at once... I got the crimp rings, heat sinks and power cords late yesterday.

After lunch, I begin playing with terminating the cable sets!

 

[highfigh]

Lastly, I got my hands on a Dremel so I can grind away some of the anodized finish where necessary to properly Ground some of the modules.

In the olden days, we used a small file or Emery cloth.

Man, times were tough, back then!

 

[ryanosaur]

In the olden days, we used a small file or Emery cloth.

Man, times were tough, back then!

Ya, I thought about just grabbing a rock from the yard…

How the hell did you guys ever get anything done?

 

[highfigh]

Ya, I thought about just grabbing a rock from the yard…

How the hell did you guys ever get anything done?

You probably won't be able to fit a large rock in there- use a pebble with a jagged edge.

How? Sheer determination. And drinking. Lots of drinking. And swearing. Lots of swearing.

I never tell kids to get off of my lawn- I 'let' them use my mower.

 

[ryanosaur]

Bah.
Frustrating... so much cable.

The set they shipped with the chassis has an abnormally thick silicone insulation on it and is a royal pain to strip. They are also not very flexible due to the thickness of that insulator.

I shelved those to allow myself a fresh start tomorrow... I am looking hard at the Hypex-supplied cable which is short but looks like I can go over the top of the Amp module from the Power Supply... Yes... Fresh look tomorrow.

I also processed two channels of Input connection, so this is the XLR to Amp module. This went better, after some experimentation. These particular chassis-mount female XLRs have a crimp connection which is nice so I can crush that down on the wire prior to soldering it. The actual wire is pretty light gauge, 20-22AWG I would say. The new one for me is dealing with the shielding, though.
I figured out how to undo the woven shield on one side and pull it over for soldering to the ground tab on the XLR socket. All I need to do tomorrow on those two channels is solder a grounding cable to Pin1 which will ground to the Chassis along with the nAMPON wire.

Tomorrow I will start with removing the modules I already installed so I can fix the chassis for proper grounding., then once reinstalled, I will see about fitting the shorter more flexible wiring harness between the SMPS and Amp. Should also be able to do the other 3 XLRs now that I have a "system" for that.

 

[Eppie]

A little tip for shielded cable. If the centre conductor is not too thick, what I used to do was strip the outer shielding, then get an awl and carefully poke a hole in the braiding above the outer shielding and fish the centre conductor through the hole. That way you don't have to unwind the braiding and you have a nice braided ground to solder or crimp with.

 

[ryanosaur]

OK... Today's follow up.

I started with removing all modules and prepping the chassis for proper grounding of the SMPS which have a single metal standoff for grounding.

Reinstalled all modules.

Played with the shorter Harness between SMPS and Amp Modules; this is the one with the thinner insulation, more flexible... Success. Prepped all five channels and installed.

Finished all XLR connections. This includes setting up the Pin1-ChassisGND as well as the nAMPON-ChassisGND.

Stymied at fixing the LED connection. I don't have the right crimping tool for the JST connections. I'll have to swing through the hardware store tomorrow in hopes of finding one that will do 1.6 and 1.9mm crimps.

Once that is done and connected, the final connection will be the Audio Out which is pretty straightforward and shouldn't require anything special to finish. *fingers crossed

Unless something else comes up, I should be ready to connect and run these tomorrow night or Wednesday sometime.

Documenting everything so I can show... afterall:
Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[CB22]

Documenting everything so I can show... afterall:

Been lurking on this thread. Looking forward to seeing it! Sounds like a fun project but TBH I'm most interested your subwoofer. If I have a dedicated HT room one day I would love to build some custom subs.

 

[ryanosaur]

Curses!


No such thing as an Open-Barrel Micro Crimper in these here parts.

I will not be able to finish that until Friday, now.

Amazon will deliver. I have faith.

(I previously had great success with my combo stripper/crimper tool, but these JST connectors are just too d@mn small for this tool.)

I'll get the Audio cables prepped and installed, so I'll only be down to that last step with the LED connection come this weekend.

 

[ryanosaur]

Getting back to it today:

Project Twisted Pair.

Hypex strongly advises twisting the Audio Out cables from Amp Module to Binding Posts in order to prevent the possibility of magnetic coupling.

Have vice, will twist. My left thumb isn't too happy about it, though.



Brass ring terminals crimped on the Binding Post side and bare wire into the Amp's screw tags.

 

[ryanosaur]

Done.
Crimper was delivered tonight. LED terminations are completed and everything is connected.

It’s my bed time. Clean up tomorrow and figure out how to test them.

Photos will be coming.

 

[ryanosaur]

Was alerted to an issue by an experienced cat over on ASR: I need to ground the body of the XLR mount to ChassisGND. In this instance, because Pin1 is already grounded I just need to solder a small jumper from the body to Pin1.

He also gave me some tips for checking all other connections with my multi-meter and everything checks out!

Once I ground the body of the XLR, he said I’m good to plug in.

 

[ryanosaur]

That took a lot of time. Undoing… redoing… a little more soldering…

But I did get everything put back together and I think I achieved the goal of grounding the XLRs.
It’s late… and I don’t wanna put out a fire tonight so…. I wait for tomorrow to plug in.
(Ok, I don’t really think they’ll blow, but I also overlooked ordering XLR-RCA interconnect/adapters.)

Onwards and upwards!

 

[ryanosaur]

Adapters should be delivered on Tuesday.

Commencing plug in test now while I am making Espresso.

 

[ryanosaur]

After an hour in idle, the top of the 2-channel Chassis is ~86ºF, and the 3-ch is ~96º.
Underside of the Chassis reads ~90 and 102º respectively, right at the center-mass point for each Amp module... those are clearly the main heat sources.

It will be interesting to check these after running some signal through them in a few days.

I had received a warning from another user of the 2- and 3- channel Chassis that heat can be an issue so along with the Adapters, I also have two AC Infinity S2 fans coming.

MULTIFAN S2, Quiet USB Centrifugal Cooling Fan 120mm

Direct exhaust air effectively utilizing the Multifan S2. This quiet 120mm USB centrifugal cooling fan pushes hot air safely away from home electronics.

acinfinity.com

I've always been curious how these fans perform, and for the cost it seems a worthwhile time to check them out.

 

[TLS Guy]

After an hour in idle, the top of the 2-channel Chassis is ~86ºF, and the 3-ch is ~96º.
Underside of the Chassis reads ~90 and 102º respectively, right at the center-mass point for each Amp module... those are clearly the main heat sources.

It will be interesting to check these after running some signal through them in a few days.

I had received a warning from another user of the 2- and 3- channel Chassis that heat can be an issue so along with the Adapters, I also have two AC Infinity S2 fans coming.

MULTIFAN S2, Quiet USB Centrifugal Cooling Fan 120mm

Direct exhaust air effectively utilizing the Multifan S2. This quiet 120mm USB centrifugal cooling fan pushes hot air safely away from home electronics.

acinfinity.com

I've always been curious how these fans perform, and for the cost it seems a worthwhile time to check them out.

That is only 39 C which is nothing. You should be able to run as high as 130 to 140 F range without an issue.

Trouble generally comes when you get over 140 F at the devices. Trouble starts exponentially after that point.

 

[adk highlander]

And still no pictures.