nelsress begins his WOPL 400 project

nelsress · Feb 22, 2015

Thanks Nav

Appreciate the comments and the solder tip info. That is very nice wire and much easier to strip than the previous Teflon insulated wire I've used in the past. As far as solder tip longevity is concerned, I can't complain, I've been using this same tip for 10 years!! Granted I'm a hobbyist and don't use it like some, tackling a small project here and there and only a couple projects of the caliber of the WOPL. Based on that, I'd say it's time for a new tip!

P.S. Love the latest shot of the Mrs. in your avatar, Nav!

I'm using a Weller WES-51 Lee but I thought I had to tin the tip when I first got it. Maybe not (memory thing?) or maybe they now provide tinned tips but didn't 10 years ago. At any rate, I'm just going to run to Radio Shack and get a couple tips if they have them. I always use the sponge, this coating happened when I was soldering one of the three wires in the center of the board, something on the surface of the board burned black and covered the tip.

Thanks Lee also for the tips to wiring the two boards together, that was helpful.

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

I tin mine when first heated up too...and my sponge is always wet!!

Gepetto · Feb 22, 2015

laatsch55 said:

Purchase a small tin of Kester Ultrapure Tip Tinner. Every now and then dip the tip of your hot iron into the Ultrapure and it will remove the old crud and deposit a new tinning layer on your iron tip.

Gepetto · Feb 22, 2015

laatsch55 said:

Hi Nelson

Lee's board is missing the jumper between J14 and J15 on the left channel board at the time he took his picture. Please make sure you include this jumper in your build.

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

Well now ya tell me!! I have an old plastic tub of that gel-type rosin. When the tip gets oxidated it gets a quick dip in that and it comes out very clean and also very wettable. When desoldering it seems after a good suck the tip doesn't like to transfer heat, so it gets a quick dip then on to another part, without having some fresh solder applied...

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

Gepetto said:

I love the smell of humble pie first thing in the morning!!!!!! :hello1:

Gepetto · Feb 22, 2015

laatsch55 said:

That is why I said 'at the time he took the picture'

Figured you were still building...

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

As tempting as it is to say I wasn't done....I certainly thought i was..

nelsress · Feb 22, 2015

Thanks for the Kester Ultrapure tip, pun not originally intended but it worked out okay. Anyway it's on my list, along with a couple extra tips. Radio Shack actually had three different soldering iron tips but not the type I could use but I have to give them credit. And I think it was Nav who said about them only selling their own irons and I thought they were selling Weller stuff, I know they did for a while but not anymore.

Thanks Lee for reminding me to put the jumpers on the boards, I got that done and will take some pics next trip out to the shop. I'll need to get some silpads, I assume I can get them from Mouser, Digikey or Parts Express? The Silpad sounds like a great idea, nowhere near the sloppy mess thermal paste can be in tight spaces, at least in my experience.

I agree, my sponge gets water before I turn on the controller, is kept wet and I use it frequently-not every joint but almost-I keep an eye on it and if it doesn't look great, it gets a few swipes.

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

Amen Nelson...

nelsress · Feb 22, 2015

Alright I know better than to think I'm done or worse yet, declare it, so I'll just say, here's where I'm at with my WOPL backplane boards.

Pictured from left to right: Left channel, left channel, right channel, right channel.

Gepetto · Feb 22, 2015

nelsress said:

Your right channel board has one of the upper jumpers in the wrong location Nelson. It is the J10-J11 location that is incorrect on your right channel. You have it correct on the left channel board.

Also remember to remove the Kapton dots from the threaded standoffs.

nelsress · Feb 22, 2015

Good catch Joe!

Gepetto said:

Thanks, I missed it. You're right, I've got the jumper from J11-J12, NOT J10-J11 like I should. Will fix now while I'm thinking about it.

Gepetto · Feb 22, 2015

nelsress said:

Triple check your work Nelson as it is a lot of work to take these back out once installed. Make sure you clean the boards well before installing into chassis. Remove flux residue with 90+% Iso alcohol after all your solder work is done.

laatsch55 · Feb 22, 2015

Second that Nelson....it is a royal BITCH to remove to check for something that might be shorting out. Do the straight edge check over the standoffs to catch any trimmed leads that are too long. If you are trying to trim something that has too much bulk and too short but still too long, get the Dremel and a small drum sander and take em down.....be careful....it can get away from you and traces will suffer...

nelsress · Feb 24, 2015

Thanks Joe and Lee, good advice for sure. The straight edge test showed everything to be good in that regard, so that's a good thing. I've attached a couple pics of the boards in the chassis.

Doug (fitz43) has some silpads in the mail on their way to me. Progress!

Gepetto · Feb 24, 2015

nelsress said:

Thanks Joe and Lee, good advice for sure. The straight edge test showed everything to be good in that regard, so that's a good thing. I've attached a couple pics of the boards in the chassis.

Doug (fitz43) has some silpads in the mail on their way to me. Progress!

View attachment 19539 View attachment 19540

Coming along well Nelson...

nelsress · Feb 27, 2015

Gepetto said:

Thanks Joe, this has been fun! The new iron for my WES51 arrived yesterday along with some extra tips and the silpads arrived in today's mail (thanks Doug!) so I'm ready to get back at it, hopefully this weekend. It turned out that not only did I need a new tip but my iron was working intermittently and then stopped getting hot at all. A while back the working end of the iron separated from the handle while I was soldering and I just shoved it back together. Apparently, that was the beginning of the end, it worked a while, then worked off and on and then stopped getting hot altogether. Anyway, now I just have to go back and find the info as to which output transistors go where and get back at it.

Joe, I'm not sure if you noticed in any of my photos but my transformer has some wires coming out of it that I don't see on the pics of other WOPL 400 builds, the yellow and yellow with blue striped ones particularly in the photos below. Lee thought that perhaps I've got a dual voltage transformer, which made sense to me. What do I do with those wires though?

I'm also not seeing, and this is not an accusation, any info on installing the new power supply caps I got with this unit from Lee. Did I skim over them within the other documents, did I lose them or aren't there any because it should be relatively simple for the typical person attempting this more advanced kit?

Also, the glue-like substance on the lower PS cap spot on the transformer is missing, do I need to replace that with something to help insulate the cap from the transformer, eliminate rattling, or for any other reason? If so, what can I use?

Thanks guys.

Gepetto · Feb 27, 2015

nelsress said:

Thanks Joe, this has been fun! The new iron for my WES51 arrived yesterday along with some extra tips and the silpads arrived in today's mail (thanks Doug!) so I'm ready to get back at it, hopefully this weekend. It turned out that not only did I need a new tip but my iron was working intermittently and then stopped getting hot at all. A while back the working end of the iron separated from the handle while I was soldering and I just shoved it back together. Apparently, that was the beginning of the end, it worked a while, then worked off and on and then stopped getting hot altogether. Anyway, now I just have to go back and find the info as to which output transistors go where and get back at it.

Joe, I'm not sure if you noticed in any of my photos but my transformer has some wires coming out of it that I don't see on the pics of other WOPL 400 builds, the yellow and yellow with blue striped ones particularly in the photos below. Lee thought that perhaps I've got a dual voltage transformer, which made sense to me. What do I do with those wires though?

I'm also not seeing, and this is not an accusation, any info on installing the new power supply caps I got with this unit from Lee. Did I skim over them within the other documents, did I lose them or aren't there any because it should be relatively simple for the typical person attempting this more advanced kit?

Also, the glue-like substance on the lower PS cap spot on the transformer is missing, do I need to replace that with something to help insulate the cap from the transformer, eliminate rattling, or for any other reason? If so, what can I use?

Thanks guys.

Remove the double sided tape goo off the upper transformer saddle like the bottom one (and get rid of the residual on the bottom too). The instructions are up on the website Nelson which is why I did not send them. I will pull them down and send over to your email.

Joe

nelsress · Feb 27, 2015

Gepetto said:

Hi Joe,

No need to do that, I can go to the website and look it up. I just didn't know where it was. Thanks.

As for the transistors, I re-read where I thought I saw where they went and what I had was to keep the old ones in order so I'd know where they went but this amp didn't have any output transistors when I got it. Is that info on the website too? I'll look there when I go to look for the above.

Nelson

nelsress begins his WOPL 400 project

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