First build - Little Gem in a PC power supply case

[Clipped]

Just thought I'd share the progress on my first build - A Little Gem...

http://www.retunedmusic.com/Gem.htm

I don't like wall warts, so I cracked one open and mounted it inside the case, using the supply's AC input and a lighted power switch so I could turn it off and on. Also added a little more filtering with a resistor/cap.

The Gem is stock (for now) and runs into a 4" speaker that mounted exactly to the fan mount on the case. The plastic spacer will be gone after I get some different screws, leaving only the chrome grill.

A little paint, some knobs, and a permanent mount for the Gem board and it'll be ready to Rock n Roll.

The amp sounds pretty good even though I haven't tried it with the 4" speaker yet. It worked perfectly the first time though with a test speaker.

Thanks to BT at ROG for the easy to follow layouts and for his help answering questions on my next build - A Ruby with a Fetzer frontend and a tone control.

Ron

[casey]

good job there buddy!

[ninoman123]

Hey man thats cool. Good job!

[barret77]

great build!! I want to do one like that, I have plenty of computer stuff in the dumpster near my place

[Phorhas]

Look pretty cool man:)

[Clipped]

I was surprised that the speaker bolted right in - To kool it up a little, you could probably get one of those biohazard, etc, fan covers that they make and use it for the speaker grill  

Thanks guys....

Ron

[doftya]

Hey, I was just wondering, how did you wire up the wallwart? Could you post a schem of that, or a link to a schem?

Doftya

[HeaD]

very nice work!!!!!!

Thanks to BT at ROG for the easy to follow layouts and for his help answering questions on my next build - A Ruby with a Fetzer frontend and a tone control.

what schematics will you use for ruby amp with tone controls?

[corbs]

is there any small valve amps that schems could work with a build like this? i have a couple of old psu's kicking around.

did you use the transformer from the psu? what power rating was it?

[barret77]

the problem when salvaging dumpster parts to build a valve amp is that the valve amp parts are expensive - PT, OT, tubes, filter caps... so it ends up that the dumpster recycling meaning of building things really cheap lose its sense, since for a few bucks more you can have a proper chassis. But you can try to build a hybrid, or a tube preamp + ss amp in a single case...

[Clipped]

Hey everybody.....

Was on a long weekend at the Drag Races, so I'm a bit behind. I'll try to put my take on the new questions (tone controls and Power supply) tomorrow!

If you haven't seen/heard a Top Fuel or Funny Car go from 0 to 330 in a quarter mile, you're missing out!  :shock:  

Till tomorrow..
Ron

[Clipped]

very nice work!!!!!!
what schematics will you use for ruby amp with tone controls?

I hadn't really picked one out yet. According to BT at ROG, it is simply a matter of building a fetzer, connect that out to the tone control, and then out from that to the input of the original Ruby.

Aron has a Big Muff style one knob tone control in his Simple Mods/Tips. I was going to use this in between the fetzer and the Ruby. I have a Fetzer build in a box already, so I'm thinking of adding the tone control to it, and then plugging it in front of the Ruby just to see if I like it. If not, I still have the Fetzer as a standalone (Which I like).

Have Fun...
Ron

[Clipped]

Hey, I was just wondering, how did you wire up the wallwart? Could you post a schem of that, or a link to a schem?
Doftya

Standard disclaimer....110 volts involved!

Here's what I did:
I took a 9 volt wallwart and put it in a vice (opposite corners) and gently closed the vice until the case popped. This allowed me to pull the "guts" out of the plastic case. The hot and neutral 110 were ran through a power switch and then wired to the outlet prongs on the adaptor. Wanting a little more filtering, I ran the output through a 200uf cap and a resistor. The adaptor had a 1000uf cap on the board. Don't have a schemo..I just wired it up quick.

I just went the wallwart route because I have a ton laying around. The better way would be to make a nice, quite, well regulated power supply according to one of the layouts available at geo, ggg, small bear, etc.
Mine isn't really "regulated" and puts out about 13 volts when idling (I don't know what this drops to under load, haven't bothered to check).

Hope that helps.....

Have fun,
Ron