Frustration. Confusion. Disappointment. And a new head case.
I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall this week. I simply can not get power power scaling working correctly in my Ceriatone DC30. I posted on the 18watt forum. I contacted Kevin O’Connor. I revisited my layout. I replaced resistors, transistors and capacitors. And it still didn’t work. I corrected a wiring problem with the 1/2 power switch. Still no joy. The 18watt community and Kevin O’Connor were both very helpful and offered a number of suggestions, but I think there must be something else going on. Perhaps the MOSFET is shot, or I made a fundamental error with the board layout. Regardless, I simply can not get power scaling to work in this amp.
So I ripped it out.
I’m not giving up, but I removed the power scaling board for the time being. I rewired the amp so it’s just about stock—the only major departure is that the standby switch cuts the B+ voltage from the rectifier to the filter caps. Other than that, it’s basically the way god and Nik Azam intended. This is a huge disappointment, but I want to get the amp setup so I can start playing.
With that in mind, I decided to fast-track the head cabinet and cut up an old oak shelf I had laying around to build a case. It’s better than a high school shop project, but not by much. I did take the time to cut rabbet joints for the corners and glue the whole thing together with Gorilla glue. It may not be beautiful, but it won’t fall apart either. Not bad for an afternoon’s work and some recycled wood.