powered mixer

Peavey MKIII Bass Head Needs Un-Smoked

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This solid state Peavey Bass head is also capable of handling mixer, equalization, and preamp roles for public address, monitor, and other sound reinforcement roles.  But power amp quit!  Can the Unbrokenstring Crew help?

The AutoMix function that Peavey developed has been discussed elsewhere in the blog.  Lots of EQ knobs here!

 

Note the graphical EQ and bi-amp capability.

 

Woah!  An Instrument System!  Ooh.  Aah.

 

On the rear panel is the power switch and speaker connections.

 

Peavey mixes and matches front panels (inputs, preamp, eq) and rear panels (ps, power amp) to build different heads.

 

As is the case with many pieces of electronics, the City of Los Angeles Fire Department approves this unit!

 

Name, rank, and serial number, please.

 

The blue circuit board at the top is for connections to the power transistors.  The I/O connections are to the left and the power supply filter caps are seen here.

 

More blue boards at the top, for power transistors.  Driver transistors are found on the square heat sinks.  Do you see the problem yet?

 

This circuitry is all preamp and tone circuitry.

 

This sucker got HOT!

 

The worst damage was to components that were near the root cause.  They burned because the transistor on the aluminum heat sink suffered an internal short circuit.

 

The heat of the electrical fault was high enough to melt solder, which happens around 650 deg. F.

 

A matched set of driver transistors were installed and the circuit board cleaned.  The destroyed components to the right have been removed and will be replaced.

 

The new parts are mounted just above the circuit board.  We can get flame-proof resistors now, unlike when the unit was built with in the 1970s.

 

More collateral damage was found on one of the blue boards.  This solder trace acted as a fuse at its narrowest point.

 

The circuit board is now cleaned up and the gap is bridged with a bit of 16awg solid copper wire.

 

Some of the power transistors were shorted as well, so all of them are now replaced with a matched set of eight.

 

These parts are still made by ON Semiconductor, the heir apparent to the Motorola semiconductor product line.

 

The electronics are back together.  The filter capacitors are original, but are still in great shape, so they remain in service.

 

And, of course, after all the components and circuit boards are in flames, the fuse finally does its job.  Of course.

 

With a new fuse, the electronics are connected again and initial tests begin!

 

This unit is back on the air!  This unit is almost hifi sound quality, with endless bottom end.  Good Job Peavey!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626

Peavey KB4 Keyboard Amp Disintegrating

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This Peavey keyboard amp works intermittently, but the modular AC outlet has completely come loose from the rear panel. Can the Unbrokenstring Crew fix this?

This unit is pretty cool, with a built-in luggage roller and extendable handle as standard equipment from the factory.

 

The modular AC plug was covered in RTV rubber.  Was this a user ‘fix’ or did it come from the factory this way?

 

Fortunately, all the electrical conductors were insulated.  Otherwise, we would have sparks.

 

User controls are on the top.

 

The ground polarity switch is a throw-back to the days of two wire electrical cords.

 

A simple mixer is integrated into the unit.

 

Name, rank, and serial number, please.

 

The panel layout allows for some space for the handle.  Good Job!

 

We removed the head from the cabinet,

 

Here is our intermittent.  This power resistor had broken free from its solder pad.

 

A circuit board trace had broken.  An Exacto knife clears away some of the solder mask to allow for a repair.

 

This crack was very small, so a good solder jumper is all that is needed here.

 

This unit appears to have been wet.  Do you see the minerals left behind after the water evaporated?

 

Here is another little blob of mineralization.  This may have been from solder flux residue left after the assembly was manufactured.  Some fluxes turn white in the presence of water.

 

This screw was loose inside the grille.  This screw holds the loudspeaker in place.  This is not good.

 

Most of the screws were loose.  While we have this unit on the bench, we should be sure that the loose screw is not a sign of a more sinister problem lurking with this unit.

 

Here is the loudspeaker in this unit.  Nice!

 

My guess is, humidity has softened the baffle upon which the loudspeaker is mounted.  These Tee nuts will be removed and new holes drilled in the baffle in different locations.  The Tee nuts will be reinstalled and we should be Good-To-Go.

 

Some black nail polish will camouflage the new fastening hardware.  You do have black nail polish, don’t you?  Doesn’t everybody?  Hint: This also makes good thread locker.

 

OK, now for the IEC power jack.  This unit has mounting ears, so we won’t rely on friction or glue to keep it in place.

 

As an added bonus, this IEC jack has a built-in noise filter.

 

The hole in the chassis was enlarged to accommodate the new jack.  This hand grinder is adequate for the job.

 

Yep!  Just fits.

 

Now we will bore the steel panel to accommodate the mounting hardware.  This will be SO much better than glue!

 

This doesn’t look too bad, does it?

 

All of the original wiring goes straight onto the new IEC jack.  This is better than factory!  Hot glue was apparently used at the factory to secure the switch and the old IEC jack to the rear panel.  So that answers that question.  Shame on you, Peavey!

 

Here is one last look of the internals before we reassemble the head.  The mixer is at the bottom and the power amp and power supply is at the top.

 

This unit is literally ready to roll!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626

Mackie 808S Powered Mixer Blows A Fuse

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This powered mixer lives two lives; During the week, it rides quietly in the back of the sound van; When the weekend comes, it works hard as the sound system on the main stage for outdoor festivals. After years of incredibly reliable service, the unit just stopped. And it already had a date on the main stage at The Lonestar Rally in Galveston for the following weekend.  Could the Unbrokenstring Crew see what happened and bring this unit back to life?

This unit was cold and lifeless on the bench.  But where is the main AC line fuse?  We need to get inside.

 

Mackie is top of the line name brand, nearly ubiquitous is the sound reinforcement industry and in recording studios.

 

Name, rank, and serial number, please.

 

These screws hold the front panel in place.  The lock washers are captive.

 

We note that some of the machine screws are a different length.  This is noted in the notebook.

 

The screws in the back of the enclosure have large fender washers around them.  We note this, too.

 

The front panel is free.  Ah, but we are just getting started.

 

A large ground cable and a smaller white signal cable is seen in this view.  These are taped to the side to get them out of the way.

 

At the other edge of the front panel is this relatively fragile flat cable.  This requires special care as these are easy to damage and pinch.

 

Next, the power section of the unit is removed from the case.

 

This is what it takes to handle 600 watts per channel of audio power.

 

And here at last, at the very back corner, is the AC line fuse.  This fuse has fatigued over the years and finally opened.

 

The actual fusing element inside most cartridge fuses is a soft metal strip, suspended at each end.  They can fatigue and fail open, even under normal use.  I believe that this is what happened here.  The green tool is a real fuse installer.  Because I’m OCD like that.

 

There appear to be no other problems with this unit.  All the screws going back into the right places for testing.

 

 

So we tested the unit with a little Lennie Kravitz.

 

This unit has operated at full power for four hours, as do all of the finished repairs at The Unbrokenstring Shop.  I am deaf.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626

 

Behringer Europower Mixer

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Behringer has terminated its retail sales agreement with The Big National Retail Music Store Chain, which was probably a smart move on their part.  Fortunately, service literature from Behringer is fairly easy to obtain these days.  So, the Unbrokenstring Crew launches off into another mission sortie, this time to repair this powered mixer.

This unit needs new power FETs in the output circuit.

This unit still has a price tag on it!

Made In China pretty much tells the story these days…

I believe the date code is in the format of MMYY.

The entire power output stage is mounted on this massive aluminum heat sink.  This will be fun!

The power devices are held against the heat sink with spring tabs and screws, which can be removed with a Phillips screwdriver.

I cleaned off the conductive grease so that this thing could be handled without making much more mess than I had already made.

The discrete devices in the amplifier all test OK, so new power FETs were ordered.  These are a complimentary, matched pair of N-channel and P-channel devices.

Applying heat sink grease is logistically easier with a cotton applicator.

Both faces get a little compound.  We want complete, void-free contact between each device and the heat sink.

This is the Big Squish.

The plastic output jacks were busted up pretty badly, so new ones were installed.

The power FETs form a Class A-B push-pull stage.  Per the documentation, between five and six millivolts are measured at the test points when the idle current is correctly set.  Exercise for the Graduate Student: knowing the voltage developed across a resistor that can be easily identified on the schematic (available for download) what is the bias current?

After testing, I went back into the unit and replaced the bipolar transistors that drove the gates of the power FETs.  Now this thing really does a yeoman’s job of battling against the Silence.

Thanks for reading all the way through!

CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626