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SC-1 Mic Preamp NOW ON SALE!!!!

After many months of development, testing, troubleshooting, frustration, problems, and accomplishments... the SC-1 mic preamp kit, PSU-1848 power supply kit and power transformer kits are now available for sale!

Click here to ORDER

Photo of a finished SC-1 mic preamp kit!  (Note: XLR jacks and wires shown on picture not included in the kit.)

Features:
- Low-Noise, transformerless, High-Quality Mic Preamp
- All solid-state design, using chipsets from THAT Corp and Burr-Brown
- Soft-start, slow ramp-on +48V phantom power
- Crystal clear Red LED indicator for phantom power
- Electronically balanced input and output stages
- 12-position Grayhill gain selector switch
- Gain range from +6 to +72dB, in 6dB increments
- Input RFI protection
- Input clamping protection
- Output surge protection circuit
- Output RFI protection
... read more...

Download PDF file of Assembly Guide/Kit Instructions

Related products like the PSU-1848 Power Supply Kit, Power Transformer Kit, Power Control Kit are also available for sale. Click here.

 Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007 10:09:34 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) ( )
I've been playing around with some comparator chips, trying to create a working LED VU meter. This is my 2nd attempt. My first attempt was frustrating so I abandoned it.

This time, I played around with values of the capacitors and resistors so the response/speed of the LEDs are to my liking, and added current limiting resistors so the load to the PSU is very light. (Note: Red LEDs are the most "green" LEDs, consuming as little as 5mA of power.) I also learned a few tricks that I think if I have applied it to my 1st attempt, it might have been a success.

The VU meter is composed of (5) LEDS, with dB range from -13 dB to +17dB. The 3rd LED (i.e. the middle LED) is the 0dB mark.

The current for the LEDs is regulated, so the LEDs light up with the same intensity, regardless of the PSU voltage fed to it... which can be anywhere from 3+V to 16V. The max voltage rating of the chip is 18V, and I just connected it directly to the PSU-1848 and so far, it's working fine.

I added a trimmer to help you calibrate the 0dB mark of the LED VU meter.

I've tested the VU meter connected to the PSU-1848 and SC-1 and happy to say... no change in sound characteristic of the SC-1 even though I didn't use a buffer.

I tried connecting the VU meter input to the HOT (Pin2) of the XLR output, and at the INSERT jacks of the PCB, and either one works just fine. The sound of the SC-1 isn't affected. So that's good.

UPDATE: You can buy this VU Meter Kit by going to www.fivefishstudios.com

Now the big question now is... where can I use this? There is no more space on the PCB of the IO-module to add this LED VU meter.

I'm thinking, maybe, use this LED VU meter on the upcoming "API" type module preamp. .... there'll be plenty of space on the motherboard PCB, since the rest of the stuff will be located on the external IO-module PCB.

So that's the plan... Check this out.



See... they have a 7-LED VU meter. I'll have a 5-LED VU meter on the new preamp.

I finished designing the PCB for the VU Meter.



Total square area: 3 sq. in. (1" x 3")

Now, I'm thinking should I even do a PCB prototype for this, or just go ahead and order 100 production run PCBs? I think the cost will end up being the same. Hmmmm... do I have enough confidence on this layout? Are there silly mistakes I've made?

The VU Meter board is working sweet!

I'll post a short video clip of it in action.

I was feeling brave on this one... I didn't do any prototype PCB design on this one.. I ordered production quantities immediately. Tested one of the PCBs, stuffed it with components and it works.

The VU meter is cool in the sense that you can use the board either horizontally or vertically. Just adjust the on-board jumpers on which direction you want the LED lights to go... left to right, or bottom to up.

From a design that exists only in my computer...


to a working product!






Been playing also the whole afternoon and tonight with my DCC PSU board. Happy to say, no components are overheating (or even getting warm) even after hours of operation!


Comments | Trackback | # 

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