Generic PCB designs - Preamp, LTPI, FX, Power

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bmx
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:40 pm

Re: Generic PCB designs - Preamp, LTPI, FX, Power

Post by bmx »

steve07868 wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:20 pm Hey just FYI I used your loop and reverb boards in one of my test amps, I had a major buzz hum with the reverb board on the 6.3 line,
I was curious how you rectify and ground the heater supply when the center tap is raised to a positive DC voltage?

In my amp it did not work well at all, which makes sense as soon as you hookup the ground you create a massive buzz, but just having the heaters
connected to the reverb board there was also a mean buzz,

I solved the issue because I had a 5V rectifier line that was not being used, therefore isolating the reverb boards supply from my heaters.
FYI , I guess your boards may be designed to all work together which I may try at some point later.
Thanks again for the cool pcbs..
A super common error when deriving a supply voltage off heater supplies is to forget that the heater supply has a center reference to ground. When you then create the supply and try to reference it AGAIN to ground essentially what happens is you are shorting one rail of the heater winding to ground through one of your rectifiers. It does take some care to solve this. Possibly one solution is to make a capacitively couple supply for the new circuit.
tristanc
Posts: 43
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 3:33 pm

Re: Generic PCB designs - Preamp, LTPI, FX, Power

Post by tristanc »

steve07868 wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:20 pm Hey just FYI I used your loop and reverb boards in one of my test amps, I had a major buzz hum with the reverb board on the 6.3 line,
I was curious how you rectify and ground the heater supply when the center tap is raised to a positive DC voltage?

I solved the issue because I had a 5V rectifier line that was not being used, therefore isolating the reverb boards supply from my heaters.
FYI , I guess your boards may be designed to all work together which I may try at some point later.
Thanks again for the cool pcbs..
Yes - as noted above you've hit the issue of having a ground loop. Notice on my schematic I have separate grounds (GNDD and GNDA so I can choose where they join) and also I'm using a voltage doubler to get the higher voltage to then regulate down. So I don't think (someone correct me!) you can have a heater centre tap connected to ground with that configuration. That's why I used a spare tap (5V) and that solves the issue. Perhaps I should have made that clearer. Glad it's resolved.
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