Built a custom D8B external power supply

[RJH_MUSIC]

So I have some more possible bad news today I was able to contact the original person who posted the instructions for making a new power supply for the d8b from WWW.wetitz.com . I'm waiting for another email to confirm but I have a feeling that post was erroneously posted in the d8b form when it should have been posted in the Probox forum. That process may not work if you're using the d8b for all of its capabilities as a digital mixer. The Velleman kit used to generate +/- 16 may not Hebe enough amps. I idered one so we will soon see.

[RJH_MUSIC]

So I found out that with the 2RU Case I purchased, I can get all of the original parts from the original d8b remote into, and with superior fans, cooling should not be a problem. I really do not want to use the original transformer mainly due to heat and weight. I called Electronetics to find out the specs on the transformer, but they could not recognize model # I gave them. They are checking further and hopefully will get back to me soon. In the meantime, I did purchase the Velleman kit and will build it up when it comes and i will try that route again to see what happens. I asked the contact at Weritz.com to confirm that the PSU build would or would not work for fully functional d8b, but have not gotten a response. I guess we will know soon enough when I build up the kit.

The weekend took another twist, but at the end of it i have some good news. When I got the new unit home, I plugged it in an everything, well almost everything worked. The transport pane is dead and no # readout in the transport display. I contacted the seller and he said you have to have it hooked up to MIDI and have it addressed in your DAW, but that is incorrect. Whether or not a midi cable is hooked to it or not, the transport still should read all zero's and the stop button should be lit. So i had an idea. I have my original d8b auth codes on my flash drive, so i switched the flash drives in the new unit and connected it to my original console. It kept coming up with a DRIVE BOOT FAILURE, so I opened it up and smelled smoke. Apparently when I pulled the existing flash card out and tried to insert my original, one o the pins bent and it shorted. I tried to bend it back using a dentist pic and it broke. Thank god I have a spare laying around. The Startech flash card readers are very poorly made. This would be the third time one has broke when ejecting and reinserting a flash card into it. Good news is that when it finally booted, it came up clean. so I did not damage my console or my original flash drive in my experiment with the PSU. And I now have a spare console to test my new CPU when I get it built. Just to confirm one other thing. The Velleman kit with cooling fins will not fit in a 1 RU case, so I am dropping that option. I will progress with the 2 RU version.

[RJH_MUSIC]

Quick update on progress. Okay so I bought the incorrect riser card to be able to mount video card sideways in 2RU, because none of the low profile cards i purchased would work, even though the mackie os graphics file actually lists one of the ones I bought, ATI 128 ULTRA AGP card. SO I order the correct rise card finally and it will take it a month to get here from China. (originally bought a 2 card riser card on a ribbon cable, but there is circuitry on it that most likely won't work on motherboard from d8b. I needed to buy a straight through wired ribbon cable with a connector on the end of it.

Good news is that the Velleman kits I ordered arrived and i built one of them up last night. Pretty simple to build if you know something about soldering. I will test it this weekend. If all goes well, the last hurdle will be to get everything situated in 2RU case and get the OS up an running. I will keep you posted.

[arjepsen]

The Velleman kit used to generate +/- 16 may not Hebe enough amps. I idered one so we will soon see.

Yeah, this is a bit of a tricky part. I couldn't find any quick info on what power the +/-16V might pull. IIRC I bought a 35W supply from tracopower.... and went on to hook it up incorrectly( plus to minus, and vice versa), and fried some innocent chips..... I'm not at all certain whether 35 watts is enough.

[RJH_MUSIC]

Yes, very tricky. I have some partial good news and some more bad news with a workaround. The Video card problem is finally solved. My flex cable came and i was able to take the existing d8b video card and mount it sideways to fit into the 2RU case i am building up, since none of the low profile cards i ordered would work.

Now to the one remaining problem which has been a major pain in the rear. I was able to reach out to Weritz who posted the original instructions for building a new power supply and in a very nice way I think explained that unless I am missing something, the instructions posted were not exactly correct. The instructions direct you to build up a vellemen kit and connect the TRACO to it to adjust the voltage outputs to +/- 16 VDC. So i did just that and it did not work. The Vellemen kit is a stepdown circuit, so it requires you to input a voltage greater that the +/- 15 that the TRACO puts out. You need another transformer connected to the input to get to the proper voltage. the Vellemen kit takes the +/- 15 and actually reduces it to +/- 12 VDC. So I found another power supply which i ordered today which I hope will work. I purchased a +/- 22 VDC power supply which when connected to the Vellemen kit will be reduce to +/- 18 VDC, so you can then use the adjustment screws to dial it back to +/- 16 VDC. It will be 2 weeks before it comes, so I will hopefully post some success by the end of August. Long story short, anyone attempting this should not buy a +/- 15 VDC power supply as indicated in the instructions It is useless.

With all of that said, i will post detailed instructions once this is all complete, but for reference, (now that I fully understand how it works)the d8b console needs 5 voltages to work;

+5 VDC, +12 VDC, - Lights potentiometers, disk drives
+16 VDC, -16 VDC, - Fader Motors
+48 VDC , - Phantom Power

The PSU Power supply provides all the power voltages needed for the motherboard and supplies the +12 VDC to the Linear Supply board which in turn is routed directly to the BFC (2 purple, 2 yellow wires). The LPS-152 power supply supplies +5 and +5 sense to the Linear Power Supply board which is sent out the BFC (4 orange 1 orange white, 4 black 1 black white wires). The Transformer inside the PSU supplies several voltages to the Linear Power Supply board including +60 and +24 VDC. The Linear Power supply board is a step down unit that contains the +/- 16 regulators, (the 2 components screwed to the heat sync). Here the voltage is rectified and sent out the BFC as +16, -16, +48 and common, (Red= +16, Blue= -16, Green= "AGrnd" and Brown= +48. This makes up the 18 pins in the BFC.

[arjepsen]

I'm missing the "popcorn-smiley" here....

Btw, could you post a link for that velleman kit?

Regards
Anders

[RJH_MUSIC]

Sure thing. I also plan to post complete instructions and pictures of everything when I am done with the project. Should be finished by the end of August.

Vellemen Kit K 8042 - I had to build these up and purchase the optional heat sync separately. You have to be careful, because the PC board is very cheap and if your soldering iron is too hot and is exposed to too much heat while your waiting for the solder to wick, it will pull the copper trace right off the board. I bought 2 and screwed one up so now have to buy another, but for $10 I am not too pissed!

Since using a +/- 22 VDC power supply, you will need to the heat sync.

I will also post info on the power supply from TRC Electronics. It is a bit more expensive than the TRACO TXL 035-1515D, but worth it to ditch the big ass transfer that was in the d8b.

https://www.eio.com/products/velleman-k ... gJVU_D_BwE

[RJH_MUSIC]

Here is heat sync. I think i bought the kit and the heat sync on Amazon or ebay. You also have to be careful. I used steel screws to mount the heat sync to the regulators, which shorted them together. You have to use an insulator in the wholes or use nylon screws and nuts as to not short them together.

[RJH_MUSIC]

After I succeed in getting every thing to work, I will post the popcorn smiley for you... lol

[arjepsen]

Thanks for the info
Have your tested this supply yet? I'm curious whether that 1A rating is enough.