Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all. Just finished my BYOC Champlifier build, and I’m going through the Installing Tubes and Testing section of the instructions. Powered it on with no instrument cable, speaker cable, or tubes, and indicator light comes on fine. Next, instructions say to measure DC rectified voltage with just the 5V3 plugged in. Tried this out, and indicator light comes on and tube starts glowing, but the voltage started at about 500 VDC, and went up to over 600 VDC over the next 30 seconds, and was still rising, so I unplugged

Is this normal, or could it be my test setup?

I would check a few things to validate that reading.
- Check your wall voltage. Is it very high?
- Take your reading with the negative probe attached to the negative side of the capacitor instead of the chassis to rule out a questionable ground connection. Bad or iffy grounds often mess with DC readings.
- Triple check that your meter is set to read DC voltage and check that the range is set for volts and not millivolts or something else.

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

This is most likely an error in your meter reading. A short in the step up transformer would cause less voltage, not more. And it would have blown the fuse. You probably have your meter set for AC, not DC as Morgan suggested. Or maybe you need a new battery in your meter.

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*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Finally got a chance to get back on this. I replaced batteries in my multimeter, and now seem to be getting more realistic readings.

When I turn up volume past 5 or so, and really dig in to some chords, I do get some crackling or popping sounds. Not all the time, but frequent enough to know something isn't right. Not sure if this is a cold solder joint, or maybe a bad cap?

A cold solder joint or other funky connection somewhere in the amp build is by far the most likely cause of this behavior.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

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