Reboxing the T-Amp: Game On!

Okay...I can unclench now.

In my last rebox update, I mentioned I might have to sacrifice the remaining virgin 5066 in order to complete the Podzuma re-do. Here's the story...

In the original Podzuma build, I was a little less than careful desoldering the on-board headphone jack to wire an extension in. So, the whole thing was kinda dicey to start with, but I managed to get it working. In the early stages of the re-do, I was trying to add a 3-position screw terminal to the 5066 board, which meant even more creative engineering, which seemed to frag the solder pads even further. So, I figured I'd just wire the input directly to the 50k dual pot, and bypass the solder pads on the board altogether. When I did, it would work, but I got a lot of clipping at even moderate volumes. I managed to exonerate the custom crossovers, because they worked just fine with the still-factory 5066 destined for the rebox. Everything I tried with the Podzuma board left me stymied, so I gave up, gutted the virgin 5066, and started to wire it in for a bench test. Lo and behold, I had the same problem. Not being willing to admit that I'd fried the second one too (and knowing that it had worked while it was in its factory case), I finally figured out where the problem was. When I tested the crossovers, I was running the virgin 5066 on wall wart power, but I've been doing my bench testing with the sealed lead-acid battery (the target power supply). So, since I hadn't destroyed the on-board DC input jack, I tried running both boards off the wall wart, and lo and behold, they both work flawlessly. So, I figure I have a problem with my charging circuit or the battery itself, and the problem seems to stem from the amp wanting to pull more juice than the battery can provide. Now, in its original incarnation, the Podzuma worked just fine at high volume levels, so I have to think it's the charge circuit (which has always been in place during bench tests).

Anyway, this isn't a blog of the Podzuma re-do (at least, it wasn't meant to be), but the good news is that the last 5066 is still available for the rebox, and given shop-time, I can proceed.

Stay tuned!