Colin's new SECA amp kits

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Comments

  • Looks good
  • edited May 2015
    Costing have come at last Colin says.

    "S.E.C.A. Amp Kits
    Main A Class PCB Mono £20.00 each
    Power Supply to make super A Class Mono £20.00each
    You will need two Main PCB to make stereo
    And two Power Supply PCB to make dual Mono."


  • Excellent news, been looking forward to progress on this.  Thanks for sharing Colin.
  • Great prices!
  • That's great news and the pricing seems very reasonable.
  • Very reasonable...!

  • edited May 2015
    I'm very excited by all this. There are two amp boards, one will give an amp similar to the mighty TOCA. Adding the second board takes the build to Iridium crushing levels (!!!), according to our resident evil genius/mad scientist.

    Also, the third board (regulated power supply) is required (I think - unless the simple version of the amp can accept a boot-strapped PS like mine?) - this is great! I plan adding the PS board to my existing amps.

    The level of performance Colin is proposing is simply ridiculous at anything under many thousands of pounds. Good times are coming!

    Col, if I got this wrong give me a shout! Or Dave, he can delete the post.
  • I'm very much looking forward to building a pair of patio heaters :-B
  • edited May 2015
    Ok, ok, ok.
    I am also excited that Colin has made all this so accessible to all.  I have one question though.
    WHERE IN THESE VERY LOW PRICES IS THE PROFIT FOR COLIN?
    Surely he would have to shift a shed load to make anything, or has he just struck gold with an income stream from elsewhere?
  • I'm assuming these prices are for bare pcbs, not built, so prices sound about right compared to other diy products. 
  • Hi All,

    The PCB,s are un-populated i.e. no bits on them.
    The PCB are fibre glass to UL94V standard it means it hard to burn them not like most cheap and nasty electronic PCB from overseas which are basically Paper mush covered in Cu.
    The standard PCB are what known as 0.5oZ - 1oZ these  mine are 2oZ and double sided and plate not pin thru.
    Thus bigger than normal current can be used and the resistance of the tracks are less. This also help as in a question from Hi-fi Answer Microphony because the mass or the track is higher so damping occurs.

    As to cost I have managed to get these high grade PCB produced at a reasonable cost because I have bought a hell of a lot on a gamble I can sell them all, the tooling cost was high but I can get that back on about 500 PCB's.

    Does this help? yes my own sign on was hijacked like my Facecrap page by a nice man in Somerset I suspect.He did mean well but not to me. And he was wrong.
  • Do we know these will be ready for us to purchase?

  • SECA Part 2 is now on Answers.

    www.hifianswer.com

    PCB here Monday next but I suspect Wednesday.
    Part 2 has BOM and PCB layout of the power amp mono boards. Read the BOM notes with care if you want to upgrade.
    ww.hifianswers.com/


  • Do we know these will be ready for us to purchase?

    ...count me in too.
  • Which reminds me.

    I need to send an update to the SECA Amp Kits list.
  • Will there be a component list etc with the boards?
  • It's in the pdfs on the hifianswers site Mark.

    Are the boards ready for purchase yet Colin?
  • Here on Tuesday I will be collecting them from the north.
  • edited May 2015
    Just a thought Colin, you could do a chassis kit and/or build service on something like Kickstarter and get the necessary funds up front before assembling.  I think this would create a lot of interest and help in terms of the demand. :)

    Something like:

    Option 1: Full kit - chassis, pcbs, parts 
    Option 2: Full kit assembled - limited run according to what you can build
    Option 3: PCBs & chassis for those with parts bins
    Option 4: A few signature dual mono builds or something like that
    Option 5: PCBs or chassis alone

    Best regards,

    Neil
  • Here on Tuesday I will be collecting them from the north.
    How did the collection go?
  • How do we place our orders Colin?
  • I screw up and the kit are mention on the for sale area, sorry Jame Honest.

    TXT me private please Brumjam
  • Not any more, they're not, you naughty man!  [-X
  • I'm not fussed mate, it doesn't bother me
  • Not any more, they're not, you naughty man!  [-X
    Found conkers it was in the coffee pot
  • This is so great. I will be having the dynamic power supply boards first, for my beasts.

    Later I'll do the test of the kit and transplant my current amplifier boards, as the new boards will drive my IGBT output devices just fine.
  • I am hopefully going to get some time back after the summer.
    One of these kits is on my to-do list. :-)
    Early Christmas present perhaps...?
  • Re heatsinks for this, I found these at cpc (ordered a pair today)


    only £25 inc VAT and delivery, and the spacing between the fins is 45mm, which looking at the pcbs looks to be just enough to be able to mount the board nicely.  Only 1 left in stock, but only a 4 week lead time.  Cheapest place I found them.
  • At 125mm wide as well they fit the board perfectly. I notice 225va transformers are usually around 120mm as well, so a case could be built around these heatsinks placed vertically.
  • Thanks Spev.
    Probably a question with an answer known by many, but not me...
    I notice the heat sinks are rated at:
    0.42°C/W
    What does this mean (something to do with number of degrees centigrade lost per watt...?) and how it measured?
  • Re heatsinks for this, I found these at cpc (ordered a pair today)


    only £25 inc VAT and delivery, and the spacing between the fins is 45mm, which looking at the pcbs looks to be just enough to be able to mount the board nicely.  Only 1 left in stock, but only a 4 week lead time.  Cheapest place I found them.


    A bit small, try E-bay James found some there the right size .

    He was here today and we went over is monster SECA he is build and doing a fine job well done James.

  • edited June 2015
    Oh and he has taken the small SECA PCB home with him to build he had a tiny listen on the one here.
  • Re heatsinks for this, I found these at cpc (ordered a pair today)


    only £25 inc VAT and delivery, and the spacing between the fins is 45mm, which looking at the pcbs looks to be just enough to be able to mount the board nicely.  Only 1 left in stock, but only a 4 week lead time.  Cheapest place I found them.


    A bit small, try E-bay James found some there the right size .

    He was here today and we went over is monster SECA he is build and doing a fine job well done James.

    Colin, these are the ones in the BOM:


    I thought the 125x250 0.42C/W ones on cpc would have been preferable?
  • I bought the ABL sinks from CPC last week.

    Bear in mind the length is 250mm

    I cut mine in half, will fit side by side with a copper heat spreader.
  • My plan at the moment is to have the two 250mm sinks side by side to give 250x250 and get some 300x250 alu sheets to form a box around them, with the sinks as the front panel, maybe do a wooden back panel.
  • Sounds good James.
  • Yes the fins need be vertical Spev
  • Looks nifty Paul.  Thanks Colin.
  • Rest of parts should be here Friday, so with a bit of luck should be up and running by the weekend.

    50mm length caps are too big for case, so had to order some shorter ones from mouser......opps :)


  • Yes it is true, my name is James and I have class A Ampitus, it crept up on me slowly, but now it can no longer be denied. I have it bad.
  • I thought I was cured, but apparently not :)
  • Thanks Spev.
    Probably a question with an answer known by many, but not me...
    I notice the heat sinks are rated at:
    0.42°C/W
    What does this mean (something to do with number of degrees centigrade lost per watt...?) and how it measured?
    Have a read of this Ben..........


  • I give up !
  • I will put up the XL file James has that will with luck show you what you need for the PSU and power you need. Hang on chaps.
  •    Transformers are piggin expensive these days though.  Cheapest non generic ones I've found so far are airlink, but still £72 inc vat and delivery for a pair.


    I won't tell you how much I paid for mine then for my 40W Class A Mother Trucker then..... 
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