DIY dual 1176

[blackwaterstudios]

So - here I am again wondering what's up with the freeking piece of shit DIY dual 1176 I have (mnats rev-g I believe). After sending it off to a tech on here, it worked beautifully for about a month and now, again, quite predictably it's screwing up. Again. This time in GR mode the left channels meter goes to nothing after being on for about 10 minutes or thereabouts.

I can't keep throwing money into this utter piece of shit - I already could have just bought a real one!!

So any clues what to replace or should I just throw the damned thing under the bathroom sink where it belongs?? I'm not a tech by any stretch of the imagination so I dont really even know what to check, much less how although I do own a nice scope (delusions of grandure) and a nice DVM.

[The Scum]

If one channel works and one doesn't, compare the good one to the bad one to triangulate what's different. Check things that lead to the meter with the scope...as I recall, there's a quite bit of off-board stuff on those that could need some careful attention.

[blackwaterstudios]

Thanks man - like I said, I'm no tech and after thinking about it I just took the thing out of the rack and put in the closet where it belongs. Should have done it 2 years ago.

Lesson learned..lol

[T-rex]

You can just send it to me and I will take it off your hands!

Yeah I was going to ask is it just the metering or the compression that isn't working? if its just the metering it shouldn't be that hard to track down, especially if one channel is working.

I am wiring mine up this weekend so we'll see what happens, but yeah the pcb is easy, the connections off board are pretty complex.

[Snarl 12/8]

Seriously, how much do you want for it?

[blackwaterstudios]

Well weird as it sounds I don't much sell musical stuff. I have a brand new 32 channel ghost with meterbridge I used one time and now fold my laundry on it - and I have several other mixers and such laying around in the basement as well.

I've got about 700usd in the 1176 and a buttload more if you figure in all the tech work, which I don't but just sayin..lol.

I'm thinking I'll check the soldering maybe as one tech told me it looked childish - I didn't solder it - it was built for me. I'll poke around and see if I notice anything noticable like a cap exploded or something scorched.

Maybe someone who knows these things can gimme a call and walk me thru checking it? If we can figure it out I'll paypal ya some cash and it's gotta be somehting simple. As it is I can use one channel but I sure liked strapping it across the crunchy guitars and I miss that.

[The Scum]

If you find yourself in Denver, I could pop the hood and look into it with you.

Over the phone is a little more problematic. If it were a commercial production piece, it's possible that someone knowledgeable could walk you through the triage. Since the thing is DIY, there's no telling how it was assembled, with what decisions, what quality of parts, etc. The iffyness of the solder job is probably very different than the mnats board I built.

Also, if one channel is working, you've got a reference to compare the other channel to...use it as a guide! I certainly would.

[kingtoad]

Do the two channels sound the same? Plenty of great engineers don't look at the meters anyway. Not that you wouldn't want them to work, but maybe it doesn't matter that much?

[blackwaterstudios]

May have found the problem actually. Got it back out and turned it on and let it warm up and sure enuff channel 1's meter eventually went to 0 in GR mode. Ran a signal thru it and it did pass signal but not compressing it. Finally I started just switching knobs around and slamming the input and output and all of sudden it started working correctly. EVentually it stopped again but when I started slamming the input and output again it started working. So it seems to be a bad solder point maybe?

[mexicola]

I've built several of the mnats 1176 comps, and I've never had an issue with any of them. The one drawback is that the person building them has to know what they're doing.
I've had my builds compared to vintage originals by other engineers and studios, who've come back preferring my version.
If you need any help troubleshooting yours, let me know. My contact info is on my website.

[mrdibs]

Look At These Pics to learn what a cold solder joint looks like. Look at your board for that. I'd start by reheating every joint on the suspect channel. Make the solder flow around each connection. They shouldn't look like ball bearings.

First, though.... Deep breath... This ain't brain surgery... You can do it...