No power to Crack

[Paul Birkeland]

With the power switch on, what kind of AC voltage do you see between terminals 1 and 2 on the power transformer?

[Stanshall]

I've got a reading of 236v.

[Paul Birkeland]

OK, that's good! How how about power transformer terminals 4 and 5?  How about 9 and 10?

[Stanshall]

4&5 give a reading of only 5v.

9&10 give a very erratic reading, jumping around.

Unbelievably, I've just seen that B7L and B8L have not been soldered. I've read through the manual several times though and can't see when I was supposed to have soldered these. The bottom of page 18 says attach but do not solder these points.

Have I gone wrong somewhere?

[Paul Birkeland]

Unbelievably, I've just seen that B7L and B8L have not been soldered. I've read through the manual several times though and can't see when I was supposed to have soldered these. The bottom of page 18 says attach but do not solder these points.

The tube socket pins are not differentiated by lug height (sometimes the only octal sockets we can get only have one hole per socket pin connection).

At this point, you should have glowing tubes? 

The erratic reading at 9 & 10 should be stable - if your meter has multiple ranges, try going down one (since you can measure the ~230V going into the amp, and that pair of transformer terminals should be ~160).  Do you get the same erratic reading at power transformer terminals 6 and 7?

[Stanshall]

I mean that the twisted cables from transformer terminals 4&5 are not soldered at all to Socket B. They are both simply poking through the lower lugs. The upper lugs B7 and B8 are soldered and attached to the other socket as in the manual.

I have no glowing tubes - though I can now see why! Should I solder these points?

Now I've dropped the voltmeter setting, I get roughly 170v at points 6&7 and 9&10.

[Doc B.]

Yes, solder those terminals.

[Stanshall]

You guys truly have the patience of Saints. Thank you very much.

Tubes glowing.

I'll continue with the rest of the testing.

[ksridevi]

I had the exact problem and doing as suggested by you wise folks, have my hubby's crack up and running. Thanks OP for starting this thread, Doc B and folks at bottlehead for an amazing product. Never seen hubby with such a big smile while listening to music! Will work on Speedball upgrade in a months time

[Paul Birkeland]

I had the exact problem and doing as suggested by you wise folks, have my hubby's crack up and running. Thanks OP for starting this thread, Doc B and folks at bottlehead for an amazing product. Never seen hubby with such a big smile while listening to music! Will work on Speedball upgrade in a months time

You built a Crack for your husband?  Please do fill us in on the rest of the story!

[ksridevi]

Hi,
Yes, he bought the kit a month back on a group buy and he got swamped with work. I work for a bio science company, so solder almost everyday. I thought I would surprise him by building it for him and did, until I came upon this hurdle. Thankfully while I was googling came across this forum and thread. He is very pleased with it so far, has been using it the while day and working. Still have the speed ball upgrade kit, hopefully he will find time and get it done or I can over the holidays.
P.S. you sound surprised to hear I built it for hubby, is that a complement or....??

[Paul Joppa]

For some reason, women are uncommon in this hobby, though most welcome. I have never understood this; women of my acquaintance are at least as likely as men to be music lovers, and there are plenty of scientific or technically inclined women. But then, while men can make perfectly good craftspeople, not many knit. Anyway, welcome!

[Mike B]

It puzzles me too. 

I've worked in many electronic mfg Co's and who are assembling the boards & chassis?  Women.

Trust me, there are more women building electronics professionally than men.

Maybe when that's your day job you don't do it as a hobby?  Dunno.

[Paul Birkeland]

It's most certainly a complement!

Though historically women in America have been sought after to assemble electronics (and they still are to this day), there seems to be little interest in kit assembly these days.

[ksridevi]

Thanks for your reply guys. I was just pulling your leg. Yeah, as a woman with kids and the whole day working with NMR machines/design I would not want to spend more time on this hobby or rather don't find time for it.