Loud POP before right channel goes out [resolved]

[MOAR_CORES]

Hello everyone,

I have been listening to the crack for a couple of weeks now, and right as I was about to install the speedball upgrade, my crack starting giving me issues.
The problem is that once every half hour or so, there is a large pop in the right channel, followed by dead silence.
The first time it happened, it was a progressive static sound that got really loud. Now its just a pop when it happens.
It is hard to troubleshoot this as the right channel comes back on within a minute, and gives me no time to troubleshoot.

However, what information I do have is that A6 on the 9 pin socket measures 150V, and the LED on A8 is off when the right channel is out. Then, the LED turns back on in under a minute and my crack works fine.
There is no visible damage on the LED. The LED does seem soldered rather close to the center pin of the socket (Maybe I should resolder it so the LED is further away from the center pin?)
All other terminals that I checked seemed to be fine while I was doing the voltage checks really quick.
One more thing, I remember accidentally shorting something while doing voltage checks once on the 9 pin socket when I first built the crack. A small spark appeared. I am unsure what I shorted, but the crack worked fine and passed all checks afterwards.

Thanks for the help

[Paul Birkeland]

You almost certainly have a loose connection or a bad solder joint.  You can poke at the running Crack with a wood chopstick to attempt to replicate the problem and isolate its cause, or you can post a photo of your 9 pin socket area and we may be able to find it.

That LED will extinguish for a variety of reasons, some of them are:

1.  Bad solder joint between A4 and A5.
2.  Bad solder joint on the 22K resistor between terminals 1 and 2.
3.  Bad solder joint on the jumper wire between terminal 1 and A6.
4.  A damaged or poorly soldered LED.

I would not focus on the LED itself, many builders have fixated on the LED until they've broken it, only to discover that it was another connection causing the problem in the first place.

-PB

[MOAR_CORES]

You almost certainly have a loose connection or a bad solder joint.  You can poke at the running Crack with a wood chopstick to attempt to replicate the problem and isolate its cause, or you can post a photo of your 9 pin socket area and we may be able to find it.

That LED will extinguish for a variety of reasons, some of them are:

1.  Bad solder joint between A4 and A5.
2.  Bad solder joint on the 22K resistor between terminals 1 and 2.
3.  Bad solder joint on the jumper wire between terminal 1 and A6.
4.  A damaged or poorly soldered LED.

I would not focus on the LED itself, many builders have fixated on the LED until they've broken it, only to discover that it was another connection causing the problem in the first place.

-PB

I reflowed the recommended connections

Before reflowing:
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FT53j3EI.jpg&hash=3abfed652757a972294c436d742c608700c2fbde)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0UySHJk.jpg&hash=b2a8a9b8e925578f97e20bc392e9ceb3d22c2614)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FdblyC9H.jpg&hash=05970ec88e68bb12c7f81cc20c3394a038f18790)

Afterwards:
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FZJTBasX.jpg&hash=4a969f1d348e9835b53cf840539a709032cd8536)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FYxF72Oq.jpg&hash=8d4f6cbf93d25ecffbee599556d020b6dc4af9b9)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fuvqf2CT.jpg&hash=04ad1a8587aa8114e66735c95feccc484d564052)

I am listening now, everything seems fine for now.
I will update in a bit.

[MOAR_CORES]

Just an update.

The crack works fine, for now.

However, is it alright if I have the heatsinks for larger board's transistors bent like this?
I soldered them in at a weird angle, and have done numerous attempts at desoldering them, but there is always some solder left and I cannot get rid of it to reposition the heatsink.
Does it even matter?

images below
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fz2Oztf4.jpg&hash=33cbd60421deabe4efead1e3db7e578ff9c35160)
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FetgvAK2.jpg&hash=32393d299c92a1f1784f8aaff24e3ca692f0e6ea)

[MOAR_CORES]

Umm, Is it alright if I used the thicker gauge wire for the speedball?
This whole time I was using the thicker gauge wire that came with the base kit.
I was wondering why it was hard to move the wires around 
I don't think it should be a problem, but I already had 2 cables break after being bent a bit to screw in the boards.

I just finished voltage and resistance checks for the speedball, and it seems fine.
The only thing that was a bit off was that OB was measuring 15 to 20M+ ohms, which is more than what my meter can read.

Anyways, it just werks
I guess thats what matters right 

[Paul Birkeland]

The bent heatsink won't be a problem if everything is well soldered and all the leads are properly trimmed.

The measurements for OB are only voltage measurements in the Speedball manual. 

-PB