Another SSL Finished (pics)

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radiance

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
3,228
Location
the Netherlands
Thanks to Jacob & all the others @ this forum for making this possible.
Gustav & chef for the PCB's.
Frank @ NRG for explaining the separate relais/lamp power thing.
Twin-X for the very nice lazertran print job.

Front

Inside

This was my first DIY project and the side-chain was a little over my head but I had to do something in the two months it took for the Sifam meter to arrive.

Thanks!

Radiance
 
Cool radiance! Very great job! :thumb:
SC listen function... :thumb:

What about more infos about using the lazertran stuff?
I tried lazertran but couldn'd achieve any good results...
Some other DIY'ers reports same problems. :sad:
Maybe we could collect some howtos and experiences?
That would be a nice thing for other DIY'ers. :wink:

Kind regards,
Frank.
 
The Sifam meter was something like 94 euro incl. VAT.

About the Lazertran:
I did several test pieces on aluminum to see what happened with different time periodes and heat settings. I used an electric hot air oven which got barely to 190 degrees, but the lazertran decal seems to melt even at lower temperatures. It also seemed that the Lazertran became very shiny after 25 minutes already, but I left it in for 35/40 minutes.

It is also very important to get al the air bubbles out before you start the heating process. Air bubbles which remain will burn in the oven or will be washed off with the alcohol, which I used to get rid of the decal.
I think that for creating large pictures Lazertran is not the way to go.
Also one last thing: it is best to cover the entire front panel with lazertran (don't leave areas uncovered).
what I did was cut little pieces and position them in line. when the front panel came out of the oven you could clearly see which areas had been covered and which not. This looked like the aluminum had suffered from the heat. After a while everything went almost back to normal, but you can still see where I cut the Lazertran (look on the front panel between release and make-up).
You'll just have to experiment a lot as all ovens are different.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

The additional circuits are basicly the side-chain which is covered in this
thread, and a side-chain listen function wich is done by a relais switch which connects the side-chain input xlr to both left and right output xlr's and at the same time mute's the compressor output. This can be done with two four pole relais.

The Sifam meter that I used is bought by E-Parts, the Dutch Sifam distributor.
 
thats really the best looking clone! Where did you get the switches? They really look originally! I neeeeed these switches for my close too! Please can you share this info?

Very nice one. congrats!
 
Man that looks like the orginal !!!
Great job, I can't believe how good that looks! I am super jealous.

Put out a Parts list man !!!
And a diagram of those relays etc..

The boys over at SSL are gonna be pissed if they see this one !!!
Either that or very flattered.

Great Job.

-ChuckD
 
The switches are EAO serie 01 and can be found here.
As for the partlist: I used this list as an example and bought most of the stuff at Conrad and RS-components so nothing special except maybe for the knobs (sifam S151.006 grey) with blue caps (C151 blue) and the meter (sifam director 14 PPM) and ofcorse the switches which can be found at the above link.

The side chain balancing circuit is just a copy of the input and output stage of the ssl clone onle then mono.

A nice high resolution picture of the SSL logo can be found on the japanese SSL website in there galarie.
 
what relay type did u use - voltage etc...?

some definitive schems of the sidechain mod would be good too - seems a few various ways peeps have implemented it...

my rack cases arrived today so I'm about to start drilling holes!
 
@ radiance: I'm also using eao-type switches on my next ssl comp..

why did you use extra regulators for the lamps ??
is it not possible to take the 12V from the ssl pcb ??

mat
 
Nope, the +/-12V lines are only 78L12/79L12-regulated, and has to be very stable and predictable, as these act as DC references for the sidechain action. The 10mA drawn by the power-on led is about as far as you can drag it without running into trouble.

So you really need to draw light/relay current from somewhere else. On my protos, I used unregulated +/- to feed the light (a 48V/20mA 2telephone" lamp)

Jakob E.
 
Hey Jakob,

On mine I just dropped the 1Kohm resistor to 500 ohms and put 3 LEDs in series there.
Do you think that was a mistake?
Is it going to cause a failure I wonder?

I'll have to figure out what the current drop over the LEDs is and get back to you.


-ChuckD
 
Radiance, do you happen to remember the exact model number of the EAO switches you used? I'm looking through the catalog, and there is a confusing selection of choices in the Series 01 line. Or can you tell me at least if you used low level or snap action switches? Thanks. :grin:
 
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