Fucking piss me off

Today after a long and aggravating day I decided to go up to my bedroom and relax by listening to some tunes. I plugged in both of my Carverfest tube monoblocks as I do almost daily and noticed sound only coming out of the left speaker. I looked up to find the tubes on the right channel amp were not lit. I checked both fuses and the one in the IEC socket was blown. replaced it with a 1.6 amp instead of a 1.5 and it blew again. I was just listening to these amps till around 12:30 this morning. Houston we have a problem.Just when you want to chill cant get a fucking break.

You have access to a tube tester?

Today after a long and aggravating day I decided to go up to my bedroom and relax by listening to some tunes. I plugged in both of my Carverfest tube monoblocks as I do almost daily and noticed sound only coming out of the left speaker. I looked up to find the tubes on the right channel amp were not lit. I checked both fuses and the one in the IEC socket was blown. replaced it with a 1.6 amp instead of a 1.5 and it blew again. I was just listening to these amps till around 12:30 this morning. Houston we have a problem.Just when you want to chill cant get a fucking break.

Fuckin bummer!!!!! Hope it's an easy fix Harry.

uh-oh. Hope all gets a bit better and Murphy leaves you alone with his laws. Just don't send him my way - I have been hiding from him for weeks.

I've tried to tell you guys this tube shit is a pain in the ass~

kepp us posted please sir--exact same issue with mine--Roy has it now--dunno what the culprit is. Good luck,,I'm sure that you will figure it out.

and,,yes,,my tubes tested fine,,and I swapped em anyway,,same issue.

I've tried to tell you guys this tube shit is a pain in the ass~

Gary.......The tubes are supposed to go "IN THE AMP"!!!

Hehehe...

Tom, I have a tube tester and I tested all the 6bq5's then I went one better I switched the tubes in the two amps and they worked without blowing the fuse in the second amp. I would think this rules out the tubes as having an internal short which might cause the fuse to blow.

Damn, well I guess that rules that out. This seems to be a recurring issue with some of the amps. I wonder if Bob has had the same issues with the prototypes he has. Maybe we should inform him of this issue before he starts to sell them to the public. The last thing he needs is a reliability issue to start his new company out with.

Well boys are you ready for this! This morning I said I am going to fix this thing or else throw the fucker in the garbage (not really). I spent time checking diodes resistors moving wires away from points that represent ground nuts bolts tag strips you name it. I put in a 2-1/2 amp fuse and it blew the fuckin thing. Now I am running low on fuses, I remembered I had some low amperage circuit breakers so I got a 1.25 amp carry trip on 1.75 breaker and jumpered it in, undid the B+ fuse and plugged it in the tubes lit right up measured the B+ on the 390uf 450 volt cap as this charges up regardless of the fuse. Voltage was 494 volts with no load unpluged it as I still have no power switches installed as of yet put the B+ fuse back in and plugged it in again. The breaker held B+ measured 450 volts and 380 volts respectively a little higher than spec. I took the amp upstairs to hook it up put in another 1.6 amp fuse and pluged it in !!!!!!!! nothing blew the fuse again wired in the breaker and she came right on.I got my ac amprobe and checked the current in the primary of the transformer less than 1 amp went and measured the other amp current was less than 1 amp also. I started to remember when Bob was checking the amps the initial current draw on startup exceeded 2 amps I also remembered that I had bought cheaper fuses that would not hold there current rating is that the case here I dont know. I only know that I am going to get some 2 amp slo-blow fuses and install those I am willing to bet this shit wont happen again unless the amp really has a problem..

George and Roy, My advice to you is get a 1.25 or 1.5 amp breaker wire it in to the IEC socket with alligator clips and fire that puppie up if it really is a component problem it will trip the circuit breaker. The breaker is much more forgiving when it comes to the initial current whack on startup. Hope that is all that is wrong with yours george. Roy try this and let us know what happens.

You are the man Harry-- BTW--anyone hear from Roy lately,,he has not posted in awhile.

these may be the trick.....

http://www.amwei.com/views.asp?hw_id=64

http://www.ametherm.com/

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-va ... tubes.html

thermistor.

ApplicationsPTC thermistors can be used as current-limiting devices for circuit protection, as replacements for fuses. Current through the device causes a small amount of resistive heating. If the current is large enough to generate more heat than the device can lose to its surroundings, the device heats up, causing its resistance to increase, and therefore causing even more heating. This creates a self-reinforcing effect that drives the resistance upwards, reducing the current and voltage available to the device.
PTC thermistors are used as timers in the degaussing coil circuit of most CRT displays and televisions. When the display unit is initially switched on, current flows through the thermistor and degaussing coil. The coil and thermistor are intentionally sized so that the current flow will heat the thermistor to the point that the degaussing coil shuts off in under a second. For effective degaussing, it is necessary that the magnitude of the alternating magnetic field produced by the degaussing coil decreases smoothly and continuously, rather than sharply switching off or decreasing in steps; the PTC thermistor accomplishes this naturally as it heats up. A degaussing circuit using a PTC thermistor is simple, reliable (for its simplicity), and inexpensive.
NTC thermistors are used as resistance thermometers in low-temperature measurements of the order of 10 K.
NTC thermistors can be used as inrush-current limiting devices in power supply circuits. They present a higher resistance initially which prevents large currents from flowing at turn-on, and then heat up and become much lower resistance to allow higher current flow during normal operation. These thermistors are usually much larger than measuring type thermistors, and are purposely designed for this application.
NTC thermistors are regularly used in automotive applications. For example, they monitor things like coolant temperature and/or oil temperature inside the engine and provide data to the ECU and, indirectly, to the dashboard.
NTC thermistors can be also used to monitor the temperature of an incubator.
Thermistors are also commonly used in modern digital thermostats and to monitor the temperature of battery packs while charging.
[edit] History

Well I just got back from Radio Shack where I purchased 2 amp slow blow fuses. Installed one in the amp plugged it in and it fired right off. Mickey I like the idea of that thermistor we should explore the usage of one in the primary winding of the power transformer. I am going to say that cold startup amperage is about 2.5 amps. COOL IDEA