Hi all, I got some time yesterday to build the guitar amp on a perf board.

At first it didn't work at all, but I'm quite proud I managed to track my mistak es with the help of a portable oscilloscope and now I have an output signal, but there are other problems: When I plug the power supply in, I get a cyclic noise for two minutes. Then it d isappears. Due to its cyclic nature and the fact that it disappears after a whil e, I'm thinking it could be due to a misplaced capacitor, but I don't know where to look. Any idea? I made a quick video to show the problem: https://dl.dropbox usercontent.com/u/5916264/VID_20140222_171213.mp4 The second problem is that the output signal seems excessively overdriven. If an ybody else built the amp, I'd like to know if they experienced the same. Of cour se, this could be linked to problem number one. I'm quite new to this kind of projects and only built stuff with arduino before, so any help is welcome. Here is the build (it's a bit dirty because I had to fix problems afterwards): gtr_amp.png ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Since nobody answered, I solved my problem by myself... It appeared the power supply was not delivering enough current for the circuit, since it stopped making noises due to voltage drop after I tried another more po werful one. I didn't order through digikey so it was not the same reference for a wall mount power supply as the one in the parts list, but still 12V, 0.5A. So if anyone in tends to build the circuit, you might need to take a bigger one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is the voltage and current of your new power suplly? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Still 12V, but 2A. It might as well be a problem with the quality of the other power supply, I don' t really know :/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I just watched your video and guess what? My circuit is doing the exact same th ing! I am using the Digikey power supply that came with the kit, also 12V, 0.5A . I'm guessing that everyone is going to be having this problem. In my case, the oscillation that you have going on in your video does not go awa y after a few minutes. When the circuit sits there with no guitar input, it sou nds identical to your video - both in terms of pitch and frequency. If I plug a guitar into it, I can tell that it's trying to do "something". I hear distorte d guitar tones coming out, none of the knobs do anything particularly useful, an d there is some kind of underlying oscillation going on. It just sounds terribl e. I can also confirm that the input voltage sags with the audio oscillation, s o it would appear to confirm that the power supply is not able to keep up with t

he power demand. After you've changed out your power supply, then everything started working? Lo oks like all of us need to spec out a power supply that is going to work for thi s project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm wondering if the problem is due to the TDA2030 part in the schematic being o bsolete and has been upgraded to a TDA2050 in the kit. The old part is 18 watts and the newer one is 35 watts. Comparing the datasheets shows that the newer T DA2050 puts out significantly more power at the same input voltage. 0votes received. flag Adrien Anselme 20 days ago This makes sense. The TDA2030 spec sheet already mentions a typical 500mA drain current under an 8Ohm load, so I guess the 2050 is even more current-hungry. If I had discovered that earlier it could have spared you a 500mA power supply. Sorry about that... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------That's a neat schematic you have there, Adrien. Can I ask what app you did that with? And could you share the design file? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hi Marcel, It's a free tool called DIYLC: https://code.google.com/p/diy-layout-creator/ It's the only one I know that lets you place your components on a perfboard. BTW, the strap between R1 and R4 is useless. You can omit it if you do your buil d based on my design :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I got my replacement power supply in today and it made a big difference. One t hing that I'm seeing though is that my gain knob for distortion doesn't seem to do much. My tone is distorted all the time. It's kind of nice because I like t hat sort of thing, but there is no way for me to turn it down to get a clean jaz zy kind of sound if I were so inclined. Is this another symptom of chip substit ution or do I maybe have something wired incorrectly. I'll spend some time debu gging my circuit but I was wondering if anyone else is able to vary their tone f rom distorted to clean sounding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Is your P/S a switcher? They work very wonky if not under a load.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The power supply is a switching one - Digikey p/n 237-1443-ND. The original pow er supply was also a switching type as well. You could be right; their may be s ome interaction between the supply and the circuit. I'm not sure on that. Overall, it's not horrible at all. The distortion is mild and enjoyable and thi s amp gets surprisingly loud for how small it is. I'm just wondering if others are managing to get clean, non-distorted tones out of their build. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What are you using as an input? If you are using something other than a guitar y ou might be driving the input too hard. One thing you could try is lifting one end of the diodes, the amp should then be completely clean, if you still get distortion then something is being driven to o hard - check that the resistors about the opamps are the right values and in t he right places. If all else fails you could use a larger input resistor on the drive stage, which would reduce the distortion, but also reduce the maximum volu me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm using my stock Gibson Les Paul guitar as input. I'll have to see what happe ns if I turn down the guitar's volume knob. I might be overdriving the amp righ t from the start. I usually have that knob cranked to 11 :-)

That's a good list of things to check out. Thanks for that! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I mentioned that the 12V .5 amp power supply would clip in my previous thread ju st from common sense. The TA said I was wrong. The TDA2030 is a 32 watt amp an d typical a/b amp efficiency is 60%. A 12V 4.5 amp power supply would give you full power. The circuit should only draw what it needs so going too big should not be an issue although you would have to go through and make sure the componen ts are rated for this current on the power side of the circuit. I am just sayin g that this is what it should have been designed to do. I won't be building thi s circuit and should probably not say anything as I am irritated with the qualit y of the kit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've spent quite a bit of time debugging my circuit now in order to find out why I get distorted tones all the time. First let me say that the distortion that

I'm getting is rather nice - not harsh, but a good rock tone. The thing is t can't turn it off to get a clean tone.

I jus

I've reduced the input signal by turning the volume control down on my guitar. No luck - still no clean tones. I've unsoldered the diodes, and guess what? St ill no clean tones! I've checked all my resistor values and checked all connect ions fairly thoroughly. I'm about 80% confident on my build at this point. The cleanest that I can make it is if I turn the amp's volume control down to ne arly off, with the drive control all the way up (!), and the tone control all th e way to treble. Very strange. The other thing that I see is that I can get an underlying oscillation when I ha ve the tone control all the way on bass, with moderate to high volume - similar to what I heard when I used the undersized power supply from the kit. This osci llation occurs even without guitar input. As I have it, I can dial in tones that are useful and pleasant to me I'm just thi nking that the substitution of the TDA2030 to the TDA2050 is having some affects that weren't planned on. Is there anyone who has built this who is getting cle an tones? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I can't get any clean tone either. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tried my kit amp today and I have the same issues described here of fluctuating supply voltage and audio oscillations. Guess I'll have to order a more powerful power supply. Hope you guys can solve the constant distortion problem. I thin k I'm hearing this too.