Bug in the plate amp - trouble shooting

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Odal3

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Bug in the plate amp - trouble shooting
« on: 14 Nov 2015, 09:09 pm »
My subwoofer with a bash plate amp stopped working a week or so ago. It had power since the LED was shining, the fuse looked OK, and it even had a hum if I had it on and touched the rca inputs on the side with an interconnect. However, once the rca was all the way in, I couldn't get any sound of it plus the hum which is normally pretty loud if I forget to turn it off before connecting it was really low. There was neither the normal thump sound that happens when I turn off the power.

I opened it up and took out the plate amp. Looked old but nothing looked terribly wrong, but then I saw it - there were some big legs sticking out from underneath the pcb. And yes, removed some screws so I could get a better look and a big dead bug was stuck underneath a Mosfet and a switch mode power rectifier. It must have crawled in somehow via the vent port.  :o

Anyways, I got some sparks when I tried to clean it up so before continuing I just want to check what's the safe way to discharge the area. Once I get it out, is there anything you recommend to check?

Odal3

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Re: Bug in the plate amp - trouble shooting
« Reply #1 on: 18 Nov 2015, 01:32 am »
Well, I got the bug out and manage to get the sound back, but it must have burnt something up since the sound level was very very low and it had a scratchy sound.

So I by-passed the plate amp and connected it to a crown xls amp I borrowed from another system in the house. Much cleaner with more punch, so I think I will retire the plate amp (or at least until I run out of other projects and get inspired to try to repair it)