[Folsom]

There is soooooo much noise that comes out now. It is coming from some part before the DAC. It sounds like the music (easiest to hear when it is on mute) but digital. I mean it is completely unsmooth and mostly only recognizable by the lower frequencies, the beat.

I removed C16 and C20, then used some of inside wire of a mic cable to go from that to 4.7uf BlackGate N capacitors, then to some Dayton RCA's. There is the ground running from the Daytons to where the original ground was for the RCAs. It has to be something from the positive leads, but what I am not sure. I do know if I pull the unit out and play it while the positive leads are no where near anything, there is zero noise. I think shielded wire would be best for this modification.

Anyone know how I should route the wire to get rid of these awful sounds? I am already considering drilling holes in the back of the case to let the tops of the BlackGates sit outside of because you have to be so careful fitting it all back in and not getting a short.

What a pain in the butt. The DAC is probably going to be worse.

[Folsom]

After playing around more I can say the wireless card induces the most noise.

My conclusion after my BlackGate capacitor snapping because of trying everything in the book.

The only solution is super short shielded cable runs to RCA connectors that mount by bolting on the outside so you can run super short wire to them.

You might even go as far as to earth ground the shielding that is around the cable running for the RCA's via an wire leaving it and going to a AC plug that just does earth ground. That might sound amazing but it seems like more than half the noise that has been found in the SqueezeBox, which is fixed with heavy power mods and switching ones, by the big name modders, might just be avoidable by getting the signal cleanly to the RCA's. I can get one channel at a time as silent as possible.

What is frustrating is that the SqueezeBox is likely to create tiny ground loops and stuff with other equipment that is not earth chassis grounded. I have to say the SqueezeBox has some flaws, I can see why if you have the money you should get a power supply and mod set done, Bolder style.

[Folsom]

I guess I am going to order more BlackGates, some DH Lab Connex 2x23awg silver shielded with drain wire, and Cardas RCA jacks. Still though, anyone else have some experiences like this?

[GBB]

There is soooooo much noise that comes out now . . .

I removed C16 and C20, then used some of inside wire of a mic cable to go from that to 4.7uf BlackGate N capacitors . . .

DS,
Sorry to hear that you're having trouble.  There shouldn't be any problems with noise if you've wired things up correctly.  You don't need specially shielded cables or anything like that.  In my modified SB3, I run a single wire from the DAC output (taken from the pad of C16/C20) directly to one lead of the Blackgate and the other lead of the Blackgate goes to the positive terminal of the RCA jack.  Are you sure that's what you did?  Are you sure you removed the right caps and hooked up to the right place?  I've attached a picture with the right caps circled.  Also, if you're reusing the old RCAs then you need to disconnect the old output section.  I did this by removing the output capacitors that come after the JRC2041 output opamp.



Good luck.
---Gary

[Folsom]

Yes those are the capacitors I removed. I ran off of their pads. I did not re-use the RCA's.

I have no idea why I get so much noise then. It is noticeable, very much so.

[Folsom]

I wonder if it has something to do with my new Gainclone amplifier. I am not sure but there may not of been any sound when I tested the SqueezeBox with my old Sharp.

My Gainclone is almost dead silent with no RCA's plugged into anything. I tried to Chassis ground it by running earth ground to chassis and got a lot of hum, so it has no real chassis ground. I just have the two Chassis grounds and transformer grounds running into the common on the AC jack. I also have a .1uf X2 Panasonic cap across the positive and common to prevent noise... Part of it might be the lack of proper ground, it may only be the ground strap operating, my house sucks.

I have no idea how my Gainclone could somehow let DC or digital in though, that escapes me.

The sound is weird because sometimes it is from the left, sometimes it is the right, sometimes both.

Whatever is going on it escapes me.

[GBB]

Yes those are the capacitors I removed. I ran off of their pads. I did not re-use the RCA's.

I have no idea why I get so much noise then. It is noticeable, very much so.

Can you take a picture showing your connections to the pads?  Perhaps there's something obvious wrong that you're having trouble seeing after working on it for so long.  A second set of eyes often turns up things you miss on your own.

---Gary

[JoshK]

A second set of eyes often turns up things you miss on your own.

Amen to that!  Its like when coding and your getting an error and pounding your head on the table for hours then you bring a buddy over and he points it out in 30 seconds.  You get him back later by doing the same thing to him.

[Folsom]

I removed everything but I will take a picture and circle where I soldered too.

[Folsom]

[sts9fan]

I recently built a PD gainclone that was noisy. I put 300pf caps across the Vin- and Vin+ pins which helped a lot.  I do live in a very noisy area though.  Also did you just use the standard power supply board?

Kris

[Folsom]

Yes I did. The Gainclone is near silent, I was just worried it somehow had an issue with the SB.

[GBB]

DS,
Which pads did you solder to?  The capacitor has two terminals.  There is an outline pattern on the board below the capacitor  - one end with a bar and another one with cut off corners.  You should be connecting to the pad with the cut off corners.  Is this what you did?

---Gary

[Folsom]

Yes, you can see some of my solder on the two sides with cut off corners.

[sts9fan]

Yes I did. The Gainclone is near silent, I was just worried it somehow had an issue with the SB.

Silent with a source other then the SB or silent with no RCAs attached?

[GBB]

. . . you can see some of my solder on the two sides with cut off corners.

OK - so it looks like you are soldering to the right pads.  Sorry if the following questions sound obvious, but debugging problems is all about ruling out the stupid things first.

1)Are you wiring the BG caps in series with the center pin of the RCA jacks?

2)Are you sure you are bringing the ground of the RCA jacks back to ground inside the SB3?  Did you measure this with an ohm-meter?

3)Are you sure the cables you are using to hook the SB3 to your preamp/amp are good?

4)Along the lines of STS9FAN's questions, are you sure your amp is working?


---Gary

[Folsom]

The Gainclone is with no RCA's attached and with RCA's attached unless I play my Squeezebox on mute, then I get the noise, and it is audible note on mute too, just easier to test on mute.

I went as far as to reverse "polarity" on the non-polarized capacitors just in case, in series with the positive, signal, for the RCA, and then directly to the pad.

I did not ohm meter check, but I do know they are the ones that the original RCA used for ground as they are the only thing the original RCA attached too and have tracing going back to the the main PCB board.

The cables have worked great for a month and a half.

The amplifier with no noise worked fine with my modified sharp.

[Folsom]

Ok so I ran some Jupiter cotton insulation wire, super short, because I used some Cardas RCA jacks, which worked nice because they mount from the inside, and attach via nut on the outside. This allowed me to keep the RCA jacks extremely close to the PCB. This solved all of it.

Future reference, run the shortest wires down along inbetween the "unused" stuff you just bypassed, and do not let anything within 5mm of the antenna hook ups.

There still is some very faint noise, that must be the stuff Wayne knows how to get rid of... it is almost gone though.

[Folsom]

Ok maybe now there is a power issue? I am not sure. My Squeezebox randomly turned off for a second then back on. I have no idea what is going on, maybe my router is doing bad. I mean I am RIGHT below it and I get like 60-100% signal, a lot of the time below 100%, I think I might try a different channel.