[johnsonad]

Hello all.  First post over here but I'm around the "usual" sites under the same name.

My Piccolo is nearing completion thanks the Tubes and Mr. Hagerman (Jim and Jim).  A big thanks to both of you for getting me this far and responding to emails.

Now for a couple of questions:

1.  I plan on using it with battery power only.  Can I leave J3 (the DC jack) blank and the second part to that are the Pos and Neg holes in the top left corner of the board the battery pack inputs?

2.  Do I need to put an LED in D1 or can I leave it blank for now?

3.  J1R/J2R: in the inner most soldering point the Positive input and the outer most input the negative or ground input?

4.  I left the metal shields off.  Should I install them and if so on which side of the board?  Tubes, you use some special material to shield.  Is this easy to find or is there another shielding material that would work good if needed?

5.  I bought a couple of different battery packs to try out.  Does the Piccolo have an "ideal" input operating voltage?

6.  In the book it recommends installing a jumper from pin 1 to 8 on U1.  I am using the specified device but which are pins 1 and 2 if looking down on the device?

Thank in advance!  I'm looking forward to getting this project cased up and operating!

[tubesforever]

Hey I don't have a lot of time right now to reply but the build looks great.  That DC offset chip and the power supply caps can put a lot of noise back into your Piccolo.  I soldered up the tabs and then soldered TI shield (Texas Instrument Shield) that I purchased from Percy Audio.  Basically this is an alloy of copper and high nickle stainless steel.  It is nearly a perfect shielding material for audio purposes.

I have some extra TI, so send me a personal message with your address and I will ship some out.  Just solder it to the leads and you have a great shield. 

Make sure to connect pin 1 to pin 5 on the DC pump.  If you look at my earlier pics James pointed out that I had this misconnected to pins 1 and 8.   Pin 1 and pin 8 are straight up and down from one another and not in an S pattern. 

I just built a Piccolo for a good friend and used one piece of TI shield above and one below because with the Blackgate caps I have to stagger the caps above and below.  I think you only need to to do the top with your cap selection.

If you Piccolo is noisy at all, order up some Blackgate F caps at Partsconnexion.  They are 4.95 each.  Michale percy is out of the fabulous FK caps.  Too bad they have noisel level of -160db.   


If you purchased the cool blue LED, the longer lead goes into the square hole.  I basically assemble the hole piece with the LED in place and then solder it just before closing up the casework.  I push the LED as far into the lens assembly as I can, and that makes for a nice looking Piccolo.

You are going to love the Dynamicaps.  I put them in mine and my friend's unit and they sound amazing. 

[PatOMalley]

I thought you were too busy to reply? That must be the Evelyn Speedhead typing method.

[johnsonad]

Thanks Jim!  Email sent.  Still a few questions I need help with if someone has a little time.

[tubesforever]

Pat,

I type 35 words a minute or maybe more.  You can see all the spelling errors     I was busy working on your Technics tonearm bearing.   Guess I will keep it now.....  just kidding!  You are gonna love this little gem!

Johnsonad,

As for the LED, you can add it any time but it sure is a lot easier to position it while you are assembling and then solder it as the final step.

I just finished putting another Bugle power supply together and did the LED for this as the last step as well.

Hey, does anyone know where I can get a single plastic lens for the Piccolo?  I cannot find mine and I don't need 25 dollars of Digikey stuff at this point in time. 


Cheers!

[Dan Kolton]

I think Digikey has removed the $25 minimum.

[johnsonad]

Thanks Tubes.  Still a few more questions:

1.  I plan on using it with battery power only.  Can I leave J3 (the DC jack) blank and the second part to that are the Pos and Neg holes in the top left corner of the board the battery pack inputs?

2.  Do I need to put an LED in D1 or can I leave it blank for now?

3.  J1R/J2R: is the inner most soldering point the Positive input and the outer most input the negative or ground input?

5.  I bought a couple of different battery packs to try out.  Does the Piccolo have an "ideal" input operating voltage?

Thanks

[hagtech]

1) You can leave the dc jack out, but doing so disconnects the battery ground.  You have to apply power to the holes where the dc jack was.

2) LED can be left off.

3) Look at bottom of board.  One lead connects to ground plane.

4) You need at least 6Vdc input.  Do not let it drop below that point.  If you have an unregulated or noisy supply, I would suggest at least 9V or 12V.

jh

[tubesforever]

Hell make sure you solder in the bayonet jack.....

Build yourself a Bugle power supply.  It is a regulated power supply.  It is very smooth.  It has an incredibly low noise floor with Panasonic TC and EB caps. 

Why polute the earth with batteries when you can have double regulated power supply to the Piccolo?

   IMO batteries are way over rated unless you are using the yellow top Optima Batteries.  With their spiral core plates these store energy a lot like a capacitor would release energy. 

Plus the bugle power supply is sexy.  Its fun to build, cheaper than batteries and it really delivers the goods when the dynamics require power supply on demand.

Cheers!

[johnsonad]

Jim and Jim, thank you both.  Mr. Hagerman, one more question (for now).  You wrote " You can leave the dc jack out, but doing so disconnects the battery ground.  You have to apply power to the holes where the dc jack was." If running just on battery power would I install jumpers from the POS and NEG battery holes to the DC jack holes or just the NEG battery to NEG DC jack hole?

I'll keep an eye out for those batteries Jim  More than likely I'll use the rechargeable type instead 

[tubesforever]

Sorry,

I just have to give the battery guys a bad time.  Jim is saying the + of the battery will work fine but without the bayonet piece the ground is not connected anywhere and you can pick it back up where the bayonet piece would ground. 

Why not solder in the bayonet so you can use a wall wart or external power supply if you ever want to demonstrate the battery power option to others.

The Optima is a car battery.  I think it would have a little more juice 15.5 v than the Piccolo probably needs. 

Has anyone tested batteries to see if alkyline, NiMh, or NiCad sound better?    Hell can anyone tell I am a tweak a holic?

[johnsonad]

You kill me Jim!    No bayonet unless I can figure out the part number with the flying leads vs. the hard soldered points as my board will sit much lower in the case.  And I'm sticking with batteries on this project.   

[flocchini]

I'm using 2 - 12V 2.3Ahr Yuasa in parallel for the Piccolo. Plenty of dynamics. I probably should build a 12 - 15 V power supply to compare. Would be a good winter project.

[johnsonad]

I hope that you are joking Jim in a way on the improved dynamics with higher current from the outboard PS vs. the batteries?  Given the extremely small voltage swings and minimal current usage this doesn't make a lot of sense or am I missing something?   

[flocchini]

I had the batteries and smart charger available when I completed the Piccolo so I used it.
 Enjoy your Piccolo     It is a fantastic product.