Home » Audio » General » Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? (Hopefully attracting one more audiophile)
Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #60880] Tue, 15 September 2009 21:23 Go to next message
colinhester is currently offline  colinhester
Messages: 1349
Registered: May 2009
Location: NE Arkansas
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
The thread below, Attracting non-Audiophiles, inspired me to dig out an old PCB board I ordered years ago. The board is the original Zen amp designed by Nelson Pass. I realize this amp is in its 9th stage of develolment, but I thought it would be a great project for my son.

My son is only 7 but loves putting together electronic kits - mostly LED flashers and such. His eyesight is so much better than mine and he's deadly good with a soldering iron. He soldered all eight pins of 555 IC without any trouble!!! The Zen board is well laid out, with the traces and components not nearly as packed as on some of the projects we've completed. So, it really should be an easy build.

I need a power Tx from Parts Express for this project. So, do ART members get a discount (code????) or does ART receive a donation? Either way is great. I just need to know......C
Re: Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #60882 is a reply to message #60880] Tue, 15 September 2009 22:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18789
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Man, I loved making stuff with 555 timers and op-amps when I was a kid. I think it's great that your son is working with them at such a young age. It's fun to make little circuits that blink lights and make sounds. Kids love it!

Re: Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #60906 is a reply to message #60882] Thu, 17 September 2009 13:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
SteveBrown is currently offline  SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
Yep, I loved flashing lights when I was a kid too. I remember making something like that using Neon tubes (NE2s) and an RC time delay. The thing ran off line voltage. First time I ever plugged it in I had made a wiring mistake on the cap and BANG! nasty explosion - unfortunately I was balancing the whole mess on my leg as I plugged it in. No shock but not pleasant either. Knowing more now I can't believe I didn't kill myself several times over when I was a kid. Like building table radios that ran right off the 2-wire line cord... yikes!
Re: Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #60909 is a reply to message #60906] Thu, 17 September 2009 19:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18789
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I have only blown an electrolytic capacitor once - had to do it to see what it would do. I had always heard that they boiled when reverse biased or just plain old sent too much voltage across 'em. So I got a medium to large can and sent it the juice. Pow! It's amazing how much pressure can build before they pop and send electrolyte confetti and can shrapnel everywhere. A guy should definitely be careful with this stuff.

Re: Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #60944 is a reply to message #60909] Mon, 21 September 2009 10:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
SteveBrown is currently offline  SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
That's nothing... when I was a kid we lived in Tektronix's back yard. They used to (may still) have a "Tek Country Store" that was open (IIRC) Wednesday afternoons. You could go in and by non-working scopes, modules, tools, surpuls parts, wire, etc. One time a buddy and I bought this giant rack size CRT tester. It would hold, I think, 10 or 12 5" CRTs for testing. Consequently this thing had a monster serious power supply.

Well, my friend and I talked a stranger into putting the contraption in the back of his pick up and taking us to my house. There we powered it up and quickly found that there is, in fact, a breakdown voltage on VOM probe leads. When we hit the power switch, and after a few relays and stuff clicked on, POW! Juice hit the HV rail and my buddy went flying across the room. Landed against a concrete wall. Thank goodness we were 16 or so and survived such mishaps. Wiser now, and the buddy survived, too!
Re: Ordering from Parts Express - ART discount? [message #61027 is a reply to message #60944] Fri, 25 September 2009 19:53 Go to previous message
PR Audio is currently offline  PR Audio
Messages: 23
Registered: July 2009
Location: Southern IL / Western KY
Chancellor
Haha - When we were teens, my brother built a BIG Tesla Coil, and we had all sorts of fun with it, also using it to play around with Jacob's Ladders, etc. I used to like to try to draw the biggest spark out of the Tesla Coil possible, and one humid day the "insulator" I used in doing so, a wooden yardstick, turned out to be not quite such a good insulator after all, and I got whapped by roughly .75 Megavolts. Thank God there wasn't too much current behind it, but there was enough to send me back a few feet. I also got knocked back across the room by residual voltage on a CRT once. That was a doosie, too! Definitely something one remembers...

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