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Stuff that you've built that just keeps on working.

catman

catman

Addicted Member
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G'day all, most of my DIY electronics has been pretty reliable but just being in the shack tonight listening to the Rugby League football with my DIY high fidelity AM tuner it occurred to me that the little 15 watt/ channel little 'brick' stereo power amplifier kit that I built quite a few years ago has been ultra reliable and has been operational for many hours since the time that it has been built.

Perhaps I should stay quiet should that little amplifier decide to go out on strike. :D Regards, Felix (vk4fuq) aka catman.
 
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The Leach stereo power amplifier and leach stereo preamplifier I built (not kits, built from scratch) in 1979 and 1980 respectively are still operational and still excellent.
 
I have nothing personally that I have built, but I know of Heath(kit) equipment that is still going strong, 30+ years after the fact. A friends father, who was an engineer, built much of his own equipment- some Heath, some he designed and built himself. Most of it is still operational, although, sadly, he isn't.....
You cant discount that extra love you put into your own projects, I guess...
 
My preamp, amplifiers and active crossover were built many decades ago and I can't remember any failure during normal operation. The only time anything has failed was when I put it on the test bench and explored things like maximum output at 100 kHz into zero ohms- unintentionally of course. To be absolutely sure of the results I've also repeated the test at least once.

My motto is, "I built it so I can always fix it."
 
I don't believe I've ever had anything I put together subsequently fail. OTOH, I tend to check, recheck and then repeat several more times before it gets used. I attribute it to ongoing Beginner's Luck, which is one of the positive aspects of Alzheimer's.
:banana:

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
The Hafler DH200 that I build in the late 70's is still going strong.
 
I built 2 x 1 Khz tone injectors and a tracer back in the mid 80's that still work. I haven't had to use them for quite some time as my ladder climbing/wire chasing days are pretty much done. :yippy:
 
I built a 2 wpc little power amp for my "walkman" in the mid 80's.

I still listen to it connected to my PC, time to time. My DIY speakers seem to like it .... they sound amazing with that amp... very natural, better than my Philips integrated amp.
 
I still have a Knight-Kit tube RF generator that I built as a teenager. It's never been used heavily, but I dragged it out recently for a little underground wire tracking exercise and it still works perfectly. Same deal for my Eico grid-dip meter.
 
Two AVA Super Pass 3 tube preamps. Built them in the mid 90's, used daily, one had a faulty transformer, otherwise problem free.

6550/KT88 P-P tube amp, built mid 90's, had one filament transformer short internally, otherwise nary a hickup.

DIY Pass F-5, little over a year, perfect...DIY Pass B-1, also perfect.

Sold it but the Mcintosh MC225 worked flawlessly after rebuild.

Russellc
 
1974 build

Built two SWTPC tigers that are on the workbench currently recovering from a recap, and a SWTPC tiger 215 25 wpc that currently runs my sub. Thats 38 years without A glitch. Jim
 
I keep a few things on my bench that I made around 30 years ago, which are still useful. They remind me of a time when I had to save up for test gear, even build it yourself kits.

This unit has been 'on' essentially for over 30 years. It's around 0.08% THD and very compact. (wein bridge bulb element IIRC) Good for quick tests.
EA sig gen.JPG

This little PSU has been 'on' for 30 years too. Only really used for battery/low voltage things (<1.2A)- my son uses it for his projects.

EA psu.JPG

I have few Bob Parker ESR meters too- they are fabulous little units- built from kits too.
 
catman said:
5 watt/ channel little 'brick' stereo power amplifier kit
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Ah! The Brick! That was an EA (Electronics Australia) design IIRC? I've got that project someplace. 1980s, before Leo Simpson went and set up Silicon Chip Magazine IIRC.

I built a Playmaster 40/40. ( Twin 25 with a bigger t/x and caps) Gave it to my sister when she was at uni as I had 'moved on to better things'. She gave it away. I miss it sometimes as it was such a neat amp. (1976/7)

twin25_02.JPG(web pics)

twin25.jpg (web pics)

I upgraded my output transistor wiring- they specified coloured computer ribbon cable!

Sacrilege these days, it uses uA741 opamps in the phono stage!
 
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gslikker said:
I never tried, but were these 741 really unacceptably noisy as phono stage or was it listenable?
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I was young. I built it and it took several days to build- so I was invested in it.

It sounded good at the time, but I was using a cheap BD Teac turntable and an $18 Excel cartridge. It was listenable and served as a jumping off point into HiFi for me. I often wonder what it would sound like now or how it would test.
 
Pair of Bell 2122 mono amps. Been running "hot", straight and normal for many, many years. At least 20+ years. Have been using them in my bedroom set up for a long time. They just work - all of the time.
 
Pretty much everything in my system has been REbuilt by me if that counts. Ditto for all my tranceivers on the radio bench.

My favorite scratch built is my everyday amp - a custom Latino ST120 that's been doing it gracefully for maybe four years now ...

6sn7-tube-set-(4).jpg
 
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