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Any electronic modders here at Audiogon?

I'm wondering if there are any electronics modders in here like myself. I would like to hear what you've modified and any good related stories.

I'll start it off with a recent example of a project I just finished a few weeks ago:

First: A little background - I had a PS Audio GCC-100 I had bought off of Audiogon several years ago, but it "died", so I put it in storage where it stayed until about a month ago. Then another amp (a Jungson DA-200IA) I bought here also went bad. 

Shortly after the Jungson died, I saw an ad here on the 'Gon for a PS Audio like my old one that said "just returned from PS Audio with new Gain Cells". This caused me to think that maybe the 2 ICEPower modules inside mine might still be good. Sure enough, they were perfectly fine.

So I set about making what I jokingly call a Jungson ICE amp, where I strip the Jungson innards clean, but save the front panel with the large VU meters, and use the ICE modules and turn the unit into a power amp. Works great, even though the power lever is much lower than the old Jungson. But not a problem, as I don't play it that loud anyway.

Anyone else here have any other good modding stories like that?
joeylawn36111
joeylawn36111 OP
574 posts
 
Thanks for everyone's input.

Auxinput - I had a kind of similar situation with my Linn Kremlin tuner (and my Linn Klassic for that matter) - They were just too "nice" to mess with (modify) because they're rather expensive, and I don't want to mess them up. BUT the backup battery in the Kremlin 'took a dump' on it's circuit board, so I had to try and fix it, and I did. While having it apart, I also changed the LED display from green to Blue, as I do all my equipment with LED displays - but not the Kremlin until it messed up. 

Similar story with the Klassic - it gave an error message that was fixed with Recapping. So I also went ahead and put the blue 7-segments in.
joeylawn36111 OP
574 posts
 
Here's another thing I'd like to share - IF you do any amount of, say, Recapping or anything that has to to with Desoldering a component from a circuit board - IMO a Must Have is a Hakko Electric Desoldering Vacuum tool (current model is the FR-300 - the 808 I use has been discontinued).

But only if you do a lot of desoldering OR you want to protect your investment (don't DARE use a mechanical solder sucker to recap, say, an old Mark Levinson preamp) ;) ,as they're at least ~$265 not including supplies like filters and the proper size nozzles.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I’ve isolated circuit boards from vibration, mechanically isolated transformers from the component electronics, shielded electronics and wiring and fuse from the transformer’s magnetic field, damped capacitors, damped the fuse holder, absorbed background scattered laser light in CD players, damped the CD transport, oh, and of course seismic vibration isolation.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
@joeylawn36111 - yup.  I have both Hakko soldering station and an older Hakko de-soldering station.  I also have a Quck 861DW hot air rework station.  Though, I've been seriously considering investing in the Hakko FM206-DTS rework station.  Having a soldering iron, hot tweezer, and de-soldering iron in one station looks really good!  And I'm very interseted in the hot tweezer.  I've used a combination of my hot air station with a soldering iron to remove SMD capacitors, but the hot tweezer would really help in that I don't have to worry about the hot air affecting surrounding SMD components.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
@geoffkait what did you use to create a shield around the transformer? I've had limited success in this area..

I forgot about modding speakers. I've done that as well, mostly to kill vibrations
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