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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
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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
 
toddverrone
@geoffkait what did you use to create a shield around the transformer? I've had limited success in this area..

Just one word. Low frequency high permeability mu metal.
joeylawn36111 OP
574 posts
 
Auxinput - cool. You're ahead of me - I generally don't mess with SMD components - they're a real pain for hobbyists like me. But the problems I mentioned with my Kremlin were caused by the old memory battery "oozing" onto a 240Ω SMD resistor in the voltage regulator circuit, and changing it's value - I cleaned everything else up, removed it and rigged a regular thru-hole resistor in it's place.
4krow
80 posts
 
Typically, I stick to either tube equipment and some of the integrated circuits for upgrades and mods.
  I also use the FR300 de-soldering gun. My only complaint is that there is as much cleaning involved as with using de-solder braid, except that it is cleaning out the heat tube of the gun and not cleaning excess flux off the circuit board.
  Many designs out there try to get away with the cheapest setup that will work, and that is where I try to improve at least the component quality.
 Vibration isolation and shielding are also important to me. So far, I have tried copper foil tape and lead sheeting that is very thin. Seems that the lead is most effective.
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