nino500

Doesn't look like anyone's really interested now but, just in case... I have now made the superfly work reliably. I removed one of the power amps (the one that the digital board was sitting on) and all the additional casing bollox. I was only using one output anyway so I haven't lost any power and now the digital board just sits on the heatsink for the missing power section. The heatsink was all one piece so I hacked it in half. One half sits on the remaining power section and the other just makes a mounting plate for the digital board, using all the original casing screw holes and risers. The bonus is that the unit now weighs about half what it started out as!

I've been thinking about a busking setup lately and, after reading the 'PA power amp as bass amp' thread, I reckon you could use a Sansamp/pod type thing that has a dc power supply and run it on a rechargeable battery pack (maybe a drill battery). Then use a car power amp (some pump out 1000watts+ on 12 volts) and run that on a big cordless drill battery as well. The pod and power amp will probably need different voltages and the power amp will definitely want more capacity so you could run the power amp on a car battery but that would start to get heavy.......Just a thought.

[quote name='tauzero' post='919908' date='Aug 9 2010, 06:40 PM']I now have the 1000W version (which has a fan on the top panel) and it gets luke-warm at the best.[/quote] Is the CPU board still on top of the power amp heat sink, or have they moved it to make way for the fan?

I'm thinking of moving the CPU board. With a little adjustment to the power connectors on the front panel off/on switch, I reckon I can move the whole power amp and heat sink assembly forward about 20mm, which will leave enough room to place the CPU board vertically next to the rear panel circuit board. This will require a longer ribbon cable to connect to the front panel, but the rest of the cables originate from the rear board so will be long enough. All that leaves room for a big mains fan, sucking air upwards, on top of the power amp heat sink.

Hi, On the subject of the casings on the Superfly: I have just opened mine up because it was cutting out whilst warming up (usually after 5-15 mins) but would eventually reset after a couple of attempts at switching off and back on. It had never let me down at a gig as I let it warm up while setting up the rest of the gear then reset it before we start. This situation doesn't inspire confidence, so I decided to investigate. On removing the outer casings, I found they serve no purpose but increase the weight of the amp by 2.75kg (6lb)!!! It's only 4kg (9lb) without them and 6.75kg (15lb) with!! Worse than that, they create a dead air space of about 5mm above and below the amp. As the amp has no fan, this works like double glazing and INSULATES the amp keeping the heat IN. Then there are those alloy castings on either side. Aluminium isn't the best conductor of heat and they're not finned so, again, they just cause the amp to retain more heat. Ok, you woldn't think things could get much worse, would you? WRONG, this amp is controlled by a digital CPU/motherboard (basically, a small computer). Where do you think they placed this delicate unit in this designed-to-overheat amp? Yes, you guessed it, THEY BOLTED IT RIGHT ON TO THE POWER AMP HEATSINK!!!! Words fail me!! I just can't think of any way of describing how STUPID this design is without getting chucked off this lovely forum, which I've just joined!