Man if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any Luck!

Shannon W.

I get home last night flip the switch "POP, FIRE, SMOKE, SPARKS." Damn there just went my Sunfire amp. Holly Chit Batman its on FIRE! somebody quick kill the breaker and call 911, call a priest, call my mom and while your at it call my shrink! :eek:
So any ways now my amps toast and I'm hoping that all my other equipment is still OK. But the good thing is that the Chick at sunfire said sorry and that they would make sure to get the amp back to me A.S.A.P. "Ya Right" But is sounded good and now I get to clean up all this little Black powdery stuff off all my equipment and everything else in the living room.

Sorry guys, My shrink said I would have a grieving period. Also, No pictures to report. That is all, carry on. :rolleyes:


Shannon "The ampless wonder"

Early B.

Why did the amp catch on fire?

Shannon W.

I have no Idea?

Shannon

Serendipity

I wonder why it's called SunFIRE?

joeparaski

Been there.....exciting isn't it? That's why I keep a fire extinguisher nearby.

Joe

Shannon W.

I never would have thought that it would have earned up to its name.

Shannon

shadowofnight

Any chance at all of a pic with the cover off ? I have fixed quite a few amps before and have never seen black powdery residue...seen lots of PCB remnants...cracked mosfets...resistors with their outer shell burned off but the wire wound internals still in the board. Just curious as to what caused the black powdery stuff

Phasearray

shadowofnight wrote: »

Any chance at all of a pic with the cover off ? I have fixed quite a few amps before and have never seen black powdery residue...seen lots of PCB remnants...cracked mosfets...resistors with their outer shell burned off but the wire wound internals still in the board. Just curious as to what caused the black powdery stuff

blown capaitor

Shannon W.

I'll try and uncap it tomorrow for your viewing pleasure.

Shannon

shadowofnight

Phasearray wrote: »

blown capaitor

Thats one I havent had to fix in an amp before...I have replaced caps at work and on motherboards before though , and usually when they went the seams at the top had burst ( Replaced a LOT of swollen/popped/electrolyte leaking caps on a bunch of Dell 400C server PC's ) ...the ones at work from small tantalum/ceramic to the huge electrolytic ( Like most high power amps would use ) and still never saw what she described..." Black powdery stuff off all my equipment and everything else in the living room. " Be interesting to see the pics....

engtaz

Sorry to hear, good luck of fast returns.

Phasearray

shadowofnight wrote: »

Thats one I havent had to fix in an amp before...I have replaced caps at work and on motherboards before though , and usually when they went the seams at the top had burst ( Replaced a LOT of swollen/popped/electrolyte leaking caps on a bunch of Dell 400C server PC's ) ...the ones at work from small tantalum/ceramic to the huge electrolytic ( Like most high power amps would use ) and still never saw what she described..." Black powdery stuff off all my equipment and everything else in the living room. " Be interesting to see the pics....

Just going by what I saw when my el cheapo power supply died. Loud Pop sound, smoke, and the result was a capacitor with this white powder all over the place. Thinking back to school, I have blown alot of capacitors, Jfets, and diodes. Capacitors are the only ones that I can recall that spews powder and makes the "Pop" sound before they die.

Usually the "Spark" is caused by a short. Probably a screw, pin, or anything conductive fell in through the crack of the amp?

Smoke and fire I'm guessing rubber or plastic caught in the crossfire?

halo

Sorry to hear about that

Hope it all works out for ya

rskarvan

You aren't supposed to let the smoke out of electronic equipment. Amps always seem to work best when the smoke stays on the inside.

Shannon W.

shadowofnight wrote: »

And still never saw what she described..." Black powdery stuff off all my equipment and everything else in the living room. " Be interesting to see the pics....

Guys sorry to disapoint but Im a He. LoL

Shannon

Shannon W.

Here you guys go!















For what I seen comming out of the vents, It sure don't look that bad!
Shannon

shadowofnight

Shannon W. wrote: »

Guys sorry to disapoint but Im a He. LoL

Shannon

Oops....sorry there

shadowofnight

Without knowing what that part of the circuit board looked like before the carnage its hard to tell what the 2 components were...but one was radial and one axial in their mounting....looks like possibly a high wattage resistor and possibly the cap next to it. If the soot were cleaned off it might be possible to tell.

Also...I really really hate those crimped on ribbon connectors ( The one going from board to board ...light blue in color ) I see those fail more often then anything at work...the little v lower blade barely makes good contact when those connections are new.

Thanks for the pics And sorry about the "She " mixup

madmax

At least that big blue one didn't blow up.
madmax

hearingimpared

Shannon W. wrote: »

IHolly Chit Batman its on FIRE! somebody quick kill the breaker and call 911, call a priest, call my mom and while your at it call my shrink! :eek:

Sorry to hear of your woes. I've seen large resistors vaporize and deposit black powedery residue.

BTW Your line above had me cracking up and belly laughing. It's good to keep a smile up when the rig goes south.

askinquestions

So what's the verdict as to why this happend???

shadowofnight

Just by looking at a picture you would never know...something upstream or downstream from this particular circuit drew too much current and was a little more robust then what we actually saw blow...or any number of scenarios..it could be 10 different things.

You would need to meter out the ins and the outs of that particular dual channel amp ( From the pics there seems to be at least a couple of the dual channel amp modules ) and compare it to another one after isolating it ( Looks easy with this design ) Schematics would be great too

shadowofnight

Did notice F3 fuse either blew or attempted to blow Check the rating on that fuse and see if it is correct.

Shannon W.

Why didn't the main "2" fuse's blow before it got that far? I'm referring to the ones on the back of the amp?

Systems

Ouch,that doesn't look too pretty.It looks like some traces where destroyed underneath where that 1/4 watt resistor used to be.It may be in need of a new circuit board.

Shannon W.

Its cool guys! Its all under warranty and I'm not sweating it.

Shannon

shadowofnight

Shannon W. wrote: »

Why didn't the main "2" fuse's blow before it got that far? I'm referring to the ones on the back of the amp?

Usually if there are 2 fuses on the back...they are usually in series from the output stage of the amp directly out to the speakers...their only purpose is to protect the speakers...not the amplifier ( Most well made amps would have a protection/feedback circuitry to protect the amplifier from a shorted voice coil etc )

Some I have seen aren't labeled as to what the fuses are actually for unless you have the manual or maybe even the schematics for the amp...usually if you pull the externally accessable fuse(s) and the amp still powers up but no output...they are just speaker protection fuses...if the sucker doesnt power up at all , they are there for the amplifiers benefit.

I had purchased an extremely well made amplifier on craigslist ( One of Rockford Fosgate's RF2000...their entry into hi end home hi-fi back in late 1989. )
a while back...checked it out completely...worked perfect...opened it up to clean it..etc. Curiously I pulled the 2 fuses in the back of the amp just to see what kind they were..slo-blow..etc. The written rating next to the fuses read 5 amps...the fuses that were in there were 20 amps !!!

I got a hold of Rockford Fosgate and was told that they were there for the speakers benefit alone...that the amp was such a beast it was common to replace the 5 amp fuses with larger amp fuses when driving low impedance really high power capable speakers. They sent me the pdf ( Also avail online http://www.hafler.com/techsupport/pdf/RF2000_amp_man.pdf On page 8 of the pdf it tells about the fuses ) The thing has a 1,000 volt-ampere toroidal transformer in it along with 84,000 microfarads of energy storage and 32 mosfets ...no wonder it needed 20 amp fuses

Shannon W.

Cool Beans, old chap. LoL

Shannon

Systems

shadowofnight wrote: »

Usually if there are 2 fuses on the back...they are usually in series from the output stage of the amp directly out to the speakers...their only purpose is to protect the speakers...not the amplifier

Actually the fuses on the back panel are most likely for the AC inlet before the transformer(s)(one for each channel)It likely did not blow because it is of a much higher amperage than the internal fuse.:)

shadowofnight

GV#27 wrote: »

Actually the fuses on the back panel are most likely for the AC inlet before the transformer(s)(one for each channel)It likely did not blow because it is of a much higher amperage than the internal fuse.:)

Not the case....just as I had guessed earlier...I looked up the pdf for the amp..straight from the amps manual....


7. Current Source Fuses
Each Current Source output has an
in-line fuse to protect your speakers. If
one ever opens, there will be no output
to that speaker. Turn off the power
if you ever have to change a fuse.



Those are the fuses in the rear right next to the speaker outputs ...for speaker protection out to the speakers only. They are 5 amps and are in series with the connectors going right out to the speaker.



Close to the AC input there is only 1 fuse for the single AC input for the entire amp...its rating is 15 amps

9. AC Line fuse
If this fuse fails, replace it with the
exact same type and current rating.
Note: Always unplug the
power cord from your AC
outlet before re mov ing the
fuse.
With a

Systems

Sorry Shadow I stand corrected.Interesting ,it must be a Sunfire feature as all power amps Im familiar with have fusing on the rear panel for AC only and none for speakers.Thanks for the info.