Ashdown ABM EVO-II 500, 2002, bass amp head

Could you drill into the heatsink and make some sort of spring clip mount? How about some duct tape :) Those sensors don't have to be driven into the heatsink, just held against along with a little compound.

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for

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The band is off touring abroad from the end of the week. All I can think is to secure bits of nylon cable tie to the pa pcb and bend up against the 2 errant items. Too crowded to drill/tap the heatsinks and the assembly of these sort of hook-clip arrangements is realy make once, dissamble/reassemble at your peril.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

How about sticking them to the heatsink, with thermal glue such as is used to stick heatsinks to chips ?

or better yet

Arfa

from

slots,

rigidly

Would need good cleaning off I suspect, before applying. I'm not sure it would cure a repeat drop. This is a likely generic fault scenario for all such "live heatsink" amps that are only fixed to flexible polyester pcb board Something similar to the tape was supposed to be keeping a duaghter board marked EB SUB ? (not on the Ashdown supplied schema, 4013 and 3 x 072) fixed to the preamp but dislodged in the same drop presumably, failed solder joint/s leading to crackles.

I removed 2 nearby caps , 2 small holes ,to match cap pin spacing, in cut down lengths of cable-tie , and soldered back in, regooing and positioning the 2 shiftees. Volume was fading down after half hour of use, presumably because the NTC fan thermistor was staying at room temp and fan speed not upping with increasing heatsink temp.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Well yes, I'm sure it would need a good cleaning off - that's a given. But once you had stuck the device on there, I'm not at all sure that any amount of dropping would get it back off. Have you ever tried getting a heatsink thats glued, off a chip ? Do you fly to go on holiday ? Half that aeroplane is glued together ... We are not talking Evo Stik here. This is industrial spec glue, which is why it's eight quid a bottle ...

so over a few years, you'd get full use out of your eight quid ...

So just live with the way it's designed, explain to the owner what garbage Trashdown gear is in the first place, explain that they mustn't drop it, and rub your hands when they come trailing back with it in six months' time ... d;~}

Arfa

ealants+&+Service+Aids/FISCHER+ELEKTRONIK/WLK+5/displayProduct.jsp?sku=12117

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board

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presumably

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and

...

At least Ashdown releases schema. And bottle of expensive Snibbo has gone solid in sixth months, when next required, is the usual outcome.

According to band manager it is a pointless exercise moaning at roadies. There is also no point in sacking them as its a case of better the devil you know - any replacement/s will be the usual grunts plus the unknown quantities.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Working with road crew all the time I know that most of them are pretty careful with bands equipment but decent gear can stand a fair amount of bashing about. Trashdown gear just isn't built for life on the road, it might sound good, but construction wise it`s barely MI quality. Maybe they should invest in some decent road cases, tho probably the cases would be worth more than the gear that`s inside them.

Ron(UK)

ealants+&+Service+Aids/FISCHER+ELEKTRONIK/WLK+5/displayProduct.jsp?sku=12117

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This band's other Ashdown faired even worse, they managed to bend the 5/16 inch coach bolt that holds the big mains torrroid to the chassis, when they dropped/threw that one. At least the emitter resistors were not suspended off the board to rock apart and the ps reservoir caps are locked together. But that unsupported daughterboard is inexcusable, now braced back to 2 chassis anchors.

Going back to cleaning. I saw a documentary on the Boeing plane plant and cleaning for those glues is a lot more than wiping with some meths.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Respectfully then, I would suggest that no matter what you do to improve the situation, including recommending better built gear, you are not going to make one iota of difference. If this band are stupid enough to employ so-called 'roadies' that have so little respect for the kit that's effectively paying their wages by being in undamaged working order, then they deserve all that they get. Far from it being a case of "better the devil you know", if I were them, I would fire these inconsiderate unprofessional grunts immediately, and get some better ones, no matter what it took. Most of the shifters that I know also, are pretty respectful of the kit, because it is their job to set it up when it arrives at the venue, so they know if they are causing damage by poor handling. When push comes to shove, it's a lot more work to have to go back to the truck with the bad amp, and lug a replacement spare back in, if there even is one ...

As is the case with heatsink glue.

Arfa

Band gear should be handled carefully enough for the Ashdown stuff to survive. Tube amps, guitars, keyboards don't tolerate rough handling any better than the Ashdown stuff yet we don't think about re-engineering a Korg Triton keyboard to handle the shock of being tossed about by half-wit roadies.