DIY Cable and Power Supply (continue)

Last weekend, I made proper wire connection to the ATX power supply that I am using to power the small usb dac. I made the following changes:

• Short the power on wire by cutting and soldering the +ve  and ground wire.
• Solder a +5v and ground wire to a usb female connector. A usb male connector will connect to this to power the usb dac.
• Disconnect the fan to eliminate the noise from the fan.

I power up the ATX power supply and checked the connection before connected it to the usb dac. When checking the connection, I accidentally touched the +5v with the ground of the multimeter probe. I saw a small spike of light. I worried that it may burnt something. Then, I measured the voltage. The meter showed 5.22v.

After that, I connected it to the usb dac. It is working. But, the sound is a bit soft and not as open as before I made this proper wire connection. I am not sure if the touching of the +5v with ground accidentally have demaged some components or because of the quality of the usb female connection or other reasons. I will keep this run for a week.

Before proper connection (+ve and ground wire from usb female is inserted into the power slot)

Proper connection (+ve and ground wire are soldered to usb female)

The following are web sites that I referred to in making this ATX power supply:

OMAPS - One More ATX Power Supply conversion:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Converting-a-computer-ATX-power-supply-to-a-really/

How to Make a Bench Power Supply From An Old ATX PSU

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-a-bench-power-supply-from-an-old-atx-psu/

ATX, WTX and other standard and proprietary power supply (PSU) cables connectors pinouts

http://pinouts.ru/power/
It is recommended to check the manual or the this website for the ON/OFF switch before connecting the wire. The color of ON/OFF switch wire of your power supply may different guide of making the ATX power supply in above.
In the guide, the color of ON/OFF switch wire is green.  For the old ATX that I am using, the ON/OFF switch wire is white. I found it by refer to the website with model of the ATX power supply.

ATX Breakout Board

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATX-Breakout-Board-V1-1-Acrylic-Case-V1-DP10080-DIY-Maker-Seeed-BOOOLE-/171717012748?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27fb21ad0c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATX-Breakout-Board-Bench-Power-Supply-ATX-Computer-DIY-Maker-Geek-Seeed-BOOOLE-/181682632226?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4d20f622

For convenience and maybe better presentation, you may want to use the ATX Breakout Board.

DIY Cable and Power Supply

    I had not posted anything for a year. There is not much changes in my setup. Just had tried out some diy and bought few small usb dac. That is more to curious about what would the effect as have read good things about it in internet.

   I tried made usb cable and change in the power supply of the usb dac. Both bring surprise as it did make changes to the sound. Positive changes. These changes was made to the setup with small usb dac.

    The first changes that I tried was to use give an external power supply to the usb dac. The usb dac that I used does not requires external power supply. It get the power from the usb port. In this changes, I cut the small +ve and ground wire in the usb cable. And connect it to +ve and ground wire from a phone charger. This changes was found from internet. And with intention of quick try with external power supply. So, the usb that I used (that had cut the +ve and ground wire) is a cable that bought from computer shop. This change has brought more details in the sound.

    Then, I made change to the usb cable. I made a usb cable using cat6 cable and using the same phone charger. The change in usb cable brought more details in sound.

    After that, I tried to make change to the power supply. I heard good thing about linear power supply and low noise regulator. But, the linear power supply is is quite expensive; and for the low noise regulator, I do not have enough knowledge and confident on doing that. So, I tried with the ATX power supply from old computer. To surprise, again, this bring more details in sound.

    Each changes bring small or some details in sound. It seems there is still area in improvement. But, I do not know what that improvement is until I has made change to it. The next change that I am thinking to try is to add an usb isolator to the setup. I am still looking in that. Besides, I plan to have another enclosure, floorstand, for my speaker driver.

     Besides usb cable, I made a 3.5mm to RCA cable the cat6 cable. It seems give clear sound than the normal cable that I brought from hardware shop. If have spare time, some diy on cable and changes in system may give surprise as we may know the effect of it only when we use it in the system.

    The small usb dac that I used is UD110v2 dac and a SA9023+ES9023 dac. These dac has different in sound. I have not listen good enough to tell the different. But, for sure, these dac are worth to use especially the UD110v2 dac.

CAS - First experience (continue)

My initial thought was to use the first computer as music player. I did not try again to install the driver to the first computer on that night. It is past midnight when I installed the driver to the laptop.

On the next day, I sent email to the DAC vendor. Telling the driver installation problem that I faced. At the same times, I searched regarding this in internet. Thought someone may encountered the similar problem.

The vendor responded with suggestion to try on others USB port on that computer, and if problem persist, a remote checking to this computer by the vendor. So, I tried to plugin the USB cable from DAC to others USB port. But, I got the same result: computer crashed with blue screen.

The internet search engine returned many results. But, there are not really as the problem I was facing. However, I read about the setup using linux operating system. I thought to try it although it is different with the Ms Windows that I am using.

I downloaded the software and followed the instructions to setup the system. The setup went smooth. I could started play song with the system after the setup is completed.

The main reason I wanted to use the first computer is it is the desktop computer in the study room. It would be convenience if this computer can be used. With the success in setup using linux os, I thought it will be more convenience and perhaps better performance if a dedicate computer is used for music playing. So, later on, I built this with a computer in small casing.

This is the dedicate computer that I built (assembly) for music playing. This is Intel Atom processor running with mpdpup.

After a while, I bought another casing for this music box. This is currently used in the main system.

CAS - First experience

I read about computer as source recently. It was when I looking for a budget player for study room. I thought to get a budget player to connect to an old amplifier and a pair small bookshelf speaker. And thought to get a budget bluray disc player which more affordable than CD play and could play audio file. However, I opened to other option. And when looking for this budget player, I read about cas.

Play song with computer is not new to me. I used to play mp3 in computer and laptop. Sometimes, I connect the earphone output from computer to a mini combo. But, connect to DAC from computer was new to me. The connection from computer to DAC seems straight forward and I probably can use the computer in study room for this. So, I thought to give this a try and ordered a DAC with USB input.

About a week later, the DAC arrived. I set up the system on the day I received the DAC. I was so excited to try it out. After connected the cables: for output to amplifier; for power; for computer, I started to install the software driver to computer. When installing the software driver, the system crashed with blue screen. After that, this computer crashes with blue screen whenever the USB cable from DAC is plugged to this computer. I gave up installation to this computer after crashed several times.

Then, I tried on a laptop. This time, the driver is installed successfully. After configured the audio output, I could start play song with this setup.