x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

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Blackout1234
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 6:56 am

x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

Post by Blackout1234 »

hi all,

i have just finished building a x0xi0 Full Kit Install. it was an epic journey. but WOOOWWW this thing blows me away! ppl who have heard it in my studio freak out and offer to buy it from me all the time. no way my blood sweat and swearing went into this baby!!! its fatt and creamy and solid and full and...well it just gives me shivers.

there are a lot of errors in the V2.0 Full Kit installation manual of the x0xi0. ive been taking notes as ive been going. some are more frustrating than others. but anyone doing the build will have these same questions, and encounter the same probems. so here is my list with the answers for you! i hope this helps anyone starting the new kit. print this out and read it alongside the manual!! (The component values have all been confirmed by Brian BANNED.)

Here we go!!

1:/Q401 is either 2SC1583 or 2SC5168. these are swappable, it will depend on what you recieve in the kit.

2:/ Q402 & Q404 are now part numbers 2SC1815GR.

3:/ The lone 2SC1685 is for the Noise Generator, Q408. 2SC1518GR can be used for Q417 & Q419

4:/ IC401 is now part LM358.

5:/ Where you see transistors 1685 in the parts list, you may have 1815GR transistors in your kit. these are the same.

6:/ Page 4...if you are making an XOXBOX kit from the start THEN DO NOT INSTALL OR TRIM ANY OF THE LEDs FOR YOUR XOXBOX. The x0xio mod causes the LEDs of the XOXBOX to sit further away from the metal topplate. If you trim the LED legs so that the LEDs sit perfectly at the right height for your XOXBOX, then when it comes to making the x0xi0 mod kit you will find that your LEDs all are 2mm TOO SHORT and are sunken inside the top of your unit.

7:/ On page 5, the first two traces to be cut are on the XOXBOX mainboard and the 3rd trace/picture is from the XOXBOX OUTPUT board. this is not clear in the instructions.

8:/ Do you have an XOXBOX with a power switch as standard? many new output PCBs that have a power switch (a power switch is not part of the original Xoxbox spec) have a few slightly different tracks near the power plug to what the V2.0 manual shows on page 5. if this is the case and your XOXBOX already has a power switch, then do not cut the 3rd trace and move on.

9:/ R342 on page 7 is listed and then R342 is also listed (and placed) again on page 10 and it’s a different resistor. The correct resistor is R342 = 1k.

10:/ On page 20, when you are soldering the switches into the X0xi0 i/o board, MAKE SURE YOU SOLDER BOTH SIDES OF THE BOARD TO THE SWITCH PINS. there are tracks on both sides of the i/o board, and i had the problem where the pins were not touching the tracks on the component side. this caused my Overdrive section to be faulty. This is important and not stated or shown in the instructions.

11:/ look at the instructions in regards to R344. It is “kinda” listed on page 8 of the kit instructions but there is not a resistor placed there. Currently there is no resistor listed in your parts list for R344 either…R344 is meant to be blank...empty on the board.

12:/ on the parts list R310 is listed as 1M however on page 10 of the kit instructions V2.0 R310 is listed as 470k…the correct value is R310 = 1M

13:/ on Page 26 , R476 is 10k, on the very next page , (Page 27) R476 is 1k…you can flick between the two pages and see there is two resistors placed in this position...correct value of R476 = 10k

14:/ Part D404 is empty on the board. Do not place.

15:/ on page 32 it list C415 as 6.8uf Cap but it is actually 4.7uf.

16:/ on page 36 there are lots of 547B transistors to place. but you will probably only have one 547B in your kit. it goes in the spot Q407. the rest of the transistors are the 547 ones you were supplied.

17:/ Step 7 on page 52 shows a picture to connect a green wire to pad C. the picture shows the C pad that is used for the step is on the far right of the I/o board. However in step 2 on page 59 it describes connecting to a pad C also but then states that “it is preferable to use the pads on the far right side of the PCB” but this C pad has already been used up in the step from page 52. This is most frustrating as both steps refer to the same pad… the first step 7 /page 52 should not be suggesting to use this C pad in its picture if this is the case. So for Step 7 / page 52 you should use a pad C on the left of the i/o board.

18:/ Step 14 on page 55, the green wire connecting to r71 should really be at least 6 inches or ideally 7 inches long to reach. Not 5.

19:/ on page 56 step 13 it suggests to “cut a 10” piece of black wire…” and the picture shows a white colored wire. just use a black wire as the written instructions suggest and ignore the photo wire color.

20:/ on page 56 when connecting the wire to R60, step 15 shows the black wire connection to one side of the resistor R60, and Step 16 directly below it shows the resistor installed vertically opposite and the black wire connection is to the other side of the resistor. The correct connection is the one shown in step 15.

21:/ step 2 page 59…wire T and wire U should be at least 6 inches…(double the length)…they are not even close to being able to reach!

22:/ On page 67, the wires that connect over to the XOXio board 28 and 29 pads are quoted as 10” and it is TOO SHORT. Theres no way in hell these wires are gonna reach. They were 1” too short for me at least. make them 11" or even 12". Making them 12" will make it easier to lift up and down the x0xio mod board and will make life easier.

23:/ There is a big problem with the order of some of one step which is most frustrating with the build. Ideally the back panel should have its decal attached and sw1 and sw2 attached and wires soldered to the switches first up, and then the two i/o boards should be attached BEFORE wiring between the two i/o boards starts (Page 51 step 5). This way you have the boards nice and stable on the back plate and you can hold and spin the two boards around and solder to the points easily. It is all wrong for the two boards to be “floating” and potentially damaged when spinning around and soldering first, with the back plate just sitting there on the desk, so I mounted them on the back plate for stability, only to be told later on page 57 /step 18 that I need to remove the boards (now already wired across) from the back plate just to get access to solder wires to a small crumby switch in the middle of the plate which could have been done much earlier before things started getting messy with wires already. Basically step 18 to 20 on page 57 should be moved to before Step 5.

24:/ Step 6 page 61…”connect the green wire from pad D”…should be “connect the RED wire from pad D…”

25:/ When you get to page 95, and it is time to fit the top plate, you will then find your XOXBOX LEDs are too short if you have pre-installed them. Ideally you would take them all out, buy new LEDs with long legs and re-fit them a few mm taller to line up perfectly. If you dont want to waste your money on new LEDS you can pull the LEDs out completely (use desoldering braid). then you place a lump of solder on the right solder pad(ONLY) on the top of the XOXBOX board. with one solder blob now positioned, you can hold your LED with its shorter legs in your left hand and balance the LED directly on top of the PCB, and with your soldering iron in your right hand you position the LED and solder it to balance on one leg. Make sure you keep your soldering iron on for about 7 or 8 seconds and put on a lot of solder, it will seep through the hole and connect on the other side of the PCB forming a connection. then you can solder on the left leg of the LED once the right hand solder has cooled and the LED stands up on its own. Doing this it is actually easier to raise and lower your LED height than normal, as you can just rock your LED left and right as you heat the solder and lift up the LED slightly. Be gentle putting on the top faceplate tho! as the LEDs are not partically strongly placed.

26:/ Page 64...the instructions really lean you to use Option 1 for Accent Decay. But Option 2 is FARR better. If you use option 1, basicially the Accent Decay knob on the panel DOES NOT WORK...it will do nothing. (BANNED). The knob only works for Option 2. so i strongly recommend Option 2.

27:/ PAge 68 is skipped (or more accurately...there is an extra page inserted here with no page number) ...and then page 69 becomes page 68 in the instructions. if you are working from the pdf then be aware of this, if you leave the kit and come back to it later to continue work you should look at the pages listed on the instructions, not the page number listed by Adobe reader!!

28:/ On that un-labelled page 68, it says “cut a 3” piece of green wire and connect to pad 10”…but we have already been instructed to connect a 4” piece of green wire to pad 10 step 3 on page 59. So we don’t need a second wire to pad 10 and that wire that is already connected is to be used.

29:/ When it comes to calibrating the whole kit, you really dont need an Oscilloscope to get the job done. Needing an Oscilloscope (expensive) is one of the things that scared me off doing this project. But really if you know what a saw and square wave sounds like and what noise sounds like, you dont really need one. You just need to make sure the voltages are all correct on the pins with your multimeter, and use your ears for most of the other adjustments. For the calibration on Page 102 where you need to set the correct pitch and width, i used a guitar tuner and had it sitting near my speakers as i tweaked, which worked a treat!

Thats it!

This will fill a lot of gaps i am sure. i had a lot of head scratching when doing this kit but its great to be at the finish line!

Cheers,
Blackout

kroutshev
 
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:00 am

Re: x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

Post by kroutshev »

Thanks a lot Blackout, i will mount a x0xi0 with custom pcb soon.

Blackout1234
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 6:56 am

Re: x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

Post by Blackout1234 »

and here is my completed x0xi0 box in action! its a Blue LED custom version. amazing solid, deep creamy bass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OyKx4f4CI

Cheers,
Blackout

User avatar
e:pp:ik
 
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:10 pm

Re: x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

Post by e:pp:ik »

Tremendously useful Blackout! Thank you! I'll cross-check my non-working build :)

bcbox
 
Posts: 587
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 1:30 am

Re: x0xi0 V2.0 Kit Manual - Problems i have found and solutions

Post by bcbox »

just a note that the documentation has been completed and is available on the x0xi0 website.

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