#21 SM Pro Audio TB202 dual tube preamp / channel strip modding & upgrade

<Further developments can be found in parts two, three and four>

I'll admit, this was a bit of a lucky catch, in that it was mistakenly listed in the wrong eBay category, but one i "stalk" for good deals on certain faulty bits of audio gear. It was up for auction, there didn't seem to be much demand for it, and i ended up winning it for a mere 21 euros. About as much as the shipping for it ended up costing, oddly enough.

But still, even for some 40-odd bucks, not a bad little unit. Two channels, a (bare-bones-ish) compressor on each (1.5-10:1 ratio, 1ms/5ms attack, 500ms/1500ms release, at least according to the specs in the manual), as well as 3-band EQ (80Hz shelving / 1.8kHz bell / 8kHz shelving), and there's a tube / valve involved in the circuitry as well. If nothing else, i figured it would do nicely as a bass DI (or even an overdriven preamp, once some internal re-wiring is figured out and done).

#20 SM Pro Audio TB202 power supply repair

<Some sort of continuation from another post>

Buuuuut that brings us to what might as well amount up to the proverbial "elephant in the room" - the power supply. No markings or label anywhere on it - if i didn't know any better, i could almost say it never had any (no adhesive residues or anything). Fortunately, it was held together with four Phillips-head self-tapping screws, so "disrobing" it wasn't unecessarily traumatic. That being said, what greeted my eyes, sort of WAS.

#17 Takstar / Gear4Music WPM-200 Wireless Monitor System part 1: receiver teardown / li-po upgrade

This "part one" will be dealing only with the WPM-200 receivers and the lithium-upgrade pertaining to them. The transmitters and subsequent mods will be dealt with at a later date.

Fine, i'll admit, i miiiiiiiight be ever so slightly guilty of the whole "if all you have is a hammer, everything around you looks like a nail" thing, what with these nifty little one-cell charger & protection boards, but hey - at least it kinda validates(?) my "stockpiling" of laptop and phone batteries along the years. Now, i finally have the excuse to put some of them to good use and all that...

During my UK eBay browsing sessions a month or two (or seven?) back, i happened to come across a few listings of faulty wireless monitor sets (transmitter & bodypack-receiver) from this British music gear retailer. A bit of googling later, revealed to be straight rebadges of Takstar WPM-200 sets - nope, they hadn't even bothered changing the model number. The one thing they might've customized, though, are the radio frequency ranges / channels (since there are different regulations on different continents, and so on).

#15 Alesis io|26 repair & modding

So, i got my hands on one of these Alesis io|26 interfaces for pretty cheap (50 bucks delivered). "Of course", i bought it as faulty (can you see a pattern yet?), with the already "classic" issue of dead Firewire chip (the ubiquitous Texas Instruments TSB41AB2).

I went for it mainly for two reasons. First, because i knew it was based on the TC Applied Technologies Dice II chip, and as such, should have flexible enough mixing / routing options; second, due to the ADAT inputs available. The sort of "added bonus", one might say, were the gain adjustments for the 8 analog (mic/line) inputs.

#10 A litle K67 (microphone capsule) fun

From among my microphone collection, as a result (or rather, a consequence) of various upgrades and capsule replacements, i kept the stock ones (which were still good), for later experiments or "just in case". Today, that day arrived.

Among a few others, i had a some stock single-sided K67-type large diaphragm condenser capsules out of the several AKG Perception 200's i've collected these last few years. Fortunately, they're actually assembled out of two nearly-identical halves. The front has the gold-sputtered Mylar / PET diaphragm, and the rear one (since they're cardioid-only capsules) is skinned with a plain, non-metallized diaphragm.

#7 Cheapo ring LED flash / light teardown & li-po mod

I had been thinking about grabbing a LED ring flash for my camera for quite some time, but finally last week, i pulled the trigger on one. Cheapest of the cheap (from what i could find on the British eBay), but still cost me a bit under 30 bucks.

That being said, it's a reasonably well-featured package: four different coloured diffusers (that go onto the front of the LED ring), eight different size adapter rings (for lens/filter threads, and onto which the light clamps on to), and the control unit that mounts into the camera flash "hot-shoe". Also, the LEDs in the light "head" are split into two halves (ie. left and right), for <ahem> creative effect when using the ring flash for macro work.

The thing normally works on 4 AA's, buuuuuut... given some of the previous posts here, you oughtta have half an idea about my feelings regarding disposable power sources... <wink-wink, nudge-nudge>

#5 Another Li-ion Upgrade - Cordless Trimmer

Due to my openly-admitted laziness, a while back i got myself a trimmer - it's way quicker and easier than a full shave, and i rarely need (or want, for that matter) to be totally clean shaven. But that's enough background babbling, on to the nitty-gritty. This one's mainly "what for increasing the chooch factor", as it were - thank you AvE, you crazy canuck.

#3 MOTU 8Pre teardown & gain adjustment pot replacement

On the latest drum tracking session i surprisingly discovered that channel 8 on the MOTU 8pre in my recording rig was noisy and useful-signal-less. This same unit had a similar issue with channel 6 when i bought it (as faulty, with a shot Firewire chip).

Fortunately, when i was about to take care of ch6, i got two replacement pots. When investigating the issue, i had read it's a relatively common occurrence, so i figured that as long as i'm contacting the local MOTU distributor, might as well get an extra / spare one, just in case (especially since i had two 8Pres at the time).