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I want to document my build of my Tramp. I have a thread already about my speaker choice and my cabinet, which is a modified 5e3 tweed cabinet [see: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3320]. I do not plan on being a detailed in my reporting as Snowy's thread on his Tramp head build was [see: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3188]; his thread is the gold standard for all builds and is my guild, but I have had to modify it slightly because of the combo chassis vs his head chassis layout and because of my 120 vs 240 voltage. I confess up front two major faults: first, my camera skills are poor, which you will see as some of the pictures look like the chassis is rusting, but it is just bad lighting; second, my soldering skills are rusty--while I was trained 40 years ago in electronics, it took me several attempts to relearn what I forgot (and some of the first photos show this fault). Still, I thought it would be good to document this build and to have you seasoned builders help along the way.

First picture: the kit arrived safely from Canada

The kit comes with the components separated into little bags. Here are two pictures that show the contents of the kit, but I forgot to show the tubes; so the third picture is just to show that it does come with two tubes.

The first task was to put the tube sockets, the grommets and the five terminal strips in place. This was easy to do. However, all four of my grommets were the same size, and this meant that the six wires from the power transformer that went through one of these grommets were tight. I hope that this does not create a problem. They ain't coming out. I then wired the pilot led and its resister; notice the bad photography. I also conected the black and red twisted wires that go from the power tube to the preamp tube and to one of the terminals (but no pictures just of it--they are seen in two post further down this thread).

I then wired the 120v power cord; then connected the leads from the power transformer to the terminal by the VRM on/off switch. Notice that you can see a better picture also here of the led resister.

Next I choose to wire the impedance rotary switch. Here I followed the online instructions for a six position switch so the Tramp can take 6V6, 6L6, EL34 and KT88 by rotating the switch and selecting the appropriate bias; see this thread for instructions: http://www.trinityamps.com/phpbb/viewto ... =16&t=2919 . I also wired the two output jacks for the speakers. Notice also that I am using a purple wire to go from the rotary switch to pin 3 of the power tube. The brown wire from the output transformer is not yet soldered to the terminal as I am waiting to put the resister in and solder them together at the same time.

[[edited: I also have the impedance wires separated out from the red & black heater wires in an attempt to keep power and signal wires separated and hopefully reduce hum.]]

Earlier I omitted a picture of the red & black twisted wire that connects the power and preamp tubes at this initial stage of wiring; however, you can see that wiring here.

Here I have wired the terminal post next to the power tube. This center post of this terminal is the ground for the power side of the Tramp chassis. A whole bunch of wires go on the three posts on this little terminal. I chose to go on and connect the ground wire from pin 1 of the power tube to the central ground posts now and also to connect the ground lead that goes to the capacitors now. I figured it is easier to get all those wires correctly in their tiny little terminal opening now rather than trying to force those wires onto the terminal and re-solder it all later. The left and right posts also were wired completely at this point; the LED and it's resister is also connected to the two outer posts as well as the 6.3VAC from the Power Transformer. The wiring of these three posts on this one terminal was rather difficult to do.

I also have issues that puzzles me. So I have my first question to ask here. I checked continuity with my ohm meter setting on my multimeter to make sure the connections are solid. The meter shows connection from chassis to pin 1 and to the green ground wire on the power cord as one expects. HOWEVER, when I check the connection from the outer two posts (not ground) to the chassis there were some readings; I expected nothing. I suspect that this is picking up the impedance of the power transformer itself. This bothered me so much that I unscrewed this terminal and removed it to examine and make sure there was no solder that had dripped down and made contact with the chassis; there was no dripping solder on any of the three posts; so there is no bad solder that is connecting either of the two outer posts that would short it to ground.

[[Edited here for more info: If I set my meter to 200 ohm (the lowest setting) I get 1 ohm from the middle terminal (ground) to either of the side terminals. I also get 1 ohm across the two outer posts. Is this normal? I don't won't to worry, but I don't want to have a short and fry the transformer. ]

Before I proceed with more wiring I hope one of you more experienced Trampsters will confirm this problem. I also realize that it is difficult or impossible to measure impedance when components are wired in as the measurements might be picking up other resistance elsewhere in the circuit

That reading is fine.
There is very little DC resistance in the windings of the PT, a couple ohms at most as you noticed. So to your meter it appears as a short.

That terminal strip can get busy so try and keep it neat.

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http://pdfelectronics.com

Good job so far and good move on deciding to do a build diary here, It will serve as a very useful reference and I reckon it helps you really enjoy/understand the build more as it sort of forces you to slow down a bit and review your own work as you document it all.

Keep 'em coming.

Snowy

Thanks very much for this. I figured it was just the resistance of the PT, but wanted to be certain. Your reply and Snowy's are reassuring.

BTW, that terminal strip is completed; I saw how many wires go to it and planed in advance to do them all at the same time because I knew it would be difficult to get more wires in there later. So the picture of it has all of the wires done even the one that goes to the capacitors for their ground is done and just waiting to be attached to the board.

My vintage eyes and hands make soldering much slower than in the late 60's and 70's. So tonight I only worked on putting the resisters on the power tube socket and the preamp socket. Going slow is a good thing in that it allows me to double & triple check my work against the Tramp diagram and Snowy's thread. So here are two photos documenting those sets of resisters.

Need some help with this very thin red wire.

I began prepping the eyelet board for population and particularly had a question about the back of the board. I looked for 20 or 22 guage red wire but could not find any in my kit. I have green 20 gauge wire, but the only red wire that was included my my packet is very thin, so thin that even with magnifying glass and two pairs of glasses I still can not determine the gauge, but it looks like 64 gauge--I can see that it is 300v with 80c temp. I checked the photos of other builds on this forum like Snowy's and I can't find anywhere on their builds where this ultra thin red wire was used. His build looks like the red wire was 20 or 22 gauge; whereas the one included in my kit is probably 64 gauge. So here is my question:

Is this very thin red wire the one to be used for the back of the eyelet board (to be used in addition to the green 20 gauge ground wire)? It seems so thin that I want to make sure before I run it everywhere and potentially have a problem down the line. There is not enough of the red wire on the PT to use it through out or even for the back of the eyelet board.

So attached is a picture of the red wire with the green 20 gauge for comparison to this thin red wire (again, this is the only red wire included in my kit). I will wait for your guidance before proceeding forth. Thanks.

That red wire is the 22 AWG (might be 24 AWG I forget).

Use it for jumpers under the board and also for the connections to the push pull pots. You'll see the pots switch lugs are very fine. This thin gauge wire will fit the lugs.

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http://pdfelectronics.com

Thank you for this quick reply. This makes sense given those push/pull pots; it just looks so different than pictures I have seen on this forum.

So while I was waiting, I went ahead and marked the back of the eyelet board [for connections and leads], and also placed the three (hidden) resisters ready for soldering later. We never get to see these resisters; so this is itself a helpful exercise.

I think I still have that thin Red wire coiled up in a plastic bag, I wasn't sure what to use it for either!

Snowy

Back of eyelet board is done, but nothing will be soldered until the front is populated and the lead wires are added for connecting to the pots and tubes. Like the manual said, wait till the board has all the components and then solder.

[Edited: I see from hindsight that I put up here a picture of the back of the eyelet board that is flipped over (top to bottom] and may confuse some one. So I am adding a second picture of the back side [flipped end over end] and this one conforms to the same perspective as the picture in the manual. Hope this will prevent any confusion.]

So I read the manual again and it said to populate the board from left to right and later to add the flying leads. However, because I figure that some of those little eyelets are going to get crowded, and I thought (maybe mistakenly) that it might be a little difficult to put the flying leads in some of the eyelets after the board was populated and already soldered. So, I am doing this step in reverse; I went on and put the flying leads in place first by just crimping them in place. This way they will be there when I next populate the top of the board; also I am going to solder each of the components along the way. If you look you can see the crimped wires from the back of the board crimped over the top of some of the eyelets; these will be trimmed for neatness once everything is soldered.

I also choose some different colors for some of the flying leads especially since I did not have orange wires in my kit. I notice that different builders on this forum have selected different colors here and there. The important thing is to keep it all organized, clear and distinct. Here is the picture of the eyelet board with just the flying leads.

Nice documentary. Thin red wire is indeed for the push pull - late addition to the kit. Looks good.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Thanks a lot. I am doing this when I find the time. So it may be a couple days before I populate the board. Slow and steady with feedback is best for my vintage eyes and hands.

For any build, this is always good advice!!

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Today I found time to populate the power side of the eyelet board. I started from the left and put in place just a few components at a time, and then soldered those; then moved on. I wanted to raise the 5w resisters off the board to help them cool down, and used a piece of green wire as a temporary spacer upon which I placed the resisters to get them up about 1/8 of an inch; this green wire was then removed once the resisters were soldered in place. Also, while I am soldering most of the connections now, I am waiting to solder later the eyelets associated with the two red power wires, the green ground wire and the three VRM mosfet connections; once the board is ready to be placed in the chassis, those final connections will be soldered. My reason is that those eyelets get tight and I prefer to solder only one time

So here are four pictures showing the stages I went through for populating the power/left side of the board [sorry about the first one being out of focus].