Jack Crossover Assistance

[Hackomatic]

FWIW, this is how I did mine for the Otop15 . . .

[Bruce Weldy]

IME it can be a dangerous line trying to solder to speaker terminals (without a heat sink), even though that is exactly what I did on 40ish drivers in my SLA/TLAH setup. For connecting to banana terminals it is totally fine as there is nothing to melt... I'm not sure what you were implying as being "the speaker" but I thought I'd share my 2c.

If you are referring to my post, I said speaker jacks (as in speakon connectors), not the speaker itself. And those don't melt if you know how to solder properly.

Had a monitor go dead one time.....the crimp connector had come off the speakon jack. I haven't had a soldered joint slide off one time.

[Hecdtec]

Ok guys I need to know if I'm on the right track here. I decided to use the trace in the middle of the board to connect the HF Cap, Coil, 4ohm resistor to the T+ trace only and the 30ohm resistor over the 4ohm resistor from the middle trace also to the common trace. I believe that will satisfy the circuit design but I want to make sure. Please give it a look over. I laid the resistors upside down so not to bend the leads. The Cap & Coil leads are just laying on the middle trace to show where they'll go. See attached pics.

[Grant Bunter]

Turn your smaller inductor upright and make sure it's perpendicular to the larger inductor, it will eliminate cross talk. It may also give you more room to place your resistors better...

[Tom Smit]

+1 to what Grant said.

Here is a picture redone in "Paint". I can't tell how the resistors are wired due to camera flash, even after I zoomed in. If you zoom in you can read what each colour represents, with the white indicating that C1 is rubbed out. Hope this helps.

[Hackomatic]

Here's a pic that been posted many times, but always good for someone who may not have seen it as far as inductor placement . . .

[Hecdtec]

Tom that's exactly what I was getting at with the new layout of the Xover.

Grant & Hackomatic thanks for the tip on the inductor position and it's effects to each other. Learned a lot from you guys.

I'll show you the final setup when I'm done tweaking the layout.

[Hecdtec]

Well I did it. I setup the components to the unused trace then connected the resistors to their perspective connections. Had to stack the 30 ohm resistor atop the 4 ohm as I didn't see any other way it could be done. Setup the coil on it's side and perpendicular and hot glued everything down to the board along with the 30 ohm to the 4 ohm to resist vibration and movement. I hooked up the drivers to test it and it worked. I attached pics for your viewing pleasure.

Is there a way that I can test that the crossover is working a prescribed. I only have a simple meter nothing else.

[LelandCrooks]

You can test everything but the capacitors. The won't show continuity, but everything else will. Test from foil to foil across any connection that does not flow through a cap. The first cap in the hf section, and the shunt in the lowpass.

[billkatz]

You can test everything but the capacitors. The won't show continuity, but everything else will. Test from foil to foil across any connection that does not flow through a cap. The first cap in the hf section, and the shunt in the lowpass.

If you have an old, analog multimeter you can test capacitors. Put the meter in Ohms, and put the test leads across the cap one direction. Then reverse the leads (swap plu snad minus, and the meter should deflect (perhaps up, perhaps down) for a brief instant. The deflection may not be noticeable on smaller value caps, but larger electrolytics should move the meter.

[Grant Bunter]

I know you said it's glued down, but see if you can get a zip tie on that smaller inductor, as well...

[Tom Smit]

I know you said it's glued down, but see if you can get a zip tie on that smaller inductor, as well...

Actually, add zip ties to everything mounted to the board. The parts might get hot enough to melt the glue but the ties will keep it positioned until cool down and the glue resets.

[Hackomatic]

If you have an old, analog multimeter you can test capacitors. Put the meter in Ohms, and put the test leads across the cap one direction. Then reverse the leads (swap plu snad minus, and the meter should deflect (perhaps up, perhaps down) for a brief instant. The deflection may not be noticeable on smaller value caps, but larger electrolytics should move the meter.

Very true . . Even with a digital multimeter with a continuity "beeper" you can at least get an indication whether it's doing anything or not, or shorted . . it'll beep briefly as it charges, then stop . . HOWEVER, to do any of the cap checks, yer gonna have to lift one end or the other of the cap off the board to keep from having a path back through the inductors or resistors . . .

[Hecdtec]

I will try to tie down the coils as they are heavy and the resistors because they will heat up and sit precariously high and on top of each other.

I originally meant to test the operation of the frequency crossover to cut over from HF to LF.

Is there a free audio frequency generator program I can use on a computer and or android tablet so I can test this?

I have got the woofer installed, back brace attached to the back panel and got the back closing just right. The external jack, crossover, tweeter installation comes next and would like to know the crossover is working properly.

[Hecdtec]

Answered one question. Found an Android app called Frequency Sound Generator that is free right from the Google Play Store. I have a bluetooth receiver and wired connection through my receiver's second zone amplified section that I can use. Going to sweep across the crossover point from 500-3kHz and listen to the drivers handle the frequency from one to the other and also to do full frequency check, leak test and break-in.