Melded Array Wiring Help

[Mark Coward]

You have the left side of the array with red wires on negative, and the right side with red on positive. This makes the diagram a little confusing. It would be wired correctly after cutting the top red wire.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Does it matter whether the amp leads are on the opposite end from the series wire or on the same side?

No.

[David Carter]

You have the left side of the array with red wires on negative, and the right side with red on positive. This makes the diagram a little confusing. It would be wired correctly after cutting the top red wire.

Yeah, I just colored the lines to make sure that overlapping lines didn't accidentally blend together. In reality, none of them are colored, and I didn't know enough about the standard conventions of electrical diagrams to know what would make most sense to people.

Anyway, I think I've established the most important thing--CUT THE RED between the two banks.

Now if I could just get the darned access cover off the bottom of the cab. Seems that one of my hurricane nuts spun out, and now I can't remove the bolt because it's got a loose hurricane nut on the other end of it inside the cab. I'm gonna have to cut the head off the bolt before I worry about cutting any wires!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Needless to say the array should have been tested prior to installing it in the cabinet, and the cabinet tested prior to installing the cover.

[David Carter]

Needless to say the array should have been tested prior to installing it in the cabinet, and the cabinet tested prior to installing the cover.

I did test the array right after building it (before beginning to build the cab). Unfortunately, when you're dealing with complete novices like myself, saying "test it" doesn't help a whole lot unless there is some specific guidance given about what to expect. In my case, I hooked it up to the aforementioned buddy's powered mixer and played some recorded music. I heard the music, and it was pretty darned loud. Didn't sound that great, but I figured that was because it wasn't in the cab and there was no woofer to provide the lower end of the spectrum. So, it was tested but this rookie had no way to know if what he was hearing was what he was supposed to be hearing.

Anyway, I've now clipped the wire and taken care of the bad hurricane nut. I hope to get a chance to plug it in and test (before reinstalling the cover) sometime this afternoon.

[David Carter]

UPDATE: I took care of the wire, fixed the access cover, and I just got finished running some MP3's through it (I forgot I could connect it as an external speaker on my Peavey keyboard amp). Wohoo! The array now produces sound, and the on/off switch is working!

I guess next step is to run some test tones through it and check for leaks. After that, gotta try to connect the Rane EQ between my Behringer 1024FX mixer and the keyboard amp to learn how to EQ this sucker.

Thanks for all the help so far! Once I get this one up and running it's back to the table saw to build it's mate!

[AntonZ]

I had this association with your question:



16 seconds and counting. Now cut the blue wire, eeeer... better cut red instead, NO WAIT, make that yellow......

[DaveK]

A quick-n-dirty way to test tweeters for output is to hook them up to the headphone jack of an iPod. Plug in a 1/8" to RCA converter cable, then touch the tip of an RCA to + and the sleeve to - on the tweeter.

[David Carter]

A quick-n-dirty way to test tweeters for output is to hook them up to the headphone jack of an iPod. Plug in a 1/8" to RCA converter cable, then touch the tip of an RCA to + and the sleeve to - on the tweeter.

That's similar to what I did except I cut the earpieces off an old pair of headphones and connected the wires to some gator clips and my cell phone as the music source. That's how I sorted out which ones I wanted to use from the initial batch.

The RCA plug is a good idea. I'll have to remember that.

[Dave Non-Zero]

That's similar to what I did except I cut the earpieces off an old pair of headphones and connected the wires to some gator clips and my cell phone as the music source.

haha that sounds so James Bond!

[David Carter]

That's similar to what I did except I cut the earpieces off an old pair of headphones and connected the wires to some gator clips and my cell phone as the music source.

haha that sounds so James Bond!

Wish I had thought of it myself. Someone else posted it here a while back. Can't remember who.

[Mark Coward]

That reminds me, saw a lo-fi "DJ" at a house party once using one side of a walkman headset as a mic This was back in ancient pre-earbud days

[fender3x]

Once I had the tweeters laid out and/or glued up I had a problem isolating individual tweeters with my naked ear.

The solution I came up with was to run source material (in my case a drum machine...snare is great for tweeter, kick for woofer) through the array. I then took the cardboard tube from a roll of Christmas paper and put one end in the mouth of one tweeter and the other up to my ear. Did this for each tweeter in the array to see if it was working, and if it's volume was like the others.

This is low tech to the point of absurdity, and I am glad no one was there to watch me do it, since I am sure I looked pretty silly. I am sure there are better ways, but this did allow me to check each individual tweeter in the array before closing everything up

[LelandCrooks]

Nope, that works a treat to quote our favorite Kiwi.

That's how I trouble shoot any array.

[Les Webb]

Nope, that works a treat to quote our favorite Kiwi.

That's how I trouble shoot any array.

Yep, that's the way to do it. Except I take the cheap surround sound system I have that has a radio tuner on it and tune in between stations.