I was using my PS100 with a Friedman Jose, had been playing for 20-30 minutes when I noticed a hot smell, and faint smoke coming from the back left corner of the unit. I immediately turned it off. Once it cooled down, I took the top of the unit off and couldn’t see any visible damage. So I put it back together, and tried again. Played for another 20 minutes or so with no issue, then I noticed the smell coming back again with the faint smoke. Shut it down again, and decided to check in here and see what I should do next. Purchased Nov. 11th from ZZsounds through Reverb. Unit probably has 50 hours on it I would say. Using it with a Soldano Astro 20, and a Friedman Jose 100. Triple checked connections and ohms, everything was on 16, using the 16 out on the amp, 16 ohm 2x12.
Hi @Mojo292 and welcome to the forum!
You did the correct steps, but something is wrong if you see smoke. A component is getting too hot. Can you confirm you see the fan is running? If you run the unit with flat toggle switch settings, does that make any difference? What is the output level with Jose? Do you see the same thing happen with the Astro 20? Does the room have good ventilation?
Next steps might be a much closer visual inspection of the board, but only if you want. For example, check the photos in this thread: Blown capacitor C503 on the inductor board
We can take it from there and service it if we see problems.
Hi Dan, thanks for the quick reply. I haven’t noticed this with the Astro 20, I was using the Astro 20 with the PS100 at band practice for 3 hours at a time with no issue. It seems the Friedman might be heating it up more. I will say the first time I noticed the smoke, the system volume on the back of the Friedman was up much higher than I realized. When I tried the 2nd time I backed everything down considerably. It’s a small room, not the best ventilation. I did confirm that the fan is running. I’ll try running on a flat setting, I did have it on bright. I can try to take a look at the board, and see if I can see anything. I’ll keep you posted, thanks again.
I attached a few pics, nothing looks damaged in these pics however, the back left corner where the gold heat sinks are, is where the smoke came from. It looks like there is some caps underneath there, and I didn’t take that off all the way. I was thinking it may help if I sit the Fryette on something other than the Friedman, as it’s creating a considerable amount of heat as well.
OK, it sounds like you have extra heat entering the bottom of the unit from the 100W Friedmann (probably generating more like 120W), which was also cranked for three hours with no airflow in the room. All of this overwhelmed the PS-100 internal fan. I recommend you make some changes to the setup location and room and monitor the situation.
Regarding the photos, we cannot see any damage in them, which is a good sign. The inductor board is hidden behind it, so probably the resistors there got too hot.
I think you got away with it this time. But just cycle through different toggle position settings and just confirm they all work.
Ok, just to clarify, I was using the Soldano for 3 hours at band practice. Friedman usually 30-45 minutes at home, but yeah it’s for sure putting out a lot more power. I’ll do like you said, and get the PS100 sitting on it’s own spot instead of on top of amp. I’ll double check toggles tomorrow, and follow up if I have any more issues. Thank you.
Yes, even a room fan or an open window will help.
OK let me know, if there is a problem we can arrange getting it serviced.
So I decided to take a peak behind the inductor board, and found that one of the caps is burnt up. Looks like it will probably need service, just let me know what I need to do when you have a chance, thanks again.
Oh yikes, look at it, it really wants to explode! Glad you checked that. I think if we get similar reports in the future I should recommend doing this.
OK you have two main options:
Ok thanks for the links I will gather the info and get the RMA process moving.