hardy im200 ????

[eldad berman]

hy.

what is the opinion about the hardy im200 .

it has mic amp 4 band eq and somekind of copressor.

is it discrete?

thanks.

eldad berman.

[jim andrews]

In article <9450pc$gs6$1...@news.netvision.net.il>, ed...@netvision.net.il
says...

> hy.
>
> what is the opinion about the hardy im200 .
>
> it has mic amp 4 band eq and somekind of copressor.
>
> is it discrete?

Why do you care? Drugs in the control room? Infidelity?

jim andrews (sorry, not enough coffee today)
basset sound
austin, tejas

[John W. Hardy]

eldad;

The IM-200 modules were built in 1977 as part of two consoles that I
built for db Sound of Chicago, for use with the Fall-1977 tour of the
group Kansas.

The IM-200 modules use 5534 op-amps, probably the first ever to arrive
in the USA. There was a high failure rate of these op-amps, 10% before
the consoles were shipped to the tour, and another 10% over the next few
months. Clearly something wrong with the op-amps. There are a couple of
places (the output of the preamp section and the output of the EQ)
where a 990-style op-amp can be plugged in instead of a 5534.

The EQ is a 4-band semi-parametric (bosst/cut and frequency). The top
and bottom bands can be switched from peaking to shelving. The two mid
bands have "range" switches (the higher band has "f/10" and the lower
band has "fx10" buttons. There is also a sweepable high pass
(18dB/octave) and sweepable low-pass (12dB/octave).

The mic preamp uses the Jensen JE-115K-E input transformer. There is a
button that allows you to replace the JE-115K-E with a 3-op-amp "active
transformer" so that you can switch from transformer coupled to
transformerless.

I still offer to service these modules at a reasonable rate (IMHO).
These modules are over 23 years old. The pots are a problem. I ordered
pots from Bourns when I was given the authorization to do the project,
but I was overruled and Allen-Bradley pots were ultimately used. They
have been a major source of trouble ever since. I have worked up a
method of drilling a small hole in the side of each pot section so that
cleaning solution can be sprayed into the pots.

There is NO compressor in these modules.

Someone has built a number of plywood racks to hold these modules.
Whoever did it did NOT wire the edge connector correctly where the
preamp section output connects to the EQ input. The result is a loss of
about 3dB because they did not terminate the EQ input properly. I have
seen two of those racks, and in both cases the powere supplies did NOT
work properly. I am happy to service the modules, but I am NOT in the
business of reworking someone else's obnoxious Rube-Goldberg bizarre
piece-of-crap idiot boxes.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

John Hardy
The John Hardy Co.

[Tom Maguire]

Is this a copyrighted phrase or can we use it too?

Tom Maguire
TMI Engineering

[Scott Dorsey]

In article <3A673FC6...@idt.net>, Tom Maguire <t...@idt.net> wrote:
>"John W. Hardy" wrote:
>> I am happy to service the modules, but I am NOT in the
>> business of reworking someone else's obnoxious Rube-Goldberg bizarre
>> piece-of-crap idiot boxes.
>

>Is this a copyrighted phrase or can we use it too?

I think this is considered a proprietary Microsoft "look and feel."
Sort of like "total shit." If you look and feel like total shit in
the morning, you have to pay a licensing fee to Microsoft.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[John W. Hardy]

Tom;

Is this a copyrighted phrase or can we use it too?

I offer it to the world, free of charge. Use it, embellish it, improve it as you see fit. In fact, I'd love to see any suggestions.

> I am happy to service the modules, but I am NOT in the
> business of reworking someone else's obnoxious Rube-Goldberg bizarre
> piece-of-crap idiot boxes.

[Michael Kovach]

John,

 

I spoke to you on the phone about 3 or 4 weeks ago about these units.  Didn't you also tell me that there was a problem with the plated through holes on the circuit boards?

 

Mike Kovach

John W. Hardy <johnwel...@home.com> wrote in message news:3A674DAE...@home.com...

[John W. Hardy]

Mike;

 

I spoke to you on the phone about 3 or 4 weeks ago about these units.  Didn't you also tell me that there was a problem with the plated
through holes on the circuit boards

Yes, some of the p.c. boards had sub-standard plated-through holes. This was another item that was taken out of my hands - who to use for the manufacturing of the p.c. boards. The whole project was a real "trial by fire" event, and the plated-through hole problem was one of those amazing lessons.

John Hardy

[Kevina25]

In john's defense, I will tell everyone I was fortunate to use one of these
consoles foh on a journey tour late 70's early 80's and it compared VERY
favorably with anything else available at the time. John is a modest guy and
many of the production compromises were made by others. The basic concept
ROCKED

kla

[John W. Hardy]

kla;

Thank you very much. Yes, there were compromises that were imposed upon me by db Sound. I would have used 1% metal film resistors. They insisted on 5% carbon film to save money. I would have used 1% or 2% metallized polycarbonate capacitors in the EQ, they said 10% mylar. I would have used LM317/337 regulators, they said LM7818/7918. There were places on the p.c. board for the additional components that would have been required with the LM317/337 regulators. The p.c. board had multiple mounting holes to accommodate EQ caps of various lengths. I think I mentioned that the output stage of the preamp section and the EQ section each had an 8-pin dip socket AND an API2520-style socket (the 990 did not exist then) so that someone could hot-rod those items if they wanted to.

There is a provision for a direct-box input that bypasses the mic input transformer and goes straight to the mic preamp 5534, which was "bootstrapped" for a very high input impedance. But that feature was bypassed with a jumper. There are edge connector positions for direct outputs for the mic preamp input and the line-input stages, but those were never wired up in those consoles.

Despite those compromises, those consoles were well liked by most folks that used them. The high failure rate of the 5534s, the crappy Allen-Bradley pots and the problem with some of the plated through holes were the luck of the draw to some extent, although I had selected a more prominent p.c. board house to make the p.c. boards before being overruled. I much preferred the feel of the Bourns pots, which is why I originally ordered them before being overruled by db Sound. Not only did the A-B pots start causing problems much too soon, they didn't even sit properly on the p.c. board. The terminals of the pots had standoffs built into them that were screwy.

The consoles ran very hot when we first got them running, so we quickly added a small fan at the back of the console for each eight modules (between bulkheads). We added inlets under the armrest. Sort of reminded me of the old experimental "flying wing" from back in the late 1940s when we turned on the power supplies and all of those fans started spinning. There were around 24 5534s per IM-200 module, plus the heat developed by the on-card regulators, so there was a lot of heat to get rid of. The fans helped a lot.

Back then (1977), Deane Jensen potted his JE-115K-E mic input transformers with wax inside the 80% nickel shield can. There was enough heat that the wax started to melt out. What a mess. I'm sure it wasn't long after that that Deane changed to a more permanent potting material.

The faders were Fairchild, I think (not MY idea). They were linear-travel, but the knob was connected to a steel band that rode around a pulley at each end of the fader. The pulleys were on the shaft of one or two rotary-motion pots, so the linear motion ultimately turned some very small rotary pots (RN6, or RN06, or something?). I always was reminded of riding the subway or the "L" in Chicago when I slid those pots back and forth.

OK, enough rambling for now. Someday I'll have a delayed-reaction nervous breakdown from all of the insanity that went on to get those consoles done in 90 days from start to finish.

John Hardy

[Fletcher]

Kevina25 wrote:

I have two of the modules that John was kind enough to refurbish for me, they
sound incredible!!

--
Fletcher
Mercenary Audio
TEL: 508-543-0069
FAX: 508-543-9670
http://www.mercenary.com
"this is not a problem"