Signal comes and goes on one side on my bi-amp Hartke 7000?

Bander

Bander

May 10, 2007
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#1
I wanted to see if someone was familiar with what's going on. The Hartke 7000 is a 2x350W amp rated for 4 ohms both sides. I run a 4x10 (8 ohm) on one side, and a 2x15 (4 ohm) on the other side. Today at an afternoon outside gig, I lost the 2x15 side about four times - it just dropped out, and came back after 2-3 minutes. It was 90F, and my amp was in direct sun, fan works fine, but never had this happen before. I checked the last time it dropped, and the top was hot as a firecracker. I assume it just overheated and the thermal protection kicked in, but, I wasn't running it hard at all? I run my jazz bass guitar controls about 80% of full volume, and adjust the amp master for final volume, which was on 2(!) today, really low. Should I be looking at caps, IC's, poor contacts, etc?
 
#5
Yea, sounds like somethings wrong there. I have the same amp, you can't just put them in the shade sometimes, though they play fine in the sun. There must be something wrong, great amp too, mine has barely ever even gotten warm!
 
#6
jhol111964 said:
It was 90F, and my amp was in direct sun, fan works fine, but never had this happen before. I checked the last time it dropped, and the top was hot as a firecracker. I assume it just overheated and the thermal protection kicked in, but, I wasn't running it hard at all? I run my jazz bass guitar controls about 80% of full volume, and adjust the amp master for final volume, which was on 2(!) today, really low. Should I be looking at caps, IC's, poor contacts, etc?
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What?? A nice piece of equipment like that being exposed to full sun light? Of course, even the fan would fail to deliver enough cooling effect under such extreme circumstances. I'm sorry you had to go through that. But, a quite useful adage I learned in the U.S. Navy, that will serve me the rest of my life.. and it goes like this: "Take care of your tools, and they'll take care of you!" Meaning, you can't just take and take and never give back anything in return. I hope everything will be fine for you from this point forward.
. .
 
#7
Rattman said:
What?? A nice piece of equipment like that being exposed to full sun light? Of course, even the fan would fail to deliver enough cooling effect under such extreme circumstances. I'm sorry you had to go through that. But, a quite useful adage I learned in the U.S. Navy, that will serve me the rest of my life.. and it goes like this: "Take care of your tools, and they'll take care of you!" Meaning, you can't just take and take and never give back anything in return. I hope everything will be fine for you from this point forward.
. .
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Anecdotal evidence from another forum: most likely root cause, is *inadequate power supply* from the venue. Our stage sound was all coming from a *provided* single outlet, and an extension cord. Current and voltage drop likely starved the amps PT, resulting in overheating the channel running the highest load, 4 ohms. Combined with the direct Sun, the thermal protection kicked in. Observers on another forum indicate condition doesn't re-occur with proper power quality. Mystery solved...from now on, I'll take a VOM and my own 12 gauge extension for outdoor gigs even with "professional" sound provided!
 
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#8
jhol111964 said:
Anecdotal evidence from another forum: most likely root cause, is *inadequate power supply* from the venue. Our stage sound was all coming from a *provided* single outlet, and an extension cord. Current and voltage drop likely starved the amps PT, resulting in overheating the channel running the highest load, 4 ohms. Combined with the direct Sun, the thermal protection kicked in. Observers on another forum indicate condition doesn't re-occur with proper power quality. Mystery solved...from now on, I'll take a VOM and my own 12 gauge extension for outdoor gigs even with "professional" sound provided!
Click to expand...

Out-bloody-standing work!.. Nice reverse engineering/detective work. It's good to finally know the underlying cause for that shut-down.
. .
 
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