Anybody popped the hood on an AX8?


Whoa! Ok, that looks frigin' cool but such a teaser.

I really want to see the whole insides now. Looks like every square inch of the entire board is populated with some kind of component. Way more "stuff" than I was expecting to see.

Thanks for sharing!
 

Very cool, I'm surprised FAS didn't post a couple of pics for the community, I've seen the inside of hundreds of computers & servers over the years it's looking very clean from what I can see, thank god no junky Apple sticky glue gun connections well at least from what I can see... Maybe iFixit can do a breakdown for us?
Cheers
 
Pics are not showing for me, not even a hyperlink or placeholder, either in IE or FF.
That's funny because for me in your quote the link is showing with pictures. I don't have a photobucket or any image-thing.
It's a facebook post. Dunno why it wouldn't show anything for you. It does for others.

This work:?

15284943_1374580762561466_4671571214316691286_n.jpg
15355786_1374580765894799_825012358524955306_n.jpg
 
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Looking at these pics it seems they could have easily shaved off an inch total of the width so I could fit it and two DVP3 pedals on my Pedaltrain 2...

It looks pretty packed in there to me. Take too much of that width away and you can't dissipate heat as easily either.
 
It looks pretty packed in there to me. Take too much of that width away and you can't dissipate heat as easily either.
Just half an inch either side would do it... I'm not sure what is living on the far side of the lower picture, but it looks empty over there. Still. An inch wouldn't do it for Fractal EV-1s. They're wider than DVP3s.
Anyway. I'm sure Cliff considered the minimum and this is it.
 
That's funny because for me in your quote the link is showing with pictures. I don't have a photobucket or any image-thing.
It's a facebook post. Dunno why it wouldn't show anything for you. It does for others.

This work:?

15284943_1374580762561466_4671571214316691286_n.jpg
15355786_1374580765894799_825012358524955306_n.jpg

Yes it did. Thank you.
 
I'm not sure what is living on the far side of the lower picture, but it looks empty over there.
Looks like ribbon cables to me. Such a waste. Those footswitches don't need to be connected to anything. :)

Remember, too, that the component side is only half the story. How many traces are needed on the other side? How big a ground plane?...
 
So I did it, kind of...

I did not pop the hood, but the side door. ;) I was curious, if it would be possible to fit a 9VDC adaptor and and IEC C14 Socket into the case, next to the power inlet. I would be very happy to "daisy chain" the AC mains power to my FRFR monitor and also to power my wireless receiver with 9VDC from the AX8, without any peripherals (does this word even exist? Hope you still get my idea?). In my opinion these should be standard features of a unit like this.

IMG_3935.JPG

Doesn't seem impossible, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble. By the way, the design of the foot switches was kind of disappointing to me. It's a simple spring, touching the PCB if the foot switch is pressed down...

IMG_3937.JPG

At this opportunity I checked the clearance of the screws holding the rubber feet of the AX8, as there is a huge discussion ongoing about appropriate replacement screws.

I found that there is a lot of clearance at the there screws in the front, and also the one in the left back corner (close to the power inlet).

There is also some considerable clearance at the two other screws covered by the PCB. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good picture.

This is only for information! Use it at your own risk! I don't guarantee that this looks the same in every unit! Therefore I will not give any measurements or recommendations.

IMG_3939.JPG

IMG_3944.JPG

IMG_3943.JPG
 
I can't post links yet... still too new on the forum. I watched a video on YouTube where a guy was going through how he mounted his AX8 to his pedalboard by screwing it directly to the base of the of his board. I cringed as I watched and at one point he drilled in to the AX8 unit by accident. All this to say in the video he had the AX8 opened in full view. Search Youtube for "How I build my Fractal Audio AX8 Pedal Board" user is Guillaume Lortie. Prolly would of turned out better with a little more planning and a proper work space and a little more care taken in doing it. Personally I don't see the point of mounting the device to a pedalboard like that.
 
I can't post links yet... still too new on the forum. I watched a video on YouTube where a guy was going through how he mounted his AX8 to his pedalboard by screwing it directly to the base of the of his board. I cringed as I watched and at one point he drilled in to the AX8 unit by accident. All this to say in the video he had the AX8 opened in full view. Search Youtube for "How I build my Fractal Audio AX8 Pedal Board" user is Guillaume Lortie. Prolly would of turned out better with a little more planning and a proper work space and a little more care taken in doing it. Personally I don't see the point of mounting the device to a pedalboard like that.

I have drilled 4 holes in my AX8, not by accident but by porpuse.
 
I had to swap several footswitches with the provided ones from FAS (my choice to do it myself)
I have pics and video at home. Video was done to see exactly which way the ribbon strips disconnect to be able to take out and replace the foot switches.

The screws did not all go back in the 1st time and was even worse the 2nd time -on the back panel by the in/outs Could not get them all back in without stripping threads and this was following the instructions exactly.

Never take it apart again even with stuck switches.
 
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