Have one 3 months old. I have had problems from the start. Never again i will purchase one...... purchased a dx 667 receive it it wouldn't work... opened it up found 2 solder joints that weren't soldered . contacted texas star told them about the problem said i couls solder the 2 places. they said go fot it. got it to work but something else was wrong bad SWR 3.0 couldn;t get it down. recontacted them said i would like to return it for whatever. also i would like to get a dx500v insted of 667. they shipped me a 500v it didn't work also solder joins not soldered. i resoldered what need to work. it worked. ran for 3 months. never ran with over 100 watts dead key.input fron radio 1 watt. the amp never put out over 250 swing. and never drew over 30 mamps of current . i tried 4 watts from my radio. didn't make a differance. last mont it smoked out at 1 watt input 80 watts dead key. it came with DEI'S for pills. two of them burn't out. knowing they were inferior. i purchased 6 HEI cost me a little over 200.00 dollars for backup's. i reinstalled all four dei's to hei's. the first time after my reinstall with a few resistors that were fried 5 resistors. i turned it on aned in 5 seconds it took out 2 of the new HEI'S. also burn't out the solder trace on the board . i replaced the HEI'S again. really start hurting my wallet. also checked the values os most capacitors ans resistors to see if they were within thier values. irepaced 2 100 ohm metal oxide resistors also 2 10 ohm on the base of transistors they got fried 2 100 ohm 2 watt resistors. also 1 1.8 ohm base resistor that was bad. also 2 polypropoline capacitors that looked discolored. finally got to work but the tune must bee really off on the board . it works bur can't get only 50 watts out put max. and it draws only 10 amps maximum from my 70 amp power supply. at least it isn't burning up 37.00 dollar pills anymore.i have a new combiner to install it was a little discolored from original burn out. all these problems are on the rear board. nothing on the front board. i did a power wire upgrade 6 guage and added 2 fans for cooling one top and ond bottom ran them from beginning. never was a temperatere issue. will try the new combiner.???? hate this amp. i own 2 RM Italys. 503 and 703 they are great amps. never a problem. years ago texas star were the go to. not anymore how could i get a 667 and 500v that dont work brand new bad solder joints. and no quality control???? i need some input to get this amp running with a proper tune. wich means changing VALUES of resistors. capacitors., or mh,s of inductance. i need some HElp. so i can sell it.
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Texas star dx 500v
- Thread starter 66gto
- Start date
Greg T
WDX-945 (Jazz Singer) Upper Peninsula of Michigan
It should have gone back at the very first hint of an issue. I know a few people, as well as myself, who run Dx-500s and we are all VERY pleased with them. I love mine and don't care what pills are in it. They work, I've made mistakes and pounded them senseless, and they still work just fine.
I sent it back and got the 500 that didn't work. it's about quality control. today i received more parts combiner was too big need a smaller one. also received the 1.6 ohm biasing resistor for the rear board. installed it. checked the 1.6 ohm on the front board it was spot on for it's value .while soldering it back in., i noticed thst the FB^ biasing was never soldered it was just sitting pushed in to the circut board with no solder. eventily i ran this amp for 3 months with half power because the biosing for fron board wasn't soldered. i solderded it in. tried the amp still has issues. can't get over 50 amps total out of it. i will try to reorder the proper combiner. if that don't work. i wouldn't know what to replace. i think the tune is really off fot the 4 new pills i installed. this problem isn't antenna or coax or swr related. it's this amp. i have 2 rm italys that run great. 503 703 . i run lmr 500 coak to gizmochy 5 element beams with dual polorization. also everything runs thru mfj 969 variable tuner my swr are always tuned tom 0 match.
Sorry about so many bad key strokes. I'M 77 years young.
The difference between the Texas Star 500 and 667 is that the 667 is a low-drive, internally it has two IRF520 MOSFETs to put the power to the pills, which means that the 500 can have more than 5 watts to drive it. The original TS-DX667 had one 2SC2290 which is rated at 60 watts PEP and that's a lot more than 5 watts.
So the only schematic for the Texas Star 667 amps is the old design using the 2SC2290 for a driver (1X4).
The problem with the six pills, or however many you bought, is that they have to be matched to each other and the output of each board has to be the same. Everything has to match from one board to the other, if not you will have problems where the output combiner gets hot very hot, and can get hot enough that you can't touch it, and it will burn up the 100 Ohm resistor. If you feel the slightest heat by touching the output combiner, something is wrong. When I say everything has to match it includes all the caps on each board have to be to spec and match the one on the other board.
I had a problem with a TS-DX667 that turned out to be a bad capacitor on the front board's input transformer, which made the output combiner get hot. Real mica caps were put in their place.
You need to watch Gatekeeper's videos to see when to know it's time to actually turn the amp on and not before. To pop two new pills means that the bias was not checked before using it. That little 1.6 or 1.8 Ohm (should be rated 1%) resistor could have been all it took because it was blown before you changed the pills.
Just more of my two cents........
73
So the only schematic for the Texas Star 667 amps is the old design using the 2SC2290 for a driver (1X4).
The problem with the six pills, or however many you bought, is that they have to be matched to each other and the output of each board has to be the same. Everything has to match from one board to the other, if not you will have problems where the output combiner gets hot very hot, and can get hot enough that you can't touch it, and it will burn up the 100 Ohm resistor. If you feel the slightest heat by touching the output combiner, something is wrong. When I say everything has to match it includes all the caps on each board have to be to spec and match the one on the other board.
I had a problem with a TS-DX667 that turned out to be a bad capacitor on the front board's input transformer, which made the output combiner get hot. Real mica caps were put in their place.
You need to watch Gatekeeper's videos to see when to know it's time to actually turn the amp on and not before. To pop two new pills means that the bias was not checked before using it. That little 1.6 or 1.8 Ohm (should be rated 1%) resistor could have been all it took because it was blown before you changed the pills.
Just more of my two cents........
73
Seems like dumping parts into it blindly has gotten expensive by now. At this point you're better off dumping it as parts or repair to recoup something as apposed to pumping more into it without a definitive of it's going to work.
Or send it and the parts to gatekeeper or whoever else might repair amps these days knowing that what else you spend on top of that will get you back a properly working amplifier.
I'm no amp guru by any means but just my opinion based on my own logic.
It's crazy that galaxy wouldn't take the time to test it before sending it to you or just repair the first one. Last I heard was the only thing they won't warranty was pills.
Or send it and the parts to gatekeeper or whoever else might repair amps these days knowing that what else you spend on top of that will get you back a properly working amplifier.
I'm no amp guru by any means but just my opinion based on my own logic.
It's crazy that galaxy wouldn't take the time to test it before sending it to you or just repair the first one. Last I heard was the only thing they won't warranty was pills.
When I sent my 500V in for repairs, I spoke with the "owner" and was told there's only one guy working on repairs, so my guess is he finds the stated problem, fixes it and ships it. When mine blew the trace on the front board due to crappy solder work on the 2nd key, I fixed that then shipped it in for the input tune and choke issues that popped up. They didn't replace the board because it was "working" when they tested it but did somewhat retune it and replace the L1 choke. {there's a thread here somewhere}. Bought it new from a guy on eBay so don't know if he jacked it up or what but to this day it's just sitting in my shed because I won't sell a POS to someone.
i checked the bios resistor on rear board. it was a 1.6 ohm which checked open thats what blew the replacement 2sc 2879 16D08. then blew the 13.7 volt plus trace. i replaced it checked the fron board same resistor it was O.K. i.m waiting for the new combiner and new capacitor C45 to get here. the amp works without burning pills but performance sucks. 4 watts in 40 out max. must be really out of tune. i'm trying to replace everything with original values.,but it must be out of tune drastically from changing from DEI's to HEI'S.waiting on parts. once the come i will install and try again. trying to send out to the experts for repairs is a 1 year wait.
If you were sent the larger combiner with 2 resistors, you can use that in the 500. I've been running a 667 with that combiner in it since I bought it in 1996 with zero issues.
I swapped mine out for HGs and there was zero change in tune....it actually produced about 50 PEP more.
I don't know about that... the reason I swapped them out is because I drove them with a RM KL 300, the combiner gave up before the pills did. I was on a mission to destroy the 500V because it ticked me off. So, while the 500V may be junk, the DEIs actually held up.
I replaced the combiner with the proper one.Keyed it up and the output wattage went up with a 1/2 watt input to about 100 watts. But the new combiner resistor 100 ohm 2 watt got really hot, so i shut it down after 10 seconds.Any thoughts about what could cause this new combiner to heat up so fast??? I checked the bios ohm's on all 4 pills with the amp off, they all were the same 1.3 ohms. Then i turned the amp on running 12.7 volts and tripped the relay on at the diode along side the relay .Read the bios voltage at All pills Base. 0.61 volts all four places. Any suggestions as to why the combiner is trying to destroy itself???????