Neutron PDF resolution?

[Aharon]

I just printed a couple of PnP blue transfers,among them the Neutron from GEO.
It came a pinch smaller than it should I think,could it be the resolution on the printer,I think mine prints 300/300?,and yes I always tick off the resizing on the print menu.
Any help would be appreciated.
Aharon

[Aharon]

Let me put it in another way,any of you out there that printed your own Neutron PCB,was the board a little smaller than it should be?,we are talking very little but enough to screw with the op sockets.
My printer prints at a resolution of 300/300,should it be 600/600 or i'm doing something else wrong?
All other PCBs came out right.
Thanks
Aharon

[Sweetalk]

I have the same problem... My solution was:

1º Printscreen on the Neutron PCB.
2º Paste the image in Windows Print and erase all except for the PCB
3º Insert the image in Word and adjust the size... In the last page of the Neutron PDF there's a box layout and the size of the PCB it's correct, take size from there...

In that way the PCB came out perfectly.

Regards!!

Sweetalk

[lowstar]

mine also came out a little bit too small, because i did not check with an ic...i thought the way the pdf prints out will be right, but it is not, otherwise it would have been easy too change the size.
anyway, here´s what i did: i used the "cheapo" ic sockets and bent the legs accordingly, so they would fit on the smaller pcb.
i ended up with a tighter build that required a little more care in some places, but it worked out alright.
let me give you one more advice: don´t use the nsl optocouplers. i used those and had a lot of trouble getting it to sound right, and if you search on this forum, you´ll see that most of the people that were satisfied and did not have to tweak a lot were the ones with vcl´ s or those semi-original ones which go by the name that escaped me 

cheers,
lowstar

[Aharon]

Thank you both,sweetalk and lowstar for tips and advice.
Aharon

[Aharon]

Ok,came out right now,pasted the image to paint,erased everything and then imported it to XNView,resized it and presto.
Thanks guys.
Aharon

[mdh]

I've been using Inkscape (http://inkscape.sourceforge.net), a free vector graphics program, to solve this problem. I make a blank document with a 0.1 inch grid and import the transfer image. Then it's really easy to scale it and move it around until one set of IC pins lines up exactly over the grid points (it helps to zoom in quite a bit). I've scaled tons of masks this way, and so far I've had perfect results every time.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences with the Neutron... I just finished wiring one up in a temporary enclosure yesterday, and let's just say there's some debugging to be done!

[Aharon]

Thanks for the link mdh.
I never have problems with PCBs, the Neutron was a first.
Sure,as soon as I get it done I'll post the results.
What did you use for optos?.
Aharon

[mdh]

I used the Hamamatsu P873-13 from Smallbear. It's the dual LDR thing that's presumably similar to the original Mutron II opto. I probably won't have the time to check the wiring and everything until next weekend, but I'm getting what sounds like fuzz with synth-like textures on the low notes, cleaner synth-like tones further up the fretboard, and weird resonances here and there. Sounds like it wants to start oscillating sometimes.

I don't mean to hijack, though. If I can't sort it out for myself, I'll start a new thread of my own. But it's good to know that there are some fellow travelers on my journey!

[Aharon]

No hijack,my thread was done as soon as all you guys helped me with the sizing.
If you start another thread I'll see you there.
Aharon