"No Molex" Builds In The Bare Box #1

[smallbearelec]

I thought that the "plug-and-play" offered by the connectorized build would be appealing, but the market has not greatly agreed. So I have swallowed my pride, gone back to the drawing board and created a build for the Ursa Minor without the Molex stuff. Maybe I should have done it this way from the git-go for the DIY market, which I know to be very price-sensitive. Having built this, part of the good news is that anything that will fit on 60mm x 60mm board can easily be done this way, it's no more expensive than building in a 125-B, and you get the benefit of the no-stomped-pots enclosure.

http://diy.smallbearelec.com/Projects/UrsaMinor/UrsaMinor.htm

Regards
SD

[Processaurus]

Great article, Steve.  Yes, the Molex is professional and a real time saver if you need to service a board repeatedly, but it's hard to imagine it not working the first (or fourth) time when you are building it! Would still be worth the molex on a box with lots of pots, with a design you are testing and repeatedly tweaking. One part I would usually do in molex, is the plastic 2.1mm dc connector, because otherwise you need to desolder it to get the board out of the box.

Was excited to stumble across your custom manufactured long bushing, metal DC jacks with the insulated shoulder washers, because they go in from the inside of the box, like all the other pots and jacks, no more desoldering. The perfect part.

[smallbearelec]

Hi Ben--

What I liked most about the Molex idea was that I could test a whole build outside the enclosure and de-bug before assembling. I found that especially beneficial when working on perf. I would still do it connectorized if I were going to manufacture for the market, but it's just become too crowded (partly my own fault, yea), and I have all the business I want to handle without the agita. So I did the re-think mostly because I would still like a small piece of the kits-for-DIY market. If I encourage any of the commercial accounts to consider the Bare Box for "specials", so much the better.

The only issue that I discovered (later) with the long-barrel jack is that it requires a long-barrel plug. I know some people don't have these, so I stock an inexpensive adapter:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/short-barrel-to-long-barrel-adapter/

SD

[Processaurus]

Apologies for getting off the subject of your non molex kit, but thanks for the warning Steven, about the long metal jacks being deep, you saved me some heartache. The devil is certainly in the details.