Show us your SMD stuff.

[diffeq]

All pcbs are homemade, single sided (unfortunately).

Family shot. (left to right - ARM, Golden Pearl, 33, BB-74x)

Awesome builds, Temol.

What method was used to leave solder pads free from solder mask? Transparent film print?

[temol]

Thanks!

Yes, it's a transparent laser print film. I print @ 1200 dpi and stack two layers.

T.

[duck_arse]

I look at your photos, temol, and am left wondering - back-nut power jacks, soldered to the unboxed board - is he squeezing the jack out thru the hole in the box, or is he squeezing the board in thru the dc jack hole ......?

I wish I could make my links that neat, let alone a whole board.

[temol]

First option... I cannot imagine squeezing the board through 8mm hole...

T.

[Ice-9]

First option... I cannot imagine squeezing the board through 8mm hole...

T.

It's the 'Ship in a bottle' question.   

[temol]

1590a stuff again. Jfet Krankenstein emulation. 0805 footprint.





T.

[alanp]

Copy of the KORG35 device used in the early MS20 and MS10 filters. I've put this into a copy of the stock MS10 filter, sounds pretty good

The transistors were swine to solder.

[GuitarPhil]

1590a stuff again. Jfet Krankenstein emulation. 0805 footprint.





T.

I was wondering how you got the 3PDT to match the heights of the pots then I saw the bottom pic - very clever idea and well worth stealing ;-)

Phil.

[yanng45]

I recently completed my first few SMD boards, i'm mostly using 0603 with some 0805 and 1206. I must say it was "easier" than i expected. This one was actually the first ever, not the cleanest but i'm getting better :



What's terrible with SMD devices is how everything appears really great to the naked eye but as you zoom in you start to see all the misaligned components and and such.

[GuitarPhil]

As someone with 'senior eyes' (one of which is not worth using really!) I have used mainly 1206 parts in my first SMD build though I did have to use a couple of 0805 as I couldn't get the values in 1206 size. I use an illuminated magnifier and check the joints afterwards with a hand lens.

I find it helps to tin one of the pads first then place the component using tweezers and reflow the solder, then solder the other pad - Thanks to Mick (Ice-9) for the advice and encouragement to take the plunge into SMD work. As those of you who have tried it have found, it's not as hard as you think it's going to be before you start!

If a 67 year old with one good eye can manage, then you young guns can do it :-)

This is my tenEQ project: a 10-band programmable graphic EQ. It can store up to 16 'patches' with the settings for the 10 frequency bands and the gain.

Thanks again to Mick for the great job he did on the enclosure - top class work buddy.

[vigilante397]

I've always felt like SMD and sub-mini tubes just belong together These are a few that I finally decided are done after a number of revisions:

Particle Accelerator - Alembic F-2B preamp, I can't keep these around very long because hungry bassists have been devouring them





Black Eye - Soldano Supercharger GTO





Wrecking Ball - Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Preamp

[willienillie]

What are the square black "101" things?

[vigilante397]

What are the square black "101" things?

100uH inductors, part of the SMPS for the high-voltage.

[ElectricDruid]

Fantastic work, Nathan, but knobs that close together would drive me crazy. I *need* bigger boxes just so I've got space to spread everything out enough. The others look ok though, even for me.

[vigilante397]

Fantastic work, Nathan, but knobs that close together would drive me crazy. I *need* bigger boxes just so I've got space to spread everything out enough. The others look ok though, even for me.

Thanks That one is packed tight for sure. I originally did it in a 1590B kind of as a joke to see if it could be done, but people really like it Spreading things out is nice, but guitarists are packing so many things on their boards these days feedback has generally been that they like small footprints when they can get them. So from a design perspective I agree, but as a (now former) gigging musician I will put anything in as small a box as is possible