Will this ground pour "ornament" be a problem?

[KarenColumbo]

Hello from Vienna, Austria, Europe! Hope you are all well!!

Since the ongoing bug thing has me tied to my computer screens more than usual, I tackled a long time wish-list project: Mike preamps.
I made a PCB for the power supply and got me a nice symmetrical layout.



When I do the "gound pour thing" I get an ornamentally-wise nice look, but I'm not really sure about the electrical outcome because on the far right side of the board the molex socket's middle pin is connected to the center part of the ground pour as well as the part that "surrounds" the PCB. Is that a problem? In the sense of "Did I just construct an antenna?" Or will that be okay?

[antonis]

It shoulld be just fine, Andreas.. 
(2 dimension Faraday cage..)

[Marcos - Munky]

Hello from Brazil, Andreas. Hope you are well too.

As Antonis said, it won't be an issue. In fact, you'll often see this ground plane on people's layout. I do it a lot, EffectsLayouts page uses it on (almost?) all their layouts. It makes the board to looks better imo, and also there are less things to etch. Also, as pointed by Antonis, it acts as a 2D shielding.

There are some circuits that you want to avoid this, because it can cause a ground loop. You know, those circuits where you have to carefully do the wiring and connections to ground.

And btw, it's indeed a very nice symmetrical layout.

[duck_arse]

greets from AU.

are you standing your regs upright? are they heatsinked? if yes, do the heatsinks have holes for mechanical support?

[KarenColumbo]

Thanks guys, glad to hear/read you're well and many thanks for the heads-up!

are you standing your regs upright? are they heatsinked? if yes, do the heatsinks have holes for mechanical support?

To be honest, I don't know yet how big those'll be - still rearching for proper ones, and if need must, they will have to be fastened to the PCB, I know. Just avoiding to take on the hassle of doing a Eagle object myself and then it won't fit anyway. I just wait and see what comes along, mate

[Marcos - Munky]

Good eyes on that, Duck.

I see one problem on your layout. With the regulators standing upright, you'll need a bit of space behind them for the heatsinks. But behind the regulators you have capacitors.

Easy to solve that. You just need to move the caps (and everything after them) a bit to the right. The layout will be a bit more lengthy.

Btw, it's better to buy all the parts before making the board. More than once I did a layout, made the board, then found out the caps were bigger than the space I left for them on the board. And those 2200uF caps can be bigger than what you're expecting them to be.

[Fancy Lime]

Hi Andreas,

nice design, indeed. Do you plan on having the PCBs manufactured or do you want to etch them yourself? If the former, do you know where yet?

Cheers,
Andy

[KarenColumbo]

Good eyes on that, Duck.

I see one problem on your layout. With the regulators standing upright, you'll need a bit of space behind them for the heatsinks. But behind the regulators you have capacitors.

Easy to solve that. You just need to move the caps (and everything after them) a bit to the right. The layout will be a bit more lengthy.

Btw, it's better to buy all the parts before making the board. More than once I did a layout, made the board, then found out the caps were bigger than the space I left for them on the board. And those 2200uF caps can be bigger than what you're expecting them to be.

Hehe, seems, I have mixed up front and back. Thanks VERY much for noticing, I'll correct that asap! I have all the parts for this piece. But I haven't had a glance at them yet - should have done so, you're right again, Sir!

[KarenColumbo]

Hi Andreas,

nice design, indeed. Do you plan on having the PCBs manufactured or do you want to etch them yourself? If the former, do you know where yet?

Cheers,
Andy

Thanks mate! The circuit/schematic is of course by Mr. Rod Elliott himself. I just did my own PCB layout in Eagle to avoid having his excellent PCBs shipped from Australia which would take several weeks AND could get cancelled at any time due to Covid-19.
I will etch them meself - I have all necessary "machinery" and had good luck with it in the past years. Double-sided PCBs got sent to AllPCB in the past. But I've been thinking about very thin PCB material (0,5 mm) and etching those then slapping them together back to back with the correct adhesive. Should work out fine.

This is the Rod Elliott project, btw: https://sound-au.com/project66.htm
You will find the addtional power supply and phantom power plus distribution circuitry on his pages, too.
He's great, I think.

[GGBB]

Not likely to be an issue as everyone else has said. I do this kind of thing as well, but because I like to be safe not sorry, I always break up the outer loop somewhere - usually farthest away from the off-board ground connection. As in: