DIY standards II

[jh]

>I have no commercial aspirations... but if I get a schematic from a list member >(or one of mine) I can knock out a board at lunchtime or after hours at work, >with no qurstions of "what project is that" and I can't do that with veroboard. >Likewise, at home its easier to jump on the computer than get into a soldering >project. 

Ok, I see. Valid point, if you get from the idea to an etched and drilled
board faster than doing a veroboard. And for multiple stuff of course.
I think I'm still faster on veroboard for dual and triple circuits (you learn
from "routing errors" on the first veroboard, and the next ones will be
made much faster !), but if I build a vocoder with 20 similar channels,
a pcb is faster in any case. No doubt.

>But I'll make up some PCB's (designs and maybe even order some...)if people >are interested. I just want to know how peol;pe like to mount them. (parallel to >the panel, perpendicular to the panel, 3x5, 1.75"x 17.25" etc.)

That's a good thing for sure. (I thought by talking about standards you wanted
to convince everybody to find a common standard.)

As for input about how people like to mount the boards:

I started with boards mounted to a (wooden) frame behind the front panel
(perpendicular), and wire connections between the board and the front
panel elements. I still do this for circuits with large electronics (many
boards) and only few front panel componets (Frequency Shifter,
for instance).

Next step was using potentiometers with mounting bracets, and the pcb
was fixed to the front panel by one row of potentiometers. Perpendicular
construction again, but no more mounting frame. Up to 6 pots with sturdy
mounting bracets give mechanical stability. The rest of the front panel 
elements is still connected with wires.
I started this method with special RadiOhm potentiometers that were used
by MAM, and which you won't get in a normal shop. But meanwhile
there are cheap pots with similar bracets available from Maplin.
On the Synthi Clone, I used a lot of Bourns and Spectrol conductive
polymer potentiometers. The good thing is that with minimal mechanical
treatment (clip a way a tiny "nose" from the pot) you can use these
Maplin bracets in conjunction with these high quality pots.

Another method was using a separate PCB board (yes, etched this
time !) to hold all the pots of the JH-4 module. This board was mounted
parallel to the front panel. (Irony of this: Meanwhile I've made a redesign
of this, and I have used free wiring between the pots and the 5-pin connector
that was mounted on the 1st board - much faster than another layout ...)

What I'm after at the moment (just started this), is building like the
MS-20: Boards parallel to the front panel, and all the electronic components
mounted between the pots. I use these Alps pots you can buy from Farnell
and RS Components for that. They don't allow much space between the
front panel and the board, so mounting resistors vertically or using sockets
for the ICs is not. But what I *love* with this kind of construction is that 
the complete module is ready for test without any external connections.
All the pots are in place, and it's great fun to play with this long before 
I have a front panel made. (Hey, I *always* use new modules for recording
some song before they are built into an enclosure, sometimes with
alligator clips all over - but it's much more fun with that method !)
The only thing I've built that way so far is the (old style) MS-20 filter.
More is to come. If space is a problem, I can mount the pots at the
copper side of the veroboard, so all components are on the "back" side.

JH.