[sdiy] PCB mount components

[Jim Patchell]

Andre Majorel wrote:
> 
> IMHO, for a couple units, PCB-mounting the front panel components
> is not worth it. But some here make one-offs this way and seem to
> be happy with the results, so...
> 

I did a synth with all PCB-mounting front panel components, and overall, 
I am pretty happy with the results...

http://www.noniandjim.com/Jim/synthmodulesII/index.html#Modular_Analog_Synthesizer

But here is the breakdown.

Assembly time for this project was 40 hours.  That includes assembling 
the PC boards, doing what little wiring there was, and sheet metal 
fabrication (I made the box that went on the back of the panel).  40 
hours is not a whole lot of time.  Most of my projects are somewhere in 
the hundreds of hours of labor, mostly consumed with wiring.

Design time...well, I am not sure how many hours were spent doing that, 
but, it was probably around 200 hours.  Although, this is NRE...if I 
want to use the same modules over again, I don't have to do any more 
design work.

Material costs...well, all I can say is...hoo-boy.  Material cost was 
around $3500.  Some of the more expensive components: The front panel 
was $400 (front panel express), the pots to mount on the PC boards were 
$4 each.. (and in some ways, they are not as good as the cheap Alpha 
pots I normally use), the jacks are about $1.50 each, the PC boards are 
from Advanced Circuits and were $33 each (I don't remember the exact 
count, but there were about 25 boards in there), etc...I think you get 
the idea.

It is the best built synth I have ever done...if it were a commercial 
synth, I suppose it would have to sell for $6K (I don't think anybody in 
their right mind would pay that much).

If I could afford it right now...I would probably build another 
one...that being the catch phrase...

-Jim
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