[sdiy] There is no fun analogue chips anymore!

[Eric Brombaugh]

On 06/28/2012 10:51 AM, Pete Hartman wrote:

> I can't make a 4 layer board in my home.

Not many can. You can lay one out and have it fabbed for you at not 
unreasonable costs though. Most stuff can actually be done on 2 layers 
for even lower costs ($2-$3/sq in) and with decent delivery times (2-3 
weeks).

> I currently don't have the setup to do SMD work, and I fear what the
> cost might be if I decide to get one.

I haven't found SMD work to be particularly difficult or expensive. The 
tools and supplies I use:

* Fine-tip temp controlled iron ($50)
* Fine tweezers ($3)
* Magnified swing-arm lamp ($15)
* Fine solder ($20-$50 depending on qty)
* Flux gel ($5)

It takes a bit of practice, but once I got the techniques down I found 
it considerably faster than thru-hole.

> The FPGAs are tempting and interesting, and don't require a home
> fabrication facility but as someone else pointed out, $200 - $400 for
> something that's going to go out of fashion very quickly doesn't seem
> like a very good investment in material, even if the learning is still
> applicable to the next generation.

You can get low to mid-range FPGA boards for considerably less than 
that. For example, consider these:

* Digilent Basys II ($79)
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,790&Prod=BASYS2

* Papillio One ($50)
http://papilio.cc/

* Altera BeMicro SDK ($79)
http://www.arrownac.com/solutions/bemicro-sdk/

All of these can support fairly complex DSP applications and have 
sufficient I/O capabilities for synthesis work.

> I was able to jump headlong into AVR programming and then analog synth
> work 6 months ago with the tools and knowledge I already had.  If all
> the through-hole analog stuff were gone, I'd have never had courage
> to/been able to fulfill a lifelong curiosity (now full blow obsession)
> about music synthesis.

There's no doubt that Arduino and its ecosystem have been a fantastic 
enabler for electronics hobbyists. It's a great starting point and 
provides enough power for many. If you need more then it also teaches 
the skills you'll need to go to more advanced technologies.

Eric