[sdiy] favorite Youtube genre - "old guys repairing electronics"

Sun Nov 1 21:19:13 CET 2020

Awesome work Mr. Dixon!  I may have missed it, but what program do you use
to build out your traces?  Is that a part of MultiSim as well?

On Sun, Nov 1, 2020 at 1:02 PM David Simpson <davidosimpson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> hi Steve.
>
> love the ingenuity!
>
> seeing this type of physical problem solving is super helpful to a
> newcomer like myself.
>
> I too often get hung up only knowing the "right" way to do something but
> am increasingly learning there is largely no such thing.
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 2:05 PM <sleepy_dog at gmx.de> wrote:
>
>>
>> Ok, I did find *something*, that's 7 years old, poor camera, poor
>> photographer, and not made for demo'ing ;)
>> It does alas not show what I described w.r.t. some longer copper wire
>> connections being held in place in a less fragile manner by doing the GND
>> wires last ,with silver wire across thinner copper wires.
>> What is visible here are the legs of a 4x opamp DIP package (blue dotted
>> line) stuck in from the top side of the perfboard, and a bunch of 0805 SMT
>> components soldered underneath.
>> This forms two sallen-key low pass filters IIRC, for some control signal
>> conditioning, and additionally the IC has 2 decoupling capacitors.
>> That would be 8 resistors, 10 caps.
>> You can see, about half the passive components are under the opamp,
>> making the whole thing take less board space than a only top-populated THT
>> circuit, even if you curve the one resistor leg to make a standing resistor
>> use 2 adjacent holes (making the populated board higher - sometimes not
>> what you want).
>> (this is less flat than it could be as I stacked capacitors in some
>> places to get a more close value to what was needed vs. what I had at hand)
>>
>> https://i.postimg.cc/qvrMrtvM/SAM-0502-sml-annot.jpg
>>
>>
>> Am 31.10.2020 um 16:12 schrieb David Simpson:
>>
>> Hi Steve.
>> Thanks for this excellent description of your process. lots of helpful
>> tips.
>> Would love to see some pictures if you have them handy.
>>
>>
>> I don't have anything handy that would somehow showcase especially the
>> "tablet aided construction" as it were ;)
>> I reckon the end result doesn't really look much different than anyone
>> else's boards, other than I mentioned it specifically as an aid  to make
>> circuits of somewhat higher density than usual experimentel perfboard
>> circuits.
>> I can imagine there are persons who find this too fiddly mucking with the
>> software and are practised enough to just do it all in their head and by
>> sight of the circuit flawlessly, but I'm not such a one, so I thought I
>> throw it in there, maybe someone finds it useful.
>>
>> Forgot to mention about the green plated-through perfboards that many
>> chinese eber sellers have,
>> while the fact they have contacts from top to bottom can help, you also
>> need to take extra care of course, to not make unintended connections,
>> especially with the lazy use of not-insulated wires to make long traces I
>> mentioned - then accidentally crossing one of the bottom side with one on
>> the top.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 7:59 AM <sleepy_dog at gmx.de> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Heh. If I need something quickly, cant wait for PCB, but also it does
>>> have certain physical dimension requirements,
>>> then I do get really "boring" and do "plan" perfboard - "what is the fun
>>> in that" someone asked - indeed, what is the fun in that sort of tedious,
>>> repetitive work alltogether?
>>> Better make it as short as, and least error prone possible. It's so much
>>> easier to reason about misbehavior of a circuit if it actually matches what
>>> you have drawn - at least from the obvious (not parasitic) components and
>>> their supposed connections.
>>> While it's perhaps reasonabnly unlikely to make mistakes if you have all
>>> the space in the world and basically solder together the circuit
>>> as-is-drawn on some big ass perfboard, also leaving lots of room for adding
>>> more stuff to experiment,
>>> as things get more crowded and less intuitively placed, I found the
>>> following to be helpful:
>>>
>>> First of all, esp. for single-sided perfboard, I like to combine THT ICs
>>> with SMT 0805 passives, as you can often put them comfortably between legs
>>> and under the IC (on the bottom side of the board), that already saves a
>>> lot of space - and wiring effort.
>>> There are also these, often green, plated-through double-sided
>>> perfboards - may reduce the insulated connections you have to make (which
>>> take longer due to the need for burning away the insulation / tinning),
>>> e.g. all GND with silver wire on the bottom, +V on the top side, or so,
>>> other nets with insulated wire, where unconnected crossings would be at
>>> least.
>>>
>>> Also, in the type of scenario where I would, if I could, prefer a small
>>> PCB, but don't want to wait,
>>> I might already have a captured schematic in my chosen EDA software
>>> anyway - or if it's small, I'll just do it quickly.
>>> Then convert to PCB, and usually don't route anything, or at best a few
>>> special traces to mark special preferences.
>>>
>>> I put that on my small-ish tablet with stylus support, that actually
>>> fits on my crowded soldering bench.
>>> that also runs the EDA software. Then I:
>>>
>>> foreach non-GND-net:
>>>     highlight net in PCB software
>>>     connect all net points in circuit with insulated "coil wire",
>>> point-to-point
>>>     hide net's ratlines (or color existing traces) to make visible
>>> what's still TODO - this shrinks more and more, and you can see the light
>>> at the end of the tunnel
>>>
>>> This, for me anyway, proved much less error prone than staring on a
>>> paper printout and comparing it with the current physical as-is schematic
>>> all the time (even when pencil checking traces ;) ).
>>> Can basically do that half-asleep without making a mistake. (just make
>>> sure to display the bottom side mirrored appropriately :D)
>>>
>>> Then for the GND net I do the above, except I user silver coated copper
>>> wire, a bit sturdier, and wherever possible, do not cut, but bend around
>>> corners, using one long piece of wire across many connections, saving some
>>> work steps. The silver wire will be over all those coil wires, holding them
>>> in place a bit better, esp. longer ones, and make it less likely that you
>>> will rip off any connection by accidentally grabbing too hard anywhere.
>>>
>>>
>>> - Steve
>>>
>>>
>>> Am 31.10.2020 um 11:23 schrieb ShedSynth:
>>>
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> I use perfboard, but I don’t try to make it into a PCB.
>>>
>>> I wire point-to-point with single core Kynar wire, normally used for
>>> wire-wrapping.
>>>
>>> I use blue, black, red and yellow on the back for -12V, GND, +5V and
>>> +12V.
>>>
>>> I use green for all signals, always on the component side.
>>>
>>> I lay out the big things like pots, DIL sockets and capacitors on the
>>> board itself, and always try to leave rows of 4 holes to place resistors
>>> flat.
>>>
>>> Then I follow the schematic, which might take several days – this isn’t
>>> a mass-production process.
>>>
>>> I separate each functional block with a pair of pins + a jumper so I can
>>> test on the scope as I go and also so I can bodge blocks of completed
>>> circuits into something else.
>>>
>>> Hope this might help somebody,
>>>
>>> Al
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If the picture comes through, it’s most of a Thomas Henry MAXIMUS 3340
>>> VCO.
>>>
>>> The front is just as ugly.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org>
>>> <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> *On Behalf Of *Timothy Burns
>>> *Sent:* 30 October 2020 15:17
>>> *Cc:* SYNTH DIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [sdiy] favorite Youtube genre - "old guys repairing
>>> electronics"
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Good lord, I wish I watched this yesterday. Also what the heck, did he
>>> *plan* before he started soldering in components? What fun is that?
>>>
>>> Thanks for the suggestions of video and audio channels, this will be
>>> great to have on hand as I re-solder everything from the last 36 hours.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm not saying I'm going to start now, but does anyone have suggestions
>>> software or shortcuts for planning perfboard builds? Fritzling? (Asking for
>>> a friend.)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks All!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Tim
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 10:34 AM Ryan B8S <ryan at pimpdroid.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Not an old guy, but I can't believe no one mentioned Synth Chaser at
>>> Synth Chaser dot com.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/c/SynthChaser/videos
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My favorite youtube channel by an order of magnitude.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 7:08 PM David Simpson <davidosimpson at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I recently found this video and was astonished by the skill, technique
>>> quietude ala Bob Villa.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How to solder grid style PCB / 555 PWM DC-motor driver (EEEL1-3)
>>> <https://youtu.be/_ypW45Y8VSs>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What are your favorite channels for informative/instructive electronics
>>> repair? Preferable those who don't yell or are in a constant state of
>>> outrage...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> david o. simpson | cameraperson | binarymob.com | earth
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>> http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>> http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing listSynth-diy at synth-diy.orghttp://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>> http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
> Synth-diy mailing list
> Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/attachments/20201101/afca370d/attachment.htm>