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

Tue Nov 3 09:21:51 CET 2020

Hi David,

I've spent the last few hours working on a layout on a 6" x 8" PCB, which is nearly completely stuffed.  In this case, it is a complete Frequency Shifter circuit with a dual-core TZFM Quadrature VCO, a 12-stage 90-degree Phase Displacement Network, a dual 4-Quadrant Multiplier and summing and differencing output amps.  This was originally four separate 2.1" x 5.5" PCBs that I decided to put all together on a single PCB for a customer in Iceland.  The challenge is making all the interconnections between the circuit blocks.

Maybe I'll try to make a brief video where I lay out something simple.  One problem with this method is that it is very easy to do in Excel 2003, but pretty hard to do in later Excel programs.  Microsoft really got the Office 2003 suite right, but it has been going downhill ever since.

Incidentally, the main reason I came up with this thing in the first place was to lay out breadboards.  I really hate breadboarding, and the thing I hate the most about it is how messy it all turns out when not planned properly.  With my breadboard layout tool in Excel, I can lay out breadboards on the computer and get them looking pretty and organized, and then actually stuffing them at the bench is quick and easy, and almost guaranteed to work the first time.  I cut the leads on resistors and things so that they sit tight to the breadboard -- this really helps make the circuit more reliable.

Here's a picture of a breadboard for a pretty basic 2164-based VCO -- note the colour-coded jumpers, which are actually little wires with those colours of insulation that come in a little plastic jewel box (this is very old, but I haven't used a breadboard in years because making a PCB is still easier) -- the breadboard image was scanned and imported into Excel:

  _____  

From: David Simpson [mailto:davidosimpson at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2020 7:34 PM
To: David G Dixon
Cc: synth-diy mailing list
Subject: Re: [sdiy] favorite Youtube genre - "old guys repairing electronics"

[CAUTION: Non-UBC Email] 
David, 
I'd still love to see a screencast/recording of this Excel process in action, if you are ever so inclined.  

One never knows when they'll be stuck in an underground bunker with deprecated hardware and an emergency synth needs building...

FYI emergencysynth.com is still available...

On Mon, Nov 2, 2020, 6:43 PM David G Dixon <dixon at mail.ubc.ca> wrote:

Hi Jeremie,

I use an HP Laser Jet MFP 130fw.  It was about $100, and it doesn't run too hot.  It's not as nice as the old beige cubes (2100M) but my last beige cube bit the dust a year or so ago.

To address Gordon's comment, yes, for general PCB work you'd be far better off learning KiCAD or something else "real" but the Excel thing works for me.

Cheers,
Dave

  _____  

From: Jérémie Salles [mailto:jeremie.salles at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2020 5:30 AM
To: David G Dixon
Cc: synth-diy at synth-diy.org
Subject: Re: [sdiy] favorite Youtube genre - "old guys repairing electronics"

[CAUTION: Non-UBC Email] 
Hi David,  

That’s really a great process. Thanks for sharing. 

Which laser printer model are you using? I have a brother laser printer HL1112 but I heart that transfer won’t work due to toner issue? Do you have any experience using a brother laser printer for transfer? What would you recommend?

Jeremie. 

Sent from my iPhone 

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On 1 Nov 2020, at 18:09, David G Dixon <dixon at mail.ubc.ca> wrote:

Part Two...

Next, I turn all the traces black and superimpose the Pads on them to make the Transfer pic.  This is what gets printed onto PnP Blue transfer paper:

Finally, I copy the Transfer pic, cover it with a translucent rectangle, and superimpose the Parts pic on top of that.  This makes up the Guide pic, which is what I look at when stuffing the board:

This is what the board ultimately looks like.  Using this Guide pic to stuff boards is infinitely easier for me than stuffing silkscreened boards.  All the colour codes and cap values are there.  I can also wire the panel from this pic if it isn't too complicated.  Stuffing and soldering a board this size takes me about half an hour.  The longest part is actually making the jumpers, which I do with a piece of broken protoboard while sitting in front of the TV.

All of this is done in Excel 2003 (in Windows XP).  After the actual Layout, making the subsequent pictures takes all of 10 or 15 minutes.  When I'm done, I have a nice PCB layout that I can use again and again.

Actually making the boards is pretty easy.  Print, transfer (using a T-shirt press -- the best $300 I ever spent), etch (in an HCl/H2O2 solution), drill (using a drill press -- the best $165 I ever spent -- I wore out my first drill press after 10 years of PCB making), tin (with Liquid Tin solution that I make myself), and it's ready to stuff.  The entire process takes about half an hour for a board this size.  Hence, for something of this complexity, I can sit down from scratch after dinner and have a working prototype up and running well before bedtime that is nice enough to sell to other people.

  _____  

From: Synth-diy [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org] On Behalf Of sleepy_dog at gmx.de
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2020 4:57 AM
To: synth-diy at synth-diy.org
Subject: Re: [sdiy] favorite Youtube genre - "old guys repairing electronics"

[CAUTION: Non-UBC Email] 

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  <mailto: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  <mailto: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  <https://youtu.be/_ypW45Y8VSs> / 555 PWM DC-motor driver (EEEL1-3)

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

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