Lmst

When you sketch a circuit with solder and tinned wire, you are already building it !

A clamp with a piece of perfboard, showing the solder side of what seems to be an electronic circuit. Many solder points can be seen and some connections between them, made with tinned wire.

When building electronics project for permanent use - i.e. after testing on a solderless breadboard - you normally go to a #soldered perforated board of some type as a #prototype, or even for very-low-volume production.

There are different types of boards. I dislike "matrix" boards, which are just isolated pads on a grid, i.e. there are no connections between any of them. Some people swear by these; I swear at them.

I prefer protoboards that have multiple holes per pad (so you can connect multiple component leads without having to add an explicit wire jumper). If they've also got #busses - sets of pads that run the whole length or width of the board - so much the better!

Some are #crap: laminated paper PCBs where the pads lift off the board if you even try to desolder something you added. Row/column labels missing, or (like I found with some recently) that don't line up between the front and back of the board 😆 , or most egregiously, they don't actually show the pad pattern on the front of the board, so you have to keep flipping it to check your parts are correctly placed. One example below.

I have some from "BusBoard Prototype Systems" that I like. The SB4 is a 38 x 24 (912 hole) board that is #snappable into quarters. Two of the quarters have rows that are 4-hole, 2-hole, 4-hole. The other two are 5 2-hole pads. Both types have a single bus running along each of the 2 long sides.

But ...

1/x

#electronics #hobby #ProtoBoard #PerfBoard #MatrixBoard #Chinesium

#soldered the second #PCB that arrived yesterday. This time it's #diysynth related. It's a drop-in replacement for my #perfboard 10 step #sequencer control board. It has identical connectors and was one more test of my PCB design skills and quality of @aislerhq manufacturing. It went really nice and works perfectly in place of the old one.
I only used a bottom ground plane and a different size for the board, so I'll have to redo it again for my final project.
#synthesizer #electronics

the empty board that came from Aisler. the tracks are very visible due to missing top ground plane. it would be difficult to add anyways.

the finished board after soldering all components. I left out one of the external power connectors, since I only have two control boards

comparison of the perfboard prototype and the PCB.

testing the board with a small setup. connected are the two control boards, the LFO for the clock, and the power supply.

I had this old TBA800 IC lying around. So, I designed an audio amplifier circuit. It was fun to solded and works fine. It should support 5W at 16 Ohms load and 24V supply. I only tested it with 12V and 4 Ohms speaker.
The hardest part was soldering the tabs, since they act as heat sink, too.
I used #KiCad for the schematics and layout, although I had to create my own symbol and footprint for the IC. Also had to cut holes for the tabs into the #perfboard.
#electronics #AudioAmp #soldering #diy

finished board from the top, showing all used components

top side during testing, the LED is lit.

the schematics. I used my own symbol and footprint. I used a green LED instead of the red one.

A Simple Laser Harp MIDI Instrument https://hackaday.com/2024/06/19/a-simple-laser-harp-midi-instrument/ #MusicalHacks #wemosd1mini #laserharp #perfboard #lasercut #ESP32 #midi #ldr

Finished building the DrawBridge.
It seems to work, but I need to connect an external 5V power supply, since my laptop doesn't provide enough voltage to power the drive.
Also, this #floppy drive was old, and makes squeaky noises when trying to write. The inserted floppy shows scratch markings, too.
So, I'll need a proper floppy drive.
#Amiga #floppydrive #soldering #perfboard #ArduinoNano #Arduino

the finished board for connecting the Arduino Nano to the floppy drive

bottom side of the perfboard showing the soldering

the board with plugged in Arduino Nano, and a floppy drive connected by a ribbon cable and power cable

Before designing a PCB, I find it always helps to first produce a solid prototype. In this case using a mixture of stripboard and wire-wrap construction methods.

#Stripboard #Veroboard #Perfboard #Electronics #Maker
[17/04/2020]

Planning on creating an #enclosure for my #diysynth #perfboard modules.
I'll use 5mm transparent #polystyrene for the body, and 2mm #aluminium for the front panel.
Here is a crude #prototype done in #cardboard.
I'll have to unsolder the #potentiometers and #LEDs to place them on the panel. The audio jacks will be connected to the pin headers.
#modular #synthesizer #crafting

the cardboard prototype of the enclosure. the potentiometers and audio jacks are not spread out evenly due to the soft material.

After fixing it, I decided to test it. It is connected in place of the step sequencer. It seems to have a small issue with triggering, sometimes causing the sample and hold to resample when releasing the key. Have to look into this.
Here is a short demo of me pressing some buttons: https://makertube.net/w/g88KJst76crKDDJeDxx4QN
#diysynth #synthesizer #perfboard

photo of my test setup with everything connected, except the step sequencer

Demo of my Keyboard input

https://makertube.net/videos/watch/7a78109a-cede-4ddf-87ec-bcf81a9b47a2

Finished #soldering the #perfboard yesterday. Sadly, it didn't work as intended. Now comes the fun part — analyzing and fault finding. Already fixed one of the issues by replacing a #capacitor with a bigger one. Now the trigger and gate are generated correctly, but the output buffer for them are constantly high. The sample and hold for the CV outputs worked from the beginning.
#diysynth #keyboard #OpAmps

the finished board with all opamps in the sockets and the key perfboard attached. sadly it didn't "just work" at once

the board is lying on the table with power and key board connected and switches on. the trigger and gate LEDs are constantly on. next to it is an oscilloscope with the probe's ground reference connected to one of the pins. I'm trying to spot the error in the output buffer of trigger and gate

More #soldering done. All components are placed now, only have to do a few connections and jumper wires. I really notice how I'm improving.
Also, the return of the dancing #transistors, this time two #JFET.
#diysynth #perfboard #dancingtransistors

top side of the fully populated perfboard. power connector is at the left, key board connector top left, CV outputs on the right side, and the gate and trigger outputs with LEDs to the bottom right

bottom view of the perfboard showing the soldering

closeup of the dancing JFETs, not glued together this time

closeup detail of the bottom side showing some of the soldering

Today's #soldering progress on my single buss 1V/oct keyboard, the controller part. Only missing the electrolytic and poly capacitors, some wiring and connectors.

Schematics from #MFOS:
https://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/SINGLEBUSSKEYBOARD2007/SINGLEBUSSKEYBOARD2007.php

I did the key part for one octave previously, and modified the schematic for the parts I have available. The key part will be chainable, so I can add more octaves if everything works fine.

#perfboard #diysynth

top side of the unfinished controller board for the keyboard. almost all components are inserted

the previously finished key part spanning one octave. it can be chained to more boards like this to create a larger range. it only consists of buttons, resistors, and pin headers

back side of the key part showing the soldering

Today's #soldering project done: a #mixer with three inputs using a #TL072 #opamp. I have a layout planned for a slightly bigger #perfboard with four to six inputs.
#diysynth

the finished board with connected cables.

the back of the board showing the soldering

comparison of the finished board and the prototype on the solderless breadboard (which has four inputs)

Today's #soldering project: six step expansion #perfboard for the #sequencer - now I can make use of all 10 steps.
One of the switches was defective and I had to replace it after soldering.
#electronics #diysynth

finished perfboard for the six steps. it consists of six potentiometers, six switches, and six LEDs.

bottom of the perfboard showing the soldering

@mixal
Here is the #schematics done in #KiCad, as well as the "PCB" layout used for the #perfboard and the 3D rendering.
I chose 1µF and 100nF for the caps, smaller being the faster one.
It was inspired heavily by the design of SoundBender found here: https://soundbender36.wordpress.com/2019/12/28/36-synthetiseur-modulaire-diy-dual-lfo/
#diysynth

The last module of my #diysynth that I had on breadboard is now soldered to a #perfboard. It's a #LFO with triangle and square wave output, with shape #potentiometer that changes the triangle wave towards sawtooth or ramp, and the duty cycle of the square wave between 5% and 95%.
It has two speed settings with 0.12 to 5.3 Hz, or 1/80th to 0.5 Hz frequency. I might build a second one with different capacitors for higher frequencies.
#soldering #synthesizer #oscillator #electronics

the finished LFO module. it has two potentiometers for rate and shape, a switch for high or low setting, and two outputs, for triangle and square. in the middle is the TL072 OpAmp and a trimmer for adjustments. the LED is driven by the triangle wave

back side of the board showing the soldering. the LED is shining through

oscilloscope showing the output of the triangle wave with shape pot turned to both extremes. on the left a ramp wave, on the right a sawtooth wave. the edges are almost perfect

oscilloscope showing the square wave with the shape pot turned to both extremes. it goes from 95% duty cycle on the lefy to 5% on the right

Finished #soldering my #VCO #perfboard. It is calibrated to 1V/Octave and outputs sawtooth, square/pulse, and triangle waveforms.
The heart is a #CD40106, using only one of the inverted Schmitt triggers. I tried adding more, but couldn't fit them properly. Maybe if I left out the triangle wave output, which would remove the upper #TL074.
My power supply board is getting full, I should add a few more sockets.
Demo video: https://makertube.net/w/bxShHoDY5cCP7krbjnFgh8
#diysynth #waveform

the finished VCO from the top, fully populated and labeled. the pin header to the left is the CV input, the pin headers to the right are the three outputs for the different waveforms.
at the bottom there are three potentiometers, for coarse tuning, fine tuning, and the pulse width of the square wave.

the bottom of the board.l, showing the soldering. I'm quite happy with the result, even if I had to redo a part to the right due to an error in the schematics. thankfully there was enough space to fix it.

the dual rail power supply board with all modules used in the demo video plugged in. the dual supply socckets are all used, just two single supply sockets are free.

oh no! how could this happen... I made a mistake when transferring my hand-drawn #schematics into #KiCad. Needless to say, the circuit doesn't work as intended.
Thankfully, it only affects a sparsly populated area on the #perfboard and I can fix it by cutting two wires and doing a bit of re-routing. doesn't even require a jumper wire.
#soldering #electronics

hand-drawn schematic. the 1,5k resistor and the trimmer pot are placed between the base of the PNP transistor and ground.

the schematic after transferring it into KiCad. now the 1,5k resistor and trimmer pot are placed between the collector and -12V.

the pcb layout with the required changes. red connections need to be removed, and green connections added.

I call them the #dancing #transistor pair... #superglued together and middle leg of one crosses into the hole of a side leg of the other one.
#electronics #perfboard #soldering

#perfboard

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