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DIY Effects


JackLondon

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 07/07/2022 at 12:21, Groove Harder said:

How long does it take for the PCB's from Effects Layouts to arrive from the States?

Ordered on 5th, arrived today. Not too bad given the state of the planet... 

 

Probably be a year before I even look at them though! 

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Questions for any UK DIYers who design/use their own PCBs...

1. What design package do you use, and 2. where do you get them made? I understand there are quite a few prototype mfrs. out there, could do with some recommendations.

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11 minutes ago, rmorris said:

 

re ECAD software are you looking at freeware/shareware ; low budget ; or 'professional' ?

Ideally freeware/shareware, certainly to start with. I'm only dipping a toe in the water ATM.

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The thing with ECAD software is that different people like different approaches.

And Library Management is a big factor once you get beyond simple circuits with ready made generic 'parts'.

KiCad has quite a following including some people doing top quality audio stuff.

EasyEDA is worth a look. Cloud based. I know someone who does Arduino utility boards using it and sells on eBay.

DesignSpark 'from RS' is also worth a look. Same design house that produces the low cost EasyPC and more professionall Pulsonix.

Also Altium Circuitmaker worth a look - note that the default with this is that content is shared with other users although you can have five 'private' projects I believe.

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10 hours ago, bartelby said:

I really like KiCAD
https://www.kicad.org

 

Bit of a learning curve, but then there is with all stuff like this...

I settled on KiCAD quite a while ago, it is immensely better and easier to deal with these days.

 

For board fabrication in the US I tend to use OSHPark or Digikey, but JLCPCB works fine for less critical stuff for me and for bigger boards it saves a ton of money.

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11 hours ago, bartelby said:

I really like KiCAD
https://www.kicad.org

 

Bit of a learning curve, but then there is with all stuff like this...

 

34 minutes ago, Passinwind said:

I settled on KiCAD quite a while ago, it is immensely better and easier to deal with these days.

 

I've downloaded KiCAD and have been having a play. Drawing a schematic was very straightforward, but it's going to take me a while to work out how to untangle the resulting rats-nest on the PCB :lol:

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33 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

I've downloaded KiCAD and have been having a play. Drawing a schematic was very straightforward, but it's going to take me a while to work out how to untangle the resulting rats-nest on the PCB :lol:

Yeah. That’s the learning curve bit. 😁

 

I’d just got the hang of it before I had to shelve the  project I was working on. Now I’m back to square one with it.

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8 hours ago, Rich said:

 

I've downloaded KiCAD and have been having a play. Drawing a schematic was very straightforward, but it's going to take me a while to work out how to untangle the resulting rats-nest on the PCB :lol:

There's an "expand" or "explode" function that'll more or less take care of that for you.

 

While drawing a schematic is pretty simple, there are some less than obvious things needed to make it all work properly. You need power ports connected to various supply voltages, for starters. Be sure to run the design rules checker, it will generally catch that sort of stuff. 😉

 

And as with many of these tools, library management makes a big difference in ease of use. I do many component footprints myself and a logical set of naming conventions when I started out would have saved a lot of later grief.

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1 hour ago, Passinwind said:

And as with many of these tools, library management makes a big difference in ease of use. I do many component footprints myself and a logical set of naming conventions when I started out would have saved a lot of later grief.

 

Yeah, naming conventions of footprints and symbols is a biggie. Several times I've had to start from scratch as I've forgotten what I've called things

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not an effect circuit but I just received these from JLCPCB, took about two and a half weeks from order to delivery and cost about a tenner for five boards at this size, that’s using the cheapest shipping and VAT etc inclusive. 
 

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Being a fan of the Yamaha NE-1 parametric eq but having stupidly owned two and sold both, I’ve just ordered a clone kit from Germany https://www.musikding.de/NE_04-bass-preamp-kit and I’m going to have a go at assembling this myself. This will be my first attempt so who knows the outcome but I’ll keep you guys and girls updated on here for the comedy value if nothing else.

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8 minutes ago, JPJ said:

Being a fan of the Yamaha NE-1 parametric eq but having stupidly owned two and sold both, I’ve just ordered a clone kit from Germany https://www.musikding.de/NE_04-bass-preamp-kit and I’m going to have a go at assembling this myself. This will be my first attempt so who knows the outcome but I’ll keep you guys and girls updated on here for the comedy value if nothing else.

 That's a pretty good choice for your first kit actually, not too complicated and schalltechniks documentation is very good for beginners - just do what the nice german man says and you should be fine.

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