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"The Wiener" TPA3118 amplifier card

Looks good...
I installed the TPA backwards on the 2nd board (that's gonna be a fun rework job...)
I read a trick from Elektor mag, to remove a TSSOP (TPA) or pqfp. I tried it, works great. I used two Weller soldering irons or a big one if you have it. Take some bare solid 18AWG Cu wire. straighten, and form/run wire along the first row, bend 90 at the end of the first row. Leave a little over hang on both ends. Form so that wire has about ~2cm height, fold back to opposite side & corner, run along other side of leads, cut to fit. straighten, flatten against pins. Looks like a cone when done. You want the wire to be up tight against the place where the leads bend to form the solder land area.
Pre-tin pin area of copper, put on spot, allow solder to flow to all the pins, off she goes. I do not even bother with my hot air machine for dual in lines any more. Works good for dips, just heat up from the back side. Some solder wick to clean up the pads and and leads, off you go to put it in correctly.
Now you have another addition to your test jig :)
Waiting to hear about the power up happenings
 
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Looks nice! Great to see the speedy progress.

The PCBs look like they are of nice quality. How are they in person?
They're about the standard experience I have with chinese board shops.

Bit of silkscreen misalignment that varies from board to board, and there's a bit of copper shrinkage (TPA pads are 0.3mm wide in the design, looks 0.25mm or a little less eyeballing it). So far I've only opened a small pack of boards, as I get into more boards I'll see if anything's different.

FRYING PAN WORKED! Worked extremely well and didn't damage the PCB at all. I did yank off the TPA, 78L05, AVR, 10uF caps and lots of other things to salvage but I'm wishing I only took the TPA off.
 
Here is a pic of the IC remover gadget, nice to hear about the skillet removal method as well.
So you put the pcb in the fry pan and set the temp for around medium, #4-6/10?
 

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Here is a pic of the IC remover gadget, nice to hear about the skillet removal method as well.
So you put the pcb in the fry pan and set the temp for around medium, #4-6/10?
Probably #3. That's my "overclocked" burner though, the stove runs off propane but I've got a natural gas jet in that spot that flows about 60% more. Great for searing things :)

Anyway, update:

- Card #1 works! Took a bit of time to get the microcontroller code working. Never knew going to sleep starts an ADC conversion on the ATTiny13A part, that little detail tripped me up for hours...

- Soldered-TPA test jig works! Got TPA's installed on 6 cards so far, all tested/working.

Now to start building cards...
 
Ah, much faster dwell time with gas than with electric. I use FAO for both heat and hot water, so stuck with an electric stove.
Good to hear about successful bring up.
Now down to the monkey work = soldering
I have never used ATtiny13A, only ATtiny2313, for a IR remote Tx, that I put to sleep until a key pressed/int, not sure of how much difference between the two. Strange/un-predictable behavior none the less.
Cheers
 
To get started, the card is 50x100mm. The mounting holes in the 4 corners are 4mm from the edges (eg, they're at (4,4), (96,4), (4, 46), (96, 46) ) with a 3.2mm diameter drill size and 6mm diameter pad.

Card's 1.6mm thick, tallest part on the board is the 20mm electrolytic. The thermal pad is 4.5mm thick, I suggest using a 1/8" (3.25mm) or 3.5mm standoff as the thermal pad will compress somewhat. Thermal pad dimensions are 25x25mm. Terminal blocks are 5mm spacing (power/audio out) and 3.5mm (control/audio in) and are centered along the board edge.

I'll get the terminal block inset and part #, center location for the TPA/thermal pad, etc... together tonight.
 
Whoops, forgot to look up the terminal block stuff last night.

Right now I've got 1 completed 4 ohm card, and 18 cards (the 1D14A-100M cutoff line in the buyer list) populated with almost full SMT - Mouser was out of stock on the 4 position DIP switch and the pot.

cogitech, I made an error adding up output filter kits, so you've got a 4 ohm amp available with the ICE Components filter :)
 
When I do 1/10th of that I catch myself talking to the little bastards and dreaming about them :)
It's not too bad, actually. If you've got good tools you don't hate using (I borrowed a Metcal station from work for this job) and some good music playing, and you've got a good system going, you get "into the groove" and it's actually kinda enjoyable to bang out the boards.

We've got ladies on the production line at work that do this stuff 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If they can do it, no reason I can't.
 
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We've got ladies on the production line at work that do this stuff 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If they can do it, no reason I can't.

What's the (CDN) payscale for that type of work, if you don't mind me asking? I'm not curious about this group buy pricing (more than happy to have payed what I did) but more interested because I may be making a career change in the future and I have discovered that I really enjoy soldering.
 
What's the (CDN) payscale for that type of work, if you don't mind me asking? I'm not curious about this group buy pricing (more than happy to have payed what I did) but more interested because I may be making a career change in the future and I have discovered that I really enjoy soldering.
If you're starting out with a production line job here in NS, I'd say a few bucks more than minimum wage, dunno how things are on your side of the country.

If you can afford it or get a student loan for it, and seeing your knowledge and curiosity of electronics, I'd almost suggest looking at an EET diploma. Our techs here do hand soldering of prototypes, PCB layouts, running tests, doing chemistry work, and all sorts of other weird/interesting things.
 
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If you're starting out with a production line job here in NS, I'd say a few bucks more than minimum wage, dunno how things are on your side of the country.

If you can afford it or get a student loan for it, and seeing your knowledge and curiosity of electronics, I'd almost suggest looking at an EET diploma. Our techs here do hand soldering of prototypes, PCB layouts, running tests, doing chemistry work, and all sorts of other weird/interesting things.

Thanks for the info and thoughts, Gary. That'd be an unsustainable drop in income for me, but perhaps I will look into that EET diploma. Something useful to add to the list of credentials that I rarely use. :)

Getting excited to hear the Wiener!
 
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