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GB -- "VU Meter Amplifier" PCB

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Hello Jackinnj,
great idea for the project. I will be interested as well in getting a few boards. I hope they are going to be available soon.

I would like to know what type of meters we should be looking for? Volt meters, amp meters or specificly VU meters? I made some calls and learned that VU meters are built differently from lets say voltmeter or amp meter in the terms of ballistic - the way needle moves and speed. Logically VU meters would be best, but I would conclude many people will try to use what they have or eBay where not soo many VU meters are available, so it will be very helpfull to know what to look for. If voltmeter or amp meter is OK what maximum Voltage or Amps they should be made for?

I also would like to know if it is possible to convert or use your boards as a Wattmeter, as I am planning in using it on the amp. In my mind VU meter and peak meter are much more usefull in the preamp area so in the amp wattmeter would be great.

Here is a good resource for new meters in US:
http://www.meterdistributor.com/index.htm
I spoke with tech support and they are great to deal with.

I am lookingg for BIG meter, something like 6" wide, so all that I am finding are meters for hunreds of Volts or Amps. I would appreciate your guidance on this subject very much.

Thank you
AR2
 
Here is the meter for serious analog meter lovers.
 

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I hope Jackinnj is out of his jam at work. Jack I sent you email with some questions, and I do not know if you have received it.
I decided to go ahead and order parts so I could do assembly point to point. I will order smaller meter just for testing and than if it works well I will go for big one.
In submitted article, it is mentioned that this volume meter is meant to be used with typical 100 W amp. What if amp is much bigger? Do we need to add some voltage divider or that could be done through the circuit, or meter should be changed for higher voltage.
Does anyone knows what replacement diodes to use instead of ones in schematics:
D1 MBR0520 and D2 CMPD6263S? These are surface mount and I would like to substitute them for through hole for point to point wiring.
This would be a really good project for surface mount devices, as the size of board could be much smaller, and there are really not too many parts.
AR2
 
Unfortunately not too much activity in this tread.
I completed this circuit by doing point to point wireing on small proto board. I got small 10V AC Voltmeter just for testing purpose. The circuit works well, but I am not sure that meter is the right choice. I still have to calibrate meter for the max and min movement as explained earlier by Jacinnj. The movement is what I am not too happy about. Niedle moves rapidly, and is very sensitive (easily reaches max) but has a lot of inertion. That results in the niedle rocking left and rigt with no signal until it setles. I do not know if the problem is that voltmeters are not made to have a fast movenmet and maybe I would need VU meter to test.
If anyone else made a test please post your experience, partcularly on meter movement.
Thank you
AR2
 
this is one of the protos I got back -- i think that it can be dimensioned to about 3 inches on the X-Axis -- I am still not done checking them out -- apologies to Linear Tech -- but I used an LM319 dual comparator for two channels. Two of the linear devices would fit in about the same space.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
I designed my first two sided board from the schematic by Jon Munson and Jackinni at the beginning of this thread.

I was hoping that someone who is familiar with Eagle could give it a look-over for accuracy, clearances, etc., also a little help on setting up the Gerber files as well before I send it out for a prototype. I pretty much followed the components as illustrated at the beginning of this thread and created a new package/device for the IHSM-7832 SMD inductor. The MBR0520 (D3 and D4) diodes are a sod-123 package zener; I just didn’t want to design a new component for this (borrowed the correct config. from the library) and the CPMD6263S (which reads as a BAS 40-04) is correct as well. The board measures 4” X 3 1/4”.

Here is the .brd file and some pics…

Stan
 

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I am also interested.

jackinnj said:
ok, I am sending out for some prototypes -- i.e. without silkscreen to make sure that they work as planned -- the footprint is 4" x 2" ( x y ) -- the dual comparator is an LM319 -- the final will have silkscreen.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


I am also interested

With blue leds
 
well, I don't know if you will be happy with LED's -- the capacitor C6 has to discharge -- the discharge time depends upon the "ohms per volt" of the meter -- here's what the charge/discharge time looks like with a 1k resistor on C6 -- this is simmed -- i am havin a little difficulty getting the real protos of the boards to work:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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