Re: PCBs
As always, Angshu buys foot-long heatsinks from Delhi, black anodised, for Rs.100, at a fraction of what I buy them for. And I don't know what you mean by "no replies", because Visha and Precious both stock heatsinks, and I've bought at least half a dozen large heatsinks from Visha by now.
Tarun
I've asked my friend to send you the files. I couldn't send them because Yahoo does not allow the sender to attach a file larger than 3MB (after encoding). My friend sent you the file (part 2) in front of me, about ten days ago. He has not received any reply from you after that, so I assumed you've received it.peterpan73 said:
I have used long large ones with fins, black anodised. One section I've seen has a base 100mm wide, and base-to-fin height of about 32mm. This one is about Rs.16 per cm length. A piece 12 inches long will then be about Rs.450-480 or so. There's another section with longer, more slender fins, which is about Rs.20 per cm, I think. Their biggest section has a base about seven and a half inches wide, and fins of about 25-30mm height. That one is between Rs.25 and 30 per cm.
As always, Angshu buys foot-long heatsinks from Delhi, black anodised, for Rs.100, at a fraction of what I buy them for. And I don't know what you mean by "no replies", because Visha and Precious both stock heatsinks, and I've bought at least half a dozen large heatsinks from Visha by now.
Tarun
The story of drivers from Peerless India
I used whatever contacts I had to contact Peerless India. I reached a certain Mr.Ajay, who I think is part of the team that manages the company. I had one phone conversation with him. He was very courteous, and patiently answered all my questions. The gist of what he said:
That, in short is the Peerless story. According to Ajay, all Peerless India drivers available anywhere in Lamington Road are all from Jeetubhai and Jeetubhai alone. Apparently Chaudhury Trading used to stock these drivers directly from Peerless India, but does not do so any more.
Ajay had heard of Madisound.com, and shared my lament at the tiny or non-existent local market for good components for DIY and amateur builders in India. Ah, well, at least he's heard of Madisound.
Tarun
I used whatever contacts I had to contact Peerless India. I reached a certain Mr.Ajay, who I think is part of the team that manages the company. I had one phone conversation with him. He was very courteous, and patiently answered all my questions. The gist of what he said:
- They are totally independent of Peerless Denmark. Therefore, if there's a speaker model on the Peerless Denmark Website, don't even ask Peerless India about it, because there is no connection between the two. Good to hear it from the horse's mouth. Therefore, henceforth, please do not speculate about why there is a Danish-sounding word (Fabrikkerne) in the HTML title of the index page of their Website, or why they mention "Danish technology" when talking about their work on their homepage. Just don't.
- They make speakers for large orders only. They don't have any process or mechanism to sell to retailers directly.
- The models contained on their Website are all, in a sense, a sample showcase. They don't have any connection to models in manufacture right now. Therefore, don't pick a model from their Website and ask them "can I buy four of those?" They may not have made that model in the last five years. I guess their Website just serves as a kind of showcase of capabilities for their customers who place job-work orders on them.
- Now the nice part. There is one gentleman, Jeetubhai, who has a cellphone (98211 61535) on which you can call him. He picks up the surplus stock of any production runs that Peerless India may have, and sells them in the local market. This means, of course, that a particular model of driver may be available once from Jeetubhai, and never again if you look a few years later. It's a seller's market, and since no model or brand loyalty is being set up for the Indian buyer, there is no commitment to re-supply the same items. But if you want 'em, you can have 'em, from Jeetu bhai.
- If you want to know what Peerless India drivers are available, it is best that you contact Jeetubhai, not Peerless India. Because it's Jeetubhai's stock which you will get. And if, after you get a model from him, you want to know what the T/S parameters for it are, you can call Mr.Ajay. I forget his phone number, but I can find out. Or I guess you can find out from Jeetubhai.
I specifically asked him "Won't it be a bother if I and some of my friends begin calling you up and asking you the details of some driver or other? Can you give me a pointer to someone else in your office?" And he clearly said, "No, that's not a problem. Actually, no one else in my office will know about these things, and I can afford to take these calls, so please ask your friends to call me." Very nice of him.
That, in short is the Peerless story. According to Ajay, all Peerless India drivers available anywhere in Lamington Road are all from Jeetubhai and Jeetubhai alone. Apparently Chaudhury Trading used to stock these drivers directly from Peerless India, but does not do so any more.
Ajay had heard of Madisound.com, and shared my lament at the tiny or non-existent local market for good components for DIY and amateur builders in India. Ah, well, at least he's heard of Madisound.
Tarun
Custom-made knobs
I met Mr.Valecha yesterday, and checked with him about getting a very small quantity of custom-made knobs made. I was discussing the possibility of getting something like 20 knobs, each of 50mm or 63mm diameter (i.e. cut from 2" or 2.5" bar stock), maybe 1" or 1.5" tall, and finished in hard anodised clear aluminium colour, with a fine grainy texture (looks like matte finish, not the hard shiny metallic finish). Internal shaft diameter of 6mm or 6.2mm (quarter-inch). He can't give me a price yet, but it'll probably be of the order of Rs.300 each. Very rough estimate.
I've seen the finish of one of his other knobs, which he has a stock of about a hundred of (I'd written about this knob in an earlier post.) I was asking him about getting the new knobs made to have the same finish as those ones, so that I could use the custom-made big knob for a volume control and the smaller ones for everything else (input selector, balance, tone controls). They'd have identical appearance, surface texture, colour and finish.
Would you guys be interested in such knobs? If you've ever looked for very well-made good knobs, you know how hard they are to find, worldwide. I can go ahead only if I get some others to pool in. I have no need for 20 knobs just for myself, and all my DIY friends here put together will probably be able to absorb five or six of these, not more.
Tarun
PS: He has about a hundred of the smaller knobs with him. I'm picking up 20. You can ask him for the rest. He said he'll charge me Rs.40 per knob. Once I get them (tomorrow; they're being marked with a "dot" for a position marker now), I'll go looking for someone who can click a good picture of it, so that I can post it here. They're absolute beauties, with 6mm shaft diameters, finished as I described above.
I met Mr.Valecha yesterday, and checked with him about getting a very small quantity of custom-made knobs made. I was discussing the possibility of getting something like 20 knobs, each of 50mm or 63mm diameter (i.e. cut from 2" or 2.5" bar stock), maybe 1" or 1.5" tall, and finished in hard anodised clear aluminium colour, with a fine grainy texture (looks like matte finish, not the hard shiny metallic finish). Internal shaft diameter of 6mm or 6.2mm (quarter-inch). He can't give me a price yet, but it'll probably be of the order of Rs.300 each. Very rough estimate.
I've seen the finish of one of his other knobs, which he has a stock of about a hundred of (I'd written about this knob in an earlier post.) I was asking him about getting the new knobs made to have the same finish as those ones, so that I could use the custom-made big knob for a volume control and the smaller ones for everything else (input selector, balance, tone controls). They'd have identical appearance, surface texture, colour and finish.
Would you guys be interested in such knobs? If you've ever looked for very well-made good knobs, you know how hard they are to find, worldwide. I can go ahead only if I get some others to pool in. I have no need for 20 knobs just for myself, and all my DIY friends here put together will probably be able to absorb five or six of these, not more.
Tarun
PS: He has about a hundred of the smaller knobs with him. I'm picking up 20. You can ask him for the rest. He said he'll charge me Rs.40 per knob. Once I get them (tomorrow; they're being marked with a "dot" for a position marker now), I'll go looking for someone who can click a good picture of it, so that I can post it here. They're absolute beauties, with 6mm shaft diameters, finished as I described above.
About knobs and PCBs
Hey Tarun,
Good find there knobs et al. Yes indeed.. why not I will definitely pool in if I like them first. I use these cheap plastic knobs for my homebrew live sound equipment and anything better is a yes yes!! So send me those pics and I'll send you the dough. About your long write up in PCB making and those great looking pics... well its not different from what I do chromolin film exposure, stencil making and squegee run down with non-etch inks, manual hole drilling.... but I skip the masking stage thats all. HOwever I must admit that Image's quality from the pics you've posted that we've seen is in my opinion apparently 30% better than what I can do at home - especially the solder masking. Would post the pics after I'm done with my amp project.
You didnt mention to which account. If its the sddigiconsolution.com account then I will have to wait as the email servers are being cleaned up or so I'm told by my ISP till next month, if its the mickeyevents.com account then OK I will have to ask my hosting Inc how I can retrieve mail from there. If its into yahoo which I check everyday and most user friendly of all then I simply haven't got it yet. So please let me know which one. Anyways thats for the great effort mate.
If that is true, then it only sums up to one other thing- they dont sell out station or the emails and snail mail I sent did'nt reach them.
Hey Angshu ... he let the cat out of the bag.. if thats true then you have to help me get them or at the very least point me to those who can .... by mail order!! Hey I don't mind paying a bit extra for all that hardwork OK!! I understand you will have to lose time not to mention money in getting those things for me.Is that from Lajpat Rai Market, Bhagirath Palace kinda locale.??
I hope you guys here can empathise with my problems I am so fed up with my water cooled heatsinks.... they take a lot of time (and money) to make and I have to invest on a lot of equipment to get my DIY going.
Patrick
Hey Tarun,
Good find there knobs et al. Yes indeed.. why not I will definitely pool in if I like them first. I use these cheap plastic knobs for my homebrew live sound equipment and anything better is a yes yes!! So send me those pics and I'll send you the dough. About your long write up in PCB making and those great looking pics... well its not different from what I do chromolin film exposure, stencil making and squegee run down with non-etch inks, manual hole drilling.... but I skip the masking stage thats all. HOwever I must admit that Image's quality from the pics you've posted that we've seen is in my opinion apparently 30% better than what I can do at home - especially the solder masking. Would post the pics after I'm done with my amp project.
You didnt mention to which account. If its the sddigiconsolution.com account then I will have to wait as the email servers are being cleaned up or so I'm told by my ISP till next month, if its the mickeyevents.com account then OK I will have to ask my hosting Inc how I can retrieve mail from there. If its into yahoo which I check everyday and most user friendly of all then I simply haven't got it yet. So please let me know which one. Anyways thats for the great effort mate.
If that is true, then it only sums up to one other thing- they dont sell out station or the emails and snail mail I sent did'nt reach them.
Hey Angshu ... he let the cat out of the bag.. if thats true then you have to help me get them or at the very least point me to those who can .... by mail order!! Hey I don't mind paying a bit extra for all that hardwork OK!! I understand you will have to lose time not to mention money in getting those things for me.Is that from Lajpat Rai Market, Bhagirath Palace kinda locale.??
I hope you guys here can empathise with my problems I am so fed up with my water cooled heatsinks.... they take a lot of time (and money) to make and I have to invest on a lot of equipment to get my DIY going.
Patrick
About knobs and PCBs
Hey Tarun,
Good find there knobs et al. Yes indeed.. why not I will definitely pool in if I like them first. I use these cheap plastic knobs for my homebrew live sound equipment and anything better is a yes yes!! So send me those pics and I'll send you the dough. About your long write up in PCB making and those great looking pics... well its not different from what I do chromolin film exposure, stencil making and squegee run down with non-etch inks, manual hole drilling.... but I skip the masking stage thats all. HOwever I must admit that Image's quality from the pics you've posted that we've seen is in my opinion apparently 30% better than what I can do at home - especially the solder masking. Would post the pics after I'm done with my amp project.
I hope you guys here can empathise with my problems I am so fed up with my water cooled heatsinks.... they take a lot of time (and money) to make and I have to invest on a lot of equipment to get my DIY going.
Patrick
Hey Tarun,
Good find there knobs et al. Yes indeed.. why not I will definitely pool in if I like them first. I use these cheap plastic knobs for my homebrew live sound equipment and anything better is a yes yes!! So send me those pics and I'll send you the dough. About your long write up in PCB making and those great looking pics... well its not different from what I do chromolin film exposure, stencil making and squegee run down with non-etch inks, manual hole drilling.... but I skip the masking stage thats all. HOwever I must admit that Image's quality from the pics you've posted that we've seen is in my opinion apparently 30% better than what I can do at home - especially the solder masking. Would post the pics after I'm done with my amp project.
You didnt mention to which account. If its the sddigiconsolution.com account then I will have to wait as the email servers are being cleaned up or so I'm told by my ISP till next month, if its the mickeyevents.com account then OK I will have to ask my hosting Inc how I can retrieve mail from there. If its into yahoo which I check everyday and most user friendly of all then I simply haven't got it yet. So please let me know which one. Anyways thats for the great effort mate!!
If that is true, then it only sums up to one other thing- they dont sell out station or the emails and snail mail I sent did'nt reach them.
Hey Angshu ... he let the cat out of the bag.. if thats true then you have to help me get them or at the very least point me to those who can .... by mail order!! Hey I don't mind paying a bit extra for all that hardwork OK!! I understand you will have to lose time not to mention money in getting those things for me.Is that from Lajpat Rai Market, Bhagirath Palace kinda locale.??
I hope you guys here can empathise with my problems I am so fed up with my water cooled heatsinks.... they take a lot of time (and money) to make and I have to invest on a lot of equipment to get my DIY going.
Patrick
I usually don't believe much in God, but today I saw Corrson's website, looked heavenward and cried "YES!!!". Mom and Dad thought I went crazy... Thank you so much, Tarun, Vivek and everyone else! 
Anyway, here's one small contrib I can make to this: I remember seeing a box full of Philips "Class X" capacitors at a store called "Railton Electronics", SP Road, B'lore. Possibly worth a try. But then again, you have two alternatives:
a) Use caps meant for motor EMI suppression, they're rated for 230 V AC. I believe these are plastic film rolled capacitors.
b) Rely on the caps built into EMI suppression filters. You are using an EMI filter, aren't you?
Elcom makes decent ones, including ones with an in-built IEC connector, fuse holder and (optional) switch, like what Peter Daniel has made here. Expensive, but I think they're worth it.
So has anyone located a vendor for 19" cabinets in B'lore? All I found so far is a firm called Texonic Instruments, which sells a 2U height 19" box, but in ABS! Their other products are very good, from a company called Gainta. Good for non-audio stuff (I used an ABS box for an AVR programmer and for a small headphone amp). I will be on the lookout for workshops where you can dump a heap of aluminium and tell them what to do with it. Where I work, the mechanical engg. division has some amazing (read: 5-axis!
) CNC milling/drilling machines, but I haven't worked there long enough to get friendly with the operators.
On the topic of PCBs, most electronics engineering students from blr would have heard of Om Electronics, which serves as a front to some dude who makes one- and two-sided PCBs. I've got several PCBs made from him, he requires a printout of the layout. I believe he tins the PCB by coating it with flux and dipping it in a solder pot, because it always has a lump of solder along one edge. He does glass epoxy boards at a small premium (~20 bucks for an average board). Charges are ~100 bucks for a 4"x2.5" Glass Epoxy single sided board, no solder mask. I gave him an order last week for a two-sided board with PTH, solder masking on both sides and silk-screen on one side. His quote was ~850 bucks
so I dropped the silk screen layer to bump it down to 725. Still a lot, but I need the board to house two DSPs (AD1954... oh yeah! ) in TQFPs 
. The shop owner mentioned that the board cost is mostly for making films (four, in this case). He also mentioned that laser prints on transparency doesn't give sharp prints (which I've seen for myself). My DSP board uses track widths of 0.016" in some parts, and the TQFPs have a pitch of 0.025". Gulp! So far, I've only soldered SOICs.
Here's one source I'm not sure is as popular as it should be: SMD India. They operate out of an apartment in Shell Colony, Mumbai (boy did I have a hard time finding it in the rain!!!), and sell SMD components in small quantities. Why SMDs? Well, I dont know where you find E48 series resistors in leaded form, in quantities less than 500. These guys sell you E48 resistors (values like 3.74k) in small quantities (10 each). They also have C0G grade ceramic capacitors, useful for miller-compensation caps of power amps. C0G dielectric does not suffer from capacitance change with applied voltage or temperature. They also send stuff via courier, but I've never tried to ask them.
An aside: I met this guy at the SMDin shop/office/apartment, I forget his name, he seemed very interested in building miniature FM transmitters. Still in Engineering college. His enthu was kinda' inspiring. Just in case you're on DIYAudio, "Hey!"
Ok, it's 3 AM
I'll go to bed. What an exciting day!
Anyway, here's one small contrib I can make to this: I remember seeing a box full of Philips "Class X" capacitors at a store called "Railton Electronics", SP Road, B'lore. Possibly worth a try. But then again, you have two alternatives:
a) Use caps meant for motor EMI suppression, they're rated for 230 V AC. I believe these are plastic film rolled capacitors.
b) Rely on the caps built into EMI suppression filters. You are using an EMI filter, aren't you?
Elcom makes decent ones, including ones with an in-built IEC connector, fuse holder and (optional) switch, like what Peter Daniel has made here. Expensive, but I think they're worth it.So has anyone located a vendor for 19" cabinets in B'lore? All I found so far is a firm called Texonic Instruments, which sells a 2U height 19" box, but in ABS! Their other products are very good, from a company called Gainta. Good for non-audio stuff (I used an ABS box for an AVR programmer and for a small headphone amp). I will be on the lookout for workshops where you can dump a heap of aluminium and tell them what to do with it. Where I work, the mechanical engg. division has some amazing (read: 5-axis!
) CNC milling/drilling machines, but I haven't worked there long enough to get friendly with the operators.On the topic of PCBs, most electronics engineering students from blr would have heard of Om Electronics, which serves as a front to some dude who makes one- and two-sided PCBs. I've got several PCBs made from him, he requires a printout of the layout. I believe he tins the PCB by coating it with flux and dipping it in a solder pot, because it always has a lump of solder along one edge. He does glass epoxy boards at a small premium (~20 bucks for an average board). Charges are ~100 bucks for a 4"x2.5" Glass Epoxy single sided board, no solder mask. I gave him an order last week for a two-sided board with PTH, solder masking on both sides and silk-screen on one side. His quote was ~850 bucks
so I dropped the silk screen layer to bump it down to 725. Still a lot, but I need the board to house two DSPs (AD1954... oh yeah! ) in TQFPs . The shop owner mentioned that the board cost is mostly for making films (four, in this case). He also mentioned that laser prints on transparency doesn't give sharp prints (which I've seen for myself). My DSP board uses track widths of 0.016" in some parts, and the TQFPs have a pitch of 0.025". Gulp! So far, I've only soldered SOICs.Here's one source I'm not sure is as popular as it should be: SMD India. They operate out of an apartment in Shell Colony, Mumbai (boy did I have a hard time finding it in the rain!!!), and sell SMD components in small quantities. Why SMDs? Well, I dont know where you find E48 series resistors in leaded form, in quantities less than 500. These guys sell you E48 resistors (values like 3.74k) in small quantities (10 each). They also have C0G grade ceramic capacitors, useful for miller-compensation caps of power amps. C0G dielectric does not suffer from capacitance change with applied voltage or temperature. They also send stuff via courier, but I've never tried to ask them.
An aside: I met this guy at the SMDin shop/office/apartment, I forget his name, he seemed very interested in building miniature FM transmitters. Still in Engineering college. His enthu was kinda' inspiring. Just in case you're on DIYAudio, "Hey!"
Ok, it's 3 AM
I'll go to bed. What an exciting day!roadkill said:
Anyway, here's one small contrib I can make to this: I remember seeing a box full of Philips "Class X" capacitors at a store called "Railton Electronics", SP Road, B'lore. Possibly worth a try. But then again, you have two alternatives:
a) Use caps meant for motor EMI suppression, they're rated for 230 V AC. I believe these are plastic film rolled capacitors.
b) Rely on the caps built into EMI suppression filters. You are using an EMI filter, aren't you?
X-class caps are also available from universal electronics and Balaji electronics (which is next to UE). You'll have to try both because they don't have all the values. Incidentally, the last time I went to Balaji (about a year back IIRC) he said he had tubes! Didn't actually buy any, though.
Where's Texonic located? Also on SP road?
Where I work, the mechanical engg. division has some amazing (read: 5-axis!
Great! Maybe once you're on good terms with them, certain Bangaloreans will try to get on good terms with you
- Ashwin
IEC sockets with fuses
And IEC sockets with fuse holders (and fuses, incidentally) are available from Champion Rubber Stores for Rs.17 each. I bought five the other day. They seem more than good enough for any purposes I may have, but they are not gold plated or uranium coated.
Tarun
Why not just get them from RS India? They charge less than Rs.40 each, and are rated at 440VAC, which is much more safe than something rated just 230VAC. Rod Elliott warns against using X caps rated at just 250VAC, somewhere in one of his articles.roadkill said:
And IEC sockets with fuse holders (and fuses, incidentally) are available from Champion Rubber Stores for Rs.17 each. I bought five the other day. They seem more than good enough for any purposes I may have, but they are not gold plated or uranium coated.
I think Rs.850 for a DSPTH board with solder masking and legend printing is superb if it's for small quantities. To present it in the right perspective, you'll have to subtract the one-time cost of the films, which, in this case, will probably be Rs.400 or so. That leaves just Rs.425 for the PCBs. Beats all the int'l prices deeply-hollow.I gave him an order last week for a two-sided board with PTH, solder masking on both sides and silk-screen on one side. His quote was ~850 bucks
Don't even think about using anything but the Gerber-plotted films when doing a PCB with track widths of 12mil or less, or pad pitch of less than, say, 0.67" (which is the gaps in the famous LM38xx audio amp chips). Calculations are simple. 10mil is, in a sense, 100dpi. To draw 12mil wide tracks with precise and straight edges, you'll need a printer with a resolution of at least 2mil, preferably 1mil or better. Most mainstream laser printers do 600dpi. 500dpi is 2mil, so 600dpi is approximately 2mil. With your printer having that as its limiting resolution, and your paper probably reducing it quite a bit due to ink smudging etc, you'll never get real accuracy of the kind you need for thin tracks. Therefore, I treat the limit for laser-printed PCB layouts as 16mil tracks, and if I push it, I can pass one such track between two legs of a DIP IC. For SOIC or SMD, you need to go Gerber. Gerber photoplotters have an accuracy of 1mil, I'm told, which means that their actual pixel resolution (if such a term can be used for them) is probaby 0.1mil.
Tarun
Heatsinks and PCBs
Patrick,
I have not seen Tarun's heatsink, but I think they will have much lower thermal resistance than the 100 bucks heatsink I buy from Bhagirath place. These heatsinks are typically used in inverters etc. If you want I can send you some. I plan to measure it's thermal resistance sometime, but do not know when.
Afcoset in Bombay makes good heatsinks, but I cannot find then on the net. Long time back I used them a lot. They had a good catalog with termal resistance details. Tarun can you find out where they are hiding in Bombay.
PCB making.
Tarun's PCBs have come out really well I think the price is also very reasonable. I however feel the cost of film is bit high. If these guys accept bromides, them it will be good as I can get a pair of positive negative bromides made from block makers for 50 bucks. They accept 2x,4x plots so I do not think resolution should be any problem.
I have struggled a lot trying to make good home made PCBs, but finally settled for screen printing my self. I usually do single sided with legend printing, no solder mask. It's bit messy to do it at home, cleaning the screen is really a pain and time consuming, otherwise the final result is quite satisfying.
I take 1x images from my inkjet printer on translucent paper and it works pretty well.
Angshu
Patrick,
I have not seen Tarun's heatsink, but I think they will have much lower thermal resistance than the 100 bucks heatsink I buy from Bhagirath place. These heatsinks are typically used in inverters etc. If you want I can send you some. I plan to measure it's thermal resistance sometime, but do not know when.
Afcoset in Bombay makes good heatsinks, but I cannot find then on the net. Long time back I used them a lot. They had a good catalog with termal resistance details. Tarun can you find out where they are hiding in Bombay.
PCB making.
Tarun's PCBs have come out really well I think the price is also very reasonable. I however feel the cost of film is bit high. If these guys accept bromides, them it will be good as I can get a pair of positive negative bromides made from block makers for 50 bucks. They accept 2x,4x plots so I do not think resolution should be any problem.
I have struggled a lot trying to make good home made PCBs, but finally settled for screen printing my self. I usually do single sided with legend printing, no solder mask. It's bit messy to do it at home, cleaning the screen is really a pain and time consuming, otherwise the final result is quite satisfying.
I take 1x images from my inkjet printer on translucent paper and it works pretty well.
Angshu
Re: Sorry for the double post.
There's a dealer for Neutrik on Lamington Road in Mumbai. I'm heading down that side today, let's see if I can pull out contact info for you and whether they'll ship to the NE.
He seems to have a good collection, and prices aren't that bad. Gold plated RCA plugs are about 50 each, balanced 1/4s are about 70 bucks, and unbalanced 1/4s are 65 or so. He revers me since the day I walked into his shop and bought 4 grand worth of plugs and wire in one go to rig up my recording rig.
I saw speakons on a poster on his wall, dunno if he's got stock? I'll check!
There's a dealer for Neutrik on Lamington Road in Mumbai. I'm heading down that side today, let's see if I can pull out contact info for you and whether they'll ship to the NE.
He seems to have a good collection, and prices aren't that bad. Gold plated RCA plugs are about 50 each, balanced 1/4s are about 70 bucks, and unbalanced 1/4s are 65 or so. He revers me since the day I walked into his shop and bought 4 grand worth of plugs and wire in one go to rig up my recording rig.
I saw speakons on a poster on his wall, dunno if he's got stock? I'll check!
peterpan73 said:
Tarun,
I have made two boards using SOICs, 1206 and 0805 sized SMD packages through this guy by giving him laser prints. All traces were 0.016" (that makes it 16 mil? Sorry, I always forget) I have a 1200 dpi laser whose density setting I set to max. I'm only worried about some tiny white spots that appear in large dark areas such as ground planes and really wide traces (done in Eagle using polygons). Anyway, the DSP board requires finer pitch than an SOIC, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
At work, I have a Tektronix Phaser (also 1200 dpi) whose output is a much more rich, dark black. I've sent one PCB using a print from the Phaser, I've yet to get it back. No, it didn't use SMDs.
I'll try and attach an image of my SOIC boards. They came out very well indeed. Perhaps their being glass epoxy helped the traces stick to the board better.
Ashwin,
Tubes? TUBES??? Hmm... will check it out. Texonic is on Mandi Veerapa lane (same as the one where Universal is, perpendicular to SP rd). It's inside a building, so it may not be readily seen. They have a Gainta catalog from which you can pick enclosures. Or you can see their website which I found with some difficulty (google doesn't find it ) And yes, I will try to get to know the CNC operators. Just hope I don't get fired
Vivek,
Did you get an idea of other stuff Corrson has? Do they have stuff from Peerless Denmark too? I was interested in spending my hard earned money on a long-throw sub, which Vifa apparently doesn't have. Anyone care to correct me on this?
I have made two boards using SOICs, 1206 and 0805 sized SMD packages through this guy by giving him laser prints. All traces were 0.016" (that makes it 16 mil? Sorry, I always forget) I have a 1200 dpi laser whose density setting I set to max. I'm only worried about some tiny white spots that appear in large dark areas such as ground planes and really wide traces (done in Eagle using polygons). Anyway, the DSP board requires finer pitch than an SOIC, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
At work, I have a Tektronix Phaser (also 1200 dpi) whose output is a much more rich, dark black. I've sent one PCB using a print from the Phaser, I've yet to get it back. No, it didn't use SMDs.
I'll try and attach an image of my SOIC boards. They came out very well indeed. Perhaps their being glass epoxy helped the traces stick to the board better.
Ashwin,
Tubes? TUBES??? Hmm... will check it out. Texonic is on Mandi Veerapa lane (same as the one where Universal is, perpendicular to SP rd). It's inside a building, so it may not be readily seen. They have a Gainta catalog from which you can pick enclosures. Or you can see their website which I found with some difficulty (google doesn't find it
) And yes, I will try to get to know the CNC operators. Just hope I don't get fired Vivek,
Did you get an idea of other stuff Corrson has? Do they have stuff from Peerless Denmark too? I was interested in spending my hard earned money on a long-throw sub, which Vifa apparently doesn't have. Anyone care to correct me on this?
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Re: Sorry for the double post.
At the risk of recommending a supplier who you allege fleeces, you can look for the part number 3400958 on www.rsindia.com. Alternately, drill down from "Electrical" -> "Audio/Video" -> "Loudspeaker Connectors." And guess what? Unlike the others, RS will deliver by mail order. They even have people who can take a phone call and give you prices of any RS Stock Number item over the phone, instantly, and discuss delivery schedules, payment modes, etc. It's possible that part of the "fleecing" goes into running their superb encyclopaedic Website and providing this customer service?peterpan73 said:
Yes, with a 1200 dpi laser printer, you can do a little more. Yes, 0.016" is 16 milli-inches, i.e. 16mil. I saw the PCB layouts you've done. They look lovely. But with layouts like this, I agree a laser printer should be adequate quite often. 16mil is quite easy to handle, specially if you have a 1200dpi printer and a fresh toner cartridge. Your PCB layouts are actually quite straightforward, without tracks passing too close to other pads/tracks, etc. If you needed to take a track through two SMD pins, you'd have had a tough time, I suspect.roadkill said:
And if a laser printout on tracing sheet does not do the job, get a bromide made as Angshu does. That bromide is much less expensive than a Gerber photoplot; it needs much less expensive equipment to make it, I guess.
Visha in Bombay makes very serviceable bromides, with very sharp edges and good contrast, from laser printouts on ordinary white paper. I've got those bromides made many times. Those bromides will be more than good enough to make the screens from, I think. The only problem with them may be that they may not last as long as the Gerber photoplots do, with repeated usage. But then, getting fresh bromides made is not very expensive.I gave a laser printout on tracing sheet to Mr.Subramaniam three days ago. He called yesterday saying that he's tried making screens from that sheet, and it's not coming out well.. too much light is passing through the black areas on my printout. I knew my printer's toner was heading for end-of-life, so I put in a new toner and took a fresh set of printouts, and sent them to him today. Let's see what he says tomorrow. And these are very undemanding PCBs, with wide component spacing, 24mil or wider tracks, and all discrete components, on a single-sided PCB. (It's the PCB for a Randy Slone power amp.)
So, I guess the printer's black saturation and ink transfer all play a part, not just resolution. But in any case, Angshu's approach is an excellent low-cost via-media. You take a printout on paper and get a bromide made... it's always worked for me. The bromide chemical is hugely high-contrast, so even a not-so-rich-black printout translates to a very rich black bromide.
Tarun
Re: Re: Sorry for the double post.
Can you please let us know the name, physical location, and address of this shop? Would help. Is it on the ground floor bang opposite the police station, and does he have a lot of cable sections displayed in his showcases? If yes, that's the chap with whom I've seen Neutrik RCA plugs too. I think it's in the same building which houses Visha on the 1st floor.sangram said:
About Neutrik Speakons
Sangram,
You know its so very nice of you to do that. If you can find the connectors for me,(NL4MP-UC, NL4FC) do let me know how much they will cost. Sheesh! had I known all this time that they were available in India I would'nt have imported them. I'm crossing my fingers hoping they would be available(after u check them out) and of the same kind- Not like the Peerless problem in the other thread.
I hope you know how they look like. In case u don't This is how they look!!
Patrick
Sangram,
You know its so very nice of you to do that. If you can find the connectors for me,(NL4MP-UC, NL4FC) do let me know how much they will cost. Sheesh! had I known all this time that they were available in India I would'nt have imported them. I'm crossing my fingers hoping they would be available(after u check them out) and of the same kind- Not like the Peerless problem in the other thread.
I hope you know how they look like. In case u don't This is how they look!!
Patrick
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Tarun,
Don't get me wrong, but as a Farnell distributor in North East India, I know what value is all about. Unlike Farnell however RS components do indeed less for certain items aside from the low MOQ advantage that RS offers. Although most of these Incs provide us with really good components from reputed brands, contributing to the 'low noise factor' in our DIY gear, for some components, I really don't see much difference in quality. Take for example this very expensive RS long nose plier owed by a friend of mine here that he had claimed to have bought from Delhi for Rs.400+. I mean I was surprised to see rust all over it a tell tale sign that my friend had not used it for a couple of years. I was more surprised when a few hundred pieces of the same pliers he had bought landed up in my small shop which I had ordered from a Chinese firm. The built looks like a cloned copy of the RS plier. Either the Chinese firm stole the molds from RS or the other way round... whatever but I realised that the unsold Chinese pliers that were in my shop haven't gathered rust yet. Its over a year now. I have no other way to explain this phenomenon and therefore had to infer that this must be the same molds with different metal castings.
Anyway that was exemplary of RS. Imagine what they could do with other things in their inventory.
By the way did I tell you that I sell these nice Chinese pliers (cloned from RS) for Rs.50 only a pair. Now thats a Rs.350 + difference we pay extra for using RS search engines and a nice encyclopaedia. If you think thats money well spent... I have no qualms whatsoever. Like yousaid earlier its just subjectivity all over and who knows I can just as well be wrong!!!
Patrick
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