Aleph PCB group order

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Hi all!

I have been colaborating with BrianGT, and I am organizing a group order for Aleph PCB's of his design. The driver boards are of main concern, but if there is enough interest, I will be willing to work out an output/CCS board order as well. BrianGT is doing us all a great service, and he has offered to make any changes or modifications to the board to make it better.
So, first off... does anybody have any suggestions???

Personally, I don't find a need for silkscreen and soldermasks. However, I certainly don't have a problem with it. It's only about $2 more per board to have it done, so for the professional look on a mass order that will be fairly cheap anyway, I think it's worthwhile.

Right now, if I can get 20 commitments to a pair of drivers (one board per channel), pricing is as follows (silkscreen and soldermask included in pricing):

:$:34/pr - 1wk lead
:$:29/pr - 2wk lead
:$:26/pr - 3wk lead
:$:23/pr - 4wk lead
:$:22/pr - 5wk lead

Realistically, I don't think anybody could complete an Aleph chassis and power supply in a week, so the need for that quick of a turn around doesn't seem necessary. Especially when there will be a shipping delay to me (which I will pony up for), and then another shipping delay to the buyer. I'm personally leaning towards the 4 or 5 week lead time. This will give folks a chance to put some money into the chassis in the mean time and not have to pay for the components right away, only to sit in a box, waiting for a PCB.

I am not in this for money, and I have spoken with BrianGT about pricing - I am offering these well below the price which he thought would be fair. Not to mention, Brian doesn't want others profiting off of his work I'm sure!!! ;) Keep in mind, the prices above DO NOT include the shipping from my door to yours. At this point, I plan on just mailing them to each of you via USPS in a padded envelope. I anticipate this being a lot cheaper than UPS or FedEx shipments to residential areas - in addition, it's a lot easier to drop it in any mailbox than have to colaborate with a shipping drop-off point. Any discrepencies?

I will try to get some idea of a flat rate cost for each pair of boards to be shipped as described above. I anticipate that payment would be easiest through money orders as I know that many people are against Paypal nowadays. Money orders usually free at your own local bank. I would accept personal checks (you could just write a check to your bank and get me a money order ;) ), but naturally I couldn't make the order until all the checks cleared.

As a matter of suggestion to BrianGT. We can only get the soldermask on one side of the board with a 1-layer design. If it was made a 2-layer design with say the second side being a ground plane or something (not complicating the previous work done), we could get the soldermask on both sides, making it more worth-while. It's actually cheaper (like $0.10 per board) to get a 2-layer board with the soldermask on both sides. I think this would make them look much nicer and more professional. Just my :2c: ...

I leave the floor to you people now... suggestions? Inquiries? If you're interested, try to keep your inquiry public on the forum for now so others can see that there is interest.
 
There are horror stories on www.paypalsucks.com (although I make it clear I have no experience one way or another).

Like I said, I haven't had a problem with them yet, but I've only used them a few times. It's not really that big of a deal because I'll accept paypal. As roddyama mentioned, there would be an additional 3% charge to those who order using Paypa. So... let's get on to other business...

By the way, I forgot in my first post to thank Mr. Pass for sharing his designs - so, THANK YOU MR. PASS!! You rock :cool:
 
I know Brian has a few versions of his Aleph board designs and one or more AlephX designs. I'm wondering which one you plan on selling.

He has sent me the latest Gerber's and he has referred to the order Dale made in past conversation... and I'm assuming this is the same version. As I said, he is willing to make updates to the files if requested.
 
I would be interested in 3 sets if these are the same boards that dale ordered earlier.

Can you get a price discount for higher volume purchase?

Does anyone recall what prices Dale had? If they were cheaper perhaps the same company will requote?

The longest lead time is fine with me as it will save some$.

I would be interested in output boards like the ones Dale offered too.

Thanks Mikez
 
The layout to be used is yet TBD... that's part of the point of this discussion. Brian is willing to make changes. Whether or not any need to be made is still up for discussion.

Yes, with a higher volume, price will go down. :)

From my understanding, Brian's layout was catered for the exact schematic of the Aleph 2. But because all the Alephs are so similar, this driver can be used for all in the series, except for the X. (I think...)
 
Retired diyAudio Moderator
Joined 2002
roddyama said:
Brian,

Is this the same design that Dale sold?

Sorry for the delay, I have been busy working on a school project today, and away from my laptop.

This design is based on the same design files that I provided Dale to use for the 2 group orders he did. I have given Scott permission to use my files, and provided them to him.

Another option would be to update the design, based on suggestions from those who have used it. I am willing to change it around a bit give Scott the files.

I suggested the idea of a group order, since Scott wanted some boards for himself, and it is expensive to get them made in single unit quantities.

As for using paypal, I haven't had any issues with them, and have been using them for a few years.

As for this order, I encourage as many people to get in on it as possible, as the price decreases a lot with quantity.

--
Brian
 
Retired diyAudio Moderator
Joined 2002
One more clarification, is that this pcb will be able to used for any aleph, ranging from 10w to 200w. The differences in the different power amplfiers are in the number of output voltages and the power rail voltages. There are also a couple different resistor values on the board, but same component layout.

As for the differences in the layouts for the Aleph 2/4/5, they are the same exact circuit, but the schematics are drawn slightly different. There is a detailed discussion on this is the old Aleph 2 ordering thread. The NPN compensation cap for the ZTX751/MPSA18 bjt can be either connected from collector to base, or from emitter to collector. Different values are used in each case, but the end result is the same. It has been a while, but I can find the old information on this.

If anyone who has used my boards before (there are over 200 of them out there), please post comments on what you think, and if you can name any possible improvements. I can alter the layout and post pictures.

As for the current layout, I will take some screenshots and post them later this evening, or tommorrow.

--
Brian
 
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