Ooh, I want the Spud. But alas, I fear the push/pull is where it's at this year.
Go build one of Eli's "Dirt Cheap" single ended spuds. I've got some of the parts to make one myself, but need a little motivation to finish the project.
Go build one of Eli's "Dirt Cheap" single ended spuds. I've got some of the parts to make one myself, but need a little motivation to finish the project.
Here is the deal. Like everything else, the costs of PC boards has gone up, way up. Many of the big board houses don't want to bother with a small quantity of "old tech" PC boards any more. The vendor for the Simple SE decided that it was no longer a "standard product" since it was too big. I would need to pay for special processing which brought the cost to over $20 per board in 100 QTY. I have found another US vendor that will make my boards, but I must order them in 100 QTY. So every time I want boards I have to spend over $1500.
Any new board requires a bunch of time to generate an assembly manual that can be followed by an inexperienced builder. My work and personal schedule does not support that now. I haven't even finished the Simple P-P stuff yet and I am currently 1200 miles from home.
There has been some interest in the little spud amp, but nowhere near enough to justify buying 100 boards and taking the time to generate the manual. In fact board sales in general are down to about 1 per week total now, so this one isn't going to fly if I try to do it the same way as the other 3.
I can offer a suggestion:
If someone knows of a PC board house (offshore maybe) that will process a small batch of say 10 boards for a reasonable fee, let me know and I might be able to get 10 made. I can publish a simple set of instructions (parts list and overlays with a FEW pictures) for use by somewhat experienced builders. If this works out I have several small boards to try.
Any new board requires a bunch of time to generate an assembly manual that can be followed by an inexperienced builder. My work and personal schedule does not support that now. I haven't even finished the Simple P-P stuff yet and I am currently 1200 miles from home.
There has been some interest in the little spud amp, but nowhere near enough to justify buying 100 boards and taking the time to generate the manual. In fact board sales in general are down to about 1 per week total now, so this one isn't going to fly if I try to do it the same way as the other 3.
I can offer a suggestion:
If someone knows of a PC board house (offshore maybe) that will process a small batch of say 10 boards for a reasonable fee, let me know and I might be able to get 10 made. I can publish a simple set of instructions (parts list and overlays with a FEW pictures) for use by somewhat experienced builders. If this works out I have several small boards to try.
I have used Olimex with good results.
A service that has been recommended to me, but that I have not yet tried is Gold Phoenix.
Olimex is in Hungary so unless you go with EMS shipping ($$) you'll end up with a 5~6 week turnaround time due to shipping time. Their prices are decent but not fantastic.
Gold Phoenix was recommended to me by an apps engineer where I work. He'd used it for hobby stuff and was happy with it. Their pricing is very attractive. 1000 cm^2 (155 in^2) board area for $99 shipped to North America. Free step&repeat. Free V score (I think).
Hope this helps.
~Tom
I used this Chinese board house a few years ago for microcontroller PCB's (EFI) and some others, they did a very good job each time, PCB Price List- ourpcb
For SPUD I like Jef's design.
abraxasaudio Tube Amplifiers
Hawthorne audio sells a kit
Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce
abraxasaudio Tube Amplifiers
Hawthorne audio sells a kit
Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce
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