AlephPCBs are ready and will be shipped out soon (pics inside)

[BrianGT]

For those who participated in the Bulk order of AlephPCBs, they will be shipped out tommorrow to those who I have received payment from. They came out quite nice. Here are the pictures:

[IMGDEAD]http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte619j/alephpcb-front.jpg[/IMGDEAD]
[IMGDEAD]http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte619j/alephpcb-back.jpg[/IMGDEAD]
[IMGDEAD]http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte619j/alephpcb-overview.jpg[/IMGDEAD]

I tested them for component spacing, and everything seems to fit alright. If you are in on the order and have not mailed me payment yet, please do so immediately. I will be flying to France for the summer (study abroad) in two weeks, so if I have not received your payment by then, I will not be able to send your your boards and you payment will be mailed back. (in extreme cases, I can have my girlfriend mail them out, since she is managing my mail).

Thanks for your support, and this seems to be a success. I look forward to getting more boards made.

There is one mistake on the boards. If you were planning on using small heatsinks for Q1, Q2, and Q3, I made the screw mounting hole too small. It should be very easily fixed by making the hole bigger with a standard drill. This in no way effects the operation of the circuit.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[roddyama]

Brian,

They look great. Many thanks for a job well done. I'm really looking forward to receiving my boards (and transistors).

I like the "Thanks to Nelson Pass" in the corner. Credit where credit is due. A very nice touch.

If your leaving in two weeks, you'd better hurry if your going to finish your Alephs before you leave. In any case, thanks and good luck in France.

Rodd Yamashita

 

[BrianGT]

Rodd,

I just finished boxing up your mosfets and boards. I will mail them out tommorrow morning.

Thanks for the complements. I really appreciate all that Mr. Pass has done for the community.

As for finishing the projects... I have 4 going now, and I think I will just finish the aleph boards and test them with a bench power supply and put off the finishing touches until I get back.

I will have internet access, so you will still hear from me.

If anyone still needs a set of boards, e-mail me. I think I have a few sets left.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[jleaman]

Hey how much..

How much are them boards for 2 channel and compleet set every thing.. Canadian i want some.. do i have to spacial order them.

Sorry off topic i cant wait till my n-channel is done and case DRUEL...

 

[jleaman]

Are you..

Can you email me the info please i would like to get my hands on these boards..j.'


[email protected]

 

[Peter Daniel]

Nice work Brian. I kind of regret now that I didn't participate in the program but I understand it was limited to US residents only.

 

[Eric]

Those boards look very nice, Brian! Thanks for putting in the leg work for the rest of us - I'm looking forward to receiving my set! I'm also part-way through building an a40, so the Alephs will probably wait for a little while...

 

[BrianGT]

Eric,

Your boards went out today, along with the others.

I mailed them all USPS Priority with delivery confirmation. I will e-mail the confirmation numbers tonight when I get home.

For others, I received 4 more payments today, and I will e-mail those who I have received payments from tonight, and ship the boards out tommorrow morning.

Thanks for everyone's support in this bulk purchase.

--
Brian

 

[Apogee]

Hi Brian,

They look GREAT!!!

Can't wait to receive mine...

Also thanks to Nelson for supporting this...

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[jam]

Brian,

Great looking boards. Now you have to come up with chassis and heatsink kits as well ( With Mr.Pass's permission).
Keep up the good work.

Jam

 

[BrianGT]

Thanks for the complement, but boards and heatsinks? Why don't I just build the entire amplifier and ship it out to you...

Heatsinks and chassis should not be too hard to obtain. I think that the best deal with heatsinks is the place that Wayne Sankey got his from. (see other threads) For the rest of the chassis, you should be able to find a local metal place that sells aluminum sheet metal. I did, and spent $70 for 1/8" 6061 T6 alum top, bottom and sides for both channels. I think that the best part of DIY is having an end product that you can say that you made, and did not buy off a store shelf. A store bought chassis detracts from this. (well.. I did buy my leach amp chassis... but nevermind that).

Thanks again to NP for his support.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[jleaman]

Price

Hey i asked fora price canadian.. how come my answer didnt get answered do you know how much it is canadian??? i want 2

 

[BrianGT]

JasonL,

Drop me an e-mail at:

[email protected]

and we will discuss this.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[Variac]

Here's a thought:

Nelson takes over dealing with the board production folks and starts selling the boards on passdiy. Then he would have 2 projects that people can order! That's twice as many!
Or does that lead to too many aleph clones?
Maybe reimburse Brian a bit for his time?

MArk

 

[BrianGT]

Mark,

I am sure that Nelson has his own way of board production. I would be quite happy if these boards were offered on the PassDIY site, and I have made the layouts available to those who want to get boards made. If there are more boards made, I would like to do a couple of revisions to the pcb.

I think that the reason that the Aleph is not on the PassDIY website, is that it is a patented design by NP, and it might lead to misuse of the design for commercial use. (that is why I put "Not for commercial use" on the board, due to this concern).

There is not need to reimburse my time. I am a college student, and this was a learning experience.

I hope that we can do this again for other projects.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[Variac]

My poor worn out old mind seems to recall Mr. Pass writing that he was someday going to offer the Aleph boards. Perhaps I am making that up!!

I get the impression that he hasn't because he has about 400 projects going at one time.

This would be a simple way for him to offer the boards. You have not only laid out the boards but paid and coordinated the setup.

I certainly would be happy that my order contributed toward the effort and I'm sure all the other orderers feel the same way. A very meager payback to NP for his support.

I have often seen people selling this sort of thing specify that the boards include a license to produce one amp (or channel) to keep the design from becoming public domain. As you are aware, there is at least one guy selling the boards at a profit already.


I suspected that you didn't require any subsidy but good of you to state it.

Anyway Nelson, there's the idea-waddayou think?

 

[BrianGT]

That sounds like a good idea. It would be quite cheap if you order over 100 boards at once. It was just that I could not afford to order 100 boards and have 40 left, leaving me in debt.

If NP liked the idea, I would make an Aleph P 1.7 board also.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[BrianGT]

All boards are accounted for. I look forward to future projects of this magnitude.

--
Brian
[email protected]

 

[herm]

Aleph PCBs

Brian(GT)

I called Empire electronics today to check on prices for more boards.

It occured to me that I might need your permission to order boards - so I asked, and I do.

Would you mind calling them & give them permission to sell your boards to anyone? ( I talked to Mokesh specifically, but I don't know if that matters )

Thanks again for all your hard work.

Herm

P.S. FYI - I asked what 20 boards would cost and Mokesh quoted $15 apiece!!!

 

[BrianGT]

I do not mind if you order more boards. It will be cheaper then what I paid, because there will not be the $195 setup charge to get the tooling done.

I dealt with Mukesh Tejani, who is the president of the company, for the order. If you are going to order more boards, I can call him up and let him know that it is fine with me.

20 boards should cost you $300 + shipping. There should be enough demand for at least 20 more boards. If you do not mind shipping out boards internationally, you could probably sell another 50 boards. If you manage to buy 100 boards total, the price per board would drop quite a bit, allowing you to charge less.

I estimated that the cost of a pair of boards for next order would be around $40-45 for a pair, if I was to make another one, with $5-10 more per set for international shipment. I will do another order fall, if no one else has.

As for getting more boards done now, another option is that you could until people get their boards. That way, considering peoples input, revisions can be made to the boards, should they be needed. I am not sure if there would be another setup charge for revisions though.

I have two revisions that I think would make the boards better.

1.) Make the mounting holes for TO-220 devices bigger, so that you can put a screw in the hole to hold down a heatsink in the hole. (you could easily drill the 3 holes bigger, also heatsinks are not needed for these devices.)

2.) Make the TO-92 socket holes spread out more, allowing for easier soldiering. I had no problems with these, but other layouts that I have seen space the leads out more.

These are relatively minor errors that do not effect the circuit operation, but nevertheless, they could be easily addressed in a revision.

E-mail me if you are serious about making another order, and let me know if you are shipping internationally, and I will forward some people over to you, who are interested in boards.

--
Brian
[email protected]