Hello guys, I made a PCB for the signal tracer project made originally by Rod Elliott (ESP). He should be here in the forum, but for some reason I cannot tag him.
This is his originally project:
https://sound-au.com/project164.htm
I swapped the 9V battery with a DC connector to have the power supply outside the circuit.
Initially, I wanted to use 18650/C123A/AAA/AAAA batteries, but everything considered they would be too bulky.
As the OG project, you connect a BNC probe as input, and you can listen to the amplified signal (around 1W), to an external speaker, if you like, you could also use headphones, but it is a bit more dangerous for the high volume.
You also got a volume pot, a 20x switch gain, an attenuator 1x/10x/100x and a power switch.
The speaker is connected with a stereo 6.3 mm jack.
I used a stereo jack because on LCSC store a mono version wasn't available.
I want to use LCSC because I would like to have the PCB assembled .
This is my first time using SMD components, I tried to use them when possible to save a bit of space on the PCB.
I wanted to do the same also with the lm386 and j113, but if I read correctly the datasheet, the SMD versions are a bit less powerful than THO versions.
I tried to leave a bit more space on the C1/R1/R2/R3/R4 components because I read that if you use the probe on the HV sections those parts could conduct high voltage, I left around 0.8 mm per trace, I could do it everywhere but on the attenuator switch, I don't know if this could cause a problem.
This is the schema of the project, I think I did everything right, but could you take a last look just to be sure??
You can find all the documentation to build the project here:
https://oshwlab.com/gagliarducci.antonio/signal-tracer
This is his originally project:
https://sound-au.com/project164.htm
I swapped the 9V battery with a DC connector to have the power supply outside the circuit.
Initially, I wanted to use 18650/C123A/AAA/AAAA batteries, but everything considered they would be too bulky.
As the OG project, you connect a BNC probe as input, and you can listen to the amplified signal (around 1W), to an external speaker, if you like, you could also use headphones, but it is a bit more dangerous for the high volume.
You also got a volume pot, a 20x switch gain, an attenuator 1x/10x/100x and a power switch.
The speaker is connected with a stereo 6.3 mm jack.
I used a stereo jack because on LCSC store a mono version wasn't available.
I want to use LCSC because I would like to have the PCB assembled .
This is my first time using SMD components, I tried to use them when possible to save a bit of space on the PCB.
I wanted to do the same also with the lm386 and j113, but if I read correctly the datasheet, the SMD versions are a bit less powerful than THO versions.
I tried to leave a bit more space on the C1/R1/R2/R3/R4 components because I read that if you use the probe on the HV sections those parts could conduct high voltage, I left around 0.8 mm per trace, I could do it everywhere but on the attenuator switch, I don't know if this could cause a problem.
This is the schema of the project, I think I did everything right, but could you take a last look just to be sure??
You can find all the documentation to build the project here:
https://oshwlab.com/gagliarducci.antonio/signal-tracer
Rod does provide pcbs for that project that I can confirm that it is easy to build and works correctly 🙂. You probably won’t find Rod on this forum as he has his own forums on his site.
I tried to see afterward if Rod had the PCB for this project available on his website to sell but not luck 🙁
So, guess that I will go this way.