I don't remember the brand or model of the DAC my audio business owner friend used in the Preamp, His "budget" preamp had my control board, a gain buffer designed by Erno Borbley and a very good sounding DAC. Under priced if you ask me. You can see it here with some better pics than mine. B2B-2 LINE LEVEL PREAMP/DAC – Liberty Audio From this company I have his phono preamp which is extremely good.
His affordable audio equipment company is an off shoot or this company PBN Audio
From this company I have his Sammy Loudspeaker and will have him make me a Groove Master turntable using my Denon DP80 table.
From time to time I design items to be used in his equipment. He will be coming out with a standalone turntable tachometer which I designed after RoadRunner decided to retire.
Have a good one.
His affordable audio equipment company is an off shoot or this company PBN Audio
From this company I have his Sammy Loudspeaker and will have him make me a Groove Master turntable using my Denon DP80 table.
From time to time I design items to be used in his equipment. He will be coming out with a standalone turntable tachometer which I designed after RoadRunner decided to retire.
Have a good one.
Kindly clarify. Gerbers you provided are for Volume with remote and preamp, both combined.
The gerbers are for a preamp control section- Volume, Input Selection, Mute and Remote Control, with a main board and display board that goes within the preamp case and a remote board in a remote case. The main board gerbers are in Post #18, the Updated Display gerbers are in Post #39 and the updated Remote is in Post #36
remote dimensions
Here is a hand sketch of the remote board to give you dimensions for building the remote control case.
Here is a hand sketch of the remote board to give you dimensions for building the remote control case.
And here is a requested build instructions.
Build Instructions – Preamp Control Board
Main Board:
Stuff the components according to the Bill of Materials, component tolocation. Watch the orientation of chips, diodes, caps, and the transformer.The voltage Regulator U1 requires a heat sink, screw the regulator to the heatsink with some thermal grease, insulator not required, insert into the boardand solder the heat sink pins to the board then the regulator legs. If you had version 3 boards made, then stuffthe C7 capacitor from the top side, if you purchased the Version 2 board fromPBN Audio, then solder C7 on the back side of the board between pins 7 and 8 ofU18.
Display Board:
Stuff the connectors J1 and J2, last, to the back side of the board sothe board can be laid flat. Start with the surface mount chip U2 and carefullyposition it in place and with a fine tip soldering iron and fine solder tackone corner leg of the U2, recheck the position and solder an opposite corner leg,then carefully solder all legs. Stuff the rest of the components per the Billof Materials, component to location. The 7-segment LEDs, DS1 and DS2-4 aredifferent types so be careful, the pin one should be marked but if not obviousyou can orient by the decimal point LED being down. The photo sensor PH1 shouldbe stuffed 5mm above the board then it can be laid back over the U2 legs so thefront of the sensor faces up.
Remote Board:
Stuff the components per the Bill of Materials, component to location. Startwith the surface mount chip U1 and solder as above in the Display Board. Standthe infrared LED above the board about 10mm so the LED can be bent 90 degrees,parallel to the board so it can stick out through a 5mm hole in the front ofthe remote case. A slide switch is placed in the positive lead from the batterycase to the board so the power can be shut off completely to save batterypower. With the V2 design using a Bipolar to drive the LED the batteries wouldonly last 3 months, with the V3 design using a MOSFET for drive the powerleakage should be better.
Final assembly
Connect two 18 to 22-gauge wires from the main board J2 to the Displayboard connector J1, pay careful attention to the positive and negative symbols.Connect a 24-wire ribbon cable to J2 on the Main board, pin 1 to the outercorner of the board, there is an arrow at pin 1. Connect the ribbon cable tothe back of the display board at J2 making sure the pin one stripe oriented inthe correct direction. Set the slide switch S2 to 230v or 115v depending onyour mains voltage. Connect AC power to the main board at J1.
Power up and see if it comes up as it should, if not measure thevoltage, should be about 5 volts DC. Check all chips are the correct ones andoriented properly.
Build Instructions – Preamp Control Board
Main Board:
Stuff the components according to the Bill of Materials, component tolocation. Watch the orientation of chips, diodes, caps, and the transformer.The voltage Regulator U1 requires a heat sink, screw the regulator to the heatsink with some thermal grease, insulator not required, insert into the boardand solder the heat sink pins to the board then the regulator legs. If you had version 3 boards made, then stuffthe C7 capacitor from the top side, if you purchased the Version 2 board fromPBN Audio, then solder C7 on the back side of the board between pins 7 and 8 ofU18.
Display Board:
Stuff the connectors J1 and J2, last, to the back side of the board sothe board can be laid flat. Start with the surface mount chip U2 and carefullyposition it in place and with a fine tip soldering iron and fine solder tackone corner leg of the U2, recheck the position and solder an opposite corner leg,then carefully solder all legs. Stuff the rest of the components per the Billof Materials, component to location. The 7-segment LEDs, DS1 and DS2-4 aredifferent types so be careful, the pin one should be marked but if not obviousyou can orient by the decimal point LED being down. The photo sensor PH1 shouldbe stuffed 5mm above the board then it can be laid back over the U2 legs so thefront of the sensor faces up.
Remote Board:
Stuff the components per the Bill of Materials, component to location. Startwith the surface mount chip U1 and solder as above in the Display Board. Standthe infrared LED above the board about 10mm so the LED can be bent 90 degrees,parallel to the board so it can stick out through a 5mm hole in the front ofthe remote case. A slide switch is placed in the positive lead from the batterycase to the board so the power can be shut off completely to save batterypower. With the V2 design using a Bipolar to drive the LED the batteries wouldonly last 3 months, with the V3 design using a MOSFET for drive the powerleakage should be better.
Final assembly
Connect two 18 to 22-gauge wires from the main board J2 to the Displayboard connector J1, pay careful attention to the positive and negative symbols.Connect a 24-wire ribbon cable to J2 on the Main board, pin 1 to the outercorner of the board, there is an arrow at pin 1. Connect the ribbon cable tothe back of the display board at J2 making sure the pin one stripe oriented inthe correct direction. Set the slide switch S2 to 230v or 115v depending onyour mains voltage. Connect AC power to the main board at J1.
Power up and see if it comes up as it should, if not measure thevoltage, should be about 5 volts DC. Check all chips are the correct ones andoriented properly.
Outline gerber file for main board
John,
I was looking into having a few sets of your boards made up and loaded the gerber files in a viewer. When I loaded the main board I didn't find a outline file. Isn't that file necessary for a shop to do a production run?
Regards,
Roy
John,
I was looking into having a few sets of your boards made up and loaded the gerber files in a viewer. When I loaded the main board I didn't find a outline file. Isn't that file necessary for a shop to do a production run?
Regards,
Roy
I am not sure if all board manufactures need it, the shop we use did not. Check with your board shop, if they need one I can add that to the Gerber files
Some pcb houses, if asked, will add an outline by centering the layout in a rectangle.
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Thanks John, I'll check. By the way, did you make any evaluation boards to test the new layouts for the display and remote boards?
I did not make any new boards yet but the change is only one chip and it is very straight forward change and after discussing with the application engineer I am confident it will work fine. You can check the data sheet and review the schematic, if the schematic is correct the layout will be also as the software creates the basic layout from the schematic.
John,
I haven't had boards made a fabrication shop before so this is a bit of a learning experience for me. When working out pricing there were a few variables that I wasn't able to provide that I need a bit of help with:
Min Track/Spacing
4/4 mm, 5/5mm, 6/6mm or 8/8mm & up?
Min Hole Size
0.2mm, 0.25mm, or 0.3mm & up?
FR4-TG
TG 130-140, TG 150-160, TG 170-180?
Also, it is cheaper to go with a 2.0mm board thickness rather than 1.6mm. I believe that would provide a stronger board with no down side- true?
They also want to provide ENIG rather than HASL with lead at their option. Again I don't see a downside - True?
Thanks,
Roy
I haven't had boards made a fabrication shop before so this is a bit of a learning experience for me. When working out pricing there were a few variables that I wasn't able to provide that I need a bit of help with:
Min Track/Spacing
4/4 mm, 5/5mm, 6/6mm or 8/8mm & up?
Min Hole Size
0.2mm, 0.25mm, or 0.3mm & up?
FR4-TG
TG 130-140, TG 150-160, TG 170-180?
Also, it is cheaper to go with a 2.0mm board thickness rather than 1.6mm. I believe that would provide a stronger board with no down side- true?
They also want to provide ENIG rather than HASL with lead at their option. Again I don't see a downside - True?
Thanks,
Roy
The Gerber file tells the PCB manufacture the trace width and spacing. In the PCB layout software I set a rule for a minimum of .008" or 0.20 mm spacing between traces, if I remember right. I used at least .015" or 0.381mm digital signal trace width and wider for power. Audio signal traces were set to .050" or 1.27mm. The drill file gives the PCB Manufacturer the sizes and locations of the holes. FR4 fiberglass is industry standard, if you want to go thicker and it is lower cost then definitely I would do it. I am not familiar with TG specs or ENIG for solder pad plating but if the board manufacture likes it over Hot Air Solder Leveling then that is fine.
There is a previous post on board specs early in the postings. if this doesn't answer the question well enough then I can talk to my board house for more specific information.
There is a previous post on board specs early in the postings. if this doesn't answer the question well enough then I can talk to my board house for more specific information.
Board sizes are in post #14, specs are in post #20 and Here is the Main board with outline and board size in the gerbers. The other two boards, remote and display, have the board outline file in their gerber.
John,
Thanks for the info. I'll see what the company thinks as the rule spacing for traces may be smaller than they accept.
Regards,
Roy
Thanks for the info. I'll see what the company thinks as the rule spacing for traces may be smaller than they accept.
Regards,
Roy
I Should Have Extra Boards Available
The gerber files were accepted by PC Prototype and I was able to pick up 25 copies of all three boards for $399. That works out to a little under $16 per set including shipping. I am only going to keep 3-5 sets myself and offer the rest to those interested for my cost plus shipping to your location.
Regards,
Roy
The gerber files were accepted by PC Prototype and I was able to pick up 25 copies of all three boards for $399. That works out to a little under $16 per set including shipping. I am only going to keep 3-5 sets myself and offer the rest to those interested for my cost plus shipping to your location.
Regards,
Roy
Sounds like a deal. if the quality is first class then it is an excellent deal.
Our board house does really good work but their $150 NRE charge per board design is hard to stand.
Our board house does really good work but their $150 NRE charge per board design is hard to stand.
One note on board houses, some offer PCBs and then Premium PCBs so watch the quality. For performance of the circuit it shouldn't make any difference. Some board houses sub out the prototypes to companies in Shenzhen and most do pretty good work.
John,
Yes the deal does seem very good and you hope is not too good to be true.
I'll send you a set when I get them in about 15 days. You can tell me what you think since you designed them.
Yes the deal does seem very good and you hope is not too good to be true.
I'll send you a set when I get them in about 15 days. You can tell me what you think since you designed them.