Ok...I'm old enough to remember techs using Rubylith film to layout circuit boards.
Anyone else?
Wikpedia Rubylith if you don't know what I'm talking about.
If you look at solid state gear from the 60s through the 70s you'll notice the PCB traces are of variable width, and most evident, are not necessarily orthogonal. Often the junction of three or more components will be implemented with a large fill area they all emanate from. Corners are round or any shape you can dream of.
Laying out with Rubylith required developing skills with a razor knife. It's nothing you could do successfully right out of the gate. You'd have to waist some material before you got good at it, and the material was not cheap. Sometimes a special table that guided a razor knife or parallel razor knives was used. I never did it personally but i witnessed guys doing it who are likely 70 years or older by now.
Anyway, I have a Peavey guitar amp, the Session 400, from 1975 that I still use frequently to this day because I've never found anything that beats it sonic-ally. The layout was obviously done with Rubylith. It's totally discrete, The pre-amp is single supply using many coupling caps between stages etc. I have simulated the circuit and have concluded there are some interesting design twists you don't find in other circuits, like a "loudness" affect and an interesting and effective parametric mid control. The power section is 200 watts! - done with all NPN.
I wonder now if the trace routing style makes any impact on the sonic qualities.
Anyone with an opinion on that?
Also, is there a modern software package that can do this style?
I imagine the graphic arts people have something but likely not optimized for layout. - probably lacks net/schematic coordination.
Anyone else?
Wikpedia Rubylith if you don't know what I'm talking about.
If you look at solid state gear from the 60s through the 70s you'll notice the PCB traces are of variable width, and most evident, are not necessarily orthogonal. Often the junction of three or more components will be implemented with a large fill area they all emanate from. Corners are round or any shape you can dream of.
Laying out with Rubylith required developing skills with a razor knife. It's nothing you could do successfully right out of the gate. You'd have to waist some material before you got good at it, and the material was not cheap. Sometimes a special table that guided a razor knife or parallel razor knives was used. I never did it personally but i witnessed guys doing it who are likely 70 years or older by now.
Anyway, I have a Peavey guitar amp, the Session 400, from 1975 that I still use frequently to this day because I've never found anything that beats it sonic-ally. The layout was obviously done with Rubylith. It's totally discrete, The pre-amp is single supply using many coupling caps between stages etc. I have simulated the circuit and have concluded there are some interesting design twists you don't find in other circuits, like a "loudness" affect and an interesting and effective parametric mid control. The power section is 200 watts! - done with all NPN.
I wonder now if the trace routing style makes any impact on the sonic qualities.
Anyone with an opinion on that?
Also, is there a modern software package that can do this style?
I imagine the graphic arts people have something but likely not optimized for layout. - probably lacks net/schematic coordination.
