The Kuartlotron - keantoken's simple error-correction superbuffer


Thanks Project! I'm sure you spent a good amount of time designing your board.

I made a few small changes to your basic layout. If anyone sees any errors please let me know.:)

Most of the popular 470uF caps are 10mm in diameter instead of 8mm. I typically use Panasonic FM or FR caps.
 

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Here is the power end so far. Center tap is still unnecessary. It is easy to make a solid virtual ground just by rearranging the shunt regulators.

As for the Mezmerize shunts, I don't really see why matching is necessary, unless the jfets used vary by a huge amount. It would be nice to have the supplies at perfect 10V, but that isn't necessary, and the Salas shunts will be quieter without added 431's.
 

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This is my attempted layout using SMD dual transistors, that wont likely go obsolete any time soon. SMD Rs and Cs are 0805 size, quite easy to handle, and a perfect starter size. The 0805 soldering land in this layout has slightly longer pads and was specifically designed for easy hand soldering.
 

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There's plenty of through hole transistors, but the recommended ones are matched enough and good grade without having to play around and match.

That board looks ok except I'd think making the spacing more DIY friendly would help.

Besides what if a group buy happens with transistors included?
 
There's plenty of through hole transistors, but the recommended ones are matched enough and good grade without having to play around and match.

That board looks ok except I'd think making the spacing more DIY friendly would help.

Besides what if a group buy happens with transistors included?

Thanks for the comments.

The actual SMD parts are quite a bit smaller than the silkscreen suggests. I don't find a problem with soldering/tweaking in my other layouts that have the similar component spacing, if that is what your concern is about. For example, an 0805 resistor has a 2mm length, its PCB footprint in the layout is 3.6mm end-to-end leaving ample room for soldering tip maneuvering. With a thru-hole/SMD mixed design a common trouble is big, tall parts would block the way of accessing the SMD parts, but with this particular layout that could be remedied by mounting tall parts on the opposite side temporarily during debugging and testing, or perhaps simply all through hole parts including wiring on the opposite side permanently.

Never thought of including the transistors, good idea. That way people would not have to order in quantity something they rarely use.
 
I like your design. The silkscreen is even a nice style. I would find a way to get component ID out from underneath the component though. Troubleshooting would be rough without being able to see the IDs.

Glad you like it. I usually keep the labeling inside a component until the design is finalized. It would look like this.
 

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