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 Forum index » DIY Hardware and Software » MusicFromOuterSpace.com designs by Ray Wilson
Wood Box Subcommander
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pico.farad



Joined: Feb 27, 2013
Posts: 16
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 6:51 pm    Post subject:  Wood Box Subcommander
Subject description: Pix
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Here's my Subcommander that I made full DIY, It is the most complicated board I have made so far and I was surprised that it worked almost straight away, given there was so much room for error.

I used double sided blank PCB, and at first I tried to do the toner transfer method using transparencies and a photocopier, but it was pretty hard to get a good image ironed onto the copper and the transparency shrunk a bit as I heated it, making the whole image shrink slightly. It was also pretty hard to match up the opposite sides and iron them simltaneously.

I have been using hydrochloric acid/hydrogen peroxide to etch and I have found that using permanent marker as a resist does not work at all. I ended up using a pen made for decorating ceramics and glass called "Porcelaine" and it resists the acid very well as long as you give it enough time to cure (if you are impatient you can bake it in the oven for a while). It comes off with turps.

So i found that I had to redraw all the toner lines with the pen, which was a serious mission since all the lines are so small and the pen is quite thick. I had to look over it time and again to check every line was correct and check there was enough space between each. I only made a couple of errors where I missed a trace on the top side entirely and there were a couple of open connections on the bottom.

On this one I drilled the holes after etching, but subsequently I have been drilling them beforehand by taping on a piece of paper with the circuit printed on it and drilling through the template, which helps to get the holes in the right place for the chip sockets. The trade off is the pen sinks into the holes and never comes out... Not sure which way is better.

The other thing I didn't realise is that on the real PCB with the plated holes, there are holes which only serve to connect the bottom side with the top, so I had to look through the diagram for all those places and solder a piece of wire through from top to bottom. Some of these bits occur in the middle of chip sockets so you have to do them before you solder the socket in. I also realised I needed to use the raised sockets (see pics) as I had to solder them on to the top side as well as the bottom.

I put it in a wood box I found that was full of cheap lathe tools. To ground the pot bodies I used aluminium tape but it didn't work very well, some connections were lost as I tightened the nuts.

I diy'd the knobs by cutting slices of wood perpendicular to the grain, drilling spaced holes for the pots in the direction of the grain (drill a countersink first to give space for the nut/washer, it also makes centreing the drill much easier), then breaking the pieces apart and shaping with a chisel. It was pretty easy to do and you can make whatever sweet shapes you like.

For now it is running off 2 9v batteries and I'm not sure if the VCA LFO is working properly, it seems to change the sound at random intervals but I haven't properly checked it out yet.


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elmegil



Joined: Mar 20, 2012
Posts: 2177
Location: Chicago
Audio files: 16

PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Nice, I like the look of the box Smile
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Skrog Productions



Joined: Jan 07, 2009
Posts: 1196
Location: Scottish Borders
Audio files: 155

PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 4:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

cool box , i like the shaped dials , i would be dreading drilling all the component holes on the etched pcb Very Happy


Dave.
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Wobuse



Joined: Dec 07, 2011
Posts: 34
Location: Lyons,il

PostPosted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Good job! wave
It's nice when all that work pays off! Wink

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