Good easy cheap project (ones to learn on)

Okay... basicaly I'm a complete newbie when it comes to all this. I have some very basic soldering skills (picked up in a school electronics course) a soldering iron some 60/40 and abit of enthusiasm... any ideas for good starter projects on a fairly tight budget, that will preferably see some decent use in a very low end studio?

exactly how much of a budget and how many ch. are you trying to build?
what type of instrument mainly too?

the fabio's 312 is a pretty small build. but expensive transformers.

the green pre is pretty cost effecient too.

well I'd probably say I'd want something I can make for an absoloute max of 100... because anything over that and I wouldn't want to go near it with my soldering skills

as far as instruments go, well I'm mainly doing rock sorta stuff, but a decent pre or mic or compressor or whatever will be usefull in most styles...

I had a look at the Green pre stuff and it seemed fairly involved. Maybe I'd be better off to do a kit mod at first so I don't have to worry about tracking down components?

Well you won't have much luck with kits. The only kits i know of are the seventh circle and hamptone kits. And both are several hundred $.

I think your best bet is the green mic preamp. Since it's transformerless it's quite cheap and there aren't really any hard to find parts.
Yes you need to source all parts but learning how to do this will benefit you greatly with future projects.
I am not sure but maybe you can find some parts list with order numbers from suppliers in your country.

Oh and you can get the pcbs here in the black market section. This also helps greatly as a beginner project.

Flo

the kits are nice. but not like a kit like your thinking.

the info for the 'kit' for the group diy projects are just on here. just takes a bit more digging around to find the info.

i'm sorta in your same boat. the biggest problem ive found is that the info is either old, outdated parts, parts they dont make anymore, parts not avail. in certain countries, ect ect ect.


aka undocumented.

your best bet is to find a BOM (build of materials) that have part numbers to mouser or digikey in them. that will take 99% of the BS out of the search.
the 312 im doing right now, greg did a good BOM for it. (thanks Greg)

not so much luck with the other ones though.



also, 100$ is slim, even for DIY. i mean, a 1u rack case is going to cost you probably 30-50$ :?
sucks, alot of unseen cost like connectors, switches, case, PSU are the main factor for cost for all of my current builds. the actual parts are cheap as crap.

hope that sheds some light, ask anymore questions you have, i'll try to help as much as i can
:thumb:


taylor

Are you interested in making a guitar amp? The ruby amp at www.runoffgroove.com is cheap and easy, and sounds good. I have my high school students make them (and guitars too).

go here

http://www.paia.com/

oder a catalog and find something that fits your budget...

I think this might be the best option in your case right now...

or maybe a guitar pedal or something?

check ebay... do a search for "heathkit" alot of people sell un-open heathkit kits on ebay... you could build a bench power supply or something that you would find useful in the future..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=296&item=5768936593&rd=1

heres a really good one...

an audio generator

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=296&item=5768950695&rd=1

some other stuff

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=296&item=5768953850&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48700&item=5768369322&rd=1







buying a PCB and going from a BOM I dont think is your best option if your trying to keep your budget at $100... hell the metal work alone will run ya $30 or $40