Help a newb out with his first project please?

Hello all,

I've spent the past few hours searching the forums and reading up on everything I can here. I've been into DIY electronics for about 2 years. If any of you hang out at the DIYstompboxes website hello! I've build over a dozen guitar pedals and decided I'm about ready to take on some bigger animals.

I'm looking for advice on a first project here. I imagine I should start relatively simple just to get my feet wet (but something I will still find useful down the road). I was hoping for a two channel solid state pre of some sort. I wouldn't mind if it takes up a 2U rack space. Any features (meters, phantom power, etc..) would be nice as well. My biggest issue right now is sourcing parts, and just trying to find some project where I can just sort of "paint by numbers" for the time being.

I'm sure you guys get this very often so please be patient, this looks like a wonderful forum!

Ian

Hey Ian! Welcome.

I'd suggest the Five Fish Studios kits. Everything you need in one kit (i.e. all the parts are already sourced for you). Step by step illustrated instructions. Great costumer support for troubleshooting and such. AND they sound fantastic. I have a few myself.

Otherwise, API312 is a popular project... i have a few channels that i just got up and running thanks to all the great people around here. Its a very simple design too so it will help learn about amplifiers and such. Also, i hear great things about the JLM baby animal.... i actually have some PCB's, but haven't tried a build yet. Too many projects at once haha. But they are very versatile. There's some good looking neve style projects floating around too... but i can't vouch for them personally.

As for sourcing parts (if you're in the US), i almost exclusively order from Mouser because their site is quite easy to find parts. Occasionally i'll order from digikey. Cases from par-metal. Those are just my personal preferences... there's lots of info about part sourcing for certain projects and whatnot.

Good luck and happy building!

Green pre for nice and clean, EZ1290 for , well the numbers give that one away. fancy a go at valve? One Bottle by NYD,

Iain

Welcome to the DIY boards!
As a fairly newb type myself, I would recommend a project that doesn't add too many new challenges at once and doesn't cost the earth to build. By that I mean no tubes and no (audio) transformers.

My first post-stompbox build was/is an SSL9k which has the following advantages:

• not too expensive partswise
• great, clean PCBs available by Gustav (see blackmarket), making solder bridges quite unlikely
• a good introduction into PSUs, which IMO is the biggest challenge after 9V stomp boxes
• very well documented, I recommend downloading and printing all relevant threads on this board

Also they sound great which is a nice reward after building

Three things I would advise having recently gone thru this build:

• get the whole thing running before worrying about cases, as this adds a whole new world of trouble and/or costs.
• Buy the JLM go between cards for phase/pad/48V instead of doing this as off-board wiring (if you even need these features)
• Buy the parts for separate 15/18V supplies, you get a 'free' PSU card with each mic pre PCB anyway. Don't bother with the Diode solution

Happy soldering!

Welcome here I am a "Newby" too and i had not much experience with electronic instead of soldering studio cables.
I must say i starded with a really hard project cause i needed a good analog eq to save a litle time fighting around with software eqs.

I would start in your case with an good discussed diy here like
the la2a or if you need it really simple buy a kit from hellaudio the greenpre.

Here are really nice BOM lists for the la2a and this is well documented and you ll find a lot of pics of finished units.
For the stereo Unit, you can buy a really nice case here in the black marked thread from purusha.
the input/output transformers are a litle bit expensive but easy to get too. look around for saving money, sourcing parts is the
most time intensive part and to me the hardest too but the most good discussed units here are not so hard shopping parts.

Mp-2 Kit from Hellaudio is great too and you will only need an input transformer. this is well documented in the mp-2 info thread.

You can also search for the Mila (tube) preamp of New york Dave, this is a litle bit less discussed but absolutly doable i think. i will diy it next when i am ready with my other 3 diys but i really think the Mila pre is all work worth. it has a gain and volume pot that you can drive the tube and controll the output... nice!
you can do it! Jump into the cold water and you will have a lot of interesting experience. But everytime take care with the high voltage tube stuff!
a.

Hi Ian , I migrated over here from Arons place about 3 years ago but had "maxed out" with over
100 stompbox's and a couple of valve amps too ! ( you'll find a few designs of mine over there )

My first project was a pair of SSL9k's which is well documented and everyone here was very helpful.
They both worked pretty much right away due mostly to the fine boards from Gustav and JLM and the
docs from the designer SSLTech ( Keith )
Just take your time and be aware of the mains voltage/safety .... it's a bit different from a 9v battery !!

I've since completed a couple of SSL compressors/ API 312's an 1176, more recently the D-AOC
valve compressor.

Good luck with your build and enjoy !

Marty.

Green pres are always a good starting point, and i have kits available.

Other good options would be the ssl 9k or 312's.

Hey thanks for all the advice everyone. So I'm thinking about putting together a Green Pre kit from Diypartssupply.com . Here come a bunch of newb questions:

1) I'm assuming the kit on the website is one channel, so I'll need two for a stereo version?

2) This being the case, are there any special considerations? or is it just cram two in one box?

3) If I also order the power supply kit, can two boards share one PS board?

4) Aside from these three kits and an enclosure, is there anything else I am leaving out? (aside from the obvious wire, solder, etc...)

5) Is it likely that I could fit a stereo version in a 1u rack space? Which model would you recommend from par-metal?


Thank you immensely everyone! I can't wait to get started!

think you could get 4 in a 1U so no probs

1) 2 kits needed for stereo
2) cram two in one case. keep the audio lines as far from the toroid as possible
3) yes
4) IEC inlet, fuse, power switch, power transformer, knobs -  comes to mind. perhaps other stuff too.
5) 2 channels will fit easily - just be sure to lay the 4700uF cap on it's side. parmetal: 10-19112x

have fun!

also - the 16v caps that ship with the green psu kit are barely adequate for the voltages you may encounter on board in real life. I would consider replacing them with a higher voltage part, like 35v or 50v - just to give you an added margin of safety against early component failure. either of those sizes should fit on the PSU board with minimal lead bending.

[post modified - 11" depth required on case. updated par metal catalog #]

I've now made the switch to higher voltage caps for the psu parts kits for that exact reason.

Hello again. So I ordered two green pre kits from diy parts supply. I'm almost finished but I've hit a roadblock. The kit included 14 47uf caps. Three of these are 63v while the rest are only 35v. I realize that the higher voltage ones are to handle the phantom power, I'm just not sure which those are. The v14 schem I'm looking at shows more than three higher voltage caps are needed. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Ian

Inputs...

http://www.mendelt.nl/greenpre_V14/_V14-All.gif

Middle picture, Far left two separated by the input XLR connections and upper left hand corner one by the 4700uf

Basically anything that is connected directly to the 48V or the inputs.

0.1uf would also be 63 or 100V Films