My little Beast (Updated - Panel Time)

Hey guys,

I finally got around to really washing my SSL's cap the past weeks. I got asked
whether or not I could supply the boards for my LED monster and I really didn't wanna
do so without some serious changes. So I cleaned it up a bit:







Finally it's taking some shape. It's a snap to take apart and put together
instead of the old soldering hell with resistor legs (better not have to fix the
darn thing too often, eh Keef? )

I also added some individual brightness controls for both
meters and all LEDs, easily accessible when assembled (phew).

The meter is kindofa wonder in and of itself - has peak hold thanks to
JohnRoberts and is generally fun, displaying stereo on one bargraph by
dynamically selecting whatever channel is higher at the moment, rather than
the channel sum (which is "doof" as we say in German) . I'm thinking
of maybe making a stereo meter that kinda wraps around the gain
pot but not sure...

Oh and ol' CnB made it to rev4 now too, sporting some bypass relays:



Yup. He's happy


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So, what do you do when your SSL has too many boards already? Right, add more boards.




Now...lemme get these populated...

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Right, looking good...






So tomorrow it's engine test  8)

how did you do all that!??

So what is the black PCB board? how do you make those??

I just don't understand!

bloody inspiring work! awesome..
Pete

Really beautiful,  this really raises the bar for GSSL builds now!  Great work! Serious thumbs up too you.

-Casey

Thanks 


>how did you do all that!??

Illustrator.

I get the black base material from Bungard here in Germany, and etch in an oversized
bubble tank with my modified A3 scanner doing exposer duty. It's really addictive once
you're into it because you can just haul off and design something and then print to
PCB when you're done (and change your sleep rhythm 180°..."oh yeah cool now let's
build it")

crap.

I thought I was finished.

Excellent work, Lukas.
Is the C'n'B board currently available?

You need to write a book or teach a college course on pcb design and etching, man.
Your layouts are freakin beautiful like some kind of ancient art or something!

would you be so kind as to share this layout with us?

Excellent,
I'm impressed.

Stereo meter could also be great.

will you make this project available?

thanks

Yeah You know, I'm an artist who grew up with the Conrad catalog...I still remember
how the pages smelled and where all the etching stuff was.

I do have a little website for how to etch but maybe I really should offer some courses...
just wouldn't know where. I certainly could teach the Berlin community a thing or two
about it, and we could - heck, why don't we Berlin DIYers have a party over at my place
sometime?

http://livingnote.com/DIY/Etch.html

I kinda got into the pcb thing because, well, yeah, it's just this adorable power, you can
make really serious stuff once you have a grip on the PCB, got started with Illustrator
and never looked back. Whenever I want something now, just sit down with it and
then into the tank it goes.

And I adore calligraphy. Totally. 

As it stands, I have this one made so that it just plugs into your GSSL the way it is,
but there's this issue: Space.

So, you get the LEDfront on and looks nice and all but you end up with this huge
wiring mess once you have hipass or SSC board in there, CnB, main board, PSU
(which of course is a little...big) and then you end up sawing this and adapting that
and things get close to the transformer and it's just nasty.

So now I'm here getting two more boards on the LEDfront which will actually be
the SSL board, with sidechain and all - now you just have PSU, SSC, CnB in the
box, and a bypass relay PCB for the XLRs.

Once I'm happy with it of course I'll make the boards available - but one thing, though -
does anyone know how to take the eps format and turn it into Gerbers and give
the thing drill data?

Ah also, is there someone with Corel Draw out there who would translate the Laser
Mask for the front panel to fpd? Would be cool if people could do their own front panel
too.

Will you be addidng the turbo mode as well? Or is that the SSC board.. i always get confused.


But that looks sweet!! Makes me glad i haven't built a SSL comp yet, if you make these available, you DEFINATELY have a sale.

A case design is whats needed next! I love the black look.

Oh yeah, all already in it - turbo, hipass, thrust and what's really cool - I just
noticed that if I keep up at this rate it's gonna be very easy to just add two more
input and VCA sections in order toget the "ultimate" build with phase reversed
VCA's, all hanging on the front boards...

Hey Lukas,

Awesome work man!!

That staggered LED panel is amazing, and the CnB looks killer

Can't wait to get them and get started on my build!

livingnote said:

Ah also, is there someone with Corel Draw out there who would translate the Laser
Mask for the front panel to fpd? Would be cool if people could do their own front panel
too.

Click to expand...

Depends a little on what the laser mask looks like. Continuous planes are very difficult and take much time since these have to be filled-in with an engraving tool...
...but sure, send the file to rklinkenberg(at) gmail (dot) com 
I'll see how it goes...

That's just beautiful work.

Jealous 

Very nice work, I am very interested with your peak hold meter circuit

livingnote said:

Once I'm happy with it of course I'll make the boards available - but one thing, though -
does anyone know how to take the eps format and turn it into Gerbers and give
the thing drill data?

Click to expand...

I know pstoedit program can convert .eps file into postcript file (.ps) and then it can converts the .ps file to .pcb files.
The .pcb files are for the pcb program from gEDA tools, then with the pcb program you can place holes, specify holes sizes and export the gerber and drill files... Not a simple solution I admit, not tested and requires Linux OS...

This is again, really something jawdropping material !

thumbs up !

livingnote said:

Oh yeah, all already in it - turbo, hipass, thrust and what's really cool - I just
noticed that if I keep up at this rate it's gonna be very easy to just add two more
input and VCA sections in order toget the "ultimate" build with phase reversed
VCA's, all hanging on the front boards...

Click to expand...

eeehhh, Lukas.... this would be awesome man !
Or just a pair of small boards that substitute for the 202's ?
I've seen these (already assembled) kits for sale on the web somewhere, using 2 pairs of 2180 in reverse. This would be sooooooo awesome.

Are these available as a kit or are they available at all to buy?

Great workmanship!

Well, still kinda designing on them, so I'm not quite sure when I can safely call it "finished" but
I'll let you know - I have this tick about everything being just right before I hand it over to the
general public

Hey Paul - Yeah actually, I've retained the 202 footprint in the design, so you can make 4 202s
do the funky chicken if you like, just like daddy Keef's original.

Can't wait!! Especially with all your mods!