DIY Tip of the Day

[CJ]

not worthy of a Lab thread, so i stick it here,

ever get torked because you have the right cap value but the leads are  wrong?

you could make something like the pic below.

add your own tip of the day if you want,

 

[dirtyhanfri]

Great thread, let me think if I can contribute with something....

BTW, what is exactly what you 're using for the caps? I did somethibg like this once with a small piece of big heatshrink.

 

[tv]

Yeah I actually remember such old-school "axial-radial" lytics being sometimes sold in shops around here in early '80s still.

 

[Dreams]

I've got this old Neumann module that does the same thing with the caps. They have little molded nylon things with two holes: one for the cap to sit in and one for the other lead. I wonder what those are called...

Good tip. Most of the time I end up needing radial-> axial, though...

 

[CJ]

you can create various cables to help test and troubleshoot equipment,

here is cable #1

use for injecting signals into XLR jacks, you can use colors for phase ref.

 

[pucho812]

+1 on the cables for testing. I have several I carry with me.  all are various tt, trs, xlrm, xlrf on one end and banana jacks on the other. from there I can plug into dmm, o-scopes, etc with minimal effort and maximum test abilities.

 

[CJ]

this is a nice gadget for late night testing of guitar amps,

and as a dummy load so you do not pop the output transformer while testing tube amps,

since there is no cabinet, the speaker volume is reduced quite a bit,

goodwill has speakers on sale for cheap, this is a big magnet wolfer from malaysia,

and if you want a really different guitar sound for recording, sounds like a Pignose,

very handy, sits under the bench, no cabinet to haul in, no cord to look for,

 

[dandeurloo]

What are the must have cables for audio and an oscilloscope? 

 

[pucho812]

What are the must have cables for audio and an oscilloscope?

what connections do you deal with? what test equipment do you have?

 

[pucho812]

Tip of the day today. This one is fairly obvious but some people might have missed it so here goes. This has worked well for me.

Whenever making audio snakes, wiring audio patchbays etc. You can move more efficiently and get more done in a shorter amount of time if you work in steps.

For example if you need to make a 24 channel snake instead of taking each channel, stripping it, tinning wires, adding heatshrink, adding the ends, etc, etc before moving along to the next channel, Do one of the steps and go down all 24 channels then move onto the next step. You would be surprised how much time is eaten up just by putting down one tool and picking up a second one and that whole back and forth action.

 

[Rochey]

Tip of the day - for SMD work, always use flux. Flux is your best friend for getting solder to flow.

 

[abechap024]

Tip of the Day. Always keep things organized! Having systems in and out of the control room and shop helps creativity and production flow. (I am so bad at this so hopefully I can continue to take my own advice).

Example:

I use a filing cabinet for all my resistors. Filing cabinets  can be had cheap at goodwill, or you can buy the plastic tubs that hold files. Get a back or green file holders and manila folders and a bunch of 4 ply 4 x 6 plastic baggies. Label everything and I have saved SOOOO much time as opposed to having all the resistors in a big box.

 

[dmp]

Tip of the Day. Always keep things organized!

My tip is don't knock over your big box of resistors. I did this last year. 
I need to get plastic baggies for them, like you suggest.

Seriously, my tip is don't skimp on the quality of parts you use in your builds. Using high quality switches,etc... and you can build really high quality gear.
It's not worth the time to build something if it isn't going to be great (imo).
I've already had to go back and replace parts in some of my early builds, when I was using salvaged parts.

 

[gato]

Tip of the Day:
Document what you have ordered. Use spreadsheets. I don't know how I manage to do this, but I'm always missing one or two things. I order those things, and then I'm somehow missing another two things.

 

[SkunkFunk]

Always keep have some spare connectors and cable in a drawer, so that you can build any obscure adapter you might need at the moment. And make sure to keep anything you might build, it will surely come to use again.

 

[gemini86]

Man I always forget or lose stuff... I often order extra random parts for other projects when I place a smallish order to save some shipping costs. then I forget about them and forget where I put them, or what they were meant for.

Somewhere around here I have 2 THAT1646 chips hiding from me... Been looking for them for over a year.

 

[Brian Roth]

I save the plastic tubs with snap-on lids which margarine and sour cream come in.  Make great temporary bins for things like all the screws which are removed to open up a piece of gear; the lids prevent loss when the tub is knocked over.

To elaborate on Pucho's comments re. wiring snakes, etc, I use the tubs to organize the piece-parts of Neutrik XLRs.  After prepping the individual lines (strip and tin), as I open each Neutrik baggie, slide on the "cone" onto the wire, then sort the solder insert, metal body, and the "bullet" strain relief insert each into their own margarine tub.  That helps in the "production line".

You can tell what studios I've worked in around the country and in Mexico City...I leave some of the tubs behind as a reminder that I was there.  <g>

Also seen in my attached pic is one of my fave bench items, a Panavise.

Bri

 

[Majestic12]

I soldered two copper paperclamps to a piece of pcb, bend them slightly open  and added two leads for my DMM. When I'm building something and want to check resistor values, I can simply put the component between the two clamps. Much faster than holding the test leads with your hands on the components.

 

[leadbreath]

my 2 cents: dont drink too much spanish brandy before any serious diy work, you will not be too impressed with the results the next day...

 

[rob_gould]

my 2 cents: dont drink too much spanish brandy before any serious diy work, you will not be too impressed with the results the next day...

Haha that sounds like the voice of experience talking!