PcbStac: Channel Strip 2

[Bo Deadly]

It's amazing what you can do with a computer these days

 

[rackmonkey]

Nice work!

But you got me on the post title. Is PCB Stac just what it sounds like? I did a search and couldn't find any references to a sw program with that name.

 

[seva]

looks nice!

how do you mount heavy PCB Layers to chassis?

 

[Bo Deadly]

Nice work!

But you got me on the post title. Is PCB Stac just what it sounds like? I did a search and couldn't find any references to a sw program with that name.

Thanks. I meant to type "PcbStac" one word (since fixed in the subject). It's just a unique name that I use for this system of mostly 1.5"x4.7" pcbs that stack together. The name makes it easy for someone to search on so that people can see precisely why I'm an eccentric recluse!

My comment about what you can do on a computer is half-joking because this stuff really is 80% computer and not that much soldering and actual building. This is the software I used and how:

1) LTSpice to model each circuit just to understand it, check impedances and such. I'm not an EE so this part is important just to make sure the whole thing is going to actually work correctly.

2) Sketchup is very important to make sure everything fits like the VU meter LED assembly in the upper left pic and for clearance like the little metal tabs of the enclosure that the panels mount on. There's a lot of stuff crammed into these enclosures so it just would not be possible to make it work the first time without Sketchup.

3) Eagle is used to do schematic capture and layout of course. If a circuit spans multiple boards, I actually do one schem but to represent an interconnect I just add two pin pads to that net and then in the layout I put one pad on one board and the other on the other board and just hide the air wire between. Very clean.

4) I wrote a little C program to take a CSV file of coordinates of controls and LEDs and such from the Eagle layout and generate a fragment of SVG that can be imported into ...

5) Inkscape is a vector graphic program for Linux (but it runs on OSX as well) that I use to do the panel layout. It took some trial and error to figure out how to do it just so but if done correctly I can export a DXF file and view it in ...

6) Draftsight just to validate the DXF/DWG file before sending to cam-expert.com.

7) Front Panel Designer to make just the engravings using their single stroke font and then export and import into Inkscape. Again a lot of trial and error was necessary to make sure the engravings don't come out splined. But if done just so, they come out as arcs and such which makes the engravings very nice.

So as you can see if it were not for software it just wouldn't be possible for one person to do to this stuff.

 

[Bo Deadly]

looks nice!

how do you mount heavy PCB Layers to chassis?

The assemblies are just held in place by the potentiometers and switches. That's why I had to finagle the daughter board using right angle headers for the one tactile button and LED for the HLF3C and mount the whole thing up-side-down. I could anchor the ends with some of those little right angle brackets from Keystone. But it's sturdy enough. This is not road worthy gear. The enclosers are all aluminum so it probably shouldn't leave the "studio". I'm just doing this for myself.

Thanks for the props. Much appreciated.

 

[bluebird]

Awesome! I use a lot of your processes myself. One thing you said, multiple boards in a single layout of Eagle? I didn't know you could do that. How do you export multiple gerbers from one board layout?

 

[Bo Deadly]

Awesome! I use a lot of your processes myself. One thing you said, multiple boards in a single layout of Eagle? I didn't know you could do that. How do you export multiple gerbers from one board layout?

I don't. I use "mouse-bites" and submit it as one big board to DirtyPCBs. Here's a pic of my last job: