SB4001 Support / Build Thread

[ruckus328]

OK, time for the support thread.  I'll be adding info all as it comes to me, probably in no particular order so don't pay too much attention to my ramblings until I'm done.

Just to get this out of the way, most of you know but surely some do not, this is now a commercial product.  Hundreds of hours have gone into the development (it was over 100 hours just to sort the kits alone).  I didn't want to leave my DIY friends hanging, hence why there was a one time run for DIY, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

That being said, I do have a couple small requests, as hopefully you all can understand, there are dark and evil forces at work out there, they're watching me, they're watching you, they know your names, they know where you live, they've tapped your phones, and they're coming to get you!  OK, they're not really coming to get you (or maybe they are, who knows), but they do love to steal designs from this forum and since I've released this commercially, I have to protect all of my hard work.

1) Build journals & pics are fine and of course encouraged, however I ask to please not post any high res overal blank board pics (ie: something that could create gerbers).  Just use your judgement there.

2) I'll be emailing the BOM and Assembly Drawing to everyone (sending to your paypal email address), I kindly ask that these not be publicly posted on-line.

3) Start building!

ALL DIY kits were shipped out this morning.  You should have recieved an email with tracking number (sent to your paypal email address).  Otherwise you can just view the transaction in your paypal account, the tracking number will be listed there.

Something I didn't really think about, as it's pretty much standard if you're building 500/51X stuff so chances are alot of you already have them, but you need some way to get into the unit to properly calibrate, so you'll need 2 of the prototype boards that Silent Arts & Classic Audio sell:

I also recommend that you pick up two of the edge card connectors, taht way you can just make a simple extension cable that lets you power the unit outside of the rack.

Various (But Critical) Info:

TAKE. YOUR. TIME.  This is not a race, if you rush, 99% of the time you'll make a mistake, and spend twice as much time trying to track it down.  The build is pretty straightforward, just be sure to triple check value before installing, check IC orientation, etc etc.  The only tricky part is aligning the switches and pots, please see assembly method below.

The most important thing to note is that the front panel pots, grayhill switches, f2uee pushbutton switches and TRS connector should not be installed until dead last, and you must follow the assembly method, otherwise it will not line up, and I'm going to point and laugh and say "haha I told you so"

-You must break off Pin 4 of the two sidechain VCA's (THAT2180C).  Just wiggle it back and forth where it comes out of the body of the IC and it will snap off

-There are two value corrections than what is printed on the board (BOM and Assembly drawing list the correct values):

C39L & C39R should be 100pF, not 22pF.

R57L & R57R (TBD on the board) should be 27R.

-From the center of the board over to the right, the boards pretty much identical.  So if you have a designator with an L ending (R1L for example) then R1R would be the same value/same location on the right board.  The left hand side of each board is different on each board.  All of the 1XX designators (R100 for example) are located on the left board, all of the 2XX designators (R200 for example) are located on the right board, again, these designators are all located on the left hand side of the boards (with a few exceptions).

Exceptions (just to help you guys locate them) are:

R159 (1K5 1W Red Resistor) - bottom right hand side of left board
J101 (2 Pin Connector) - bottom right hand side of left board
R160 (10R) - top right hand side of the left board

Couple other part location tips:
R102 (100R) & C15 (0.01uF ceramic) are located on the backside of the left board, right at the 3 pushbutton switches.

EMI Protection:

The boards have provisions for input and output emi protection (parts indicated with *** by the cardedge - C1L/R, C2L/R, C3L/R, C15L/R, & C16L/R).  These parts should be ignored, and are not installed.  I have never even tested them, and they were added merely incase I needed them for CE purposes.  These parts are all highlighted in red on the BOM.

HOWEVER - L1L/R and L2L/R need to be jumped (use a cut off diode or resistor leg to jumper them with)  Note*** - the 3rd pad in the middle of L2L & L2R is a ground connection, and has nothing to do wth L2L or L2R, ignore this 3rd pad.

KITS:

Resistors: are seperated into 5 bags (just measure one with a meter to figure out which bag is which):

Bag 1 - (10R - 820R)
Bag 2 - (1K - 10K)
Bag 3 - (12K - 91K)
Bag 4 - (100K - 750K)
Bag 5 - (1M - 3M92)

***Note: R159 is a 1K5 1W resistor.  It is the same size as the others however it is red (the only red one there is).  1K5 1/4W resistors are used elsewhere on the board so don't make the mistake of putting one of the 1/4W resistors at this location, it will fry.

Ceramic Caps: are in thier own bag:

22pF - Long strip
100pF - Strip of 4 AND the Strip of 2
10pF - Single cap on a strip
2200pF - 2 loose ones with long leads
.01uF - single one with the wide .2" lead spacing (Hint - this one goes on the back of the board by the f2uee pushbutton switches)

Grayhill switches:

You will need to insert the stopping pins into all 4 grayhill switches.  They are very tiny and easy to lose so make sure to do this in an open area where they can't accidentally fall into the abyss.

Before inserting the pins the shaft should beroytated so that the flat of the shaft is towards the left.  It should already be towards the left by degalt, so there should be nothing that you'll need to do in this regards, however be sure to verify it is pointing towards the left before you insert the pins.

There are three 2X6 switches and one 1X12 switch:

The 2X6 switches, pins should be inserted at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock.

The 1X12 switch: single pin should be inserted at 12 o'clock

Pretrimming Pots:

You have to pretrim the Pots BEFORE you install them.  There will be very little calibration required if you do.  Some get trimmed between Pin 1 and the wiper, some are trimmed between pin 3 and the wiper.  Pin 1 is the pin that goes in the square pad.  Most of the Pots show the pretrim value and which two pins to trim right on the silkscreen (illustrated by the little line and value above it).  There are a couple that need to be trimmed as well though that don't have the value indicated, so just to go down the list:

VR1L/R (Unity Gain):  Pretrim to 2K05 (Trimmed between Wiper and Pin 3) [Illustrated on Board]
VR2L/R (Magic):  No pretrimming required
VR3L/R (Distortion Trim):  No pretrimming required
VR4L/R (Sidechain):  Pretrim to 2K (Trimmed between Pin 1 and Wiper) [Illustrated on Board]
VR201 (Meter):  Pretrim to 1K (Trimmed between Pin 1 and Wiper) [Illustrated on Board]
VR203 (+Gain):  Pretrim to 10K (Trimmed between Pin 1 and Wiper)
VR204 (-Gain):  Pretrim to 2K28 (Trimmed between Wiper and Pin 3)
VR205 (Ratio):  Pretrim to 9K (Trimmed between Pin 1 and Wiper) [Illustrated on Board]

Summary:
So the quick summed up version of all the critical stuff is:

-Do Not Install Items In Red On the BOM: C1L/R, C2L/R, C3L/R, C15L/R, C16L/R, C53L/R

-Jumper L1L/R & L2L/R Note*** - the 3rd pad in the middle of L2L & L2R is a ground connection, and has nothing to do wth L2L or L2R, ignore this 3rd pad.

-C39L & C39R should be 100pF, not 22pF.

-R57L & R57R (TBD on the board) should be 27R.

-R159 is the Red 1W resistor

-Break Off Pin 4 of the sidechain VCA's (U10L/R - THAT2180C)

-Pre-trim the PCB pots (VR designators) as indicated above.

-Insert the tiny ass pins into the grayhill switches as indicated above, don't drop any.

-Don't install any of the front panel components (pots, grayhills, pushbutton switches, TRS) without following the assembly instructions or I'm gonna laugh at you...he he he, ha ha ha.

-And finally, they ARE coming to get you.........................

 

[ruckus328]

Front Panel Assembly:

I have a fixture to do this.  You don't.  So you're gonna use the U-Bracket flipped around backwards as your fixture.  It works like a champ, but takes some time, expect this whole process to take upwards of an hour.  The good news is, you only have to do this once, so I envy you  (I have to do this.........alot)

First, I painstakingly masked all the front panels so that you wouldn't have to scrape any paint off for proper ground contact (I hate having to scrape paint).  Just use a razor blade to remove them.

Meter should be wired as shown:

For my production units, I cut the Red/Black twisted Pair to exactly 8" long, then strip 1/8" from each end. 

The Orange/Yellow pair I cut to exactly 3.75" long, and then I cut an additional .5" off of the orange wire.  I strip 1/8" off of the connector end and ¼” off of the meter end of this pair.

The 2 shorter oval head screws are used at the bottom location along with the 1/8” long standoffs:

2 of the 6 flat head screws are used at the top location (Behind the meter) along with the 1/8” long standoffs:

Next, install the grayhills.  They need to be as perfectly level with the board as possible, there will be a gap between the front of the round body and the board.

What I do is put all 3 in, get them level and then just tack solder the end of each (just enough to hold them there)

Then I mount them temporarily to the ubracket, and THEN solder all the joints.  This way, I ensure that all 3 of them are angled and aligned perfectly with each other.  The single grayhill on the other board I just eye up the best I can.

Next, screw the standoffs on as shown.

Then the other board

You need to space things off, otherwise the TRS hump out in the board will bash into the u-bracket, so use 3 of the grayhill nuts and put them on the 3 switches shown.  You'll ne using the 4th one for the pots.  Please note** - you will not be using the washers that came with the grayhill switches at all.  You WILL be using the washers that came with the pots, and they go on the pot first BEFORE it mounts (in other words, washer goes between the pot and u-bracket)

Measue the 3 10K pots (from end to end).  Whichever one measures closest to 10K, use that one for the gain pot (this will help with accuracy of the gain knob is all).

Next, put the first Pot on (Gain), flip the ubracket around and slide the board assembly onto it.  Use the 4th grayhill nut to space it and don't forget to put the washer on before the nut (otherwise it won't be spaced correctly)

Now use some of the pot nuts to hold it in place.

Now time to solder the first Pot in place.  NOTE*** for this entire process of soldering the pots, the name of the game is just to get the pot held in place.  you don't need to solder all 3 pins, you just need to tack a little solder on one or hopefully 2 pins (enough to keep it held in position)  Once you've done all four of the pots you'll take it all apart (so it's easier to get to them) and reinforce all of the pot solder joints.

Next, do the var release pot, reuse the 4th grayhill nut (and don't forget to put the washer on so it's properly spaced).  It's tight down there, but you can do it

Repeat this process for the Threshold and Blend Pots.  When you're all done you should have something that looks like this:

Now take her apart and reinforce/complete all of the pot solder joints (be careful from this point on, the pot leads are fragile, so without them mounted to something it is easy to twist and possibly break them)  Leave the standoffs on the board with the pots, it will help keep them from being damaged in handling.

Next, solder the 3 pushbutton switches.  I HIGHLY recommend to get someone to help you with them.  They need to be perfectly level with the board and as parallel with the silkscreen as possible, otherwise they will not clear the holes in the ubracket - and it's very easy to twist or cock them.  I find it's easiest if one person holds them in place, while another solders.  I usually just tack one solder joint on each pushbutton, and slide the board onto the U-bracket to ensure they are properly aligned.  Make adjustments as necessary before soldering any more of the leads.  Once you solder all of them, it would be a nightmare trying to de-solder and re-align.

Now put it all back together (don't forget to put the washers on the pots, I've forgotten quite a few times only to have to take the whole damn thing apart again). 

Plug in the ribbon cable before you mount the two boards together, you'll need to remove the strain relief from one end of the ribbon cable (either end, doesn't matter), otherwise it will nto fit.

Put the TRS connector on but DO NOT solder it.  After you mount the faceplate on, screw the TRS connector securely onto it and THEN solder.  Tip* - to screw the faceplate onto the ubracket, I use a 1/4" nut driver.  I put the nut in the nutdriver first, then screw it on.  You metric guys should be able to use a 6mm nut driver (but have not verified this).

That's it, you're done, time to calibrate:

Calibration:

Assuming you've pretrimmed all of the pots as instructed, there will be little to do.  This was an exercise in gross overkill, and I'm actually removing half of the pots on my production version, majority are not needed.  Anyways:

Engage the "External In" Button.  This acts as a soft bypass, and makes compression impossible (unless of course you have something plugged into the TRS that's providing an external signal".  Put Blend knob full counterclockwise (Fully Dry).  Put threshold fully clockwise.  Set Gain to 0.  Set filters to "off".  Set attack to "30".  Set release to ".3"  Leave everything like this until instucted otherwise:

Now, feed the compressor a 1K signal at about +4dbu (probably somewhere around -15dbfs in your daw) and route it back into your daw.  Actual signal level isn't critical, just make sure it's somewhere around there.

Unity Gain (VR1L/R) - Toggle between bypass and comp in.  Adjust VR1L/R for unity gain (ie - same levels when the compressor is engaged as it is when it is in bypass)

DTrim & Magic - Now put the blend knob to fully clockwise (wet).  Look at the 1Khz signal coming back into your DAW with a frequency analyzer (I recommed blue cat's as it goes down to -120dbfs & it's free):

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_FreqAnalyst/

You'll see the 2nd harmonic distortion node at 2Khz.  Adjust DTRIM (VR3L/R) for minimal distortion at 2Khz.  (While you're here, this would be a good time to hit the grind button so you can see/hear it working, just don't forget to turn it off before continuing with the calibration)

Now you need to crank the gain on the compressor to max (+18db).  So turn down the input signal going to the compressor a little so you don't clip your A/D when you do this.  I usually turn it down so my DAW meters read -22dbfs or so.  So anyways, crank the gain to max, adjust magic pots (VR2L/R) so there is minimal peak at 2K (you'll probably need to turn it counterclockwise quite a bit).  Repeat these 2 steps (DTRIM and MAGIC) until distortion won't go any lower.

Meter - With "external in" still engaged, look at the signal level coming back into your DAW and take not of it.  Now disengage "external in", and turn the thrshold knob until your level is 8db lower than the level I just said to take note of.  Adjust meter pot (VR201) until the analog meter says 8db.

Gain Knob - VR203(+Gain) & VR204(-Gain) allow to trim the gain knob to for accurate gain levels.  In other words, they will allow you to make sure when gain is at max (+18db), that you get exactly 18db of gain, and when gain is at minimal (-6db), that you get exactly 6db of attenuation.  Tread carefully here, as one will affect the other, and turning either of these pots will move your 0db point, so it is recommended that neither of these pots be turned more than a couple rotations. 

Export a 1Khz test tone and make sure that the level is low enough (usually -22dbfs or so here) that it will not clip your A/D coming back in when you crank the gain to max 18db.  Make sure blend is in wet position, engage "external in" button so compression isn't possible.

VR203 (+Gain) - The amount of gain at max should already be pretty accurate (typically 17.7db - 18.3db), so there will be very little adjustment to do on this one.  With the compressor hard bypassed, look at the level coming back into your DAW.  Now engage the compressor and crank the gain to max.  Adjust VR203 so that there is exactly 18db of gain.

VR204 (-Gain) - The "what" here is up to you, but I will tell you the "how".  Because of variance of linearity of the pot, tolerance of the pot (this is why I said to use the one closest to 10K here) as well as numerous other factors, if you trim VR204 so that you have exactly 6db of attenuation with gain full counterclockwise, then when you put the knob to "0" on the silkscreen, you will likely not have exactly 0db of gain.  For this reason I will usually put the gain knob at "0" on the silkscreen, and adjust VR204 so that I have exactly 0db (unity gain) when toggling the compressor in & out of hard bypass.  This however means that when you put the knob fully counterclockwise, it will likely read anywhere between 5-6db of attenuation, not exactly -6db.  It's a compromise here, but I would much rather have "0" be "0", and any gain above "0" to be accurate (for makeup purposes), then have exactly 6db of attenuation when knob is at "-6" on the silkscreen.

That's it for calibration.  Assuming you have pretrimmed VR4L/R & VR203 then there are no adjustments to be made for the sidechain or ratios.  Ratio's should be accurate worst case within 0.3 : 1 tolerance, (example 4:1 may be anywhere form 3.7:1 to 4.3:1).  This is normal.  There are too many outside variables here for all of them to ever be exact, and any attempt to adjust one will affect the other.

 

[[silent:arts]]

cool man, looking forward to build it
since I'm working over christmas I now know what to do (at work) 8) 8) 8)

 

[mulletchuck]

According to USPS, this package is ~110 miles from me.......

 

[mulletchuck]

Got my kit!!!!  let's gooo!!!!!!!!!!!!   

 

[benlindell]

Got my kit this morning as well. Is there a schematic or something of the like to reference?

 

[Winetree]

It says at top of post
2) I'll be emailing the BOM and Assembly Drawing to everyone (sending to your paypal email address), I kindly ask that these not be publicly posted on-line.

 

[therecordingart]

It says at top of post
2) I'll be emailing the BOM and Assembly Drawing to everyone (sending to your paypal email address), I kindly ask that these not be publicly posted on-line.

Got my kit...just waiting on the e-mail.

 

[mulletchuck]

ok, first problem:

C39L & C39R should be 100pF, not 22pF.

and

100pF - Strip of 4 AND the Strip of 2

C16L, C15L, C5L, C16R, C15R, and C5R are using up all 6 100pF caps included in the kit.      So, should we order some more 100pF?  Seems like the proper thing to do... :-\

 

[ruckus328]

So, should we order some more 100pF?  Seems like the proper thing to do... :-\

No.  Because you

a) didn't read the info above

and

b) didn't look on the BOM

 

[ruckus328]

It says at top of post
2) I'll be emailing the BOM and Assembly Drawing to everyone (sending to your paypal email address), I kindly ask that these not be publicly posted on-line.

Got my kit...just waiting on the e-mail.

Sorry, just got the little one to sleep.  Sending out rest of the emails now.

Art - you got mail.

 

[mulletchuck]

So, should we order some more 100pF?  Seems like the proper thing to do... :-\

No.  Because you

a) didn't read the info above

and

b) didn't look on the BOM

you'll note that my message was sent before you emailed everyone the BOM...    : 


OHHHHH i see it now:

The boards have provisions for input and output emi protection (parts indicated with *** by the cardedge - C1L/R, C2L/R, C3L/R, C15L/R, & C16L/R).  These parts should be ignored, and are not installed.

 

[ruckus328]

you'll note that my message was sent before you emailed everyone the BOM...    : 

You got it 4 hours ago lol.  We'll let ya slide  ;D

I just sent you a new copy with some additional notes/highlights so that you have the same one everyone else does

 

[benlindell]

Lol, everyone is so eager. I just got my docs as well. Thanks. Are you going to be releasing the schematics to us for debugging?

I like how on the boards it seems you've put recommended values for the trimmers, smart idea.

the JMP3Rs should we just solder them like normal jumped or leave some space to do something later? (they're connected to power ground, is there a function to them?)

 

[therecordingart]

It says at top of post
2) I'll be emailing the BOM and Assembly Drawing to everyone (sending to your paypal email address), I kindly ask that these not be publicly posted on-line.

Got my kit...just waiting on the e-mail.

Sorry, just got the little one to sleep.  Sending out rest of the emails now.

Art - you got mail.

No biggie. Thank you again for this amazing deal. I didn't realize how many friggin' parts this thing had!

 

[mulletchuck]

hey, bro, you got some more room next to the logo on the PCB to fit some more resistors in there    lol.  Finished bag 1, on to bag 2!!

 

[ruckus328]

It's going to cost $37.50 to buy WinZip to open the Doc files.
Already used the trail up on other projects.

???  Why would you need to buy winzip?  zip function is built into the os since vista.  If you're using xp, then:

http://www.win-rar.com/download.html

 

[mulletchuck]

anyone got a pic of this red resistor?  i have 3 identical 1k5 resistors, and not a single red one in any of the other bags.

PowerArchiver is another alternative and tho the trial expires, you can still just wait for the count down bfore you can use it.  my install on my Parallels install of XP on my macbook pro is at least 1500 days old lol

 

[ruckus328]

Are you going to be releasing the schematics to us for debugging?

Negative, have released this comercially, so can't have all the other companies out there having ma secret sauce.  Planning to make mistakes already are ya?  ;D  You won't need to do any debugging, just take your time, double check component values, make sure your IC's are oriented correctly, ya know the usual stuff, and it'll work no problem.  I've built (lets just say alot would be an understatement) of these, and haven't had a single issue on any unit, not once, ever.

the JMP3Rs should we just solder them like normal jumped or leave some space to do something later? (they're connected to power ground, is there a function to them?)

Just jumper them, they're there just "in case" I needed to severe power ground connection for some unforseen reason.

 

[ruckus328]

anyone got a pic of this red resistor?  i have 3 identical 1k5 resistors, and not a single red one in any of the other bags.

Deep breath.

Mo&!#@#$@&er.

You don't have it, none of you do, they're right here.  In the confusion, somehow missed going back and adding it to all the kits.  Going on 3 hours of sleep, need to crash.  Will deal with tomorrow.  Can of course send replacement out to everyone, but doing another 30 packages, not something I can snap my fingers and have done, would not be Saturday until they go out.  Internationals, will take a while to get there (would ship standard mail), so would probably not show up until a week or 2 after your kits do.  Will email everyone tomorrow to see what you want to do.

If anyone doesn't want to wait, it's Mouser #594-5073NW1K500J I used, but anything between 1K5 and 2K5, 1W will be fine, it's merely a current limiting resistor for the meter backlight.