Boxing up both PPA and BB in Hammond case issues.
Apr 21, 2004 at 6:00 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

IpsilonSound

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Finished up my battery board late last night and when boxing up both boards for the first time in a Hammond case, I realised that it's not too easy to find the best fit. The components are in their way to each other inside the case preventing easy sliding the boards in. I think that the best way to put both boards in one case is doing it Tangent's way but having the sliding top up with access to PPA, not down for batteries(IMHO, of course). The benefit - easy access to wiring and connecting parts for the amp, especially with short wiring, the drawback - need to slide out the BB for battery change. This is not a big problem, since the BB is connected to PPA with a molex connector and easy to disconnect. Both boards are facing each other with their soldering sides and it's necessary to verify that no pins or legs touch other parts. The teflon separator is good, but not a must, I think.
One issue - the C1 Elna power capacitors are pretty large and needed to bend a bit(3-4 degrees) in order to slide the board into the case because of the way the sliding door grooves are made. It would be nice to modify the next version of PPA PCB with this little issue in mind, spacing the C1 2mm closer to the middle, I think. Though some capacitors should be ok, however, many builders choose Elna for C1.
Still waiting for my Kodak rechargeables from Thomas. They were ordered on April 1st, but I made a big mistake by choosing ground shipping to Canada, usually choose air. Called them this morning and they said it takes up to 5 weeks now for ground shipping due to customs overloading
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Will have to buy 12 AAA at local stores here, Kodak or Panasonic 750mA, they are expensive but have no choice, since my amp is finished already.
 
Apr 21, 2004 at 6:47 PM Post #2 of 8
Just received my order from Thomas Dist.
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Apr 22, 2004 at 3:42 PM Post #4 of 8
2 boards are mounted horizontally facing soldering sides, amp board up and battery board below. It's not a breeze, some pre-planning is needed, wiring can be tricky, positions of buttons&jacks, etc.

I made a little template with holes and notes on drill size bits to help me with making other PPAs in the future. The template is a black panel from the Hammond case, since I made a front panel from Cocobola wood, it's not needed anymore. The wood looks really nice, it's so hard, I had trouble to cut it with a metal saw. To polish sides, I used electric grinder wheels, no joke
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There's no need to gloss varnish the surface, how I thought before, it's rock solid and can be scratched only if trying too hard. Will post some pics which I took last night...

Need to fix an issue with a battery board first
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batteries power the amp, but wouldn't recharge and led isn't working.... Need to re-test over and over again today to find the problem, was too tired last night at 5 am
 
Apr 22, 2004 at 10:56 PM Post #5 of 8
Quote:

the C1 Elna power capacitors are pretty large and needed to bend a bit(3-4 degrees) in order to slide the board into the case because of the way the sliding door grooves are made.


Not if you place it in the case the other way around. The panel holding groove takes more space on that side of the case than the rounded corner in the corner of the case's "U".

The amp looks nicer with the removable panel downward as well.

Quote:

It would be nice to modify the next version of PPA PCB


Lots of things would be nice. Do you have a practical suggestion as to where that extra space is going to come from? If you just move the caps in the current layout, you crowd things. If you don't want to crowd things, what do you move to make space?
 
Apr 23, 2004 at 10:51 AM Post #6 of 8
If you use 20 mm High C1 caps as opposed to the 25 mm high types you can mount the lid topside with good results. I made my portible Amp that way.
 
Apr 23, 2004 at 2:16 PM Post #7 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by ppl
If you use 20 mm High C1 caps as opposed to the 25 mm high types you can mount the lid topside with good results. I made my portible Amp that way.


Which brand of C1 is it, Elna as well or different? Do you have a part# by chance from MOuser or Digi-Key? Thanks.
 
Apr 23, 2004 at 2:21 PM Post #8 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by tangent
Do you have a practical suggestion as to where that extra space is going to come from? If you just move the caps in the current layout, you crowd things. If you don't want to crowd things, what do you move to make space?


No, for sure, I hate crowding things on the board, not only is this hard for work but creates unwanted interference with some parts. Just trying to squeeze some of the unclaimed copper plate real estate where parts don't sit, not much harm from that. The ground strip is fairly wide and maybe we could narrow it down a bit, position the L and R contact across, not parallel like now to make it easy for soldering interconnects. This would move all the parts to the side a bit. I don't have a software to change the PCB layout on my computer at work, but will try @home later.
 

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