[guzzler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerb this project looks interesting, I dont suppose those kits were ever made up? If they were I don't suppose there are any still available

Still being prototyped, although as far as I know, everyone's made their boards up. Doubt there'll be kits available, as it's a BIG financial commitment for the organiser, and also arranging that many SMD components into bags is a right pain!

 

[Clutz]

I haven't built mine yet. They came in the mail just as I was about to leave to visit my parents over Christmas holidays. Doh!

 

[Alf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerb this project looks interesting, I dont suppose those kits were ever made up? If they were I don't suppose there are any still available

Repackaging SMD is a lot of hassle. Every SMD component needs an individual bag with a proper description. ICs need antistatic boxes/tubes. To be honest I am too lazy to do this myself. I could organize repackaging done by a third party but this would add £10 to the cost of the kit. I am not sure how this correlates with the new head-fi policy on commercial activities.

The good thing is that all components are easy to get from either Farnell UK or Digikey US. I will publish an official BOM for both suppliers after the prototype stage is over. There will be a group buy for PCBs some time in January 2006 (if blessed by the mods).

 

[guzzler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alf Repackaging SMD is a lot of hassle. Every SMD component needs an individual bag with a proper description. ICs need antistatic boxes/tubes. To be honest I am too lazy to do this myself. I could organize repackaging done by a third party but this would add £10 to the cost of the kit. I am not sure how this correlates with the new head-fi policy on commercial activities. The good thing is that all components are easy to get from either Farnell UK or Digikey US. I will publish an official BOM for both suppliers after the prototype stage is over. There will be a group buy for PCBs some time in January 2006 (if blessed by the mods).

Too right; for the last batch of Rev A boards, I separated over 1500 components, took nearly 3hrs... Don't think I made any mistakes though

as Alf has pointed out, a single supplier negates any need for kits anyway, as the saving on bulk buying (and even 100 components isn't really bulk buying in industrial terms) is mainly saving on shipping.

For the USB-S/PDIF boards, dsavitsk put together an excellent script on his page for it that automatically filled up a Digikey basket with the required parts; very neat, and saved that annoying problem of being ONE resistor short!

 

[Alf]

Finally I have had some time to populate my board. It was my first SMD project and it felt awkward in the beginning. But after struggling with PCM2702 and first few 0805 capacitors, things went much better. I finished everything in about 4.5 hours of which soldering ICs took me 2 hours. Windows recognized the DAC straight away. Despite earlier warnings, ASIO4ALL v2.6 works flawlessly.

The sound. All I can say that the DAC exceeded my (low) expectations and I am happy with the results. I will not be reviewing the DAC myself because I am intimately involved in the DAC’s design and I feel that this would be unfair towards audio manufactures present on head-fi. Meanwhile I would like to ask all people participating in the prototype stage to prepare a review and either publish it in this thread or forward it to me. I will put all reviews on the support web site (with the author’s permission of course).

 

[diablo9]

Hi, Alf, I found every component is easiliy available from Digikey except the USB socket. Is it possible to keep more than one pair of hole on PCB to adapt different USB socket? or at least make it adapt to some USB socket that's easily available from Digikey.
And if possible, could you adjust the spacing between output caps? those caps on prototype board seem too "intimate".

One more thing is that, is it still possible to add LED power indicator on it? or it's too late to make this mod?
Whatever mod you are gonna do, I think it's best to keep the current width of the PCB as it fit EXACTLY in the smallest Hammond 1455.

 

[MASantos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo9 Hi, Alf, I found every component is easiliy available from Digikey except the USB socket. Is it possible to keep more than one pair of hole on PCB to adapt different USB socket? or at least make it adapt to some USB socket that's easily available from Digikey. And if possible, could you adjust the spacing between output caps? those caps on prototype board seem too "intimate". One more thing is that, is it still possible to add LED power indicator on it? or it's too late to make this mod? Whatever mod you are gonna do, I think it's best to keep the current width of the PCB as it fit EXACTLY in the smallest Hammond 1455.

could you just run a led with a resistor from one of the powr pads(3, 9v, 12v) to an empty ground pad?

and yes, please move those caps a bit apart!


Alf, I think I will have a review ready bu the end of the week, I just started christmas hollidays so I have more time now!!

 

[Alf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo9 Hi, Alf, I found every component is easiliy available from Digikey except the USB socket. Is it possible to keep more than one pair of hole on PCB to adapt different USB socket? or at least make it adapt to some USB socket that's easily available from Digikey.

Which one would you like me to adapt to? I have been thinking about adding a mini type B socket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo9 And if possible, could you adjust the spacing between output caps? those caps on prototype board seem too "intimate".

Sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo9 One more thing is that, is it still possible to add LED power indicator on it? or it's too late to make this mod?

I will add this option. You can use C5/C8/C12 pads on the prototype board. They should be free now.

 

[ble0t]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diablo9 Hi, Alf, I found every component is easiliy available from Digikey except the USB socket.

Actually, there is a socket available through Digikey. The part # is ED90003-ND. The two tabs that come off the sides are too large, but I just snipped them off and soldered the ground pad on the board to the side of the USB connector itself. When I get around to getting some decent pics of mine, I'll take a pic of it.

 

[diablo9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ble0t Actually, there is a socket available through Digikey. The part # is ED90003-ND. The two tabs that come off the sides are too large, but I just snipped them off and soldered the ground pad on the board to the side of the USB connector itself. When I get around to getting some decent pics of mine, I'll take a pic of it.

yes, this is a good one, Alf, actually any TYPE B socket will do as long as Digikey has thousands of them in stock. Mini-USB socket will be nice, too.

 

[MASantos]

If you can find a usb b plug that is available from digikey and form farnell, that's great!

 

[leftshoe]

Soooooo

The parts for this are availible from a company that ships internationally? Like to Australia for example?
If there is a board group buy I'm in.

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

Here in Oz Digikey is the best bet. They are very good about international service - and don't charge ridiculous prices. Local companies are close to useless, and often breathtakingly expensive. There will likely be a bill of materials directly useful as a Digikey order generated at some point. Digikey allow the creation of public BOMs, so it if someone generates one it will be very simple one stop shopping. If I get enthused I might do it

Note that there is currently no mention of a group buy, and won't be in this forum. If it happens (which does seem likely) it will be done as per the appropriate rules in a separate thread.

 

[ATAT]

hahaha. I guess he was saying he had interest, not that he wanted to start one..

BoM has a mistake.. it has a 220 ohm resistor where it should be 220k. I bougt using the BoM posted on the site, saw the discrepancy and kinda panicked. Fun.

Found a berg connector at a local shop (Halteds, if you're curious).

Anyone know how good Rubycon CE W and Nichicon KL(M) are? I have a few...

And ferrites ARE interchangable right? (I just picked one up from a random reel that had no values listed).

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

OK, as per the above, creating a Digikey public BOM seems like a nice idea. However, what would really help, is a name for the DAC. Name needs to be in two parts, a full name that makes it quite clear to the whole world what it is, and a short name (truncation of the long name would be a good idea) that allows easy reference (especially in these forums.) Everyone here knows Guzzler's USB DAC. (Partly, I suspect, because the name is, Ahem, unforgetable

) Alf's contribution is significant, as is Guzzler's and 00940's.

Who knows where the canon of these designs will go - so perhpas the name should reflect an ongoing revision history. This is the Rev B DAC. Rev C may well in the future, and so on.

So, some thoughts? I guess Alf gets first bite

, but what it is eventually called might be out of his hands