I am on a DIY roll! Built this nonlinearcircuits Primal Hyperchaos in less than a day. This was my second NLC chaos module. I’m getting used to doing SMD soldering. It’s more tedious and less relaxing than through-hole. But I’ve got my technique for 0805 size components now. This single PC board module was quite simple.
Got the panel and PCB from Synthcube the same time as I got the Spasm panel/PCB set. I sourced my own SMD parts from Mouser. See the Spasm post for more about parts.
All the SMD plus the 10-pin power header go on the back of the PCB. Pots, jacks, and LEDs go on the front side. I am still somewhat confused by the different jacks used on DIY Eurorack modules. Knobiconn, Thonkiconn, Erthenvar, whatever. Even Synthcube seems to get them confused. This board has large holes for tiny pins. I used what I’ve been calling Thonkiconn jacks. They fit the profile at least.
Here they are powered up. The panel designs are inconsistent. Well, so are the PC boards. The pots line up but the jacks don’t. The white patterns are different and the blue markings differ as well. Not a big deal. Now I have to put these modules to work.
Great build!!! NLC modules are always interesting. I plan to make my own versions to avoid too much SMD.
How are you soldering the components? Fine tip iron? Paste and heat gun?
Hi Fer,
I prepared for SMD work by watching half a dozen videos on it. I always work with a fine tip on my Weller soldering station. The main lesson I got from one of the videos was to use plenty of flux. I used a flux pen. The technique is simple. Flux first, place component with tweezers and hold in place by lightly pressing on the component with closed tweezers. Clean the tip on sponge, tin with a bit of solder and quickly solder one end. It only needs to hold the component in place. Apply more flux! Solder the other end, and retouch the first end if needed. I bought a roll of 0.6mm Sn63/Pb37 rosin core solder for this work. It’s a little smaller diameter than the 0.8mm Sn60/Pb40 that I normally use. I also picked up a box of lint free wipes that I use with alcohol to clean the boards before and after soldering. Better than Q-Tips that leave fibers.
Thanks a lot for the SMD tips! I’ll look for some videos too.
I only soldered .1uF 1206 bypass caps until now, without flux. So, time to learn.
You build looks veeery clean
Thanks, Fer. One more tip. You’ve probably seen the SMD technique that says to first tin one pad with a bit of solder, before placing the component. But the problem with that is now it’s harder to hold the component down and keep it straight, because it isn’t flat. By fluxing first, there’s no need to tin the pad.
all right! I’m getting some flux and learn.
I’m designing my own pcbs now; so far I only use SMD for bypass caps, a la Ken Stone, but for some boards I may include some SMD components to save space, so I have to practice with flux etc.
Seeing how clean your build is encourages me to finally learn! : )