Patching Panda Punch V3

Here is Punch V3 from Patching Panda.

I built it from a full kit. Here’s the DIY Manual, which you must read before building.

Punch is a fully dual module; both sides are identical and independent. The videos of Punch I’ve found demonstrate Punch V1 or V2, used as a drum. It’s certainly good at that. But I got it also for the CV dynamics added in V3. Punch has an alternate mode that changes the trigger input into a CV input.

Assembly

All components of Punch are fitted on a single PC board. All of the SMD parts are already soldered.

Back of module after assembly

All the panel parts solder to the back side of the PCB, except for the 10-pin power header (lower left in photo above) that mounts on the component side. If like me you didn’t read the assembly manual, you could goof up the power header installation. (How? It’s usually simple.)

My screw up

If you look before soldering (I didn’t) you’ll see that the footprint of the power header lies beneath two of the jack assemblies. The manual shows how it should be done. You should put tape over the holes, insert the power header upside down and solder it from the back, and then push the housing down flush to the board. If you jump in like I did and solder it the “usual way”, the result is shown in the photo. Now the jack housings can’t sit flush.

I fixed my goof by clipping the leads (as on the left side above) and reflowing. That isn’t enough; I had to file the edges of the jack housings to get them to sit flush.

Other that that, the assembly is straightforward. You just have to be careful when soldering the panel parts to avoid solder bridges, because everything is pretty close together.

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