I'm often asked about what it takes to DIY (Do-It-Yourself).
It's very frustrating, takes a hell of a long time to learn, and is expensive to boot. Mostly when the thing you just made, ends up not working.
The reverse is also true, it's a lot of fun! And when you hit the power switch hear music instead of an explosion, it's very, very rewarding.
I'll take you through a few journeys to give you a taste of what I do, and hopefully help a few of you who are venturing into the hobby for the first time. I'll first give you a peek at a new build, then we'll cover tools and techniques in a later expansion (thanks to infinite edits).
We'll start this off with a pictorial walkthrough of a build of one part of a SMT DAC, called the Alien DAC. This is so you can get a quick look at what the possibilities are. The project is not expensive, but it's one of the toughest I've ever done because of the size of the components, some of them literally as small as an ant. Can't even see the things, let alone solder them.
This particular part of the overall kit was supplied by Glass Jar Audio. Later we will add buffers and a quality power supply, but I'll not be covering those in this guide. I will expand the guide with some of the basics, but you will have to do some reading on your own if you're really interested in entering the hobby. I recommend looking around the web for basics of how devices work, and then looking for basic circuits to build. I'll show a few of them here for the PC crowd - a fan controller will be a nice project to build.
[BREAK=Build components]
Here are the bits for the DAC portion of the circuit.
This second picture shows you what is what.
And these are some of the stars of this circuit. The power caps are high quality Japanese caps from Panasonic and United Chemi-Con. Output caps are Black Gate Hi-Q NX, the best small electrolytic caps you can buy. Or can't, as they're out of production. Each cap costs in excess of 5 dollars. That's more than you pay for a PCI soundcard. Chips are all from Burr-Brown. As you can see, the input comes through USB.
[BREAK=Populating]
Populating essentially refers to the method of stuffing the board, ie putting in all components and soldering them in. We generally start with one layer (this is a double sided board), putting in the lowest and innermost components first, then putting in the taller pieces and moving outwards.
Here you can see that we have soldered in only the chips.
And here we have populated the top of the board totally.
Board drying out after the deflux wash.
Finally, here's the bottom of the board which is also stuffed.
[BREAK=Results]
Here's the completed board. As you can see, we've put in the taller capacitors and the USB input port. This completes this section of the DAC. Can be used directly, but I'll be building in the buffer.
Another shot.
[BREAK=Tools]
Here's all the tools you'll need to start with. The picture shows you all the tools I am using to build this DAC, except for the soldering irons. From the top:
Needle nose pliers: To twist and hold stuff, can be used as a third hand.
Snippers: For finishing stray leads and cutting off lead after soldering.
Stripper: No, not that kind. It's used to remove insulation off wire. Beats using your teeth.
Toothbrush: To clean off stray dust and dirt, put flux on boards before soldering, and other such things.
Scraper blade: To scrape insulation off difficult wire, such as enamelled wire. also good for cleaning off stubborn gunk off component leads.
Loupe: It's a small magnifier for inspecting your work. Very handy.
Solder wire: I use two kinds of solder. regular 60/40 (available at any TV repair shop or electronics store) and Lead-free silver. Except really critical audio work, the former type is usually fine. Silver solder is corrosive to soldering irons (they eat the iron in the tip) and are much more difficult to work with.
Desoldering wick: For removing solder from boards when disassembling
Sponge: Keep a wet sponge handy for keeping the tip of the iron clean.
Tweezers: No DIY'er can have too many. I keep a stock of over 6 different types of tweezers for all kinds of work, specially after I started working on SMD
Hobby knife: Indispensable for all kinds of DIY work. Handy for removing insulation on shielded wire.
Soldering iron:
I use this for 99.99% of my work, and so should you. It's a quick heating iron with a very stable tip temperature, bits are freely available and don't cost the earth, and it lasts forever (I've been using them for 8 years now, and my firts one lasted 6 years). The iron should be suitable for all but the most heavy wires and joints, or SMD work, but for everything else it works a treat.
The Soldron 25 watter costs about 150 bucks at your local electronics outlet. After it is warm, don't let it touch anything, wipe the tip down before and after soldering with a wet sponge, and it should keep you happy for a long time.
[BREAK=Soldering Basics]
Soldering is essentially the process of creating a connection between two surfaces by applying heat to a eutectic compound and letting it cool.
A eutectic compound is one that can change state between solid and liquid very quickly. In the olden days, lead was the base of all solders, as it has a low melting point. It's also highly poisonous, so you're advised to not eat it, nor sue me for not warning you if you do something like that. Tin was used to lower the melting point. The lowest meting point is achieved with 63/37 (63 tin, 37 lead), but we mostly use 60/40. Today with the lead-free regulations, lead is being phased out in favour of other compounds. All available solder for domestic and DIY use usually have a flux core, which helps. We'll cover this a little later.
Soldering is the number one reason people are scared of DIY. It is also the number one reason of failures on most equipment made by DIY'ers. Done properly, a solder joint will literally last forever. I have friends running amps I knocked together in 1989, without a single issue. Some old Kenwood amps I know have been around since the 1960s, not requiring resoldering. I have 5 golden rules for a good solder joint.
1. Prep x10, solder x1. Properly inspect what you want to solder. Do the surfaces mate evenly? How much mechanical stress will the joint have to take? Is it going to take a lot of heating and cooling? Have the surfaces been cleaned properly?
2. Don't let the joint take the stress. The soldering joint is only an electrical connection, not a mechanical one. Ensure that there is a shock absorber for the joint, or it will fail. If soldering two wires, twist the wires together or clamp them to a nearby surface. If soldering a component to a board, twist the leads so they will bear any mechanical load. If soldering a wire to a switch, wrap the wire around the switch. If it doesn't wrap, use thinner wire.
3. Tin. Tin. Tin. Pretinning your wires, the soldering iron, the joint, all help a lot. Solder has a low melting point, and the flux in the core helps with tinning. Tinning basically means just coating the surface lightly before making the final joint. This may not always be possible (such as when joining wires together), but in such cases usually more heat is required.
4. Too much heat causes less damage than too little. Strange but true. Most failed joints are due to insufficient hetaing of the surfaces or the solder. When soldering two surfaces together, the surface must be able to melt the solder, not just the iron. Only then will a good joint form. With practice, one can make a perfect joint in 2 to 4 seconds, which is well within the limits of most electronic parts - most of which are rated for 10 seconds of 300 degrees on any leg. You should let the bits cool in between joints, so nothing gets damaged, but should heat the joint adequately, so it forms a good joint. The balance takes time to realise, but it's well worth the effort.
5. Safety first. Keep the iron away from other people, wires, your tools and any electronics parts. The tip temperature of a soldering iron is well over 250 degrees celsius, enough to cause serious damage to most living or inanimate things. Always let it cool naturally *never immerse it in water*, don't leave it lying around for children to pick up, and most importantly, don't use it if you are not on stable ground and can see the joint and the iron on the same horizontal plane as your body. As time goes by you will flout this one rule more and more, once you get comfortable with the iron.
[BREAK=Soldering, the practice]
There's nothing to it.
1. Warm up the iron
2. Apply a bit of solder to the tip. The tip has a flat portion that is used to melt the solder and apply heat.
3. Tin the parts lightly. If required, apply some flux to the parts.
4. Apply the soldering iron to the joint. The joint should not be larger than the tip.
5. Afer a second apply the solder to the other side of the joint. You should get a nice shiny joint, which should not flake or break apart on slight movement.
Wipe the iron and keep away, and prepare your next joint.
Next up we'll have a quick refresher on components and their functionality, and then we'll dive into a build for a DIY fan controller for your PC.
Till next time.
It's very frustrating, takes a hell of a long time to learn, and is expensive to boot. Mostly when the thing you just made, ends up not working.
The reverse is also true, it's a lot of fun! And when you hit the power switch hear music instead of an explosion, it's very, very rewarding.
I'll take you through a few journeys to give you a taste of what I do, and hopefully help a few of you who are venturing into the hobby for the first time. I'll first give you a peek at a new build, then we'll cover tools and techniques in a later expansion (thanks to infinite edits).
We'll start this off with a pictorial walkthrough of a build of one part of a SMT DAC, called the Alien DAC. This is so you can get a quick look at what the possibilities are. The project is not expensive, but it's one of the toughest I've ever done because of the size of the components, some of them literally as small as an ant. Can't even see the things, let alone solder them.
This particular part of the overall kit was supplied by Glass Jar Audio. Later we will add buffers and a quality power supply, but I'll not be covering those in this guide. I will expand the guide with some of the basics, but you will have to do some reading on your own if you're really interested in entering the hobby. I recommend looking around the web for basics of how devices work, and then looking for basic circuits to build. I'll show a few of them here for the PC crowd - a fan controller will be a nice project to build.
[BREAK=Build components]
Here are the bits for the DAC portion of the circuit.
This second picture shows you what is what.
And these are some of the stars of this circuit. The power caps are high quality Japanese caps from Panasonic and United Chemi-Con. Output caps are Black Gate Hi-Q NX, the best small electrolytic caps you can buy. Or can't, as they're out of production. Each cap costs in excess of 5 dollars. That's more than you pay for a PCI soundcard. Chips are all from Burr-Brown. As you can see, the input comes through USB.
[BREAK=Populating]
Populating essentially refers to the method of stuffing the board, ie putting in all components and soldering them in. We generally start with one layer (this is a double sided board), putting in the lowest and innermost components first, then putting in the taller pieces and moving outwards.
Here you can see that we have soldered in only the chips.
And here we have populated the top of the board totally.
Board drying out after the deflux wash.
Finally, here's the bottom of the board which is also stuffed.
[BREAK=Results]
Here's the completed board. As you can see, we've put in the taller capacitors and the USB input port. This completes this section of the DAC. Can be used directly, but I'll be building in the buffer.
Another shot.
[BREAK=Tools]
Here's all the tools you'll need to start with. The picture shows you all the tools I am using to build this DAC, except for the soldering irons. From the top:
Needle nose pliers: To twist and hold stuff, can be used as a third hand.
Snippers: For finishing stray leads and cutting off lead after soldering.
Stripper: No, not that kind. It's used to remove insulation off wire. Beats using your teeth.
Toothbrush: To clean off stray dust and dirt, put flux on boards before soldering, and other such things.
Scraper blade: To scrape insulation off difficult wire, such as enamelled wire. also good for cleaning off stubborn gunk off component leads.
Loupe: It's a small magnifier for inspecting your work. Very handy.
Solder wire: I use two kinds of solder. regular 60/40 (available at any TV repair shop or electronics store) and Lead-free silver. Except really critical audio work, the former type is usually fine. Silver solder is corrosive to soldering irons (they eat the iron in the tip) and are much more difficult to work with.
Desoldering wick: For removing solder from boards when disassembling
Sponge: Keep a wet sponge handy for keeping the tip of the iron clean.
Tweezers: No DIY'er can have too many. I keep a stock of over 6 different types of tweezers for all kinds of work, specially after I started working on SMD
Hobby knife: Indispensable for all kinds of DIY work. Handy for removing insulation on shielded wire.
Soldering iron:
I use this for 99.99% of my work, and so should you. It's a quick heating iron with a very stable tip temperature, bits are freely available and don't cost the earth, and it lasts forever (I've been using them for 8 years now, and my firts one lasted 6 years). The iron should be suitable for all but the most heavy wires and joints, or SMD work, but for everything else it works a treat.
The Soldron 25 watter costs about 150 bucks at your local electronics outlet. After it is warm, don't let it touch anything, wipe the tip down before and after soldering with a wet sponge, and it should keep you happy for a long time.
[BREAK=Soldering Basics]
Soldering is essentially the process of creating a connection between two surfaces by applying heat to a eutectic compound and letting it cool.
A eutectic compound is one that can change state between solid and liquid very quickly. In the olden days, lead was the base of all solders, as it has a low melting point. It's also highly poisonous, so you're advised to not eat it, nor sue me for not warning you if you do something like that. Tin was used to lower the melting point. The lowest meting point is achieved with 63/37 (63 tin, 37 lead), but we mostly use 60/40. Today with the lead-free regulations, lead is being phased out in favour of other compounds. All available solder for domestic and DIY use usually have a flux core, which helps. We'll cover this a little later.
Soldering is the number one reason people are scared of DIY. It is also the number one reason of failures on most equipment made by DIY'ers. Done properly, a solder joint will literally last forever. I have friends running amps I knocked together in 1989, without a single issue. Some old Kenwood amps I know have been around since the 1960s, not requiring resoldering. I have 5 golden rules for a good solder joint.
1. Prep x10, solder x1. Properly inspect what you want to solder. Do the surfaces mate evenly? How much mechanical stress will the joint have to take? Is it going to take a lot of heating and cooling? Have the surfaces been cleaned properly?
2. Don't let the joint take the stress. The soldering joint is only an electrical connection, not a mechanical one. Ensure that there is a shock absorber for the joint, or it will fail. If soldering two wires, twist the wires together or clamp them to a nearby surface. If soldering a component to a board, twist the leads so they will bear any mechanical load. If soldering a wire to a switch, wrap the wire around the switch. If it doesn't wrap, use thinner wire.
3. Tin. Tin. Tin. Pretinning your wires, the soldering iron, the joint, all help a lot. Solder has a low melting point, and the flux in the core helps with tinning. Tinning basically means just coating the surface lightly before making the final joint. This may not always be possible (such as when joining wires together), but in such cases usually more heat is required.
4. Too much heat causes less damage than too little. Strange but true. Most failed joints are due to insufficient hetaing of the surfaces or the solder. When soldering two surfaces together, the surface must be able to melt the solder, not just the iron. Only then will a good joint form. With practice, one can make a perfect joint in 2 to 4 seconds, which is well within the limits of most electronic parts - most of which are rated for 10 seconds of 300 degrees on any leg. You should let the bits cool in between joints, so nothing gets damaged, but should heat the joint adequately, so it forms a good joint. The balance takes time to realise, but it's well worth the effort.
5. Safety first. Keep the iron away from other people, wires, your tools and any electronics parts. The tip temperature of a soldering iron is well over 250 degrees celsius, enough to cause serious damage to most living or inanimate things. Always let it cool naturally *never immerse it in water*, don't leave it lying around for children to pick up, and most importantly, don't use it if you are not on stable ground and can see the joint and the iron on the same horizontal plane as your body. As time goes by you will flout this one rule more and more, once you get comfortable with the iron.
[BREAK=Soldering, the practice]
There's nothing to it.
1. Warm up the iron
2. Apply a bit of solder to the tip. The tip has a flat portion that is used to melt the solder and apply heat.
3. Tin the parts lightly. If required, apply some flux to the parts.
4. Apply the soldering iron to the joint. The joint should not be larger than the tip.
5. Afer a second apply the solder to the other side of the joint. You should get a nice shiny joint, which should not flake or break apart on slight movement.
Wipe the iron and keep away, and prepare your next joint.
Next up we'll have a quick refresher on components and their functionality, and then we'll dive into a build for a DIY fan controller for your PC.
Till next time.
...