I have started building my MidiBoX SID and i decided to make one of these PhotoBlogs, because everyone else has one. So i´m making a MBSID with 4x SID:s 2x8580 and 2x6581. The SID:s i got from friends with 2-5€ each.
I have already received my parts from Reichelt.de and they cost me about 240€ with all expenses. I also spent 200€ in my local electronics store, because i needed some better equipment, and good tools are always investments
Also i decided to make the PCB:s myself, because i happen to have equipment and knowhow for that
And i should probably also mention that i´m videotaping all that i´m doing, so if someone wants i can release it somewhere somehow sometime
So heres some pictures!
Heres what reichelt gave me:
I started by spraying POSITIV 20 Photosensitive spray to blank PCB:s:
While the boards were drying i made the Optimized C64 Powerthingy on stripboard:
I just exposed and developed all the PCB:s and they look pretty good.
Well its not Perfect but it will do just fine. For perfect results you should spray the lacquer in dust free place and leave about 1cm empty space to each side.
Some commercial desktop etching tanks are also heated with aquarium heating. Temperature needed for etching is more less the same as needed for tropical fishes. Also air compressor is the same as used in fish tank. So, it it obvious all components are easy available and probably cheaper to make, than buy etching tank.
I second that, boiling etchant is a REALLY bad idea, not least because it releases nasty fumes.
As far as i’m aware, normal Ferric Chloride is designed to work best at 30 degrees, whereas Persulphate works best at 50. That’s what I was told by a professional PCB manufacturer anyway!
So i got all the PCB:s drilled. 14 boards i think :o
It took me two days to drill them with my Dremel!
And while i was taking brakes i did little organizing:
Then i assembled the burner. And it looks like this:
But here comes the bad news… Because under the burner it looks like this:
Can’t see whats wrong? Well apparently i forgot to do a “ratsnest” command before i printed the masks from Eagle!1!1!. Seriously how the heck should have i known that you have to perform a magical command before you can print the mask… And this isn’t even the worst part , because the same ratsnest command goes for every Core and SID module and i didn’t use it in any of mine.. So.. lol? Maybe its time so start raging?
Yep, looks like you’re missing your ground plane! It’s not the end of the world, you can just connect up all the missing grounds, which would be less time consuming than re-doing all the PCB’s.
For what it’s worth, the Eagle layout for the MBHP PIC burner is missing a ground connection anyway, can’t tell you how much hassle that’s caused me!
For what it’s worth, manually wiring the SID module ground will probably lead to less noise, if you separate digital ground from audio ground. The SID chip Vss pin should be connected to the audio ground.
