How ugly is it allowed to be if it works?

vigilante398

Authorized Vendor
Tube preamp pedals are kind of my main thing, but I mostly use SMD so I can fit things in tight spaces. Well a friend of mine asked me to do a simple tube preamp PCB with through-hole parts so he could build one. I had this idea of conveniently mounting the tube inside the enclosure without needing an extra "daughter board" to mount it, but it limits the real estate on the board so it turned into a tightly populated ugly mess. It works and sounds good though, so I don't know. Anyway.

It's another version of my "Space Heater" preamp, single 12AX7, nixie power supply running around 250V.

IMG_20220506_103336.jpg IMG_20220506_103309.jpg
 
is the ugly part on the back? :D Looks super neat and clean to me. Very cool project!!
Thanks :) I guess part of the ugliness is on the back, I couldn't fit everything so the input and output caps for the power supply are mounted on the back, looking at the first pic you can see part of one of them on the right side. But the general densely populated board looks crowded and ugly to me. Maybe it's just me :p
 
Extremely ugly! Put that thing in a toilet paper roll if ya want. 🤪

err…what circuit is that? And what tube did you use?
It's a Sushi Box Space Heater, one of my designs. Uses a 12AX7, but a good number of my customers like to swap it for 12AT7 or 12AU7 for less dirt.

That's super rad!

So when is the Sushi Box PCB store opening up, now?
Extremely unlikely :p I like designing PCBs, I don't like writing documentation or making sure everyone gets their build working. I may do one here and there, but I don't plan to make it a regular thing.
 
That’s a cool thingy!
I thought about learning the art of design, but there are so many willing and more importantly talented folks, yourself included, that I could probably schmooze into whipping one up for me should I come up any ideas.….wait…I have an idea!

[commence schmoozing] :ROFLMAO:
 
Well I figured out how to make it a little less ugly by making it more ugly :p If I use the 630V film caps from Tayda instead of these sexy axial ones I can move things around a little and get all the components on one side of the board. So the top will look even more crowded, but the bottom won't have any random caps tacked on, so I'll feel better about myself.

Apparently I missed adding this to my most recent PCB order by a matter of hours, it just shipped. So I guess whenever I have more stuff to order (probably this weekend) I'll order the redesigned boards for this.
 
It's a Sushi Box Space Heater, one of my designs. Uses a 12AX7, but a good number of my customers like to swap it for 12AT7 or 12AU7 for less dirt.


Extremely unlikely :p I like designing PCBs, I don't like writing documentation or making sure everyone gets their build working. I may do one here and there, but I don't plan to make it a regular thing.

If it came with a parts list, I'd be interested. No expectations of troubleshooting attention.
 
was that designed to fit in a 125B? certainly a full board, but that has more to do with using the through hole parts instead of your preferred SMD real estate. amazing to know you are able to run that at voltage.
 
was that designed to fit in a 125B? certainly a full board, but that has more to do with using the through hole parts instead of your preferred SMD real estate. amazing to know you are able to run that at voltage.
Yup, designed for 125B. It would have been a more comfortable fit in 1590BB, but at that point I would feel like I'm wasting space.
 
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