PCB Layout for Musical Effects by R.G Keen

[ToneAlchemists]

I found this book by R.G Keen pretty useful for PCB Design for Effects.

Has any one else read this book ? and if so what do you think about his methodology of pcb design for effects pedal?

PCB Layout for Musical Effects by R.G Keen

 

[rwl]

I read it. IMO it was not worth it given the $40 printing cost. If you have it it's worth reading and some of the iterative examples are good.

There's some other good content but it's really out of date - the book is from ~2002 or something. It's really intended for home etching. IIRC he presents software like photoshop as the tool the reader is most likely to use to create layouts. Most of the details don't really translate well to an era of digital layout in KiCAD or similar, with professional fabrication with extremely tight tolerances.

I found the basic principle of laying out components in the order of the circuit and grouping them into "stamps" or small sets of components helpful as a starting point, and I do that for most layouts of any complexity. But I think for PCBs you see around the forum that tend to be inspired by the appearance of PPCB layouts, the basic Keen-style layouts still require substantial massaging are not aesthetically pleasing and require a bunch of additional work he doesn't cover. And there's some beautiful layouts floating around in threads on here, not to mention the PPCB layouts themselves.

The main gap I hoped the book would address is what sounds good in a layout. In the end laying things out digitally when you can have vias and multiple layers and tight tolerances is pretty straightforward if you just want to connect everything. But I would have appreciated 3-4 pages that highlighted clear layout problems which will add noise/ticking/interference/etc. It's expensive/slow/wasteful to test these things yourself.

 

[Nostradoomus]

I read it. IMO it was not worth it given the $40 printing cost. If you have it it's worth reading and some of the iterative examples are good.

There's some other good content but it's really out of date - the book is from ~2002 or something. It's really intended for home etching. IIRC he presents software like photoshop as the tool the reader is most likely to use to create layouts. Most of the details don't really translate well to an era of digital layout in KiCAD or similar, with professional fabrication with extremely tight tolerances.

I found the basic principle of laying out components in the order of the circuit and grouping them into "stamps" or small sets of components helpful as a starting point, and I do that for most layouts of any complexity. But I think for PCBs you see around the forum that tend to be inspired by the appearance of PPCB layouts, the basic Keen-style layouts still require substantial massaging are not aesthetically pleasing and require a bunch of additional work he doesn't cover. And there's some beautiful layouts floating around in threads on here, not to mention the PPCB layouts themselves.

The main gap I hoped the book would address is what sounds good in a layout. In the end laying things out digitally when you can have vias and multiple layers and tight tolerances is pretty straightforward if you just want to connect everything. But I would have appreciated 3-4 pages that highlighted clear layout problems which will add noise/ticking/interference/etc. It's expensive/slow/wasteful to test these things yourself.

That's what I got out of it too...or do now that I've laid out quite a few things. It was a good read when I was just getting into it.

 

[t1redhands]

I read it. IMO it was not worth it given the $40 printing cost. If you have it it's worth reading and some of the iterative examples are good.

Yep, my experience as well. The tips on organizing the board according to "stamps" was very helpful when I was getting overwhelmed by ambitious projects. Otherwise there are YouTube videos that are much more informative and relevant for today's CAD programs.