giovanni
Well-known member
- Build Rating
I haven’t seen a lot of build reports for this little guy, which is a shame! Such a fun and useful little tool to build. Highly recommended!
This was my first (mostly) SMD build and the smallest enclosure I have worked with. Also the first time I used a custom drill template with Tayda (the same one others on the forum have used, which I can confirm works flawlessly).
All things considered the build was uneventful. It wasn’t my absolute first time, but getting the hang of SMD soldering is definitely tricky especially for someone with a bit of a shaky hand such as myself (my mother’s right hand is crazy shaky now - no Parkinson, she’s 76 and in excellent health).
The one thing that I would add to the build doc is a note or instructions on the order of installation of the various offboard component. I installed pots and switch first, then LED and then the jack. Installing the jack was not easy as the pots were definitely in my way so I had to squeeze between a pot and the switch for the two pads in the middle. I wish I had installed the pots after the jack and I recommend for others to do the same. Or at least figure out where your iron will need to be in this process before committing to a specific order of operations.
I also couldn’t figure out how to orient the 555: there is a small gray line on one side and nothing else: no dot, no notched side, no semicircle. After some googling, I trusted a redditer saying that the gray line connects pins 1 and 8.
Well, that redditer was correct as the tone generator works exactly as intended. I sped up this build tonight so I can use the tone generator to debug my Low Tide build.
Finally I have to say that this was a fun and challenging build. Definitely not a beginner project but not overwhelming at all. A good step towards SMD.
This was my first (mostly) SMD build and the smallest enclosure I have worked with. Also the first time I used a custom drill template with Tayda (the same one others on the forum have used, which I can confirm works flawlessly).
All things considered the build was uneventful. It wasn’t my absolute first time, but getting the hang of SMD soldering is definitely tricky especially for someone with a bit of a shaky hand such as myself (my mother’s right hand is crazy shaky now - no Parkinson, she’s 76 and in excellent health).
The one thing that I would add to the build doc is a note or instructions on the order of installation of the various offboard component. I installed pots and switch first, then LED and then the jack. Installing the jack was not easy as the pots were definitely in my way so I had to squeeze between a pot and the switch for the two pads in the middle. I wish I had installed the pots after the jack and I recommend for others to do the same. Or at least figure out where your iron will need to be in this process before committing to a specific order of operations.
I also couldn’t figure out how to orient the 555: there is a small gray line on one side and nothing else: no dot, no notched side, no semicircle. After some googling, I trusted a redditer saying that the gray line connects pins 1 and 8.
Well, that redditer was correct as the tone generator works exactly as intended. I sped up this build tonight so I can use the tone generator to debug my Low Tide build.
Finally I have to say that this was a fun and challenging build. Definitely not a beginner project but not overwhelming at all. A good step towards SMD.
