Adapter Box for (all) your Lab needs

[dangrie]

I must laugh... I know myself... I would have way over-thought this... Designed a custom PCB, paid for it, waited for it, etc... When all I needed was a positive and negative plane.

Simply excellent, pun intended, on your part... A single piece of copper clad, divided, and a few holes...

So basically what I'm doing now
However, for me, designing is more fun than building and having the final product is just a nice side-effect

I just updated the files with all your suggestions: Power LED, better layout of the banana jacks, enough space for bigger banana posts with cable screw clamp, USB connector (Vout)

I'm going to order 10 of the boards now, I think I'm now where I wanted to be with the project

[timgiles]

Having just built one, there are three issues:

1. No pin 1 dot for the LM on the bottom side of the PCB
2. The BNC locator pins will not both fit in at the same time, the holes on the PCB are too far apart
3. No LED in BOM (not critical but the BOM should be complete)

Otherwise I get about 0.2 Ohms resistance between each connector - and the only connector that gives me anything above 20Meg when connecting between +ve and -ve is the green terminals. I suspect this is within manufactures tolerance.

[dangrie]

Having just built one, there are three issues:

1. No pin 1 dot for the LM on the bottom side of the PCB
2. The BNC locator pins will not both fit in at the same time, the holes on the PCB are too far apart
3. No LED in BOM (not critical but the BOM should be complete)

Otherwise I get about 0.2 Ohms resistance between each connector - and the only connector that gives me anything above 20Meg when connecting between +ve and -ve is the green terminals. I suspect this is within manufactures tolerance.

Thanks for the extensive feedback. I fixed all the issues you mentioned, let me know if you find anything else.
FYI: I fixed the wrong BNC footprint by widening the mounting holes with a 3mm drill and scraped off some of the solder mask around the holes to be able to solder the pins in place.

[t1d]

Thanks for the extensive feedback. I fixed all the issues you mentioned, let me know if you find anything else.

It sounds like you have a final design. Please post your design files, in whatever format you created them... KiCad? Eagle? Etc. I am looking at building this and having your board printed might be easier than working with perf board.

Great project. Thanks.

[newbie666]

The files are on his github: https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox

[t1d]

The files are on his github: https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox

Doh, I must have missed that. Thank you, for the pointer.

Edit: Those seem to be only the gerbers. Any chance of getting the source files? I would like to make some modifications... To use the components I have on hand, for example.

I think I might add a switch to bring the LED in and out of line, too.

I am already gathering components out of their bins <g>.

[dangrie]

The files are on his github: https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox

Thanks for pointing that out, didn't have time to respond until now...
The current HEAD in the master branch should alwyas point to the latest non-development version (pass DRC, ERC, consistent BOM, renders, etc...)

[newbie666]

Board directory contains both .sch and .brd files (Eagle): https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox/tree/master/Board

@dangrie: awesome project docs, I think I'll build myself one as well, I'm just thinking about swapping usb-a for usb-c connector

[t1d]

Board directory contains both .sch and .brd files (Eagle): https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox/tree/master/Board

@dangrie: awesome project docs, I think I'll build myself one as well, I'm just thinking about swapping usb-a for usb-c connector

Thanks, again, for the additional pointer. But, I am not seeing what I expected... I thought that I would just be able to download the board and schematic files. However, I seem to be finding their actual code. I know how to plug the files into a project, but I do not know how to deal with the code. A little help, please and thank you...

[newbie666]

you need to:
- either clone the repo (in terminal type "git clone https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox.git")

- in main repo directory on github (https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox) click on green clone or download button and then select Download ZIP

either way you'll have all the files on your PC / Mac. Then navigate to the Boards folder and you can open the files in eagle as usual.

[t1d]

you need to:

- in main repo directory on github (https://github.com/dangrie158/AdapterBox) click on green clone or download button and then select Download ZIP

either way you'll have all the files on your PC / Mac. Then navigate to the Boards folder and you can open the files in eagle as usual.

Thanks, Newbie, this is what I had expected to find and it worked well. I have done this method, in the past. I don't know why I couldn't find it, this time.

Dangrie - I like your solution for connecting the banana socket pads on only one plane (just top, or just bottom) to assign them to the correct network. Clever.

[bernie79]

Maybe this can be made commercial..


Sorry, could not resist. 

Nice to see several ideas to solve this problem that has everyone 

[dangrie]

Maybe this can be made commercial..

Well on that note:

I decided to put it on Tindie, so you can get a unit via this link: https://www.tindie.com/products/dangrie158/adapterbox/