Has anyone seen this guy's PCB enclosures - blew my mind!

[nzo]

Dave Richards. Just scroll down the page a little. Beautiful work. There is still love in DIY!

[SgtRock]

Dear Nzo:
--After seeing this guy's efforts, and seeing my own, the word piddling comes to mind. I thing I will just go and soak my head. Remember, anybody can to the job with the "right" tools. Best Regards
Clear Ether

[KJ6EAD]

A well-crafted manhattan build always seems like functional sculpture to me. He lacquers the copper on his enclosures to prevent oxidation but I think the artistic value might be enhanced by patinating it.

[sub]

Really scary is this one that he references:

http://qrpbuilder.com/downloads/pcb_chassis_a.pdf

Once painted they look incredible.  Presumably one could get some of the boards fabricated professionally and so have a nice-looking front panel too.

[PeterG]

It is a shame he has to inclose the pcbs, they are a work of are as well.

Regards

[saturation]

If you make nice guts, an option is to use transparent acrylic for your housing; not the best for EMI though.  You could put a screen inside to act like a Faraday cage yet still be transparent enough to see.

[nzo]

For those of you who may try PCB enclosures, here's some tips for cleaning the boards before laquering:

There may be a few finger prints on the copper foil and or maybe a little dirt...nothing that can't be removed with a little scotch brite.

Instead of scotch brite (which is a bit abrasive) to clean up the copper panels, a much easier and more gentle way of doing it is by using a little Tarn-X cleaner, Zap! or Restore4 (Home Depot may sell the Restore4).

These cleaners all return the copper to as new condition without scratching and because they're all basically acids - they deep clean the copper to get out gunk that may be located just below the surface. Just be sure to rinse after cleaning and to dry with a clean towel so you don't leave water spots

Source: ebay PCB vendor

[kaptain_zero]

It is not my intention to hijack this thread, however, the beautiful enclosures reminded me of a project that I have every intention of building, just because of it's appearance, The Electroluminescent Receiver:

http://www.amateurradioreceivers.net/elrchucknolin.htm

[nzo]

You read my mind. Good on you for posting it. 

[Kozmyk]

Those enclosures are schweet.
It's nice to see a bit of craftsmanship.

A few years back I had cause to visit Rod Henson of Matisse Audio fame.
The band I was in had some London gigs and a couple of the guys in the band stayed at his place, he being an old friend of the sax player.
He showed me a stereo power amplifier he was working on.
All valve output stage with custom wound transformers.
What struck me most was the PCB.
Symmetrical to the point of perfection even the wiring was laid out precisely symmetrical.
All the copper on the PCB was gold plated and the heavy brushed ally front panel was to be gold plated as well.
Just so all this electronic art work didn't go to waste, the top of the case was a thick sheet of perspex.
It was beautiful to look at. Beautifully made.
It's the kind of stuff that if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of that unit but his website shows the care he takes in presentation and layout of his products.
http://www.paulsen.co.uk/rod/index.html
He seems to favour blue PCBs over gold these days.
The gold must be an optional extra these days. ;^)

[nzo]

Beautiful! - but I bet they cost an arm and a leg. They usually do when they hide the price.

[HLA-27b]

I was going to ask whether the pads of the Manhattan style posed significant capacitance to the ground plane. My question was answered in the document by Chuck Adams K7QO:

http://www.k7qo.net/manart.pdf

Very good tutorial about Manhattan style build. In short, the capacitance presented by the pads is so miniscule that you don't have to worry about it at all, while in theory it is non-zero.

On the other hand if two sided PCB is used, and the component side is ground, the opposite side can supply V+. In this case a PCB of 100 x 200 mm will have a capacitance of 465pF with extremely low ESR. As per http://www.daycounter.com/Calculators/Plate-Capacitor-Calculator.phtml

I always hated prototype boards. For a while I thought about tooling up for wire wrap but after seeing this I am a believer.

[nzo]

Thanks for posting that HAL-42b - that's worth it's weight in gold. Why have I never seen this stuff!?

[Dave Richards AA7EE]

I just found out that nzo had mentioned my home-brew receiver in this thread and thought I would provide a link that leads directly to the post. Anyone who follows the link that was given, in a few months will probably have to wade through a bunch of other posts first.

Here's the direct link:

http://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/the-wbr-a-simple-high-performance-regen-receiver-for-40m-by-n1byt/

Thank you for the kind comments, and thank you nzo!

Dave
AA7EE

[Time]

There are no pcbs in his copper enclosure.  Its all just point to point soldering in a very cool/neat manner.

[SgtRock]

Dear Dave-AA7EE:
--Absolutely brilliant work. Please keep us posted when you add pictures. Best Regards
Clear Ether