Mini Blue aka Sea Urchin aka Industrial Soldering Robot Time

[pickdropper]

I've built the Cave Dweller and really dig it for what it is, but I sometimes want the additional filtering like in the Sea Urchin circuit.  I like that delay in the 1590A, so I did an SMT layout of the Sea Urchin.  These boards were populated by hand, but I may give a reflow oven a go at some point; I just need to get some paste.  If I really decide to do it right, I would get a stencil for that, but I will likely be too cheap for that.

There was a goof on the backside of the board: the regulator pinout was wrong, but a few traces cut, a few jumper wires and I was on my way.  There was also a silk screen error that you'll see in one of the pics, but that wasn't too big of a deal.

Here are a few pics of the populated board:



Here's a couple of microscope shots of the board, just for the hell of it:





Here is the boxed pedal.  Polishing it was a PITA, but I am happy with the results.  It looks nice as long as you NEVER EVER TOUCH IT.  :-)



And here are the gut shots:

[LaceSensor]

that looks like a production pedal. Great work.

[mgwhit]

My wife just looked at this (and a few other of your builds) and said to me, "Well, it gives you something to aspire to."  Amazing job.

[midwayfair]

 

This just looks ridiculously professional. I'm always impressed by SMD done by hand.

How much smaller than 1/8W resistors are the SMD resistors?

[raulduke]

Thats amazing work dude

Great stuff.

[pickdropper]

This just looks ridiculously professional. I'm always impressed by SMD done by hand.

How much smaller than 1/8W resistors are the SMD resistors?

They are quite a bit smaller, but still manageable.  For this build, I used 0603 resistors and 0805 caps.  I've done 0402 by hand before, but it is a bit more of a pain.  It can also make troubleshooting more difficult because they often don't have values marked (like the caps don't).  0201 is VERY VERY small and I wouldn't bother on a hand-soldered board (even some pick and place machines don't like 0201).

[pickdropper]

And thanks for the kind words, everybody.  I appreciate the feedback.

[bigrigg]

Top shelf sir.  Congrats

[jimmybjj]

Looks great! Very professional.

[aflynt]

  Amazing job!

-Aaron

[Haberdasher]

holy cow that is fantastic!  super neat job too.

i wish there were more smt projects.

[snz728]

pro job wish i had one of those minis for my board

[night-B]

Classy, professionnal and inspiring job! Congrats 

[mjcyates]

Very nice!

[TheCobbenator]

I quit! You sir are a god among men!