tiistai 11. kesäkuuta 2019

Tube Tracer Build 1 - Intro


Introduction

It was time to look back and see what really has happened. Yes, I have managed to complete the assembly of the electronics kit for the uTracer 3+. This was by far the most complex electronics project I ever endeavored, and the results were phenomenal at least in my quite subjective view.
Printed Circuit Board of uTracer 3. This image is not my own creation,
rather than taken from the cover of the instruction manual

The time it took was only three days and thanks to the thorough and systematic instructions that came with the kit I had no major problems in any steps of the assembly. The only time I needed to revisit an assembly step was when I accidentally dropped the PCB on the floor and one of the buck converter inductors broke loose.

The uTracer was quickly taken in test use in its skeleton form without any RFI suppression beads and having just a single noval tube socket with flying leads attached to the terminals. I was so anxious to verify the operation of the kit that in a few days I had tested all suitable tubes in my rather limited inventory.

I had been dreaming of many possible ways of finishing the project with a beautiful case and clever switching hardware for the different tube socket scenarios. As days went by, I had time to evaluate the options and I grew more and more fond of those with minimalistic wiring and switching solutions.

I have anticipated that I need maximum versatility, so that any possible tube configurations could be tested without any major rebuild. Therefore, I wanted to have a docking input connector, where I could plug in practically any kind of tube socket. I do not need to have more than one set on input leads, because the wiring changes can be made on the tube socket adapter. I little bit of manual labor never hurts one.

I had envisioned a box with a clean exterior, a docking bay for the tube sockets and the necessary cables, input power and USB. First, I thought to have the laptop supply external, but since there was no shortage of space, I ended up incorporating the 19 V supply in the case.

My eyes were soon tuned to spot any promising case candidates and when I was on one of my regular rounds in the hardware stores, I found a nice tool case in the local Bauhaus store. It looked to be just the right size, so it quickly became the base of my project design. That particular case was available in red or blue color and I decided to use the red one to have kind of surprise effect due to the contrast between the colorful exterior and clean business façade.


Additional parts of this project are described on other pages of this blog. See the menu on the right. 

Ei kommentteja:

Lähetä kommentti