Ideal sound card for multichannel scan and modulations.

[drlava]

Yes, that is in the works

[James Lehman]

OK. I think drlava and I are going to get something together.

Naked, with PCI sound card or with USB.

I can make them by hand on protoboard, but that's a bitch.

I'd rather do sanely-sized-surface-mount.

James.

[mixedgas]

It would also be nice to have a little pc board that could be bought that does the dc offset and amplification. I'd buy one one.

James. download Eagle PCB and get started, you could sell them as a cottage industry!

we usually use Advanced Circuits round here. not the cheapest, ie you could have them made in India or Slovakia for pennies, but AC's stuff does not have QC problems as they let you know about gerber file errors before they run. 12 2"x2" high energy laser ignitor boards cost me ~ 125$ to have ran, with extra thick copper, doubled sides, tin plating, solder coated with mask, plated through, and silk screen. A single sided board with just silkscreen and mask is cheap compared to that. The hobby version of eagle from cadsoft is free but restricted to a 4x6 board, which is huge. Eagle has a few undocumented quirks, but you learn quickly enough what your doing wrong. Once you get it to pass FREE DFM (on line design rules check @ AC) you'll have no problems.

also these guys sell you laser cut masks for SMD soldering

http://www.ohararp.com/Stencils.html kapton polymer

www.stencilsunlimited.com stainless steel

do it in a toaster oven with a controller
http://openhardware.net/Misc_Stuff/ToasterSMD/

people sell TO controller boards, and one was published in Circuit Cellar.

make the whole damn thing, not just the offset board , if you can.

I just did a USB joystick run for a company this way, it made life easy, although I hand soldered it.

Steve



Steve

[James Lehman]

I have a hand made 6 channel correction amp + 8 channel PCI sound card, complete with single ended ILDA connector on the spine! sitting right here that I don't use anymore.

Any offers?

I



James.

[carmangary]

Surface mount would be ideal since it could probably be stuffed inside of a USB sound card box. It would also be nice to add balanced outputs to the XY outputs as well. Or perhaps, make that optional by using a jumper and optional components. My 15K scanner set doesn't use balanced inputs but my 30K set does. So, being able to configure as needed would be helpful.

And, I guess while I am wishing, it would be cool if it had the holes for a DB25 connector or cable to be soldered onto it as well.

Anyway, those are some ideas.

Thanks.

[carmangary]

make the whole damn thing, not just the offset board , if you can.

I just did a USB joystick run for a company this way, it made life easy, although I hand soldered it.

I was actually about to suggest that earlier. If you look on a CM106 (USB sound chip) data sheet it even shows a reference design schematic. You could put the whole thing on a board with the offset amp, balanced outputs, and an ILDA connector! I don't know how much it would cost to do something like that but if you could build and sell for under $200 and make a profit that would be nice!

[James Lehman]

How would you make it single ended _or_ balanced?

You can't use a transformer!

Seriously, I don't know. I've heard that there are some video op-amps that drive balanced outs down to DC. I've also heard of "balanced impedance"; which I think is more likely what we need.

James.

[James Lehman]

A well designed system in the form of a PCI card with an ILDA connector and a pair of RCA audio outs should cost about $40.

James.

[mixedgas]

A well designed system in the form of a PCI card with an ILDA connector and a pair of RCA audio outs should cost about $40.

James.

Balanced is easy, either a AD line driver chip, or a pair of opamps.

There is a ILDA standard driver and receiver circuit in the old version of the standard. I've posted it before, I can dig it up in the piling system again.

Steve

[drlava]

I don't know about $40 but it won't be $200 either. I've seen that schematic, there are better op-amps available now that would provide improved performance. I'd like to keep the USB version powered by the USB.