{"id":428,"date":"2009-05-07T19:03:09","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T13:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brainstorms.in\/?p=428"},"modified":"2009-05-07T19:29:19","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T13:59:19","slug":"manhattan-style-construction-for-hobbyists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan Style construction for Hobbyists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the home brewers and electronics hobbyist\u00a0 see\u00a0 fabricating\u00a0 a PCB as a roadblock . I\u00a0 will describe an alternate approach to circuit construction where you\u00a0 need only bare copper clad sheet. This method is some times called Manhattan method.( I don\u2019t know the reason.)<\/p>\n

The basic ingredients\u00a0 you need for this type of construction is bare copper clad sheet. Either glass epoxy or paper phenolic\u00a0 boards can be used.\u00a0 As the first step take a small pieces of copper clad sheet and chip it into small pads. There is no minimum size or maximum size . Use a sharp tool like a chisel\u00a0 for cutting the board. Some sample pieces that I made is shown in the figure below.\u00a0 If you have access to a sheet metal cutting tool, it is very easy to make them.\u00a0 I keep a small box of such PCB chips.<\/p>\n

\"050720093144\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Collect all the components that you need for construction.\u00a0 Study the circuit you are planning to build\u00a0 and make a rough\u00a0 layout of component placement\u00a0 on paper. Pay special attention to the size and shape of the components you are planning to use.\u00a0 If possible,\u00a0 make\u00a0 the circuit layout\u00a0 section by section . This will make debugging easier.\u00a0 The circuit will be fabricated on a a plain copper clad sheet .The copper clad sheet will be the ground of your circuit\u00a0 Keep this in mind when you make the sketch. Here is the circuit and\u00a0 a rough sketch I made for constructing\u00a0 bitx20<\/a>. ( This is RF preamplifier stage of bitx20).<\/p>\n

\"ckt\"<\/a> \"050720093154\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Make a pad layout next from the above layout.<\/p>\n

\"050720093155\"<\/a> \"050720093145\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The size of the copper clad sheet needed can be roughly estimated if you have some idea about the components. Cut a sufficiently large piece of copper clad and then clean it properly.\u00a0 Affix the pads using super glue. Any other adhesive used in electronic repair can be used.<\/p>\n

\"050720093143\"<\/a> \"050720093146\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now start soldering . Make sure that the pads are clean. I use a sharp knife to clean the pads. Start with the resistors. Keep the leads small..\u00a0 Next , solder the capacitors followed\u00a0 by other\u00a0 low foot print components.<\/p>\n

\"050720093147\"<\/a> \"050720093149\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, fix the transistors. You circuit is ready for testing .<\/p>\n

\"050720093152\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are several advantages to this type\u00a0 of construction. The plain copper clad sheet will act as a ground plane and will improve the performance of RF circuits. Also, If you want to replace a faulty component it is very easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the home brewers and electronics hobbyist\u00a0 see\u00a0 fabricating\u00a0 a PCB as a roadblock . I\u00a0 will describe an alternate approach to circuit construction where you\u00a0 need only bare copper clad sheet. This method is some times called Manhattan method.( I don\u2019t know the reason.) The basic ingredients\u00a0 you need for this type of… Continue reading Manhattan Style construction for Hobbyists<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ham-radio","tag-bitx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstorms.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}