Valve DAC

[Cressy Snr]

That’s a cool looking box.

[IslandPink]

It's a bit smart, isn't it ?

[izzy wizzy]

I keep coming back for a look. Awesome work Ray.

[Ray P]

I think I've cracked why the holes in the top of the chassis are slightly misplaced - it seems the Gerber viewer I used to get the XY coordinates of the centre of of the socket pads gives different numbers to a couple of other viewers I've used. I'm wondering if it is using a point on the circumference of the hole I'm using for the positions rather than the centre of the hole as that would give the right sort of error (2mm).

[Nick]

Gerber files often don't take the bottom left corner of the board as 0,0 the offset will have come from there.

[Ray P]

Gerber files often don't take the bottom left corner of the board as 0,0 the offset will have come from there.

The point of origin is fine, 0.0 is top left on this board The problem is an apparent mismatch in the relative position of the drill holes (the valve sockets have 4mm dia. drill holes centred below them which I'm using to position the holes in the chassis top. I've now used a few on-line gerber viewers and they all give the xy coordinates of the centre of the 4mm holes whereas the one I originally used appears to give the position of a vertex on the circumference of the hole - very odd, it's almost as if it's treating the circumference of the hole as a polyline to be routed rather than a polygon to be drilled.

If I go with the xy coordinates from the online viewers that reference the centre of the holes I'll get them in the right place.

[Mike H]

I got the lid on the Valve Dac yesterday. I'm a litle annoyed because I managed to get the holes cut slightly out of position so the valve sockets aren't perfectly centred below them - shoddy I say - I will have to have them re-worked with slightly larger holes, eccentrically placed with respect to the existing ones. That said, I'm quite pleased with how it looks as well as being delighted with how it sounds.

Move the PCB? I see it's on pillars - file the holes in the bottom panel a bit, make them into slots? Albeit short ones.

[Ray P]

Move the PCB?

I considered that Mike but it would entail taking literally everything apart so I'll take the easy option...

[Ray P]

You may recall that I made a mistake positioning the holes in the top panel of the chassis, (where the valves show through), whilst it was only a 2-3mm, the lack of shoddiness was annoying me so I decided to remedy the situation. Instead of trying to botch it I did the job properly (if expensively) and ordered a completely new top panel from Schaeffer and chose to have it machined from blue anodised sheet - I think it looks rather nice.





Just having a listen now at my workdesk - I can't hear any difference but I am happier with it now.

[vinylspinner]

Certainly looking more shoddy now! Can’t wait to hear it, Ray.

[pre65]

Very nice Ray, the blue suits it.

[Cressy Snr]

Extremely shoddy!

[Ali Tait]

Proper job!

[Dave the bass]

Pffftttttt...A bunch of Shoddy thermionic bum grapes!

Ps. I like it

[IslandPink]

TBG's !