BlueClone - The Blue Room's Own Comms System

[sunray]

sounds like that next person may be me. That button seems to be variously described as square, round or even 2 pole across different sites, I'll ring Mouser in the morning.I have kinda priced up for making 6 belt packs but the price of some items would come down considerably if others could be mixed in to make up bulk quantities or minimum orders. Anyone else planning at the moment?

[boatman]

sounds like that next person may be me. That button seems to be variously described as square, round or even 2 pole across different sites, I'll ring Mouser in the morning.I have kinda priced up for making 6 belt packs but the price of some items would come down considerably if others could be mixed in to make up bulk quantities or minimum orders. Anyone else planning at the moment?

 

The spec for all the buttons is on page four of the data sheet which is on CPC's website.

[sunray]

sounds like that next person may be me. That button seems to be variously described as square, round or even 2 pole across different sites, I'll ring Mouser in the morning.I have kinda priced up for making 6 belt packs but the  price of some items would come down considerably if others could be mixed in to make up bulk quantities  or minimum orders. Anyone else planning at the moment?

The spec for all the buttons is on page four of the data sheet which is on <a href='http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/85563.pdf' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>CPC's website</a>.

Brilliant Thanks BM, I had seen that sheet before but didn't know where from. Even on the Mouser site it states it's cylindrical assuming I didn't misread something and that was confirmed by the guy I spoke to this morning.

Now to try'n bump up the order to save postage.

Edited January 29, 2018 by sunray

[sunray]

Mouser sell the tca0372 in dip package

Found them at last! Mouser stock the correct white button (Alps part 4093-3). A pack of 10 for €1.41 and there are 125 in stock

&lt;br /&gt;Brilliant info, both items ordered (and other bits to make up order) 13:00 29th Jan, web site shows all items in stock in UK (unless I misunderstand their website). Shipment dispatched 22:26 today from Grande Prairie with predicted delivery 7th Feb.

 

 

3rd Mouser order showing UK stock, 3rd mouser order dispatched from USA.

 

After this I really hope they are the correct item :)

Edited February 1, 2018 by sunray

[sunray]

 

Good old Mouser F****d up for a 3rd time out of 3 orders.

 

Order placed on 29th Jan with the UK site, all items showing as 'in stock in UK'.

Order notified as 'dispatched from USA' 1st Feb. wih due date of 7th Feb.

Delivered this morning and label shows Germany as origin.

 

Ordered 2 Alps knobs at £1.27 and expected to receive 20 as the site shows them as 'Factory Pack Quantity: 10'

Mmm that's £1.27 each so only 2 knobs arrived.

The phone call resulted in an email address to give feedback suggesting the current description is confusing.

[alistermorton]

Last mouser order I placed showed in stock UK and was fulfilled from Germany too.

[sunray]

I have received 2 responses to the email I sent and the first 2 sentences are identical so I'm wondering if this is not an uncommon problem:

 

Thank you for your email. As we are a commercial off the shelf distributor we buy in the Factory packs and then break this to sell in the split packs and smaller quantities. Unless stated otherwise our items are usually sold per piece on our website, I am sorry if this wasn't clear. We do currently have 18 pieces of this part in stock that can be delivered in 2-3 working days, and so would you like me to process a new order for you? As a gesture of good will I can waive the shipping on this occasion

 

Thank you in advance I look forward to hearing back from you.

Edited February 5, 2018 by sunray

[david.elsbury]

Well, if it seems too good to be true.....

[sunray]

Well, if it seems too good to be true.....

 

The trouble is it didn't actually seem too good, the last alps knobs I purchased were the larger size (about 1/2" x 1/4") and they cost me 7p in 2012 from Maplin. If they'd doubled in price that would be 14p (including VAT) or tripled in price that would be 21p as an individual item from a high street retailer, so 15.3p each in a bulk pack of 10 from a company who only deal with trade seemed spot on. In fact the more I think about it...

 

The more I think...Starting at 7p and increasing by 10% a year get me to less than 15p in 8 years so 15.3p in 6 years does look higher than a good price, and these don't have the metal clip in them...

[sunray]

Well we as a group of 3 people have populated 6 boards, I did one and the other 5 have been built 'production line' by the other 2 guys.5 worked straight away but the 6th is very distorted (sounds like too much gain somewhere and chopped), I was going to question the reason for the 15 turn pot for the hybrid but now understand completely, having trimmed them! So far we have not fitted the mic switch's as the first comment , from one who has spent many shows wearing gloves behind a follow spot, on how fiddly it looked was far from printable here. I plan to fit one and try is But otherwise I'm looking at fitting a daughter board and a second Alps switch with a round indicator button.Overall I'm impressed so far.

 

Edit so far only one front/back panel has been cut and fitted to board and enclosure, I have found it to be a bit offset and assume one of the boards may not be accurately made, I think I really ought to elongate the fixing holes and trim a bit off one side but will see what the others are like first.

Edited March 4, 2018 by sunray

[skinda0]

Love the work you guys have done on the Comms system!

I have been looking for this exact thing for a few years off and on and came across the com clone site a few months ago and then stumbled on to the BlueCom thread asking if anyone had got it working!

I have recently been re-drawing the schematics and panels in KiCAD to incorporate some minor changes in some of the components. I am happy to release these if anyone else would like a copy but they may need a sanity check first. I have been through them a few times but another perspective is always good.

Dan

[sunray]

Love the work you guys have done on the Comms system!

I have been looking for this exact thing for a few years off and on and came across the com clone site a few months ago and then stumbled on to the BlueCom thread asking if anyone had got it working!

I have recently been re-drawing the schematics and panels in KiCAD to incorporate some minor changes in some of the components. I am happy to release these if anyone else would like a copy but they may need a sanity check first. I have been through them a few times but another perspective is always good.

Dan

Interesting, the guys spent a lot od R&D time on this and I spent a lot of time looking at project before investing. In my case there are 3 of us who regularly work together and planned to make 2 beltpacks and a psu each. We have made 6 boards up and 5 worked instantly, the sixth is distorted and over loud, I assume that a wrong resistor has been used in a feedback circuit but it has not been faulted yet.

I have been very impressed with the whole project so far, the only thing we have not followed is the mic switch as the 'follow spot' guy predicted it will be too fiddly while wearing gloves.

I wonder what alterations you are intending?

[skinda0]

Interesting, the guys spent a lot od R&D time on this and I spent a lot of time looking at project before investing. In my case there are 3 of us who regularly work together and planned to make 2 beltpacks and a psu each. We have made 6 boards up and 5 worked instantly, the sixth is distorted and over loud, I assume that a wrong resistor has been used in a feedback circuit but it has not been faulted yet.

I have been very impressed with the whole project so far, the only thing we have not followed is the mic switch as the 'follow spot' guy predicted it will be too fiddly while wearing gloves.

I wonder what alterations you are intending?

 

Yes the project has been very impressive, hence why I am building one! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

In terms of the schematic, nothing has changed. Some footprints of components have changed as I had stock of other capacitors and pots so I used these instead of the ones on the parts list.

I did read your post on the fiddly mic switch and changed the switch to the vertical type (Farnell 1550098), and moved it further away from the volume control. Hopefully this will help usability.

I changed the 8 pin vertical dip switch to a piano type (Rapid 80-0140).

The majority of the changes are on the front and rear panels but that involved me redrawing the schematic. I found that Cliff sell a square button for the Alps SPUN switch which is fairly cheap. (Rapid 32-2012)

I am designing a 1U dual channel rack unit to act as the master unit, very similar in style to the granite systems. I shall post some pictures when I get building.

[sunray]

Ah, OK. All understood. I was a little concerned about the dip switch but once fitted it seems OK, we considered gluing it to the board but after assembling the first decided to leave as is and maybe address it later if necessary.For a moment I was getting excited about the square button... We are doing the 6 with the correct size button but any more we will file the hole to take a 10mm round button as we have a few in stock, it won't be perfect but at only a 1mm error hopefully it will not be too bad.I intend building a radio interface module, basically a modified beltpack board with a PSU, also suitable to run the radio's.

[skinda0]

Ah, OK. All understood. I was a little concerned about the dip switch but once fitted it seems OK, we considered gluing it to the board but after assembling the first decided to leave as is and maybe address it later if necessary.For a moment I was getting excited about the square button... We are doing the 6 with the correct size button but any more we will file the hole to take a 10mm round button as we have a few in stock, it won't be perfect but at only a 1mm error hopefully it will not be too bad.I intend building a radio interface module, basically a modified beltpack board with a PSU, also suitable to run the radio's.

 

I have knocked up a quick spatial model to test if everything lines up, so far success! I have a CNC so I made up a PCB full of holes, no traces. Very helpful when designing this kind of thing to be able to check that everything lines up first before sending board designs off to china! Found out I have an error with the pot footprint (splayed out mounting legs - holes are in the wrong place doh!) and I need to move a header that the LED is hitting currently.

 

 

http://danskinner.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/0/101002302/1_orig.png

 

 

http://danskinner.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/0/101002302/2_1_orig.png

 

 

http://danskinner.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/0/101002302/3_orig.png