Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
Bill Griffin (NI5X)
on
May 6, 2007
Website:
http://members.olp.net/bgriffin-olp/tpw/
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Manhattan Style construction is a time-honored method of home brewing ham radio projects. It is easy to follow along with a schematic and build your circuit in the same order, sometimes nearly duplicating the schematic on a piece of copper clad board. The usual method is super-gluing pads of copper clad board, cut with a nibbler, shears or scissors, on to another piece of copper clad which also serves as the ground plane.
While trying to prototype a circuit with surface mount IC's I came up with a novel idea for the pads and it uses recycled material. Hams are known for having lots of recyclable material we just call it our junk box.
I use a hacksaw or jewelers saw to cut the edge connectors off of computer cards and memory sticks. Both ISA and PCI cards can be used and 72 pin simms are considered junk now, no matter what we paid for it originally.
The ISA card's pads line up with standard DIP IC's and PCI card pads line up with most surface mount IC's. Individual pads can be cut from the ISA card edges with the jeweler's saw to make normal Manhattan Style pads. The accompanying pictures should explain everything you need to know.
73,
Bill G., NI5X
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KG4RUL on May 6, 2007
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Definitely a "Green" article! Even the PC board material is Green!
I also use solder wick to salvage components from the boards. A lot of the ICs, etc. are in-house numbered and useless but, the passive components, connectors, etc. are very usable.
Dennis KG4RUL
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by LNXAUTHOR on May 6, 2007
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- great article and quite timely! i have a dead server box that was headed for the landfill, but i think i'll recycle part of it for future homebrew projects...
- thanks!
- i also love using plated pins pushed out of 64-pin IC carriers for through-hole rigs, such as SWL's QRP Rock-Mites... makes changing out components quick and easy with no soldering!
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by VE5JCF on May 6, 2007
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Great article! Now I have something to do with all my old isa sound cards and modems that I no longer have use for. These are the kinds of articles that we need more of here on eham.
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by NS5U on May 6, 2007
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Will this have any effect on all the no code CB'ers coming into the ranks?:-)
Well written article great illustrations. This is what playing radio is all about for me. Make the impossible happen with less and above the performance of commercial.
Innovate adapt and overcome.
And gold plated contacts to boot.
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by W6DAN on May 6, 2007
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Great idea! I'm putting a fresh blade on my hacksaw right now.
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by W6TH on May 6, 2007
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.
I remember reading a similar article back in 1928 written by Hugo Gernsbach. I am glad you refreshed our minds.
Best article in 2007, as good as the one in 1928.
.:
Did you hear the cussing on cw pileups, Saturday May 4? Words like you bastard, FU, etc. CB is here to stay and will never die, ham radio will fade away, give it time.. Thanks ARRL and FCC.
.:
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KX8N on May 6, 2007
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Nice article! Too bad someone has to come along and try to poison it...
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by AG4RQ on May 7, 2007
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FB. These "how to" articles are great. I saved it to a Word file and transferred it to a PDF file for my future reference. Thanks, OM. 73.
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KC6TOA on May 7, 2007
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N5SU asked: Will this have any effect on all the no code CB'ers coming into the ranks?
answer: yes, will be able to homebrew rogerbeep and echo boards into HF rigs.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/672/529/1600/friedwinkies.jpg
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KE4DRN on May 7, 2007
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Hi,
I used a Dremel tool to cut the pcb years ago,
even used the fine tip engravers to cut away
the copper on old scrap boards when I was a kid.
Be sure to use eye protection and a good mask,
not the cheap imported ones to protect you from
the pcb dust when cutting or trimming with tools.
73 james
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KE5LYW on May 10, 2007
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Fabulous Idea. I have not had the courage to throw out an older Windows 96 desktop,,,,,,,,,,,,now I have all of the justification in the world to get out the Dremel cut-off wheel. I know the response about good breathing and eye protection gear is going to be 100% required for this. This will be my first Manhattan-style build.
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RE: Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by AK2B on May 10, 2007
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This is one of the most useful tips I've seen in a long time.
Thanks.
Tom, ak2b
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Gold Plated Manhattan Construction
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by KA0JNG on May 13, 2007
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Good article - I hadn't noticed how the pin spacing lines up with those edge connectors before.
A couple more tips along these lines:
1. sometimes you can reuse well-constructed electronic devices for new projects. Look for items with a good metal case and a well mounted PC board. Strip the components from the board, save the ones you want, and build your new project Manhattan-style on the old board. If the old controls or their mounting holes don't suit your project, cut a piece of PC board material to the dimensions of the front panel and glue it on. If you're lucky, you may even be able to reuse some of the original connectors and circuitry. I once gutted an old Johnson CB, saving just the mic connector and audio section, and used it to 'mobilize' a 2m HT this way.
A recent article here on E-ham used this technique with old PC power supplies. Any hamfest should be full of obsolete equipment that can be repurposed this way.
2. Good-quality IC sockets (the kind with round pins, not flat ones) make great connectors. The pins of one socket will fit perfectly into another socket. Cut the plastic sockets to make headers to solder into the PC board. Use the leftover bits of the socket by breaking the individual pins out of the plastic. Solder hookup wire into these pins, and use these wires to connect controls, jacks, etc. to your board, plugging the individual pins into the header you made. I recently did this while building a QRP rig, and it works great.
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