HOW TO ATTACH A PCB PROJECT TO A SYNTHESIZER FRONT PANEL
Making a bracket to attach a PCB project to a panel is a pretty quick and easy project and is a valuable DIY skill to have. Once you have mastered this, you can adapt pretty much any PCB project to any format you like!
Sheet metal (sold as "flash" for roofing at the hardware store
Basic hand tools (screw/nut drivers, tin snips, permanent market/scratch awl)
A bench-top drill press [recommended] or hand drill [not recommended]
I get asked how I go about mounting PCBs to front panels for my modular synthesizer quite frequently, so, I've made a short video demonstrating how I do it. You'll need some tin snips, roof flashing (or plain sheet metal), a drill press as well as some other hand tools.
SOLDERING TUTORIALS
Are you working on improving your soldering skills? Dave Jones is an electronics engineering-centric video blogger (EEVBlog) who made these awesome tutorials. We highly recommend these videos as a starting point for good soldering practice, however, there are tips & tricks here to learn from even if you are a seasoned electronics hobbyist! Dave really knows his stuff. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the world, Dave!
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE Dave takes you through everything you need to know to do good quality soldering. Part 1 is all about the tools you might need. A lot of this was already covered in my general lab tools video.
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE A beginners guide to learning how to hand solder. Remember to watch the first part, which is all about the tools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY Part 3 of the hand soldering tutorial. This time Dave shows you how to drag solder and tack & reflow SMD components, and in particular 0.5mm fine pitch IC's. Including solder paste and hot air.
HOW TO USE A MULTIMETER (and other tutorials)
The multimeter is one of the most basic test instruments in any electronic enthusiast's toolkit. The multimeter can be confusing to wrap your head around. Warren Young of tangentsoft.net made a series of very informative videos, including one that teaches basic multimeter use. He has rather generously shared his electronics expertise with everyone by spending the time to make so many useful videos. Thanks, Tangent!
HOW TO WIRE AN ATTENUATOR
To wire an attenuator for CV or audio, you can use pretty much any value of potentiometer between 10k and 100kohms.
For general purpose/CV, use a linear pot.
For audio, you probably want to use an audio taper pot.
