Hints For Novo Kit Assembly

I will be assembling my kit over the weekend. I have some soldering skills/experience and was hoping to get some tips from those who have completed the kit and those with a lot of experience in soldering and electronics.

Alexis

for anyone interested this is how far i have got after spending approximately 6 hours (at a nice gentle pace) on the novo kit...

i have everything finished except for the testing and fitting the lid on the case (very easy), that is if it all works ok
i just did a quick test by plugging in the psu to see if anything smoked or started burning but it seemed to be ok. i now need to do the test with the multi-meter as outlined in the manual.

until now the only soldering i have done has been wiring up various audio leads, mainly jacks and xlrs, along with soldering a couple of simple kits from maplins. also i have a very basic understanding of electronics.

i will give more details about my time on this and how i found it if anyone is interested, but first i need to make sure it is working!

here are some pictures of my handy work..

iamalexis wrote: ok so i have tested the various voltages show around the circuit diagram and they were all correct and guess what...it worked i have had a quick listen and it sounds wonderful. so the lid is on, i now just need to stick the feet on to the bottom of the case and get it properly hooked up for an evening of listening (well deserved i feel!). as i mentioned in my last post i'm happy to share my experiences in more detail if anyone is interested....

I can definitely say that quite a lot of people are interested, even if they're not yet members here.

By the way - WELL DONE!

I received and built a novo kit yesterday evening. An excellent kit
and the the instructions are well done. I regularly design and build
my own stuff (digital, so I'm in awe of Graham's analogue expertise
of course) therefore my experiences may not be the best to share but,
for what they're worth, here are a few hints.

The manual doesn't have a "what you'll need' section, which is fair
enough for the group the kit is aimed at. I ended up using
a 15W iron with 0.7mm solder (but used 1.2mm solder for the large tags),
a pair of side-cutters, a metal hacksaw, small metal file, metric ruler,
cross-head screwdriver bits and small flat-head screwdriver (for the pot
control). Also a small hammer and metal punch (to help make electrical
contact with the case as described in the manual - but people may be able to
use other things they have to hand at that point). A solder-sucker may also
be useful in case of mistakes. I would say that a multimeter is essential
unless you have perfect eyesight (for resistor values) and are feeling
particularly brave.

With the resistors Graham supplies I'm sure there is no problem
bending the resistor leads flush with the body so they lay 'tight' to
the board. However, in the ancient days there was a nasty tendency
for them to snap off if you did so. So, purely from force
of habit and fear, I bent them a nails-width away the body. This
had them standing very slightly proud of the surface. I've always
done that anyway to allow air circulation and prevent hot-spots
on the components (not important for this design as there's only
the tiniest heat to dissipate).

Before soldering in the pot and the LED, but after soldering in the
phono jack, it is best to bend the LED leads as suggested and then,
with the LED and pot in place, offer up the front panel. This allows
you to see how far above the board surface the LED leads need to be
and also to mark the pot spindle for length. You can then attack the pot
spindle with a hacksaw and file down the sharp edges. I chopped
off the anti-rotation spigot with side-cutters rather than use the pliers
method in the manual - it was just easier do so in my case. Then solder
the LED and pot in.

The novo does sound good but I'll be leaving it to burn-in for a good
while. Fortunately there's a Solo MC to listen to here while it does so.

Alan