Aether II build pics

[TheBanker]

In order, set 1.


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[TheBanker]

Set 2.


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[TheBanker]

Set3


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[TheBanker]

That's it for now.  Did not do the case yet.


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[meman]

Will, great series of pics so far. Hope to have my first aether II done this afternoon.
I think one thing that is important is leg height of the voltage regulators to make sure they get good contact heatsink once the two switches are added. Not trying to hijack your thread, but the camera angles you have so far don't really drive that point home, so I'll post a side shot. Feel free to replace this reply with a shot of your own once you get time.

Thanks,
Mike E. 

[TheBanker]

Hijack away.  I was just adding pics because they did not have any.  Good pic.  I don't think I have as much leg height as you do.  I like your leg height better.  Let me know how the case fitting goes.

Actually looking and thinking about it.  Is your board going to be supported by the legs of the parts?

[TheBanker]

Ohhh I see.  The switches pretty much determine the height of the board over the heat sink.  i think mine is how NOT to do it.

[meman]

Right, the leg height can't be shorter than the switch height. The screws seem long enough to make corrections by adding washers if you have a cut some of them too short. Now on to the case fit...dooop <fp. Make sure that step number ONE of the entire build is to check the fit of the heatsink. I bought some cheapo $5.99 Chicago brand lights from Harbor Freight. The heatsinks needed a little "persuasion" on the vise to ensure I had enough clearance for the LED lens. This is MUCH easier if you have not already gotten anxious, soldered it all up and attached the PCB.
Also, my cases may have more of a taper than RJs reference model, so I will move the template just a hair to the left before drilling. This will make sure that the edge of the PCB is not perfectly even with the side of the heatsink, allowing it to fit within the taper of the case and not contact the case before the heatsink.

Here are some more pics.
1 - heatsink won't go in deep enough
2 - a little persuasion
3 - gonna shift the others left a bit
4 - done..note a bit of filing on the right side of heatsink to get it level

[TheBanker]

I need to order two sets of those voltage regulators.

Man it looks great! Does it work?

[meman]

Uh, not anymore. Like all the others who have been posting the past week, I have no clue what positions the switches should be in. So I put some power to it and toggled the switches. Got some blue light to blink with the sequence that was playing, but the other channels did nothing...then magic smoke. Opened up the case and it looks like the resistor on the Green channel got very hot for some reason.
Looks like the learning curve on these is going to be painful. Maybe I'll just let them collect dust until get things sorted out and more info on actually running them gets posted to the Wiki. I can't afford to fry them. 

[RJ]

Did it get shorted?

There should be no way in normal operation to do that to the resistor.  Look for a bridge or it touching something. 

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RJ

[meman]

Thanks RJ, I'll be able to give it a good once over tonight, trace things back and and see if it made contact somewhere.
Take care of your family...this stuff isn't nearly as critical...we'll get it figured out.

Thanks again!
Mike E.

UPDATE: Sure enough, I had a short. The wire I soldered into the PCB hole #6 was a little long and happened to tilt as it protruded from the bottom, kissing the tip of the wire from #1  <fp. The resistor still functioned, but a bit dull and stinky, so I just swapped it out to prevent any problems down the road.

[TheBanker]

I used the connectors off of landscape lighting for the power.


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