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drilling out ciruciut boards HELP !

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madiarasias

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Hi everyone. Hoper yyour having a nice day and can spare some time to help me out. I am building Power Supply for a 50 W music amp. Now I have the transformer (80va) and the suitable bridge rectifier and capacitores. But my problem is the pins on the bridge recitifer are too big to slot into the holes on the circiut board. So I drilled them out with a 1.5mm drill bit but now when I try to solder there is vrey little metal left on the circiut board to connect to - And I am a pretty good solderer too ! - But i just end up burning the plaster stuff which then turns black or I try bridging over to some metal with a massive solder bridge. So now I have finished soldering and it looks terrible - I cannot trust the electricla connections, even some solder dribbled onto other tracks and Ive had to cut the tracks everywerher to keep my circuit proper. The lady who sold me this circiut board was a complete retard, i asked her specifically for some board that would work for a power supply with big electro capacitors, as it turned out it was the rectifier that was too big not the caps - and she sold me this piece of **** with tiny holes.
So my query to you is: Where do you get your boards for PSs and,
If you have to drill them out how do you do it ?
I am really worried about it because this is my first big electonics project and I read that your soldering on the power supply must be really good and safe etc etc. And Ive tried my best but this board has let me down.
Also when I turned the transformer onto the mains it started crackling and got very hot very quickly, Is this normal? It was possibley one of my solder joints that was crackiling but the heat was very worrying. Maybe I had phase and neutral supply wronglly connected? Because on the picutre it had blue at the top and brown on the bottom, but I know phase is brown and blue is neutral so it turend it round. Does that even matter ?
thanks for your help :D:):D
 
The simple choices would be:
1) Route the rectifier off board.
2) Use a piece of solid wire to make a trace to the rectifier.

Professional repair options would be too expensive.
Post a pic of your board. Go advanced/Manage attachments.
 
The simple choices would be:
1) Route the rectifier off board.
2) Use a piece of solid wire to make a trace to the rectifier.

Professional repair options would be too expensive.
Post a pic of your board. Go advanced/Manage attachments.

Thanks for your advice kiss, What do you mean by route the rectifier off board? Maybe glue it upside down on the base of the container?:D
 
Hi,

reading your post I get the impression you are using a prefabricated board with small "a.. holes" distributed at 1/10" spacing. The drill size is not more than 0.9mm whereas a high current rectifier requires a drill size of at least 1.5mm diameter.

Additionally I guess the board material is not FR-4 but that cheap paper stuff with a thin copper layer for the solder pads. The solder pads even separate from the carrier material at a sharp look.

Here is what I suggest to you. Provide the datasheets of the rectifier and caps you are going to use. If there are no datasheets available use a caliper to measure minimum pin distance and pin diameter of all components to be placed on board. (Rectifiers normally have three equally spaced pins and one with a larger gap in relation to the others. Don't forget to name the pins like + ~ ~ - and their relative distances)

I'll design a proper circuit PCB layout for you free of any charge using Eagle. To print the board just download the latest version (Eagle 6.0) from http://www.cadsoft.de and print the layout on a sheet of glossy paper. Use toner transfer for the final product.

I've never heard about a transformer having primary wire connections at the bottom and on top. Windings are separated a way that primary and secondary connections are at the same level. So the primary winding probably has to be connected to the top and the secondary to the bottom or vice versa. (A photo of the transformer would be helpful.) The wire thickness of the windings should also be helpful to see the difference between primary and secondary. (secondary wire must be larger in diameter!)

Transformer manufacturers don't normally care for colours and use whatever is available (unless the transformer is a brand)

Boncuk
 
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OFF board in your case would be mount to a terminal or barrier strip and wire to the board. Insulate the wires with some insulation from an old wire or heat shrink tubing if you have to.

The 5 position strip here, https://www.radioshack.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2032289&camp=PPC:Google is an example, but the screw terminals could be used too. I've seen commercial stuff made with 4 diodes and the 5 position strip. It has held the capacitor too.
 
For a breadboard, usually hardwiring is best for power components. Mount to a board for mechanical stability, let the pins protrude to the back side, then solder with #22 or so wire. Using magnet wire requires tedious varnish scraping with an Exacto knife, while stripping short lengths of insuated wire is also a pain; but that's the biz in Power Electronics....

A custom PCB is nice, later on, but you're not to that point, yet:)
 
If Boncuk designs a board I would be happy to etch said board. Eagle is a good program but found DIPTRACE easier.
I have lots of copper board material as well as toner paper.
A simple power supply could be done using a sharpie pen as well. This depends on board design and copper thickness must be considered as well. For power supplies I like using 2oz boards vers 1 oz boards.
 
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