DIY/Homemade circuit best practices question

[Fallen Kell]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I figured if anyone was to know or could point to a good place, it would be the guys here.

Anyway, long story short, I have picked up the "modding bug" and wanted to work on my old NES to get it back up to good working order as well as add a couple basic additions (add the famicom additional audio paths, remove the region lockout (with a switch to re-enable it), pull the original 2 channel audio output from the CPU and connect it through a potentiometer to mix it back with the mono mixed audio for some stereo separation and add a stereo out). I'm also thinking of getting a RGB mod for it as well.

Anyway, with the above changes, I was looking for best practices for DIY circuits. Should shielded cables be used for the audio lines (if yes, what kind/source to get them, do you ground the shield at one or both ends, etc.), Are there good basic connectors/terminator boxes (like the ones used for USB headers, etc.) for connecting wires to a through-hole prototype board? Are there any good recommended prototyping boards for this kind of work?

Again, I don't know if this is the best forum for this kind of stuff, but I thought I would ask. Thanks in advance.

 

[inachu]

The farthest I got into modding was back in 1986 and using my 300 in one electronic project kit to build an FM jammer.

Since you are modding and this is a DIY I would rather you experiment to see what suits your projects kinda like how that self taught electronics whiz girl on youtube did and she has done a lot of pretty amazing stuff learning all on her own with ZERO teachers and maybe only joining local clubs for idea and such. For you I guess you might need a larger modded pc case to make all that stuff fit.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, I have had some teaching/training on this, and some hands on, but it has been a while (freshman year college, engineering design lab, and sophomore year college, circuit design), and I really was looking to see what updates to best practices guides might be out there (searching returns tons of results, just that almost all of them I have read are junk from people who don't know the difference between a resistor and an inductor...).

I changed majors sophomore year in college from ECE to CS (man that was 15 years ago...), and really havn't done much other than break out a multimeter from time to time to test wires/components. In terms of the project I was looking to do, I was just trying to find if there were any decent sources out there for creating prototype boards (perfboard, stripboard, etc.), good do's and don'ts (like don't use capacitor brand XYZ because they are still using the incomplete Chinese knockoff electrolytic solution they stole from Japan which causes the caps to explode within 6-12 months, or with a stripboard, use multiple connections to the ground strip across the strip to help reduce the resistance incurred on the board trace, or look into using these new terminals for connecting wires to a board...). Basically good, practical advice.

In terms of my project, I don't need a computer case to fit a couple pots and one or two switchs into an original US NES. That said, I am still debating the RGB mod. While I would love it if it all went smoothly, it is just beyond my current skill level with soldering/de-soldering components, and just not worth my time. The stereo mod and extended audio on-the-other-hand are very simple and don't involve needing to remove components from the board, just connect 6 wires to existing binding posts on the board with very little chance of screwing up the system.

 

[bryanl]

Try DIYaudio.com and its forums.

W. Marshall Leach published several audio-related articles since the 1970s, including construction articles about power amps and pre amps that included information about shielding and ground loop problems:

http://users.ece.gatech.edu/mleach/audiothings.html

Semiconductor manufacturers released many application notes for their op-amps, including for those made for low noise and audio applications. National Semiconductor (now part of Texas Instruments), Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, and Linear Technology. Don't shun articles published several decades ago because hi-fi IC op-amps were very well developed even in the 1980s and 1990s. Engineer Walter Jung wrote many articles about them and also the book Audio IC Op-Amp Applications.

You should use shielded cables for low level signals, but whether their shields should be grounded at both ends or just one end has to be determined through experimentation.

 

[natenut]

like don't use capacitor brand XYZ because they are still using the incomplete Chinese knockoff electrolytic solution they stole from Japan which causes the caps to explode within 6-12 months,1

This website has help me tremendously. http://www.badcaps.net/forum/