Files

kicad files

Notes

At the time I started this project Ray Wilson had passed away and there were no Noise Toaster PCBs to be found online.

I did the design as shown in Make: Analog Synthesisers in Altium but I changed this to use Kicad, as I wanted to learn it (it’s great) and I hate overpriced software.

I used PCBWay to manufacture the board, which means it’s a fraction of the cost of buying one from a few different retailers.

The final Gerbers/Archive.zip is what I sent off for fabrication.

Things I found out/would change for a V2:

• Don’t bother with the gain cap on the audio amp module (too noisey)

• Space transistor pins out wider in the PCB drawing

• When drilling holes into the panel, stay away form the edges! Components on the edge makes things harder to get into a box.

• An issue with the design is that transistor Q5 found in the white noise generator needs to be experimented with so that the breakdown voltage is met.

• The only nasty think I did was to ground the metallic standoff holes on the PCB’s ground plane. This caused an error when I assembled the components to the metallic backplate, as I was unintentionally grounding more than I should have. The board schematic / PCB layout should be updated so that the standoff holes are tied to virtual ground instead (BN).

• Also you should be careful what libraries you use with Kicad. I used some of Digikey’s library parts, and the pinout for some of the transistors was not at all correct. Thankfully I found this issue before fabrication.

• I’d change pad grounding and also make pin sizes (for X1 through to X27) larger for AWG 22 wires.

Photos