The Out Eurorack Module is a 4HP, easy to build output interface able to meet any of your output needs. It includes Left and Right 3.5mm input jacks, a 3.5mm Headphone output jack, as well as Left and Right 1/4" output jacks for patching to a mixer, audio interface, effects, etc. The kit contains all the components you'll need to build the Out.
Pictured below are the 3 PCBs:
Panel PCB
Main PCB
Jacks PCB
You will need to carefully break these PCBs apart. If they do not break cleanly, so you can use pliers to break off the excess bits. Filing down the rough edges can also be done. They should look like this:
Next, we'll be populating the Main PCB, where most of the passive and active ICs will be populated:
We'll start with the diodes, which look like this:
Notice that the diodes have polarity, and the stripped side of the components represents the cathode of the diode. Line the stripped side of the diode with the striped side of the footprint on the PCB:
Next, we'll populate this BIG 1 Ohm 1/2 watt resistors. You may need to fold the leads intricately so that they fit the PCB footprint (Note, your kit may contain resistors that actually fit!):
Fold the legs over more than you usually would and, using pliers, straighten them out so that the resistor leads are indented slightly inwards:
Now populate the BIG resistor footprints (R1, R2, R6, and R7), flip the PCB over, and solder em' up! They do not have polarity, so they can go in either way.
Next, you'll populate and solder your ferrite beads. These components do not have polarity, so it does not matter which way they go into the PCB. They look like this:
Your board should now look like this:
We'll now move onto the TL072 op amp. Notice that it has a small indentation on one side of the IC.
When you place the TL072 onto the PCB, make sure the IC indentation (or dot) is on the same side as the indentation of the PCB footrpint. Once populated, make sure it looks like this:
When soldering IC's, I like to solder one pin, and, to make sure it is sitting flat, I push with minimal force on the top of the IC while holding the tip of the soldering iron to the pin, so that the solder reflows and the IC will push all the way through.
We can now populate our capacitors. The ceramic capacitors (shown below) do not have polarity, so they can go in either way.
The electrolytic capacitors DO have polarity. The striped side of the electrolytic indicates its negative lead:
When you place the electrolytic capacitors on the PCB, make sure the negative leads are not on the side of the footrpint with the (+) symbol, as shown below.
Solder the capacitor leads, and we'll move onto the SIP (single-inline package) op amps. Again, these have polarity. Make sure the stripe on the IC lines up with with the corresponding line on the footprint:
Again, when soldering ICs, I start by soldering one pin and make sure it is sitting flat by pushing on the top of the IC while reflowing the solder on the pin. Then move on to soldering the rest of the pins.
Now we can populate our headers. Start with the dual-row power header:
Make sure you place it on the correct side of the PCB. One side of the PCB will have a white outlined footprint, and that is the side that the header should be placed.
Now we can populate our single-row machine-pin male headers, which are used to stack the PCBs together:
Again, place these onto their white-outlines footprints. For all these headers, solder one pin to make sure they are sitting flat before soldeing the rest of the pins. When done, the board should look like:
Lastly, we'll solder the wires to the PCB. You will have to strip the wires before soldering them to the PCB, like so:
Left = Orange, Ground = Black, and Right = Red. Push the threaded wire through the correct PCB holes, solder them up, and clip the tips of the wires you just soldered (but not the other ends, since you will be soldering those later). It should look like this:
We'll now move onto the next board, the Panel PCB
Find your small 10K resistors, you should have 8 in your kit, we'll be using 4 of them now.
Populate the Panel PCB with the small resistors (R3, R4, R5, and R8), which do not have polarity, and solder them:
We'll now populate our 100nF film capacitors:
Place them onto the C3 and C4 footprints and solder those puppies:
Time to solder the 3.5mm jacks! Make sure that the green stereo jack is on the headphone footprint (HPOUT), and that the mono jacks are on the other end (INL and INR):
Solder one lead, and make sure the jack is flat. Do not yet solder all of the pins.
Next, the dual-gang potentiometer:
You may need to bend the pins a little to slot it onto the PCB, since these often get bent. Place it onto the board, solder one leg and make sure it is sitting flat.
You can now place the module's panel over these components, and thread the nuts onto the jacks and potentiometer. If you notice that any of the jacks or the pot are not straight, now is the time to fix it! Hold the soldering iron tip againt the soldered pin of the component in question, and move the component so that it sits straight through the panel. Once this is done, you can now solder the rest of the pins. This is a common method of aligning components with their front panels, ensuring fitment.
Remove the nuts and the panel to continue the build.
Next find your socketed machine-pin headers:
Place them on the bottom of the board onto their white-outlined footprints. Solder one pin only. This is because we want to make sure the machine-pins on the other PCB lines up properly with their socketed counterparts:
Next, find the M3 screws and the 2 white spacers. Push the screw through the slim spacer, and then through the hole on the first PCB we populated (the one with the ICs and capacitors). Thread the longer white spacer onto the screw:
Line up the second PCB with this, make sure the machine pin headers also line up and socket without problem. Thread the other M3 screw through the PCB and into the wide white spacer. This image shows the stackup we're looking for
Screw head --> 2mm Spacer --> PCB --> 7mm Spacer --> PCB --> Screw head
2023 NOTE - Kits now come without the 2mm spacers, instead the screws are 1mm shorter.
Tighten both screws. You can now solder the rest of the pins of the socketed machine-pin headers now that you are sure everything is sitting correctly.
Now, for our final PCB! We're almost there!
Bend the one leg of the remaining 4 10K resistors, so they can be populated onto the PCB vertically. Push them through, and solder em':
Populate the PCB with the 1/4" Neutrik jacks (Pictured Stereo jacks, but your kit may have Mono jacks):
Make sure the nub at the end of the jacks lines up with the nubs of the PCB footprint. Also make sure they are flat by doing our "solder 1-pin, push, and resolder" trick. You can use the panel like we did before to make sure they are straight if you'd like, but these tend to be harder to get crooked:
Lastly, we need to wire the first board (with the wires) to this board. A third hand might be helpful if you have one, but is not necessary. Make sure to connect the Red wire to R, the Orange wire to L, and the black wire to G. It might be easiest to do one at a time rather than all 3 simultaneously. Solder the wires to the 1/4" jack PCB, and clip the remaining wire on the bottom of the PCB. It should now look like:
We can now assemble our completed Out module. Put the panel over the double stacked PCBs, and thread the nuts onto the jacks and pot. When placing the 1/4" jack PCB onto the panel, orient the PCB so that the L on the PCB's bottom lines up with LEFT jack hole of the panel, and the R on the PCB's bottom lines up with the RIGHT jack hole of the panel. Thread em up and stick your knob onto the pot shaft:
All done! There you have it. Take a moment, a deep-breath, and revel in the pride for having build yourself a module. Turn off your modular case, plug it in (where the red stripe of the ribbon cable lines up with the stripe on the power header footprint), and monitor the day away with your new CCTV Out module!