[Elecraft] KDSP2

[Trevor Day]

Hi All,
Well I put work to one side this afternoon to put together the KDSP2.  I 
had two problems that threatened to stop it running in the short term. 
The first was entirely my fault :-)  I inserted the 0.1 caps and 
soldered in position without straightening the built in 'kink' in the 
leads.  I decided to rectify the situation by pulling the untrimmed 
leads through the board whilst applying the iron to each joint in turn. 
It worked for three of the caps, the fourth one managed to detach the 
lead entirely from its body rendering it useless.  I didn't have a 
spare!  A rather larger ceramic has taken its place.

The second problem was much more unusual.  The 20 pin female socket that 
connects to the prebuilt DSP unit appeared to be deformed along one 
complete row of 10 pins.  It was not visible externally and only came to 
light when I came to marry the two boards together.  The DSP unit would 
not, under any circumstances, fit into the connector.  I removed the 
board from the K2 and checked each of the 20 sockets with a stiff wire. 
One row was perfectly fine, the other row allowed the wire to enter 
about 2 or 3 mm before stopping.  A this point I was a little frustrated 
as this socket is extremely difficult to remove once soldered in place. 
I eventually pried off the plastic holder surrounding the sockets 
metalwork leaving just two rows of plated metal contacts.  I carefully 
adjusted the position of each contact then replace the plastic cover. 
To my delight, the DSP board now fitted perfectly.

The unit powered up and has passed all the initial tests and is 'looking 
good'.  Although its probably a long shot, I would advise anyone else to 
check that their plugs and sockets mate correctly before soldering in 
place.  My solution. although successful in the end, was a little 
extreme.

DSP here we come,  thanks Lyle and the gang at Aptos.
Trev G3ZYY
-- 
Trevor Day