SpikerBox v. DIY Instructions Prepare yourself. In hours, you will have built your own SpikerBox to begin doing neuroscience and whatever your creative mind can conjure. Materials Needed:. A Backyard Brains Bag of Parts. Soldering Iron. Solder. Magnifying Glass to read labels on Chips and Capacitors. 9V battery to power your SpikerBox.. Silly Putty to hold components in place on board while you solder on backside. Pair of scissors. Wire Strippers and Wire Clippers 9. Superglue (gel is best) to glue speaker into enclosure. 0. Electrical Tape A Soldering Iron can be purchased at RadioShack or any local hardware store. The Magnifying Glass and Silly Putty are available at drug stores. SpikerBox Circuit Construction (refer to photograph on next page while building):. Solder Speaker Connector. Install Audio Line Out. Install Power Switch. Install LED (bulb pointing out). Install RCA signal in. Install Chip Holders. The half circle should point toward the front of the board (where input, switch, LED, and line out are).. Install 0 uf capacitor (big one) at C. Grey Stripe needs to point toward connector row (see photo).. Install 0 uf (blue cap) capacitor at C0, C, and C. These have 0 labels in sm all text on them 9. Install 0 kω resistors at R and R (brown black orange). 0. Install 90 Ω resistor at R (near LED) (orange white brown). Install kω resistor at R (near RCA signal in) (orange orange orange). Install kω resistor at R (brown black red) and. Install 0. uf capacitor at C. The capacitor has in small text on it.. Install 0 kω resistor at R (red red yellow).. Install 0 pf capacitor at C. The capacitor has in small text on it.. Install 0.0 uf capacitor at C. The capacitor has in small text on it.. Install 0 Ω resistor at R (brown black black).. Install 0. uf capacitor at C. The capacitor has 0 in small text on it. 9. Install the 9V battery connectors. Take care to ensure the two connectors are flush with each other or else battery will not plug in. The skinny connector (male) goes on the bottom of the board. We recommend soldering with a battery in place.. Install Chips in holders, with circle on all chips pointing towards top of board. AD goes in left holder, LM on right holder, and the TLC goes in the middle holder.. Install battery.
Enclosure Construction:. Remove paper backing from the SpikerBox plastic enclosure pieces (or you can leave these on). Place screws in bottom plastic enclosure piece, with screws facing up.. Measure your tubing and cut it into equal parts of 0. inches and parts of 0. inches.. Place 0. inch spacers on top of screws.. Slide your circuit board through the screws on top of the 0. inch spacers, and then put the 0. inch spacers on top of the circuit board through the screws.. Solder Speaker Connector (female) on ends of speaker wire. Take care that the two solder joints do not touch. Separate and wrap solder joints away from each other using electrical tape. Press the speaker into the enclosure, then attach the female end of the cord to the male end of the PCB. If the speaker doesn t fit, you can lightly sand the inner hole until the speaker fits. You can use just a touch of superglue in the inside hole to secure speaker. Be careful superglue smears acrylic very easily.. Slide the top enclosure board on your circuit,, and add the hex nuts to the top of the SpikerBox. Note that the nuts could go either on the top or bottom of the board. There is an internal struggle here at Backyard Brains on which looks better: Nuts up vs. Nuts down. It's your SpikerBox, you decide. 9. Peel and place the cork sticker to the right of the speaker, close to the RCA jack. Electrode Construction:. Unscrew end of RCA connector.. Split and Strip ½ inch lengths from speaker wire on both sides and both ends.. Place wire in eyelets of RCA connector, solder, and crimp where applicable. Take care that connections are both strong and not touching each other.. Rescrew RCA end back on connector.. Solder two sewing needles on other ends of speaker wire. Congratulations! You are done. Turn on your SpikerBox. If your LED comes on and you hear your speaker Click on, your SpikerBox probably works. Now grab your favorite invertebrate and do some experiments. What resistor is what? Resistors have color stripe bands that signify their values. For example, a 0 Ohm resistor is Brown, Black, Black as below: 0 Ω = Brown Black Black 90 Ω = Orange White Brown kω = Brown Black Red 0 kω = Brown Black Orange kω = Orange Orange Orange 0 kω = Red Red Yellow Sometimes you will find an extra silver or gold stripe, but you can ignore those. (They specify the tolerances, %, 0%, etc). For your kit, you will need the following values:
BATT BATT BATT R 90 LED SIG 0k 0k R R U AD A B C D E This turns 9V into /.v v 0 = v R 0k =.v I RR 0k0k < To Cockroach Leg Stage Gain gain = 00kΩ = 00kΩ =9v RCA plug R kω =.0x Backyard Brains SpikerBox v..c Dec, 0 REF UA TLC R K x Gain Instrumentation Amp AMP k R C C 0.uF 0.uF C 0.uF R 0k C 0pF TLC HighPass filter Stage Gain Speaker Amp default UB POWER x BandPass Filter Stage AMPA C0 0uF fc = π. r. c fc = π. = Hz x0. 0.0x0 R9 U AMPB 0x Gain Audio Amplifier R Audio Out X X LMN C 0.uF C 0 AMPA R C C 0.0uF 0uF Lowpass Filter SPEAKER AMPB SP Stage GaIn Calculation Speaker Out gain = R/R = 0k/k = 0x fc = π. r. c fc = π. =,9 Hz 0x0. 0x0 0x X But.. In reality it s lower due to roll off: 0 gain Hz frequency Total GaIn Headphone Out = x. x = 9x Speaker = x x 0 =,90x only x at peak,9 Hz A B C D E