2 new projects!

One of the biggest problems with college is between the time and money commitments, it leaves very little of either for projects, which is why most of what I post here is design and simulation. I spent the money on parts to build one of my projects and then my soldering iron broke.... so currently that's got everything on hold, irritatingly enough. I do however have some new designs for you guys, and maybe soon one of them will be more of a reality!

First up, in my ever present quest for a low cost, versatile, but small mixer I've designed yet another iteration.... this one is only a 2channel but it's proof of concept for the design. If it works additional channels are simply a matter of another jack, pot and summing resistor! By making it only 2 channel I can cram the PCB in to a smaller format (4" by 2.4") which saves me money on the PCB fab if and when it comes to that. Without further ado, the schematic:
And the board layout, sans grounding planes:

Next up is the CUClock project, for those that don't know I'm a licensed Ham Radio Operator (Callsign: KC2RGZ, General class) and I am a member of Clarkson's Amateur Radio Club K2CC. I like helping the club find projects to do and I've been looking to get one of my designs beyond a breadboard stage for a while. Most of my completed work is because it's school work and I have their backing, so I decided to try that again. In the atrium of the Clarkson Engineering building (Center for Advanced Materials Processing, or CAMP) used to be a nice LED graphic matrix display digital clock. However it drifted like an inner-tube in a hurricane, and nobody at the department office really knew how to set it, so it's been replaced by a clunky old analog clock that isn't even hung right.

A while ago I came across SparkFun's 12ft Clock Project and it inspired me to build my own giant clock using the LED Light Bars they used (and sell!). However money and time are as usual in short supply. But here is my stroke of genius. I modified my sketches and came up with a good preliminary design for a 5' clock (Yeah, not nearly as big, but still big!) in my schools colors, that could be set automatically using ham radio receiving gear to read the WWVB coded time signal! And the best part, if the school goes for it, they'll pay for the materials (I hope!) and the K2CC members will put in the labor to construct it! We get a legacy, they get an awesome clock, I get a project. Everyone wins!

Here's the preliminary CAD Sketch: