A lot of factors go into the decision to hand build or outsource circuit boards. I hand build my own sometimes, simply because I enjoy the challenge. Of course most of the projects I design are for my own use,... Read more
Current flows through a diode from the anode to the cathode - it will pass current only when the potential on the anode is greater than the potential on the cathode. This is mostly true, but not always. For the... Read more
Not long ago (No Need To Waste Parts), I wrote about the use of tiny cut strips here at Screaming Circuits. That's good information, but only part of the story. (When has anything ever been the whole story???). There may... Read more
We love parts on reels. Who doesn't? But reels aren't always practical - and it's not just about cost. Cost is, of course, important, but there may be other factors to consider. Say, for example, you need 20 2.2K Ohm,... Read more
Manufacturing, especially small volume one-time-only builds (like a prototype) is hard. It's not wise for most people to actively seek out chaos, but that's what we do, and we do it wisely. That's what we've been doing since 2003. We... Read more
There's a lot of buzz floating around these days, about "Personal Manufacturing." Screaming Circuits has more than a decade of bringing personal manufacturing to engineers. We pretty much started the category in the electronics industry, so we're quite familiar -... Read more
My prior blog covered the Screaming Circuits Manufacturability Index. It's something I'll be using from time to time when discussing new components I run across. I've got a few examples to put the numbers into context. On the low side... Read more
Screaming Circuits Manufacturability Index Ranks the difficulty of assembling a component. Index is one to five, with one being easiest, and five being the most complex Sub index: a, b, c a: Not a challenge within the number rank b:... Read more
Before we (or any old assembly house) go about putting surface mount parts on your board, we need to program our assembly robots. I'm oversimplifying, but essentially, the machine program needs to know the X / Y coordinates, relative to... Read more
Small component packages seem to be a recurring theme with me. It's understandable, I guess. Super tiny packages are becoming more and more common and we build a lot of product with them. The smallest we've built is 0.3mm pitch.... Read more
