I recently received an email comment about my blog writing that I think does a very good job of illustrating one of the frustrations that many design engineers face. "Please have someone teach Duane the difference between "then" and "than".... Read more
Matt, our product manager, sent me a couple of interesting links about the next Industrial Revolution. The first was an article in Wired Magazine by Chris Anderson. The second was a rebuttal in Gizmodo by Joel Johnson. Both had some... Read more
Screaming Circuits has added new capabilities to its website. You can now order not only speedy PCB assembly, but also order raw PCBs (made by Sunstone Circuits) at the same time. On Tuesday January 26, 2010 (that's today, if you... Read more
Yeah, yeah. Top ten predictions for the new year really need to be out in either the last week of the prior year or the first week of the new year. But I'm late. It's because my oatmeal is lumpy... Read more
Most of what we do here at Screaming Circuits is PCB assembly. We build prototypes and short run production - putting parts on boards. We actually do more then that though. Our parent company, Milwaukee Electronics, has been around for... Read more
I'm still fiddling with my mbed. Although, I haven't put it to real use yet. I've got some ideas, but I just don't have the time these days. One of the nice things about its programming system is that if... Read more
Here's a little issue we run into now and then. Which reference designator goes with which part? Quick. I need to know. Now. Now. Now! It's less of an issue with SMT parts because we machine place them and use... Read more
I've written a few times about potential and actual problems with different PCB finishes. Sometimes, the results are tragic and sometimes, just annoying. I'm not sure where this one falls on the continuum between the two extremes, or maybe even... Read more
Have you ever experienced the heartbreak of inverted land pattern? It's not supposed to happen, but every now and then, it does. Maybe something happened when creating a custom footprint. Maybe, somehow it got inverted in the CAD software and... Read more
When I first attached a 280 ohm resistor in series with a 5mm red LED, the word on the street was that LEDs were low power, forever-lasting devices that would just about completely replace incandescent bulbs for simple binary indicators.... Read more
