I'm going to oversimplify this, so my apologies to our colleagues over at Sunstone Circuits, but a PC board basically has four parts: metal, substrate, solder mask and silk screen. I might simplify it even more to say that it... Read more
Well over half of the projects we build here come in as turn-key orders, meaning we buy some or all of the parts and PC boards for the job. However, plenty of folks still do kit up their parts and... Read more
Reels of parts are the way to go when you need a lot of boards built. It's just not practical to deal with a bunch of cut strips when building hundreds or thousands of boards. It's even easier to use... Read more
I've read various opinions on schematic technique regarding the illustration of nets and nodes. Some folks want to route as much as is possible with net lines and some folks think it's clearer to use a lot of node symbols... Read more
When you sell a house, the offer they make sounds great until you realize that the big number gets a lot smaller after accounting for replacing the roof, digging out the 60-year-old heating oil tank and fixing the 80-year-old plumbing.... Read more
Ever have your brain interpret what you are writing as something completely different from your intent - as you are writing it? Or is that just me? Clearly, the title of this post is meant to describe this post as... Read more
As is tradition, I’ve put together my thoughts on what we have to look forward to in the new year. Uncertainty abounds and I know we all are looking for answers. That’s fine, but when I sat down to write... Read more
Sometimes the standards-steering-you-wrong aren't just in house, but come from Industry. Case in point the three-terminal linear regulator. Back when TO-220 packaged semiconductors were first hand chipped out of boiling lava, the LM7805 three-terminal voltage regulator established an informal standard... Read more
(https://xkcd.com/927) Some schematics get a single designer, start to finish, some get put together by a team working simultaneously, and some get handed from one designer to another mid-stream. Consistency and discipline are always important in the design process, but... Read more
Fun with LEDs, from the Screaming Makers LEDs are one of our favorite subjects here in the Screaming Circuits blog. Between inconsistent marking and... Well, it's mostly about inconsistent marking. In fact (or maybe in opinion), LEDs are one of... Read more
