On 1/14/2016 8:54 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 01/14/2016 08:49 AM, Don Y wrote:
"Circuit Cellar" became a manual for how to ASSEMBLE things many years ago.
It's the nature of the beast; you can't really write much where you
expect your readers to have lots of resources at their disposal!
"Using your scanning electron microscope, locate the gate region
of the FET controlling the output stage. Now, engage the laser
to vaporize the connection from this to the output pin. Then..."
Heck, I suspect many of its readers can't use a soldering iron -- esp
on SMT devices!

It's a nostalgia thing for me. Back in the days of Byte Ciarcia's column was my
favorite. I don't know how well I would do with SMT. You have to see it to
solder it.

Well, sort of. I have a steromicroscope that I use to place components
(I think 7x to 30X) and a Leister hot air iron for one-offs and repairs.
But, I now prefer to come up with designs that I can use to solve multiple
projects (differential stuffing options) -- mainly to make it affordable
for me to have the boards produced (cost of QTY 4 is essentially the
same as QTY 10... which is almost the same as QTY 100!).

E.g., each time I finish a "proof of concept" prototype for some component
of my automation system, I make a note of what hardware resources were
required. Then, dismantle the prototype, using its parts to build the NEXT
prototype. When done with all of the designs (there are, conceptually,
22 designs involved), I'll see how much I can combine into "universal"
designs so I can reduce the number of different designs AND increase the
quantities (discounts!) to make my life easier (and control the overall
cost better).

I was happier back when processors had 40 pins on a ..100 grid that

I still keep a collection of "legacy" components -- to repair old designs
as well as throw together "one-offs" (where performance is not an issue but
ease of prototyping would be.

I could wire wrap on the kitchen table.

I've got my Gardner Denver WW gun. Plus a slit-and-strip bit (insert
kynar wire and it cuts it to length as well as stripping insulation
*as* it wraps).

Or even whip up a circuit board that
wasn't 10 layers with more vias than Rome.

You'd be amused by the design for my "network speaker". Several TINY
boards in a sandwich -- so the total volume/shape resembles a duplex
receptacle (so I can cram it into a 1 gang Jbox!). No doubt, someone
with deeper pockets (and HUGE volumes!) could make it cheaper and possibly
*half* the size (but no smaller!). But, I'm not in the retail market so
why waste my re$ource$ just to prove I can do it??!

Time to pull the biscotti out of the oven...