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Thought Leadership
Save Your Lunch Break: Proper PCB Design Software Reduces Development Time
I’m normally a well-mannered guy, but when someone messes up my schedule, those manners fly right out of the window. Last week, when my 15-minute lunch break was ruined because of a missed order, I was complaining to my managers and struggling to keep my rage under control. When it comes to managing my time, I have high standards. Choosing the right PCB design software to optimize development time is no exception. At the peak of my freelance
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8-bit vs. 32-bit MCU: Choosing the Right Microcontroller for Your PCB Design
I have very bad shopping habits when it comes to electronic gadgets. Torn between buying a new laptop or upgrading my tablet to an iPad Pro, I end up purchasing both and getting an endless lectures from my fiancé. Thankfully, I’m more decisive when choosing between 8-bit vs 32-bit microcontroller devices for my hardware design. They’re not too different in terms of cost, and one is more powerful than the other. To make the right choice, however
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The Game Stays the Same: Helping PCB Designers with Their Career Growth
Walking around the grade school near my house today, I noticed a father practicing baseball with his young son. Now around here, it’s still rainy and freezing cold, so they were bundled up and wisely under the covered portion of the playground. I didn’t know whether to applaud their dedication, or classify them as a couple of nuts. I decided to go with the dedication angle, and admittedly, it was great to see the dad’s excitement when his boy
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Automating Your BOM System for PCB CAD Library Quality and Compliance
Some years back I was helping my son organize his finances, and he was explaining to me how he didn’t need to track anything because all of that information was available to him online. The benefits that online banking provides are fantastic for sure, but they don’t quite cover everything. I asked him how he was tracking the checks that he had written which hadn’t cleared yet, and he dismissed me with a wave of his hand. These days, after several
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PCB Layout Tips for Hall Sensor PCBs and Other Hall Effect Applications
To me, one of the coolest things about kids is how much they can be amazed by science and other phenomena that, as an adult, you’ve just grown to accept. I gave a five-year old homemade magnetic slime for his birthday one year; consisting of iron oxide powder, Elmer’s glue, and liquid starch, the prospect of a black gooey mess delighted everyone except for the boy’s mother. No one could dispute the fun involved with mixing the stuff or the
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Using a BOM Tool Enables You to Create Your Design with Confidence
My dog is so old that he sleeps 20 hours a day and naps the other four. Therefore it was with great surprise the other day when he attacked another dog while we were out on a walk. This other smaller dog had simply come over to say “hi,” and my dog suddenly lunged at him. Fortunately, his bark really is bigger than his bite and the other dog wasn’t hurt in the least. I’ve got to admit though that I admire his confidence because at his age a
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Put the Power of a BOM Template to Work for You
One of the dictionary definitions of the word “template” is; anything that determines or serves as a pattern or a model. Without realizing it, I bet that we all rely on a lot of templates in our lives. I have certain document templates that I use for work, and my wife has hundreds of patterns that she uses when sewing. I even have a designated pattern set for my Christmas decorations so that I can quickly put them up and then easily take them
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Remote BOM Access Makes Work as Easy as Hitting a Button
It seems like you can’t purchase any electronic device anymore without it coming with a remote control. TVs, radios, and computers all have them, and you can even find them on fireplaces and air conditioners. This is not a complaint, I love having the ability to control things remotely. I have enough years behind me that I remember having to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel. In my opinion the more remote control the better off
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For Your DC Power Application, Which Switching Power Supply Topology is Right?
We often have our old-timer pioneers to thank for laying down the groundwork for our continued success and future growth. These old-school designers had nothing more than theory and confidence to drive their designs, or more specifically, to drive their failures. But as stated by a multitude of wise individuals, each failure is nothing more than a discovery of how not to do something. However, with the discoveries of failures also come
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PCB Chassis Might Keep Your PCB Design From Exhausting Itself
The world of racing is something that both fascinates and eludes me. On one hand, it’s thrilling to watch cars that have been fine-tuned to the most minute weight and aerodynamic requirements go flying down a road or around a track. On the other hand, from my experience, the majority of thrill from the sport largely comes from the accumulation of narratives and knowledge beforehand. I don’t care so much about actually watching the cars run smooth
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SpaceX and Other Advanced Technologies Require Multi Board PCB and CAD Software Innovations
When I was in middle school I used to love to build and fly model rockets. We had a rocket club at school and except for the number of rockets that I littered the trees with, it was a lot of fun. One thing was certain though, although the rockets we launched went up, no one knew exactly where they might come down. Suspended by their parachutes (assuming that those chutes actually deployed as intended), they might land anywhere. Recently I watched
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Even Simple Schematic Drawing Programs are Better than Pencil and Paper
My mother used to clean all of her dishes in the sink with soap and water, and then put them in the dishwasher to finish the job. Perhaps when she was young those older dishwashers weren’t as good at cleaning dishes as they were later on. Years later when I was married and was cleaning up the kitchen, my wife looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “Why are you doing the same job twice,” she asked? It was the way that I had always done it, of
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Phalanx, not Failure: PCB Circuit Shielding to Protect Your Design
During 7 B.C., Greek soldiers—or hoplites--carried a large, concave, circular pcb shield called the hoplon. Made from bronze and wood, the hoplon or Argive shield protected hoplites from chin to knee and—when overlapped—became the basis for the Greek phalanx. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ethiopians used their shields when fighting against an invading Italian army. The constant banging on the shields by the Ethiopians mingled with war
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How Blind, Buried and Through-Hole Vias Can Impact Your PCB Design
Growing up, I was obsessed with all things Super Mario, but honestly, who wasn’t. Specifically, I was a sucker for the Super Nintendo, old school version. Bounding from platform to platform, tossing pixelated turtle shells, saving princesses… what a life. One of the best, albeit strangest, of the game, no doubt, was jetting in and out of those little green tubes that were seemingly all over the place. Who made them? Why were they even there
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Annular Rings and Multilayer PCB Design: Stay Within Your Tolerances
One of my high school teachers had a pretty successful business for when he wasn’t teaching: he harvested maple syrup. I learned that a bit more goes into the process than simply taking the maple syrup from the tree after tapping a hole into it. You’ve got to let it rest and let some of it evaporate so you can distill the maple syrup into the tasty, flavorful product that will then go onto all of your pancakes. While there’s a whole process
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Managing a 7-Segment LED Display Array With Minimal Pins
In my early 20s, I prided myself on my ability to multitask. On a moment’s notice, I could switch between multiple projects and wear the hats of the procurement officer, engineer, technician, marketing manager, and support specialist while simultaneously running my electronics startup. I thought it was a blessing to be able to multitask. A decade later, I realize that multitasking results in lower work quality while killing my brain in the
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Optimize PCB Designs Before Product Development With Clear Client Requirements
I swear I clearly heard my son asking for a McFish in his Happy Meal. But when he insisted that he asked for nuggets, I had no choice but to buy another set, although I strongly suspected he was just after the toys. This may not exactly be what you’d call “good parenting” but it is a great example of how misunderstandings can occur when you don’t get requirements jotted down on paper. While the cost of not paying attention to my son simply cost
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