4 ms·

I feel this kind of service is extraordinarily important. As a software person who's gotten into hardware and robotics I am continually frustrated by the tyrann

I feel this kind of service is extraordinarily important. As a software person who's gotten into hardware and robotics I am continually frustrated by the tyranny of choice in electronics. There are so many ways to accomplish a goal and it's so expensive to do things wrong that a huge amount of my time is spent researching parts rather than building things out of those parts. The more companies like this develop a clean pallet of available parts (even if the excuse is price control) the better! While I'm sure many people will be quick to point out that solid EE is hard for good reasons, I think we're light-years from the point where we can say "we can't make useful prototyping any easier." Perhaps this exists and I haven't found it, but I'd love not to have to even think about parts and assembly. I want to write a clean high-level spec for the functions of a board and have part choice, fab, and assembly taken care of for me. I see services like this and ciruits.io as great stepping stones on the way to that goal.

seddona 13y ago
Thanks, we started this due to the enormous amount of 'grunt' work involved in getting hardware into production. The essence is this; You as a designer probably have a pretty loose spec for a 3.3V regulator, why not just have the factory tell you the one everybody else is using and better yet here's the symbol and footprint. We were careful not to restrict people though, you can use any parts but we try and gently nudge you onto the more popular stuff!
- hershel 13y ago
  The part rank is a very good idea. Is there a place we see part rank before starting a design ?
- HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
  How much of this is simply because of hobby-level or inexperienced builders, though? When I was a full time EE, answers to questions like this were just a phone call away. The part manufacturer's FAE (Field Applications Engineer) were happy to answer questions like that ("what's a cheap, low-dropout 3.3V regulator that can handle 100mA and won't be on allocation anytime soon?") and would be around the next day with samples. Even for our tiny company, we got excellent service. Hell, I had FAE's visiting me when I was working out of my apartment! Has that changed these days?
  - EChrisDenney 13y ago
    Yes and no. That can still exist, but many of those guys have been let go. Many of the chip manufacturers have been/were struggling to keep a float and FAE's were easy pickins. But the nice thing about having the community sort of decide which is the best 3.3V regulator is that then you can all buy that chip in bulk and know that the supply will be there and the price will be reasonable.
- cottonseed 13y ago
  I like browsing through other people's designs just to see what parts they use. When I see something useful, or something that comes up again and again, I add it to the list of things to consider in the future. Yeah, it's a huge pain.
EChrisDenney 13y ago
Hi iandanforth, I'm Chris, CTO for Worthington Assembly Let's hope they are. It's a ton of work to even make this one little stepping stone but we hope it's headed in that direction as well.

seddona 13y ago

Thanks, we started this due to the enormous amount of 'grunt' work involved in getting hardware into production. The essence is this; You as a designer probably have a pretty loose spec for a 3.3V regulator, why not just have the factory tell you the one everybody else is using and better yet here's the symbol and footprint. We were careful not to restrict people though, you can use any parts but we try and gently nudge you onto the more popular stuff!

hershel 13y ago
The part rank is a very good idea. Is there a place we see part rank before starting a design ?
HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
How much of this is simply because of hobby-level or inexperienced builders, though? When I was a full time EE, answers to questions like this were just a phone call away. The part manufacturer's FAE (Field Applications Engineer) were happy to answer questions like that ("what's a cheap, low-dropout 3.3V regulator that can handle 100mA and won't be on allocation anytime soon?") and would be around the next day with samples. Even for our tiny company, we got excellent service. Hell, I had FAE's visiting me when I was working out of my apartment! Has that changed these days?
- EChrisDenney 13y ago
  Yes and no. That can still exist, but many of those guys have been let go. Many of the chip manufacturers have been/were struggling to keep a float and FAE's were easy pickins. But the nice thing about having the community sort of decide which is the best 3.3V regulator is that then you can all buy that chip in bulk and know that the supply will be there and the price will be reasonable.
cottonseed 13y ago
I like browsing through other people's designs just to see what parts they use. When I see something useful, or something that comes up again and again, I add it to the list of things to consider in the future. Yeah, it's a huge pain.

EChrisDenney 13y ago

Hi iandanforth, I'm Chris, CTO for Worthington Assembly Let's hope they are. It's a ton of work to even make this one little stepping stone but we hope it's headed in that direction as well.