Damn those tiny parts and pc boards!

[Winfield]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

 

[Jan Panteltje]

I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

Check your wallet and purse.

I do keep transistors and even other small parts like
batteries there.
Else just make a new one.
Or design a new one with a whistle responder.

 

[Ecnerwal]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

I've actually been thinking that a nitrogen-filled glove box might not
be a bad idea - no oxides (or at least no new oxides while working) and
a sneeze shield as well. I suppose on the downside that it would also
mean you had to be sure that the room it was in was adequately
ventilated to make sure that leakage from the box did not make the area
unfriendly to oxygen-based life forms, and glove boxes are something of
a misery to work in.

I do keep transistors and even other small parts like
batteries there.

....and then you could be like the guy I was talking to on the phone who
suddenly had to drop the phone, as his pocket was getting hot due to
shorted batteries...

 

[Martin Griffith]

Check your wallet and purse.

I do keep transistors and even other small parts like
batteries there.
Else just make a new one.
Or design a new one with a whistle responder.

Or put a RFID chip on each board


Martin

 

[Phil Allison]

"Winfield"

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

** Maybe the dog ate it.

Thee do that to " homework " - a lot.





........ Phil

 

[G]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

I found my ID after it was lost for a couple weeks.
It was in a washed shirt.

greg

 

[Winfield Hill]

I found my ID after it was lost for a couple weeks.
It was in a washed shirt.

greg

One of my thumbdrives went through the washer + dryer
a few weeks ago, and survived just fine. It was a
Lexar, and perhaps the cover kept the water out.

 

[James Arthur]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

Clear plastic bags have saved me from this difficulty--a tiny thing in
a much larger bag is easier to find, and much harder to misplace.

Condolences on your loss but rest assured: it'll show up as soon as
you've replaced it.

Cheers,
James Arthur

 

[Winfield Hill]

Clear plastic bags have saved me from this difficulty--a tiny thing in
a much larger bag is easier to find, and much harder to misplace.

I'm thinking to put the small boards in a mailing
envelope, and write the contents on the outside.

Condolences on your loss but rest assured: it'll show
up as soon as you've replaced it.

Yes, that idea worked - I found it just now, after
I'd merely decided to rebuild it. It was hiding
between the passenger seat and the seatbelt clamp.

 

[John Larkin]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

I always pull a few extra parts from stock, on the theory that I'll
probably tiddly-wink a couple into the carpet before I can get them
soldered down.

The smallest board I've done is an adapter that solders onto an
existing SO-8 footprint. Up top, it has an ecl comparator, two
resistors, and a couple of diodes. It replaces the defective/defunct
MAX9690.

John


John

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

The smallest board I've done is an adapter that solders onto an
existing SO-8 footprint. Up top, it has an ecl comparator, two
resistors, and a couple of diodes. It replaces the defective/defunct
MAX9690.

John

Just you just stick matching pads on the bottom of the board and have
the whole mess reflow soldered or did you cut through plated holes at
the edges or something like that?

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[James Arthur]

I'm thinking to put the small boards in a mailing
envelope, and write the contents on the outside.


Yes, that idea worked - I found it just now, after
I'd merely decided to rebuild it. It was hiding
between the passenger seat and the seatbelt clamp.

Great!

Cheers,
James Arthur

 

[John Larkin]

Just you just stick matching pads on the bottom of the board and have
the whole mess reflow soldered or did you cut through plated holes at
the edges or something like that?

Pics in abse. Our QC lady had the idea of routing halfway through the
pth's, which worked great. This was a retrofit to about a hundred
boards in the field. Maxim sampled us 3200 of the 9691 chips, to
replace the failing 9690's.

John

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

Yes, that idea worked - I found it just now, after
I'd merely decided to rebuild it. It was hiding
between the passenger seat and the seatbelt clamp.

If you haven't recently refreshed your mind about Isaac Asimov's short
story, "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline," now
would be the moment!

Jon

 

[Eeyore]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again.

The sneezing is particularly annoying.

Graham

 

[Winfield]

The sneezing is particularly annoying.

It doesn't take a full sneeze. Just a spasm will do.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Pics in abse. Our QC lady had the idea of routing halfway through the
pth's, which worked great. This was a retrofit to about a hundred
boards in the field. Maxim sampled us 3200 of the 9691 chips, to
replace the failing 9690's.

John

Nice. I guess I think like your QC lady. ;-)


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Tom2000]

It doesn't take a full sneeze. Just a spasm will do.

LOL!

I gotta tell ya... life isn't fair. And SMD is a tacit way to hammer
that point home.

When I was a young kid, with great eyesight and steady hands, I worked
on vacuum tube circuits. You could just about climb into one of those
chassis.

As I got older, and my eyesight got worse, parts got smaller.

Now, with 60 just around the corner, I need glasses and a magnifier
for any fine work at all. And now, just about all the interesting
parts I can find are SMD.

With an ocean of black coffee having been shifted down my gullet, my
hands aren't anywhere near as steady as they once were. No problem
holding the soldering iron in my right hand, it's the tweezers in the
left hand shaking this way and that that's the problem.

If life was fair, I would have started with SMD parts when I was a
young kid, and worked my way up to vacuum tube circuits now.

I gotta tell ya... life isn't fair.

Tom

 

[Robert Baer]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs
that carry them. The parts are so small a sneeze
will send them off, never to be found again. And
now I've learned that the boards are so small and
thin they can easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here,
"low-cost high-voltage electrometer amplifier",
about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc
board the size of two postage stamps. But it's
so small that now I can't find the *^&v#- board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to
examine HV clearances, to show my wife, or
perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took
it home - but I don't remember actually seeing it
at home, and it's nowhere to be found here. But
I haven't been able to find it at work either.
I checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the
laundry, I looked under the car seat, I sifted
through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

What you do is forget it and look for something else you really
*need* - and you will not find that, but that circuitboard will appear
like magic.

 

[Rich Grise]

Damn all those miniature parts and the tiny PCBs that carry them. The
parts are so small a sneeze will send them off, never to be found again.
And now I've learned that the boards are so small and thin they can
easily disappear without a trace.

Some of you have been following a thread here, "low-cost high-voltage
electrometer amplifier", about a circuit I first designed two weeks ago,
and have been improving since, as I found time.

The prototype has about 30 SMD parts on a pc board the size of two
postage stamps. But it's so small that now I can't find the *^&v#-
board!

I took it home a few days ago - dunno why - to examine HV clearances, to
show my wife, or perhaps just to admire it. At least I think I took it
home - but I don't remember actually seeing it at home, and it's nowhere
to be found here. But I haven't been able to find it at work either. I
checked the pockets of pants and shirts in the laundry, I looked under
the car seat, I sifted through folders to see if it's between pages.

It's just so small, it's gone! Damn!

One of my past girlfriends used to say in cases like this, "Just let it
go - it knows where it is, so let it find you."

Interestingly enough, it seemed to work, but that could be the same
phenomenon as "It's always in the last place you look".

My first thought was at the bottom of the washing machine tub (maybe
even under the agitator thing), but if you send your shirts out, it's
probably gone. )-;

Good Luck!
Rich