USB microscopes for very small SMT

[Joerg]

I've bought more vehicles than that, but I still squeeze them along...

4-year-old Q45 with 28,000 miles, gasoline has nearly halved in price
since I last bought gasoline ;-)

8-year-old Frontier PU with 29,000 miles

Similar here. I wear down a lot more money in shoes than in car tires.
Now that gas is cheaper people out here are buying bigger SUVs again and
Highway 50 is packed like it used to be before the oil spike. Do people
ever learn?

 

[Steve Sousa]

When we retire

But seriously, there won't be much of an audience. I can't cater much to
folks that run a uC to perform the job of a one-shot and stuff like that,
and somehow that seems to become the majority these days. Those guys won't
buy the book because it'll mostly contain <gasp> non-digital stuff.

Hello:

This topic has been on my mind for a while, i have lurked this groups for
years
and come to admire some of you guys, but then i learned about your age and
got
worried, because as you know, nowadays the new EE's are not really into
analog,
and i feel it's becoming a lost art, i would like to follow your footsteps
when
i graduate or at least have an internship with guys like you, and not simply
code
uPcs, keep waiting to hear about you writtin at least some notes about
tricks,
and gotchas and stuff like that, i don't mean to be rude, and i might go
first,
but you guys are pushing 70's and the statistics are against you...

So if you need and incentive, John, Jim, Joerg, Jan, please write at least
notes,
something like the old HP Journal used to be, i'm sure it would inspire a
lot of
us.

 

[Joerg]

Hello:

This topic has been on my mind for a while, i have lurked this groups for
years
and come to admire some of you guys, but then i learned about your age and
got
worried, because as you know, nowadays the new EE's are not really into
analog, ...

But today it's easier than ever to get into analog. Back when I grew
into it there was no Digikey or Mouser. We had to either save hard to
buy a few precious RF transistors or scavenge some out of discarded TV
sets. Nowadays you buy a BFP620 with a whopping 65GHz ft for one Dollar.
That doesn't even buy you a cup of coffee out here.

When I was a teenager I built most of my gear. I painfully remember not
being able to build a preamp with large enough bandwidth for my
frequency counter because I didn't have enough money for a couple of hot
RF transistors. My parents would have given it to me but I felt asking
them would not be right.

Oh, and if some of your professors tell you analog will die out don't
believe a word of it. I never did.

and i feel it's becoming a lost art, i would like to follow your footsteps
when
i graduate or at least have an internship with guys like you, and not simply
code
uPcs, keep waiting to hear about you writtin at least some notes about
tricks,
and gotchas and stuff like that, i don't mean to be rude, and i might go
first,
but you guys are pushing 70's and the statistics are against you...

Hey, I'm not this old ... but I am certainly "over the hill", the point
where ailments and stuff will just get worse, wrinkles increase and all
that.

So if you need and incentive, John, Jim, Joerg, Jan, please write at least
notes,
something like the old HP Journal used to be, i'm sure it would inspire a
lot of
us.

When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll be
on a web site so people can access it without cost.

 

[Joerg]

Steve Sousa wrote:

[...]

When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll be
on a web site so people can access it without cost.

For 10 years, then *phut*. No archival copies. Old books are always
the best.

Nah. I've found lots of stuff on the web that was from the days when
nerds in their hippie buses were cruising Highway 1

Also, when something is on the web and I find it extremely useful I
often pull a copy onto my hard drive. This gets backed up. With a book
you need a publisher and it costs a lot of money. People in developing
countries may never be able to afford one and might not have access to a
library because their parents couldn't afford a good school for them.
Especially in analog there are many self-taught folks who'll never have
a formal degree.

When I published something I often received requests for offprints,
almost all from poor countries. One guy wrote that despite him being a
Ph.D. he was only allowed very few runs on the intitute's copier, that
the thing was broken most of the time anyhow and that they had four
hours of electricity on a good day. That made me sad and I returned the
IRC coupons he had sent with the offprint so he could use them again.

 

[Joerg]

Joerg wrote:
Steve Sousa wrote:
[...]


So if you need and incentive, John, Jim, Joerg, Jan, please write
at least notes,
something like the old HP Journal used to be, i'm sure it would
inspire a lot of
us.


When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll
be on a web site so people can access it without cost.


For 10 years, then *phut*. No archival copies. Old books are
always the best.

Nah. I've found lots of stuff on the web that was from the days when
nerds in their hippie buses were cruising Highway 1

Also, when something is on the web and I find it extremely useful I
often pull a copy onto my hard drive. This gets backed up. With a book
you need a publisher and it costs a lot of money. People in developing
countries may never be able to afford one and might not have access to
a library because their parents couldn't afford a good school for
them. Especially in analog there are many self-taught folks who'll
never have a formal degree.

When I published something I often received requests for offprints,
almost all from poor countries. One guy wrote that despite him being a
Ph.D. he was only allowed very few runs on the intitute's copier, that
the thing was broken most of the time anyhow and that they had four
hours of electricity on a good day. That made me sad and I returned
the IRC coupons he had sent with the offprint so he could use them again.

That's an argument for both/and, not either/or. Camenzind's book is an
example.

Good point. I'll have to ask our pastor, he recently self-published a
book. Although doing both will make the book even less of an economic
success because many folks will not want to pay for a book if the
content is available online for free.

 

[Joerg]

Steve Sousa wrote: [snip]

but you guys are pushing 70's and the statistics are against you...

Hey, I'm not this old ...

15 months :-(

but I am certainly "over the hill", the point
where ailments and stuff will just get worse, wrinkles increase and all
that.

[snip]

We could start a new "Over the Hill Gang" ;-)

But let's face it, Steve's got a point. 10-20 years from now we'll see
an increase in R.I.P. posts regarding regulars here :-(

 

[Joerg]

Hmm... what did you ask for at Christmas? Sweaters and socks?

Actually I rarely asked. On occasions where I did it was things like a
Philips Experimenter's kit when I was a kid. Asked for the small one and
then Santa got me EE-20, the big one. Yeehaw! My father had a good sense
of what a kid on the more nerdy side needed. One of the best presents
was a Texas SR-50 calculator. That blew me away because it was freaking
expensive back then. I had already mentally prepared myself for having
to use ye olde log table book for another five years or so. No more ...
and now my projects really took off since this calculator slashed the
number crunching efforts, big time. Before I had the calculator I'd
often be lazy, eyeball an LC resonance, was off by a factor of x and
*BAM*, there went another capacitor.

 

[John Devereux]

But today it's easier than ever to get into analog. Back when I grew
into it there was no Digikey or Mouser. We had to either save hard to
buy a few precious RF transistors or scavenge some out of discarded TV
sets. Nowadays you buy a BFP620 with a whopping 65GHz ft for one
Dollar. That doesn't even buy you a cup of coffee out here.

When I was a teenager I built most of my gear. I painfully remember
not being able to build a preamp with large enough bandwidth for my
frequency counter because I didn't have enough money for a couple of
hot RF transistors. My parents would have given it to me but I felt
asking them would not be right.

Oh, and if some of your professors tell you analog will die out don't
believe a word of it. I never did.

And there is excellent test equipment on ebay, things that were $30k
boxes when I was first learning some electronics. Stuff I only dreamed
about having when reading Art of Electronics, ~25 years ago!

There's LTSpice too. That should be a great, free learning tool
(provided of course it is backed up with hands-on experiments with
real circuits).

[...]

 

[Joerg]

And there is excellent test equipment on ebay, things that were $30k
boxes when I was first learning some electronics. Stuff I only dreamed
about having when reading Art of Electronics, ~25 years ago!

Yes, but as a hobbyist you've got to have the space. Plus an
understanding spouse, considering that the good stuff among such gear
still fetches a few thousand Dollars. Also, be prepared to search for
the non-volatile RAM battery and to do some gross "debulking" in that
area. Cleaning a caked-in frying pan is nothing compared to that. The
gear has often been shelved for a decade and nobody bothered to power it
up once in a while.

There's LTSpice too. That should be a great, free learning tool
(provided of course it is backed up with hands-on experiments with
real circuits).

Handle with care. Often I've seen people using sims too much and then I
heard things like a loud bang and "Oh s..t, those ferrite transformers
kill my FETs like flies!"

 

[JosephKK]

I remember friends who kind of snickered when I bought my car. "What? It
doesn't even have electric windows and keyless entry?" Long story short
most have now gone through 2-3 more cars, at times because the
electronics stuff kept breaking and repairs became uneconomical. I still
drive the same car and all the snickering has stopped.

Our double-oven is one of those extra skinny ones. 35 years old and
mechanically wearing out. I dread that day when I have to find a
replacement with the least amount of electronics, ideally zero electronics.

Too many engineers remain blissfully unaware of flash retention curves
for elevated temperatures. It can easily drop down to low single-digit
years. I just hope they never design ovens and cars.

Ah but they do. Witness this sub thread.

 

[JosephKK]

Similar here. I wear down a lot more money in shoes than in car tires.
Now that gas is cheaper people out here are buying bigger SUVs again and
Highway 50 is packed like it used to be before the oil spike. Do people
ever learn?

According to the dealers they are not buying again. Bet they are just
driving them again.

 

[Joerg]

]

Too many engineers remain blissfully unaware of flash retention curves
for elevated temperatures. It can easily drop down to low single-digit
years. I just hope they never design ovens and cars.

Ah but they do. Witness this sub thread.

I know :-(

 

[Steve Sousa]

Send me a resume.

I'm still a couple of years from graduation, but the real problem is
we are litterally an ocean apart. But thank you, i might just do it
anyway!

Well, that was unkind. Actually, two people commented on my age
recently, one a customer and one my grand-daughter. Punks. So I had my
hair done.

I apologise.

I'm intending to write three books, eventually. But writing is hard
work.

I said book, but is not really "book" "book", sorry, for that, i wanted to
transmit an idea, that's why i mentioned the HP Journal, instead of a
full blown hard-cover book, i sugest someting like "articles", small
snipets, that are self contained, whith a whole story, tutorial,
insider look, aproach, whatever, that you can write in a few hours and
put it on the web, or on your hard disk with instructions for it's release.
That way it's done while it's fresh and you have the details on your mind.

Setting yourselves to write a real book is a task that will be delegated
until "i have time" but, by then many ideas will have faded/forgotten to
provide enough material.

Best Regards
Steve Sousa

 

[Charmed Snark]

Steve Sousa expounded in

...
.. but then i learned about your age
and got
worried, because as you know, nowadays the new EE's are not really
into analog,
and i feel it's becoming a lost art, ..
but you guys are pushing 70's and the statistics are against you...

This also seems to be a problem in the software world as well..
no kids graduating want to do software. They want to go straight
into management if they go IT at all.

So when the rest of us are left on life support systems,
both the electronics and the sofware will be suspect...

beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...

Maybe they'll be doing us a favour ;-)

Snark.

 

[Charmed Snark]

Joerg expounded in

But today it's easier than ever to get into analog. Back when I grew
into it there was no Digikey or Mouser.

We had Poly Paks. Remember them? I bought my first
stereo FM receiver from them (I think) busted in half.
I actually bought two of them, and somehow managed to
piece one back together.

We had to either save hard to
buy a few precious RF transistors or scavenge some out of discarded TV
sets. Nowadays you buy a BFP620 with a whopping 65GHz ft for one
Dollar. That doesn't even buy you a cup of coffee out here.

I wasn't clever enough as a kid to do much RF stuff,
but my mother sure got tired of me dragging TV sets
home from the end of someone else's driveway,
on the way home from school! I got a lot of parts that
way. We even used to have a tube tester at the corner,
inside the local gas station. People would find that
inconceivable these days ;-)

Oh, and if some of your professors tell you analog will die out don't
believe a word of it. I never did.

I do feel that things are very convenient now. We now
have powerful computerS (we didn't even dream of
one at home when I was a kid), we have the SPICE
simulator, uCPU on a chip, memory sticks and
free operating systems with source code.

I'm just getting back into building myself, after
a long hiatus raising kids. I do software development
as my day job, but I miss my quality soldering
iron time ;-) I am also a presently inactive ham.

I'm currently building an analog synth, a la Moog.
It combines uCPU (midi) and the analog. I haven't had
this much electronic fun in ages. The Arduino project
makes it easier than ever for the digital end of it.

When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll be
on a web site so people can access it without cost.

The Internet was something we also didn't dream of
as kids. What a wonderful information resource this
is! Pinouts and specs at the drop of a hat! Schematics,
ideas and advice (good and bad).

Snark.

 

[Charmed Snark]

Jim Thompson expounded in

[snip]

but you guys are pushing 70's and the statistics are against you...

Well, that was unkind. Actually, two people commented on my age
recently, one a customer and one my grand-daughter. Punks. So I had my
hair done.

[snip]

I seem to have reached the other side of that age thing... people
comment, "You don't look that old".

I hope they're not lying :-(

I'm a long way from 70, but I felt really funny
getting my first senior's discount the other day.
(I'm not a senior yet). Stupid girl! ;-)

Wa-a-a-ay back when my daughters were around 10 and 12 (around 36
years ago), one remarked, "Dad, You look so extinguished" ;-)

Hilarious.

Snark.

 

[Joerg]

Joerg expounded in

We had Poly Paks. Remember them? I bought my first
stereo FM receiver from them (I think) busted in half.
I actually bought two of them, and somehow managed to
piece one back together.

I grew up in Europe, all we had was Heathkit. That was expensive so we
built everything from discarded consumer electronics.

I wasn't clever enough as a kid to do much RF stuff,
but my mother sure got tired of me dragging TV sets
home from the end of someone else's driveway,
on the way home from school! I got a lot of parts that
way. We even used to have a tube tester at the corner,
inside the local gas station. People would find that
inconceivable these days ;-)

Same here. Every other month there was a bulk waste collection. I always
knew exactly where and when that happened and then told my mom I'd be
coming home from school a bit late.

[...]

 

[Joerg]

Oh lala, Jooerd, I grew up in the Netherlands in Europe, and we had
*everything* you could imagine electronics.
From parts (Philips) to radio kits... Amroh mean anything to you?
402 spole (=coil)?
http://tips-en-trucs.verdijk.info/spoelen/
Muiderkring?

Beutiful kits, had one of those:
http://www.hansotten.com/philipsamroh.html

Philips radio kits:
http://sharon.esrac.ele.tue.nl/~pa0ib/bouwdozn/pion-sen/index.html

Philips test equipment kits:
http://sharon.esrac.ele.tue.nl/~pa0ib/bouwdozn/meetapp/index.html

ARE YOU SURE YOU WERE IN EUROPE???

Yes, but unfortunately not in the Netherlands. We always envied you for
the dumphandel shops (surplus outlets). The closest one was in
Margraten, Zuid Limburg, so we made regular treks. Four guys to a car,
coming back with the bumper almost scraping the road. Then I moved to
Zuid Limburg myself and life was good!

 

[Steve Sousa]

Send me a resume.

I'm still a couple of years from graduation, but the real problem is
we are litterally an ocean apart. But thank you, i might just do it
anyway!

Well, that was unkind. Actually, two people commented on my age
recently, one a customer and one my grand-daughter. Punks. So I had my
hair done.

I apologise.

I'm intending to write three books, eventually. But writing is hard
work.

I said book, but is not really "book" "book", sorry, for that, i wanted to
transmit an idea, that's why i mentioned the HP Journal, instead of a
full blown hard-cover book, i sugest someting like "articles", small
snipets, that are self contained, whith a whole story, tutorial,
insider look, aproach, whatever, that you can write in a few hours and
put it on the web, or on your hard disk with instructions for it's release.
That way it's done while it's fresh and you have the details on your mind.

Setting yourselves to write a real book is a task that will be delegated
until "i have time" but, by then many ideas will have faded/forgotten to
provide enough material.

Best Regards
Steve Sousa

 

[Steve Sousa]

But today it's easier than ever to get into analog. Back when I grew into
it there was no Digikey or Mouser. We had to either save hard to buy a few
precious RF transistors or scavenge some out of discarded TV sets.
Nowadays you buy a BFP620 with a whopping 65GHz ft for one Dollar. That
doesn't even buy you a cup of coffee out here.

When I was a teenager I built most of my gear. I painfully remember not
being able to build a preamp with large enough bandwidth for my frequency
counter because I didn't have enough money for a couple of hot RF
transistors. My parents would have given it to me but I felt asking them
would not be right.

Oh, and if some of your professors tell you analog will die out don't
believe a word of it. I never did.

Well, is not really the teachers, but i've only met only one or two analog
guys,
it's got a lot to do with the market, where i see everything going to
"software".
I'm convinced that analog skills are much more valuable, any EE can program,
but few can draw an analog circuit. And i find it very interesting, but i'm
afraid of serious circuits being too complicated.

When I begin to (partially) retire I will. But not as a book, it'll be on
a web site so people can access it without cost.

Yes, that was the idea, please see my reply to JL for that.

Best Regards

Steve Sousa