20 Mar
2010
20 Mar
'10
3:05 p.m.
I appreciate the old databooks very much... but with bound books
keeping them open on the bench to the page you want was always a problem.
Oh, you just use a power transoformer, the soldering irwon stand, or
something like that to keep the book open :-)
Anything without a good binding fell apart 30 years
ago. Even the ones
Oh yes, but that's part of the fun. Most of my commonly-used data books
ahve loos pages or wors now. Most are misisng the front cover.
Oddly, the Philips data books (for all I use them a lot) have stood up well.
that are well bound (e.g. the hardback TTL books from
TI) don't last
forever although they were printed by the millions and are still readily
found.
What I actually like, is having a big 23" or bigger screen at the bench
with web access to the datasheets. That's pretty decent. I can zoom the
pinout big enough that I can read it from the other side of the bench,
or I can open the pinout and the state table simultaneously in two
windows. Pretty good, at least as long as I have my glasses on.
Problem is that suych a monitor would last about 10 seconds in my workshop...
But the screen still isn't as good as having the datasheet right there
on the bench (flat on the bench) a foot or less away from the circuit.
I wonder how a Kindle will do on the bench? Anyone drop their soldering iron
on a screen yet? The good pages in the databooks always had solder
No, and I am not going to try it just to see...I also wonder what would
happen if an exploding electrolytic capacitor met an LCD monitor ;-)
or food or both on them, that made the good pages
easier to find!
Indeed..
And don't bother lecturing me about not having food and solder in the
same place. We all grew up with solder when we were kids, and everyone
Proper lead/tin sodler too...
knows that WE'RE PERFECTLY NORMAL now that
we're adults!
Fortunately I have no desire to be 'normal'. And Monty Pytho said 'Sanity
can be cured.
-tony