20 Oct
1999
20 Oct
'99
7:07 a.m.
A SMT unit *might* be interesting... I can get all the
PCBs done I want for
free (must have some kind of standard blocks) but the SMT building might be
difficult. Can the new pick and place machines handle TO-3s [not on tape]? I
am sure I can find a surplus lot of a few thousand NPN/PNPs for pennies.
Sometimes the cheapest man ends up paying the most :-(. When you
get to designs like this, you have to have some rational scheme for
pre-testing your parts before you start stuffing giant PCB's. DEC was
quite proud of their part and module testing machines, and with good
reason!
I'm pretty sure that Poly-Pak's main source of parts was the reject bins at
DEC and DG :-). (I can't be the only one here who remember Poly-Pak, can
I?)
Tim.