17 Feb
2010
17 Feb
'10
1:14 a.m.
Jim Brain wrote:
SparkFun and similar venues make boards that bring
lines out to .1"
double row headers, which means these "no-solderers" tank up on ribbon
cable and IDC female connectors to make it all fit.
Now, I won't knock SparkFun. It's a nice market, and if you're
prototyping something, having it all soldered down to a PCB with a .1"
double row header makes it easy to move onto the rest of the project.
Later, when you've got it running, a good PCB design can be the next step.
I think SparkFun intends it this way (use us for proof of concept, one
offs, and prototypes), and their prices reflect it (nice margins for
essentially mounting an IC on a PCB).
And I think that the majority of hobbyists and beginners are doing
exactly this: proof of concept, prototypes, and so on.
I don't think any of them think of this way as the "perfect professional
solution" or consider themselves designing real products.
These aren't commercial products!
But this is way to get stuff done. I give kudos to the people who are
actually getting stuff done instead of simply talking about doing it
"the right way."
Good PCB design is hard to do for hobbyist. There is essentially no
DECENT free software. Eagle is the closest, but then they have the
limitation of 2" x 2"(or something) boards on the free version. So you
take people NEW to PCBs and you place arbitrary limits which makes it
even harder for them to succeed.
You can never find a stinkin' library that contains your exact part, and
so you have to create your own, but then you can't find the specs you
need to create it --- don't know what size to make the pads, don't
understand the variety of terminology.
And none of the software is user friendly. And if you use ExpressPCB or
the like, then the software is somewhat easier, but now you're forced to
basically over-pay for a design that probably won't work the first time
anyways.
I've spent lots of time, energy, trying to design a small PCB for one of
my projects, and I haven't come any closer. And as the speed of the
devices increase, and the pin density increases, and through-hole
devices disappear, these problems get bigger.
And forget about the stinky and potentially dangerous etchants, laser
printers, iron on transfers, etc etc.
About solderless breadboards: for many of these projects, one isn't
doing anything that requires anything better. So who cares about the
tolerances involved? These aren't 250mhz designs. And the new modules
encapsulate all the complex stuff and present a simple, clean, tolerant
interface.
I think sparkfun's idea make sense. Take immediately useful parts, keep
them in stock, ship same day. Forget minimum orders, forget sample
orders that arrive slow-boat-from-china, forget trying to select the
"right part" from the 290384293409 models on newark, digi-key, etc.
Have high quality pictures online so that you can see what darn
connectors they have. Not line drawings labeled A-ZZ that never picture
the exact model you need. It's clean, easy, fast. That's why I like
it. Everyone understands you are paying a premium for convenience, but
then I can't solder (or don't want to solder) small pitch (high pitch?)
smt devices anyway.
I think it's also useful to remember that there is no cost multiplier on
these designs. Since 92384 of them aren't being built, only one or two,
it doesn't matter if the microcontroller costs $2.50 each or $20 each.
Yeah, so your design costs $50 instead of $10. Who cares?
Keith