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#34 – AD620, DesignSpark, Instrumentation Amplifier – The Rant Rhetorical

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  • Chris has a new bench!

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  1. Interesting one, rs-components go by the name ‘radionics’ here in Ireland… it just goes by a redirect to rs-online site anyway, I always thought it was a strange branding thing….

    radionics.ie

    • Does RS sell to you in Ireland? In my country RS refuses to sell to individuals, they only sell to businesses. My money isn’t good enough for them, d-heads 🙁

      • yeah, have never had any problems at all… their website doesn’t add tax until checkout but thats it really…. they have a store in Dublin that you can go to, but I usually just get it shipped…

        • I tried to register as a foreigner at radionics. They basically say I can’t and must go to my local RS branch instead 🙁

          Ah, sod ’em all.

  2. Tyco wasn’t always just connectors was it? I think they just kept buying companies and brands until it was difficult to attach the name Tyco to any one thing.

    I work with Eagle and don’t do 3d outputs but if I think I need to get colleagues used to the form factor etc, I might print the top and bottom layers and stick them on cardboard, then stick the larger components that dictate real estate onto it.

    I try to remind myself that colleagues and clients may not have the same vision of a pcb/product as i do. 3D views and models can help highlight what differences and common opinions we have about it.
    There are also PCB designs however that just have to perform some function, and formfactor, aesthetics or other layout considerations don’t play a big part if any.

    I’m more digital than analog. Sadly i know the Analogites would survive a post apocolypse world better than the Digitalis.

  3. Hello guys,

    Great show, lots of rants this week! I just want to come back to you on some of the DesignSpark features mentioned, hope I’ve covered everything… Analogue wasn’t a typo, it is just the spelling we generally see outside of the US!

    3D – you discussed this for some time. What we’ve added is a 3D viewer, integrated to the package. This allows you to check your design on the fly WITHOUT needing a 3D mechanical package.

    Now, if you want to do some more detailed 3D work you can export IDF . This is well covered in the online help file so I won’t go into it but its a simple way to interface into a 3D MCAD package. We’ve supported this since launch.
    For importing 3D, we can take in models from the RS website in dxf format. They are 2D representations that you can use for whatever you like including using them for laying out your components etc. We import and export DXF so this is really useful for boards, components and interfacing to MCAD software packages. A great source of DXF files for components is the RS website where we’re providing downloadable 3D models.

    Dave was right with us providing lots of generic models and you can add to these or edit them as you require. This is all very flexible and you can be as detailed as you wish with the 3D packages, or just use the ones supplied.

    Cheers,

    Martin

    • I knew that it wasn’t a typo, I was trying to poke fun at people in the UK…though it’s really the US that mangled the spelling of “analog”. Re-listening I realize my sarcasm didn’t come through as well as it should have! 🙂

      Thanks for updating Martin! I am enjoying the software package so far! Would be interested in hearing about future plans sometime.

  4. Another great show guys.

    The first time I ever heard of Tyco International was when they bought AMP connectors in the last 90s. Tyco is a humungous holding company that spun off their electronics into Tyco Electronics in 2007. Here’s a list of all the companies that make up Tyco Electronics now. http://j.mp/hYyugU

    • There’s no Mac version of Designspark.
      Although I’m nowhere near actually designing PCBs, I’d just like to have the software around, playing with it, getting to know it. But I have not yet found ANY free program that runs (well) on Macs. There are some I installed and tried starting up, but they’re too slow or just too user unfriendly.
      So if the Designspark guys are actually smart, they release proper PCB design software for Mac asap. They’ll be the first and should get a huge amount of users right away.

      However, I’m open to suggestions, if anybody knows of software I’ve missed.

    • I almost forgot…Savage Circuits TV (which is our Tech show/podcast) used to be twice a month, but we’re sarting up again, and it could end up being twice a month again very soon.

  8. Dave, consider a sliding pocket door instead of a curtain for your lab. You’ll be framing a wall anyway so it wouldn’t be hard to look. Otherwise you’ll have to expand on the Gypsy theme in your videos.

    Rigol is also like Atmel in that you have to register every time to get a brochure, manual or other documentation. I think it might be the same just to download a file as well. This alone makes hacking the 1052E to 100MHZ ethically moral. 🙂

  9. Great show guys! In response to your free eagle chant, I wanted to chant back. Use kicad! Use kicad! Use kicad!

  11. Dave: What Australian show are you referring to that covers advertising? The Gruen Transfer? :30 Seconds?

    Also, can DesignSpark, or Altium for that matter, do auto 3d placement of components? For example, it’s very common to have multiple parallel boards in a design… and you don’t want the components from one board to block or touch the components on the other board, it would be awesome if the software could find the best fit in terms of 3d.

    Of course you would probably want to setup up some rules, such that certain sections of the design must be grouped together etc… and you’d still have to tweak it for the 2d trace routing, but I could see this as a huge selling point for using cad with 3d!