Audio Design

Engineer"

OTOH, if no one knows you have a killer widget, no one can buy it. For a small company we do a lot of marketing and have a fairly large full time sales staff (marketing and sales is far larger than engineering).

too

c/RobertB.pdf

In the internet age, how much does one really need to spend on marketing?

I don't have a problem with money spent of advertising, but seriously, these marketing departments are often total bloat. Seems like everyone in marketing is a "manager", though they really only manage themselves. Supposedly they hand out titles in marketing to make up for the poor pay (hardly true), and so that the customer doesn't think they are talking to a flunky, but rather (oh boy) a manager. In the age of ODMs and OEMs, I'm not sure what good marketing does for component companies, instrumentation, etc. Yeah, if you are going to sell Coke, Pepsi, or Apple Ipods, you need marketing. Otherwise, you need products that work.

Some companies use PMEs rather than a big marketing department that often gets out of control. At least the PME knows whose door to knock on.

Engineer"

Less and less. Most of our new leads come from google searches of product function keywords. And once we have a contact, the next action is "sales."

One thing that helps is press releases. Lots of sites are eager for "content" so will post releases and keep them up. That creates more google cross-links and search targets.

John

hurry

hobbyists

reasonable

respect,

The most effective way to find out what you have learned is to build a few.

On Sep 2, 6:15=A0pm, " snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com" wrote: [....]

Often "marketing" does damage beyond just wasted money. Do you remember that one company had an ad with the phrase "Hot ideas in CMOS". The very last thing I ever want CMOS to do is get hot.

Marketing folks often without intending to turn a company into liars. They are too willing to say "We have transistors for all applications" instead of "We have transistors for all applications, except for yours".

How about "Latch onto these parts!"

John

That makes me cringe less because sometimes parts are latches.

Some years ago, back when blue LEDs were very new, I tried to get some blue LEDs to look at out in the sunlight. The local rep promised to bring some to show me twice. He never showed up. A little later, I saw an ad for blue LEDs with the line "you won't believe it" in it. I copied the ad onto a larger sheet and added notes in "childish crayon" like writing saying that I didn't believe it and that the picture was fake and a bunch more comments like that.

I faxed this bit of art work back to the maker of the LED's. About a week later, their local rep showed up. It seemed that the message got through. The result was that I was among the first people to design the part into a product. I designed blue LEDs in back when they were still about $10. I needed a colored light that could be seen from a distance that everyone could tell wasn't red.

While remembering dumb marketing folks: The folks at International Rectifier had their entire web site set up as though the only thing anyone may want to design was an off line switcher. It made finding a rectifier with the needed specs much higher.

Good for you. I am still bedeviled by red/green LEDs because I cannot distinguish the colors. Sometimes, when I toggle them, I see the green state as brighter. In reviewing audio equipment, I always take the designer to task for ignoring the needs of a significant part of his market.

Kal

I started using the Cree SiC blues early on, about the $3 point. I used two 74S38 sections and a 27 ohm resistor from +5, about 50 mA. Later on, as the blues got better, my customers started complaining that the led's were blinding them, so we have ratcheted up the resistor over the years. Now a cmos gate and a 1K resistor is about right.

I have some green leds (Thanks, James) that are visible in office-type lighting at a few hundred nA.

I'm going up to the cabin this weekend - very dark at night - and maybe I'll try to find the ultimate visible threshold on those puppies.

John

Is that what you call a cottage? How clear is the air (when it isn't cloudy, obviously)?

I'd suggest a dark closet, but it might be misinterpreted.

We call it a ski cabin, because it's small by neighborhood standards and feels cabin-y inside, lots of wood beams and knotty pine walls.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Jeep.jpg

It's mostly for friends/family/employees to enjoy. I mostly do the chores. Stained the decks last time, gonna seal the cracks in the driveway this weekend. Fun! Maybe I'll take up a delay generator and a scope and test some firmware and look at trees out a window.

I did take this pic last trip:

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/CW_inside.jpg

likely the best picture I've ever taken. Reminds me of Doom.

I don't get seriously dark-adapted at home, even "in the closet" which has skylights. The place in Truckee is at 6400 feet, very clear, and there's hardly any skyglow. It's amazing how many stars there are.

We went to the ski area and blanketed down on a ski run - top of the hill, no trees - for the meteor shower last month. Got a bunch of little guys and a couple of really good fireball types.

The Bay Bridge is out this weekend, so we'll have to sneak around it at odd hours.

John