How do you design these days?

never worked

sense of

parts

you can't do

over

and that

checklist"

I wasn't seriously looking for work yet and hadn't really considered contract work. I had just put the house on the market and my wife wouldn't let me make messes anymore. I was bored, so jumped at what was supposed to be a three month contract (I left after a year but they wanted to extend it another six months). I hadn't done any FPGA work in five or six years and thought it would look good on the resume.

I worked with several headhunters before I got the job I'm in now. Some were outstanding at what they did. Others were sleazier than an Chia Obama commercial. The headhunter that place me where I am now got 35% of my annual salary (his rates were on his web site ;-).

Some companies only pimp. Large companies tend to not hire contractors directly, rather through agencies. It simplifies the tax situation (and they can't sue). Ten years ago we hired an FPGA type, found him ourselves, but had to hire him though an agency which added their 20% laundry fee.

made=20

oscilloscopes. Many=20

is it=20

to a PC=20

still=20

interested in=20

attempt to=20

and

I thought so. But i haven't had my hands on any for 20 years now.

Many

PC

I think lots of people have hardlines fabbed and then something goes wrong, project canceled, wrong length, whatever, and they wind up on ebay. There are lots of SMBs, too, from Cisco systems or something.

I just bought 30 SMA "connector savers" (short male-female things) for about $1.50 each, ebay again. They are at least $10 each from regular sources.

John

made=20

how=20

to a=20

=20

in=20

to=20

With prices like that i cannot afford to mess with the chemicals = involved.

the=20

recommended=20

=20

ago I=20

router, is=20

Hmm. 0 vs 0. But not so much the learning curve. =20 Besides i detest doing anything twice without serious specific = need/requirement.

=20

What state was that?

-- "Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

I've been a resident of AZ since college. Bowmar had a division in Chandler, AZ, but was actually a multinational corporation... IIRC based in Canada. I think only the US operations went bankrupt. My general bet would be that Bowmar (US) was incorporated in Delaware. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

EWB is free now? Last time one of my engineers wanted a copy we paid a few hundred but that was more than ten years ago. Way back when I used ECA224 and IIRC that flowed into EWB but I have to say I wasn't too impressed with EWB in the late 90's.

need/requirement.

Yep, same here, if something works for ya don't change it.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

for the=20

recommended=20

=20

to=20

ago I=20

router, is=20

Unless i misread, i thought he said has an old version.=20

need/requirement.

And after learning at least 4 different schematic capture / general CAD = systems, i am=20 pretty much quickly productive in just about any such tool.

That figures ;-(

--
"Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference
is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more
durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it."
                                             (Stephen Leacock)

is

need/requirement.

systems, i am

Same here. However, you will have to re-do most of the libraries every time you switch and that can cost weeks of boring grunt work. It doesn't matter how fast you are able to adapt, that work will have to be done no matter what.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

for the=20

recommended=20

do=20

CAD to=20

Years ago I=20

router, is=20

a=20

used=20

need/requirement.

CAD systems, i am=20

=20

=20

Perhaps. I think that everything not totally standard in most of my = tools=20 is obsolete or proprietary.

made

Many

it

a PC

still

in

to

I like your hand work, John. It's a lot like things I have done.

Here's a link to a picture of a test board I made a while ago...

It's a diode doubler for 5 MHz to 10 MHz on FR4, based on the two diode doubler here:

The lines are about 50 ohm impedance on this board.

I did it so I could try a few different kinds of transformers like the ferrite binocular one I wound in this picture.

To cut the copper I use a round diamond dental bur. A few years ago I bought 30 or 40 of a couple different types from a seller on ebay. Something like current auction 260491962839. I think the ones I use most were 1.1 mm dia round ball ends. I draw the lines I want to cut with a fine sharpie and then cut it by hand with a Dremel. I find this faster, easier and safer than a blade. Not too difficult to cut narrow lines, especially if you do it under some magnification.

If I need to remove a wider piece of copper, I cut the edge of the pattern, then use a hot iron to unstick and peel the copper.

You need a very small collet in the dremel chuck. I think the bur shafts are about 1.6 mm dia.

Here's another one I did this way...

I found a nice MTI 5 MHz OCXO on ebay. It was mounted on a small circuit board that just fed it DC. The oscillator wanted only about 10 V and I wanted to be able to run it from a 12 V battery, so I cleaned down to copper on the back side of the board and cut some (planned) square pads to add this regulator.

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.

Ok, but that doesn't say that they are thinking about curbing the right to your own antenna by some local authority. Freedom of information has a rather high place in our country and that's a good thing.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

the

recommended

I

router, is

need/requirement.

systems, i am

Not at all here. Then again I do a lot of switch mode converter design and there's lots of specialty chips and inductors. Same for the RF stuff I do.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

made

Many

it

a PC

still

in

to

Nice ones. I like this kind of breadboarding, and it works with surface-mount parts well into the GHz zone. Coplanar waveguide works great here.

I also like edge-launch SMA or SMB connectors to feed in and out, or just a hardline pigtail with an SMA on the other end. Regular square-flange SMAs can be butt-soldered to both sides of a CPW board and make great edge-launchers... better in fact than "official" edge-launch connectors.

I'll have to try some dental burrs. One could probably use a steel ruler as a cutting guide. I would follow up with my trademark Scotchbrite rub.

Favorite diode: Skyworks SMS7621-079, 0.22 pF. Skyworks has a great sample kit full of various schottky, varactor, and limiter diodes.

John

[snip] [snip]

ONLY if not Constitutionally forbidden from infringing State's rights. ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

What good is the right to erect any antenna, if they give the spectrum to someone else? Those special interest groups are out to take everything they think they can possibly use. Wi-Fi on Channel 2? Give me a break!

If they get their way there will be no 'Free TV'. You will have to use cable or a sat service to get anything at all.

Where is 'Freedom of information' if you have to pay for it every month? What is there to stop continuous rate increases if local TV is removed from the equation? HTH will you get information about local events or emergencies when a storm blocks reception of the Ku band?

BTW, it looks like WOGX moved their studios to Gainesville recently. I will be near the old studio site in a few days and will see if it's still in use.

--
Greed is the root of all eBay.