How to review ME's design from EE point of view?

Mainly - is there enough space to fit the required parts and power source - *and* dissipate the heat.

Graham

It seems that dissipate the heat is knowledge.

BR/ Boki.

Some people unwisely overlook this *important* point.

Graham

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and dissipate the heat is knowledge.

Tim.

I most definitely concur.

However, you also have to know what you're _really_ tasked to do, not just what you agreed to do. I'm talking about the marketing folks who'll blow gaskets when told "The package will have to be bigger", "The vents have to go here instead of where your artist put them", "You can't put the buttons/lights/slots/power cord/etc there", and stuff like that.

Ask me how I know...

Mark L. Fergerson

Well, knowledge is power, so presumably the smarter the board it the more heat it has to dissipate, unless it's transmitting the knowledge somewhere else, somehow (ethernet?).

Hello Mark,

And then they told us it absolutely has to be a plastic case. That was ok but when they also told us they wanted it purple I cringed.

Got to be careful here, I am married to a marketeer.

Regards, Joerg

Is that like the less knowledgable computer users phoning the ISP if their servers are on fire, because their computers are "recieving" the fire? ;-)

Honestly! Several such stories are found here:

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:

My que to trot out this old gem for those who haven't seen it:

Given: Knowledge = Power Time = Money Power = Work/Time

Substituting Money into the Power equation: Power = Work/Money

Substituting Knowledge into the Power equation: Knowledge = Work/Money

Now solving for Money: Money = Work/Knowledge

Which means the less you know, the more you get paid for doing the same work. This is Morse's Axiom (also known as The Management Equation).

The first time, you get out a big red crayon and draw a huge X on the page and scribble "WRONG!" on it and send it back. MEs like it when you do that.

But seriously:

First check that what needs to go inside will actually fit into the space.

Next check that it won't require that the PCB be stuffed while installed.

Next check that he didn't require that wires of to the chassis and the cover such that you will have to train ants to do the last connection.

Next look at the issues of electrical safety and heat.

Next ask "what will happen when this gets dropped by the customer". Note: anything that weights less than 6x10^24Kg will be dropped by the customer.

Next, imagine you have to walk through the manuacturing shop every day and they are all armed.

Next, go tell marketing, that it was a real struggle but their idea payed off. Show it to them and say see we got it exactly like you wanted.

: )

Very interesting, thanks!

BR/ Boki.

Good ratiocination.

BR/ Boki.

I assume you have done at least a block-diagram design, and have idnetified all the large components and connectors.

Is there enough space on the board?

Where are the mounting points? Do they interfere with a logical layout?

Is there space off the board for cables and their connecotrs, or will they require space within the board envelope?

What provisions have been made for cooling?

MEs and EEs get along pretty well on most issues. Its the architects that cause the problems.

"What do you mean you can't fit something called '35 kV switchgear' into a broom closet?"

Not at all, architects simply give the issue to the ME as a problem he's probably not going to be able to handle, and stand well back (and keep a straight face).

Worked every time so far ;-)

Regards Ian

;-P Rich

-------------- A doctor, an architect, and a computer scientist were arguing about whose profession was the oldest. In the course of their arguments, they got all the way back to the Garden of Eden, whereupon the doctor said, "The medical profession is clearly the oldest, because Eve was made from Adam's rib, as the story goes, and that was a simply incredible surgical feat."

The architect did not agree. He said, "But if you look at the Garden itself, in the beginning there was chaos and void, and out of that, the Garden and the world were created. So God must have been an architect."

The computer scientist, who had listened to all of this said, "Yes, but where do you think the chaos came from?"

--------------- ;-)

Cheers! Rich

A bazillion poxes upon your family. we need less chaos rather than more