Driver to drive?

[Spehro Pefhany]

On 1 Nov 2004 07:15:01 -0800, the renowned
david.pariseau@sbcglobal.net (David Pariseau) wrote:

Define failed. Voltage too low (high). Magic smoke escapes from the part?

You diagram looks good (barring any safety issues with connecting directly
to the AC mains without a transformer) so I don't think the schematic is the
problem.

Check all your wiring and parts orientation and I'll bet you find the
problem.

The LM4040s seem to fail. The reference voltage is only a few
millivolts. They appear to be nearly a dead short.

Dave.

Are you sure that the pin numbering on your PCB footprint matches the
LM4040? No etch or solder shorts on the PCB?

If you're using the National datasheet, note that the TO-92 is shown
as bottom view and the SOT-23 and SC70 are top view.

The NC pin (one of the three N/C pins on the SC70 package) can be tied
to the "anode" or left floating, according to the data sheet. I'd tie
it to the other pin (pin numbers vary according to the package).


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Walt Jung]

On 19 Aug 2004 17:50:29 -0700, shoppa@trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa)
wrote:

snips...

I have his "IC Timer Cookbook", but it's a bit disappointing. It
covers the 555 and several other timer/counter IC's popular in the late 70's -
but most of the non-555 chips he talks about have faded into complete
obscurity. He pays scant attention to the CMOS
oscillator/counter chips which are still available and useful today.
(Although I can't blame him - TTL was all the rage and if you weren't
looking at the right angle you might not notice the CMOS offerings).

There were two editions of "IC Timer Cookbook" CR, 1977 and
1983, respectively. The ISBNs were: 0-672-21416-4 for the first Ed.,
and 0-672-21932-8 for the 2nd Ed. Copies can be found at various
prices above/below the original at used book shops. Go
www.abebooks.com and enter terms of "IC Timer Cookbook" as title and
my name as the author.

In the 2nd Ed. there is a fair amount of info on CMOS
counter/timers. But yes, such parts as the NSC LM322, LM3905 have left
the scene, while the 555 goes on strong even today.

Numerous typos and inconsistencies will frustrate the beginner (although
this is kind-of to be expected in any TAB book).

The publisher for these books was Howard W. Sams, not TAB. I
dunno about the "Numerous typos and inconsistencies" in the two books
mentioned above. But I have noticed such things in TAB books.




Walt Jung

Email: wjung at usa dot net
Web site: http://home.comcast.net/~walt-jung/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

 

[Michael Black]

Walt Jung (USE_wjung@usa.net_LC_ONLY) writes:

On 19 Aug 2004 17:50:29 -0700, shoppa@trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa)
wrote:

snips...

I have his "IC Timer Cookbook", but it's a bit disappointing. It
covers the 555 and several other timer/counter IC's popular in the late 70's -
but most of the non-555 chips he talks about have faded into complete
obscurity. He pays scant attention to the CMOS
oscillator/counter chips which are still available and useful today.
(Although I can't blame him - TTL was all the rage and if you weren't
looking at the right angle you might not notice the CMOS offerings).

There were two editions of "IC Timer Cookbook" CR, 1977 and
1983, respectively. The ISBNs were: 0-672-21416-4 for the first Ed.,
and 0-672-21932-8 for the 2nd Ed. Copies can be found at various
prices above/below the original at used book shops. Go
www.abebooks.com and enter terms of "IC Timer Cookbook" as title and
my name as the author.

In the 2nd Ed. there is a fair amount of info on CMOS
counter/timers. But yes, such parts as the NSC LM322, LM3905 have left
the scene, while the 555 goes on strong even today.

Numerous typos and inconsistencies will frustrate the beginner (although
this is kind-of to be expected in any TAB book).

The publisher for these books was Howard W. Sams, not TAB. I
dunno about the "Numerous typos and inconsistencies" in the two books
mentioned above. But I have noticed such things in TAB books.


Walt Jung

If there were errors in any of your Sam's books, they had to be relatively

obscure. The errors in the Tab Books were often pretty blatant. I remember
the author of a book about the 6809 CPU saying in his Popular Electronics
column to not buy his book, since it had been edited so badly that they
left out key things, but kept in a section that was irrelevant without
the missing section.

Michael

 

[Ken Smith]

In article <cm58n5$1e64$2@news.iquest.net>,
John S. Dyson <toor@iquest.net> wrote:
[...]

Again, Kerry said that there were some war crimes in Vietnam, and

There were so he'd hardly deny it.

that he must admit that the was involved in some also (paraphrased.)

No, you didn't paraphrase, you rephrased, but even taking your rephrased
version. If he was involved that does not mean he was guilty of war
crimes. The victims were involved as were many US troops who did not know
at the time what was going on or did not have the "mens rae" needed for
their actions to be crimes. The guilt for the war crimes that happened
rests higher in the chain of command.

Now lets take a look at the current folks in the Whitehouse. They knew
exactly what they were doing when they outted a CIA agent. They have also
failed to differentiate between combatants and non-combatants inm Iraq.
So they have commited treason and war crimes.


--
--
kensmith@rahul.net forging knowledge

 

[Rich Grise]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 12:33:57 +0000, Scott Stephens wrote:

Rich Grise wrote:

Why do people insist on following religions that teach, "When a man
kicks you, turn over and let him kick you some more, and be grateful
for the valuable lesson. If you rise up to defend yourself, you are
sinning against God, and will be punished mercilessly."
...
You should study some history and philosophy, and stop reading the New
York Times so much. But go ahead and bash Christians, they won't fight
back, and when their moderating influence is gone, there won't be any
more compassion to stop malice and greed from making our system go critical.

Actually, I'm bashing the false idols that the pseudochristians are duped
into worshipping.

Would Jesus vote for a warmongering murderer?

Remember, Bush is a dangerous liar.

THaks,
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 07:00:22 -0800, hepcatbrandon wrote:

dbowey@aol.com (Dbowey) wrote in message news:<20041031120502.23542.00002650@mb-m18.aol.com>...
jberryman posted:

(snip)

Don, the polarity reversal is the disconnect signal at least here in
the US. You know how when you stay on the line for a few seconds after
someone has hung up, you hear a click then another click then dial
tone? If you could take a minute to tell me what doesn't make sense
about the drawing, I'd appreciate it.


I helped write the ANSI Standard for loop-start and ground=start (POTS)
telephone service, and it does not provide for a disconnect polarity reversal.

So I ask again; where did you obtain the information that it does? I saw
another post on another board where the poster was also positive there is a
polarity reversal.

As to the drawing; I didn't consider it any further than seeing one of the
diodes shorted permanently by the wiring.

Don

Well then, I humbly retract my statement. I remember reading about a
polarity reversal before this, but I most recently got this
information from a phreaking text file on plans for a diverter, which
I had based my design sketches on. The article can be found here:

http://mvb.saic.com/freeware/vmslt99b/phrack/phn-diverter.txt

Here is another example of an article I had lying around in which
polarity reversal is mentioned:
"There is no guaranteed (single) way to determine when a call was
terminated at the far end. Depending on the switch type you need to
look at loop break (loss of loop current), change of DC polarity, dial
tone, stutter dial tone, and/or silence. If you want to do something
for unknown lines on unknown switches then you will need a combination
of the above."

(from http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/teleinterface.html )

Perhaps this depends on the particular switch serving the phone? Or is
this assumption completely false? If so what takes place on the line
between the time the called party hangs up and you are sent dial tone
again?

I can't understand why you don't simply call the phone company and ask
them. They know the answers to all of these questions.

Of course, all of your questions make a lot more sense if you're just
trying to pull a fast one.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Roger Hamlett]

"Guy Macon" <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote in message
news:10ocs1tspei12c1@corp.supernews.com...

terry wrote:

I have heard that CR2032 can be charged. Is it true?

No. I believe that all 2032 coin cells have a pure lithium anode. If you
try to recharge them slowly, lithium deposits cause a short. If you try
to recharge them faster (at least in the case of a AA cell) you can get
to the point where you have a thermal runaway, a cell that reaches the
melting point of lithium, a ruptured case, and venting with flame. For
a description of this happening in a rechargable AA cell, please see
[ http://www.css.sfu.ca/update/vol4/4.3-dahn.html ].
Some manufacturers have done a vanadium pentoxide lithium cell in the 2032

size, which is a rechargeable technology, and I have also seen the
maganese titanium lithium cells in this size. These have different
identifier letters than 'CR' though. So some '2032' batteries may be
recharged, but _not_ the CR2032.

Best Wishes

 

[John Larkin]

On 1 Nov 2004 06:09:38 -0800, klauskvik@hotmail.com (Klaus Kragelund)
wrote:

Hi

Tektronix has recently launched a new TPS2000 series cheap scopes that
provide isolation between the inputs and ground by default:

http://www.tek.com/site/ps/0,,3M-17750-INTRO_EN,00.html?wt=510&link=/site/ps/0,,3M-17750-INTRO_EN,00.html

Does anyone know how they acchieve the 600VRMS isolation with the aid
of the P5120 passive probe? (30VRMS with a standard P2220 probe)

How is the isolation done inside the scope? Its quite cheap, around
5k$ with 4 probes and with nice 200MHz bandwidth performance.....

Thanks

Klaus

All I've seen was a reference to magnetic coupling. Anybody see more?

John

 

[Phil Hobbs]

Anders F wrote:

Whew, that doesn't look very easy to fix, not quickly anyway!


They build 580 foot towers out of wood in England?



Looks like steel to me!



How do you burn down > a steel antenna mast?



Steel has a bad habit of softening when heated bye nearby strong fire. It
has before proven a very sad property (ie. in cocktails with tall buildings
and airplane fuel)...


I live in New York, so I know about that...what I don't know is how you

"burn down" a mast sitting by itself in the middle of nowhere, without a
few hundred tons of jet fuel to help. Rubbing sticks together? Or did
some idiot put a building with a large amount of flammable material
right at the base of the mast? That would have to rank as one of the
Gold Medal Ideas of History--50 feet of transmission line would make a
big difference in fire safety. No wonder the cops are scratching their
heads.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

 

[Joerg]

Hi Jim,

Much to my surprise I found that our locat TV station uses MSF for their
time standard, had assumed it was GPS, wonder what sort of antenna they
use at this range.


Most likely a professional receiver with a separate remotely mounted

antenna (probably encapsulated ferrite rod).

I don't know whether that is more reliable but then again GPS is not
British. And after the Boston Tea Party there may still be some sour
feelings

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[John Larkin]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 09:49:24 +1300, Terry Given <my_name@ieee.org>
wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 09:44:05 -0700, Jim Thompson
thegreatone@example.com> wrote:


http://www.ronanddave.com/week/week.htm

...Jim Thompson



That makes sense. I think that most liberals and most conservatives
really pretty much want the same ends, a prosperous, healthy, just
society, but disagree on methods.

John


ayup. Not only that, but the labels are rather inadequate - after all,
how can you sum up a single persons beliefs with a word, and hope to be
accurate? now extend that to, say, 100,000,000 people, and the label
gets even less accurate.

Just chop the statism/individualism distribution down the middle,
maybe. But sure, there are few purists on either side, and fewer
honest ones.

The word "just" is also likely to be a strong point of difference - eg a
lesbian vs a christian fundamentalist likely have opposing views of what
is just.

Cheers
Terry

There are then two issues: differences in desired outcomes (different
visions of Utopia) and differences in perception of the best method to
get there. I think that in the USA, the outcome thing is less divisive
than the methods issue. The outcome goal has been steadily
liberalizing throughout US and European history; it's hard to find a
public figure who would argue for racial discrimination or against
womens' legal rights or against environmental controls any more. The
debate is largely on method, driven largely by where the money will
go.


John

 

[Ban]

Terry Given wrote:

You only need 1opamp per filter, which is favourable when the opamp
costs several $$. The size of the caps will be the same with all
topologies, exept when you use a capacitor multiplier, in which case
it is favourable when they are grounded. Since the poles are not to
be adjusted, S-K should be perfectly OK. He asked for higher
performance, which I translated into "less noise".


I think things are different when you have to place an IC every time
you want an opamp (interesting how quads are often cheaper than
duals), then have to place all the discretes. But S-K filters
certainly are crappy (sensitivity, etc).

I have also watched 4 different engineers (in 4 different companies)
try to build PWM filters using S-K LP topologies, only to discover
that square waves have sharp edges, and S-K filters tend to provide a
direct capacitive path from input to output, thereby ensuring that
the required opamp GBW >> that which you thought you needed..... I
hereby confess to being the first engineer I ever saw do that. I felt
a lot better when I saw others (much smarter than I) doing it - my
solution was a slight topology change (split Rin in two, with a shunt
cap in the middle), theirs was buy a much more expensive opamp.
Pspice found my problem for me (only because I looked), so I changed
it before the pcb layout

You are right for high frequency S-K filters, but here we talk about 30Hz,
which is way down from 8MHz GBW of the opamp. A simple R/C post filter can
avoid this.
If you split the first R in two, you will get a 3pole filter. you can then
also increase the Q of the 2nd order filter and include the passive R/C in
front into the filter calculation. So you have a 3-pole filter at the cost
of an additional resistor and capacitor.
I have studied many topologies and I believe there are pros and cons for
every one. But given the low frequency and noise requirements S-K is one of
my favourites in this application.
--
ciao Ban
Bordighera, Italy

 

[Jim Yanik]

kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) wrote in
news:cm6j68$1qr$3@blue.rahul.net:

In article <6c71b322.0411011526.7e518017@posting.google.com>,
Tom Seim <soar2morrow@yahoo.com> wrote:
There have been claims on SED that Kerry has never admitted to
committing atrocities in Vietnam.

I don't think I ever said that. I said he never said that he
committed war crimes. There is a huge difference, because the word
atrocities covers a lot of things that are not war crimes, doubly so
when it is being used in common language and not in a legal sense.
Since he said "thousands of other soldiers", we know that he means
something that happened a lot. Since we don't know the full context
of this question from this video, we must refer to other information
to see what specific actions he means. It is obvious that he is
refering to actions he regrets and that they are common actions. It
is also clear that he does not mean war crimes.

No,Kerry claimed that all Us soldiers were war criminals.He clearly meant
that his atrocities were the same as what other war criminals committed.
You are just trying to WEASEL it to mean other than what Kerry meant.

Perhaps like Kerry's "nuancing".

Atrocities = war crimes.
That was the entire point of Kerry's Winter Soldier testimony.

Suggesting anything else is dishonest.

Is that clear enough for you?

Well here is the transcript from
Kerry's appearance on "Meet the Press". You decide for yourself:

(Videotape, April 18, 1971):

MR. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say
that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands
of other soldiers have committed.

(End videotape)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:00:41 -0800, the renowned John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highlandSNIPtechTHISnologyPLEASE.com> wrote:

On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 21:57:23 +0000 (UTC), kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken
Smith) wrote:

In article <sk0do09pe0qn0o00rihkj3p8dhnenf0uu6@4ax.com>,
John Larkin <jjlarkin@highSNIPlandTHIStechPLEASEnology.com> wrote:
[...]
Without meaning to offend, I have noticed that more liberal people
tend to be innumerate. Something in my brain just automatically
sanity-checks any numbers I see (habit developed from engineering, of
course) and I'm astounded by how much of the stuff in the press makes
no sense, orders of magnitude off from reality. I guess they don't
teach much math in journalism school.

Some years back there was one "statistic" that was widely reported that
just floored me. They claimed that straight men had on the average twice
as many sex partners as straight women. A lot of people repeated that
without realizing that it simply can't be true.


Of course it can be true.

John

I don't see how, given the important assumption that the total number
of men and women are roughly equal. The distribution might be quite
different, however.

Average(men) = total number of distinct pairings/total number of men

~=

Average(women) = total number of distinct pairings /total number of
women

Of course this is about as useful a statistic as the one that the
average human has one breast and one testicle.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[John S. Dyson]

In article <pan.2004.11.02.02.48.07.946763@example.net>,
Rich Grise <rich@example.net> writes:

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 00:38:13 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:

kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) wrote in
news:cm5m9l$clf$2@blue.rahul.net:

In article <cm58il$1e64$1@news.iquest.net>,
John S. Dyson <toor@iquest.net> wrote:
[...]
Yes, I heard it also... He said (paraphrased), that some attrocities
(war crimes) happened in Vietnam, and he said that he participated in
some also.

There were a couple of cases where Kerry had either admitted or strongly
implied his complicity in war crimes. It is proven that Kerry is either
an admitted war criminal or a liar about very important issues.

I suggest that anyone who thinks there is a shred of truth to Dyson's
claim go read the transcript. You will find that Dyson is the proven
liar.


Kerry said HE did war crimes himself to a TV interviewer.

He admitted that he followed orders. Is that now a bad thing?

Illegal orders (especially when they are passed down by Kerry

as yet another perpetrator) are no excuse. Given a small modicum
of intellectual honesty, you might be coming close to admitting
that Kerry is a war criminal. Alot of actions at Kerry's level
were not directly ordered by the superiors, and Kerry himself is
actually responsible for the individual murders and destruction
of huts and family units.

Remember, these people whose lives were being destroyed were very
poor, and Kerry was obviously a major perpetrator in his arena.
Frankly, it is fairly clear that Kerry was a primary perp of
atrocities (war crimes) in his area.

When the real perp (Kerry) had tried to lay blame onto the relatively
more innocent, that must have really hurt the innocent swift
boat military people. It is fairly obvious that they are still
restraining themselves from fully dumping on Kerry, but that is
certainly not Kerrys' style.

One of the first major things that Kerry did after his involvement
in the war was to DUMP on his fellow swift-boat people (effectively
blaming them for Kerry's own horrors.)

The lefties toleration of destroying of families and the brain scooping
activities of today (so called partial birth abortion) seem to show
a common Democrat theme.

John

 

[Rich Grise]

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 06:47:43 +0000, Kevin Aylward wrote:

Rich Grise wrote:
On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 12:56:43 +0000, Kevin Aylward wrote:
[about FET current sources]
Vt\Vp can vary several hundred percent so this one off batch means
nothing. You can expect huge variations. Your "design" is an accident
waiting to happen.

So, in other words, are you saying, as was I, that coming off the
line, even with care in the production process, there is still so much
variation in the cutoff current

V Pinch off/V Threshold and Idss

that makes it such that you'd have
to individually test each unit? (which, of course, jacks the price
up a bunch)

Yes. Unless, of course your design can stand say, at least a +100%/-50%
variation in current.

Thanks!
Rich

 

[John S. Dyson]

In article <41876b72$0$43451$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
"Frank Bemelman" <f.bemelmanx@xs4all.invalid.nl> writes:

"Kevin Aylward" <salesEXTRACT@anasoft.co.uk> schreef in bericht
news:ADGhd.8285$Bk6.6374@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
John S. Dyson wrote:

John Kerry is obviously a bad, bad man. He might even be a very evil
man, but that isn't any persons' place to judge, but it appears to be
true.


I don't care, even if he was. Bush is worse. Bush is the most worthless
disgusting piece of shit to hold American office, in my view.

That's exactly how it is. It's not a matter of Kerry being the
solution to everything, which he is not, and nobody is, but what
counts is to get that disgusting piece of shit named Bush out of

Rest of your vile posting elided... Note that the lefty anti-Bush

people only have hatred on their side. Remember: your own personal
interest is obviously NOT pro-America, and that makes Kerry more towards
your liking. (Sophistry like that proclaims 'liking Americans' but
'disliking the government' is rather intellectually dishonest. On
a percentage basis during his first election, more voted for GWB than
voted for Clinton on his own first election!!!)

Hate hate hate -- don't you have ANYTHING constructive to say? Of course
not, the left is all tied up with hatred.

John

 

[Rich Grise]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:38:54 +0000, Ken Smith wrote:

In article <Xns9594C9BA33A6Ajyanikkuanet@129.250.170.83>,
Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov.> wrote:
kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) wrote in
news:cm6j68$1qr$3@blue.rahul.net:

In article <6c71b322.0411011526.7e518017@posting.google.com>,
Tom Seim <soar2morrow@yahoo.com> wrote:
There have been claims on SED that Kerry has never admitted to
committing atrocities in Vietnam.

I don't think I ever said that. I said he never said that he
committed war crimes. There is a huge difference, because the word
atrocities covers a lot of things that are not war crimes, doubly so
when it is being used in common language and not in a legal sense.
Since he said "thousands of other soldiers", we know that he means
something that happened a lot. Since we don't know the full context
of this question from this video, we must refer to other information
to see what specific actions he means. It is obvious that he is
refering to actions he regrets and that they are common actions. It
is also clear that he does not mean war crimes.

No,Kerry claimed that all Us soldiers were war criminals.He clearly meant

Site please. Where and when did Kerry say that. I don't think he did.

It's only Yanick. Those sympathizers can't do anything but parrot

the party line. Facts are irrelevant, and annoying, not to mention
dangerous to their crusade.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:48:49 +0000, Ken Smith wrote:

In article <cm6scj$1tl6$2@news.iquest.net>,
John S. Dyson <toor@iquest.net> wrote:
In article <cm6j68$1qr$3@blue.rahul.net>,
kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) writes:
In article <6c71b322.0411011526.7e518017@posting.google.com>,
Tom Seim <soar2morrow@yahoo.com> wrote:
There have been claims on SED that Kerry has never admitted to
committing atrocities in Vietnam.

I don't think I ever said that. I said he never said that he committed
war crimes. There is a huge difference, because the word atrocities
covers a lot of things that are not war crimes, doubly so when it is being
used in common language and not in a legal sense.

Mostly, those atrocities that Kerry lied about (or committed) were/are
unacceptable acts, or Kerry told unacceptable lies. Frankly, Kerry's
admission appears to have been partially coached by a lawyer, and
it was good for Kerry to avoid a legally direct admission.

So, you and Yanic disagree as to whether he was admitting to war crimes.
You agree with me that there is a difference and that what he said did not
constitute an admission of war crimes. That is interesting. BTW: I did
find a reference that shows what Kerry was refering to. It is all about
the "free fire zones" that were part of his orders..

Choosing between someone who might have (legally) avoided some
service vs. someone who were disposed to commit atrocities (and
either admitted to them, or lied about them),

We will never know what Bush would have done in the same situation. Would
he have disobeyed orders? I doubt it. He would have just become another
in the thousands Kerry is refering to.

Except that he's a known coward and deserter, who now is so brave and

strong that he's sending our sons and daughters off on some unholy
personal jihad.

Well, it's up to you if you want to sell your soul to evil.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Tilmann Reh]

Mike Deblis schrieb:

I have a project that I want to have made commercially - maybe a
maximum of 1000 units, but only 50 to start with. I am not a
practicing engineer.

There are about 40 components - I want most to be SMD... no BGA, but a
few uSOP and mostly 0805 Rs & Cs (a couple of larger tant Cs). Some
non-standard, e.g. power connector & SMD inductor etc. I want SMD
because I want the unit to be compact... 2-layer PCB, 10mil traces,
FR4 with solder mask on both sides & silk screen one side (i.e. a very
standard board).

So, is PTH cheaper to make than SMD ? For a small board like this
(maybe 10cm x 10cm) what might I expect to pay for assembly? Is it
worth going to the Far East for quotes - what quality issues might
that entail? If there are one or two PTH devices on the board, does
this really complicate matters or is it incidental?

Some general guidelines:

1. If there are only 40 components, and if they also are all
available for PTH, it is cheaper to go for PTH completely
in these quantities.

2. If one of these components is available only as SMD, you might
think about soldering this one manually, and still do the rest
in PTH.

3. If several components must be SMD, or the component mentioned
in 2. has too many pins or too fine pitch, you'd better go for
SMD - as completely as even possible.

4. If a few parts remain in THT (most often power parts, large
electrolytics and connectors), you might think of soldering
them manually after SMD assembly and reflow. If there are too
many, or too many THT pads, you still need wave soldering.

Take care that each soldering method adds separate basic expense.
If you can do *everything* in either technology, it often will be
best (most effective in terms of cost and time).
Also note that by using resistor arrays where possible, you can
often descrease component count in THT (while in SMD these arrays
are rather esoteric).

For SMD, you need automatic assembly. This requires an assembly
program to be written or adapted, solder paste stencils have to
be made, and for each production lot the paste printer and the
assemly machine have to be prepared (inserting the right feeders,
etc.). Additionally, you often get SMD parts in larger packing units
only - what will you do with the rest after your 1000 boards are done?

In these rather small quantities, SMD seldomly calculates - unless
you run those 1000 in very few (and larger) lots, or you really need
the smaller size.

I really would apprecate a few pointers about where to get started,
and experiences of using local vs. remote far East etc.)
fabricators...

Ask a local manufacturer. Show them the boards in question (or
drawings etc.) and ask them for their opinion about the best
production technology.
I would not even think about going far East for this volume.
(But if you're interested in a european manufacturer: feel free
to ask us. )

HTH,

--
Dipl.-Ing. Tilmann Reh
Autometer GmbH Siegen - Elektronik nach Maß.
http://www.autometer.de