D
Dan Charette
Guest
Hey Everyone...
I've been doing a lot of research lately trying to learn more and more
about different and subtle techniques with regards to circuit design,
analog and digital, in order to just be a bit better at this with each
subsequent design. As we all are I'm sure. But I thought I'd throw a
bone out on the table and ask some of the seasoned pros as well as the
amateur gadgeteers out there what their respective design approaches
are? I've been in this field since a wee lad smelling the ozone from
sticking that fork in the outlet at aged 3 or so and I've never worked
in a formal lab under the tutelage of a senior engineer with some road
mileage under their belt, so I've never had the opportunity to see
exactly the nuances of how some of the typical lab routines and
procedures work at say like NS, TI, AD or any number of the myriad of
different university, basement and garage based labs.
I've had my own design lab that has slowly grown into the
Frankensteinish environment that it is today, probably not too far off
from everyone elses. Anyway, when I ask about design approaches,
here's my example.
I recently had someone approach me about a circuit idea to improve
upon something he had that has failed and he needs to replace, but the
original maker has since vanished. So, I listened to his request and
asked him in detail about shortcomings he felt the unit could better
perform if redesigned. Once I had his philosophy on the unit of what
he felt would be an improvement, I then kindly but firmly asked what
he was looking to pay for the unit and how many was he willing to
commit to. I had a ballpark figure in my mind of timing that it might
take to accomplish the goal and kinda guessed at the manufacturing
side of things so I felt somewhat in the ballpark on how many of these
things it would take to get back the development time dollars. Once I
had that in mind, I started doing research on circuitry based on four
pieces of circuit designs I new would work to accomplish the task.
All I needed to do was to interface these four pieces and with some
tweeking, the circuit should fly. This research was a couple of good
solid days of reading and rough calculations on small circuits I was
looking to incorporate. During this time, I had tried a few spice
simulations in a few areas to corroborate my hand calculations. Then,
I started building individual blocks onto a bare PCB and tested each
section to make sure it would perform individually. I'm about half
way through this procedure as of today and I have roughly two weeks of
design time in the project so far. It's not a big project, but a
small gadget for use with microphones in pro audio.
Anyway, as I was looking through the newgroup postings, I see so many
very knowledgable folks with lots of experience and I just thought I'd
ask what everyone's procedures are i.e., do you draw out schematics
first? Do you sit down with soldering iron in hand and just start
slapping pieces together? Do you do complete spice simulations and
then build? Are there other details that perhaps are done that you do
that may be helpful to aspiring designers? I know there must be a
slew of approaches and I just thought I'd throw the question out on
the table and see how cut from the same cookie dough we electronics
gurus from different cultures and countries, lab backgrounds, and
overall work ethic really are.
Thanks for any input!
Dan Charette {dan_at_thesonicfrogFUZZ-dot-com}
Remove the "FUZZ" and replace the underscores and
such from my e-mail address to contact me.
"I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong."
I've been doing a lot of research lately trying to learn more and more
about different and subtle techniques with regards to circuit design,
analog and digital, in order to just be a bit better at this with each
subsequent design. As we all are I'm sure. But I thought I'd throw a
bone out on the table and ask some of the seasoned pros as well as the
amateur gadgeteers out there what their respective design approaches
are? I've been in this field since a wee lad smelling the ozone from
sticking that fork in the outlet at aged 3 or so and I've never worked
in a formal lab under the tutelage of a senior engineer with some road
mileage under their belt, so I've never had the opportunity to see
exactly the nuances of how some of the typical lab routines and
procedures work at say like NS, TI, AD or any number of the myriad of
different university, basement and garage based labs.
I've had my own design lab that has slowly grown into the
Frankensteinish environment that it is today, probably not too far off
from everyone elses. Anyway, when I ask about design approaches,
here's my example.
I recently had someone approach me about a circuit idea to improve
upon something he had that has failed and he needs to replace, but the
original maker has since vanished. So, I listened to his request and
asked him in detail about shortcomings he felt the unit could better
perform if redesigned. Once I had his philosophy on the unit of what
he felt would be an improvement, I then kindly but firmly asked what
he was looking to pay for the unit and how many was he willing to
commit to. I had a ballpark figure in my mind of timing that it might
take to accomplish the goal and kinda guessed at the manufacturing
side of things so I felt somewhat in the ballpark on how many of these
things it would take to get back the development time dollars. Once I
had that in mind, I started doing research on circuitry based on four
pieces of circuit designs I new would work to accomplish the task.
All I needed to do was to interface these four pieces and with some
tweeking, the circuit should fly. This research was a couple of good
solid days of reading and rough calculations on small circuits I was
looking to incorporate. During this time, I had tried a few spice
simulations in a few areas to corroborate my hand calculations. Then,
I started building individual blocks onto a bare PCB and tested each
section to make sure it would perform individually. I'm about half
way through this procedure as of today and I have roughly two weeks of
design time in the project so far. It's not a big project, but a
small gadget for use with microphones in pro audio.
Anyway, as I was looking through the newgroup postings, I see so many
very knowledgable folks with lots of experience and I just thought I'd
ask what everyone's procedures are i.e., do you draw out schematics
first? Do you sit down with soldering iron in hand and just start
slapping pieces together? Do you do complete spice simulations and
then build? Are there other details that perhaps are done that you do
that may be helpful to aspiring designers? I know there must be a
slew of approaches and I just thought I'd throw the question out on
the table and see how cut from the same cookie dough we electronics
gurus from different cultures and countries, lab backgrounds, and
overall work ethic really are.
Thanks for any input!
Dan Charette {dan_at_thesonicfrogFUZZ-dot-com}
Remove the "FUZZ" and replace the underscores and
such from my e-mail address to contact me.
"I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong."