MightyOhm

Peter Edwards of Casper Electronics shared a picture of his workbench today via Make.

With the exception of the audio recorder and circuit bending tools, pretty much every piece of equipment on that bench can be found on mine as well.  I even have the same yellow bins!

There’s a great writeup on his site describing each numbered tool in the photo.  If you started from scratch and bought all of the items on his list, you would have a great instant electronics workshop.

If The Art of Electronics is the bible of electronic circuit design, then the Printed Circuits Handbook is almost certainly the bible of printed circuit board (PCB) technology.

I say this because even if you disregard the volumes of useful information inside (much of which I have never seen elsewhere online or in print), this book deserves to win ‘bible’ status thanks to its 1000 pages and phonebook-quality heft!

All joking aside, this book is a great resource for anyone is serious about making good PCBs.  I have worked with PCBs as a design engineer for several years now, and I learned something about printed circuit boards within minutes of opening the cover.  Hours later, I was still flipping pages.

How could I walk away from a book that contains in depth discussions of topics like the difference between water soluble and no-clean flux and how to clean the leftover residue from each?  Ever wondered what the myriad of surface finish options your PCB vendor offers you really mean?  This book will explain the difference between HASL and ENIG, and why you shouldn’t blindly check the box that says “lead-free” without considering the consequences on your assembly process.

This is the kind of stuff they don’t teach you in school, and as a design engineer I have received only glimpses of in the industry.

Some of the highlights of this book for me are:

• The most thorough discussion of PCB manufacturing that I have ever seen (almost 300 pages!).  Want to know how the PCB you just got was made?  One layer or sixteen layers, it’s all in here.
• Lots of information about custom laminates, high density interconnect techniques, microvias, blind/buried vias, plating and surface finishes, solder masks, conformal coating, etc.
• Several charts of current handling ability of PCB traces, planes, and vias.
• A chapter on thermal design of PCBs.
• Lots of information about soldering techniques.  Ever wondered how soldering works and what flux really does?  It’s in here too.
• Seven (!) chapters on design, manufacturing, and test of flex circuits.

Be forewarned that the technical level of this book is fairly high.  It is clearly targeted towards people working in the PCB industry, but most engineers and even serious hobbyists would probably get something out of it.  That said, this is definitely not a book for beginners!

(And to the other design engineers out there: Want to one-up the manufacturing and reliability guys in the break room?  Read this book!  )

Printed Circuits Handbook (McGraw Hill Handbooks)

I just got an e-mail from HSC Electronic Supply announcing their 45th Anniversary Sale (aka Sidewalk Sale), which takes place this Saturday, Sept. 26th.  If you are in Silicon Valley this weekend, this is definitely worth checking out.  If you want to get an idea of what this event is like, check out my photos from last year’s “Warehouse Clearance Sale.”  (It seems like they change the name of this event every year now!)

45th Anniversary Celebration
Local Customer? Come on in and celebrate with us and save
10%-60% on everything in our stores. One day only!
Out of the Area? For our online customers, from September
23rd to 27th, HSC will offer *FREE shipping plus an additional 10%
off any order over $50.00. Just mention “Anniversary Special” in
the shopping cart order notes and we’ll take care of your discount.
The 6,000 items listed online are just a sample of our extensive store inventory.
Don’t see what you need? Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-442-5833.

HSC is having some online specials too, although if you shop online you are missing out on 90% of the fun, such as sifting through crates of miscellaneous electronics parts!

Every project I work on usually involves at least one trip down to the South Bay to visit HSC, and I usually find at least a few interesting odds and ends at their annual clearance sales.  And while you’re in the area, I highly recommend a side trip to Weird Stuff Warehouse in Sunnyvale as well.

Dorkbot-SF is meeting tonight at 7:30PM at TCHO on Pier 17.

Speakers include Mark Pauline of SRL, Timothy Childs of TCHO, and ITP graduate Michael Ang.

Sutro Tower DTV Conversion in Progress

Back in February, I first posted about the DTV conversion project that was beginning to make waves¹ at San Francisco’s iconic Sutro Tower wireless broadcast facility.

Since then, there have been some big changes at the tower: the end of analog television broadcasts in June, the complete removal and replacement of one (two?) of the tower’s huge antenna masts, and the addition of several new bright red digital TV antennas near the top of the tower.  On a clear day (which is not often this time of year), workers can often be seen climbing around the tower, like tiny ants on a large, red and white striped giant.

For anyone who is interested in getting a closer look at the heavy construction on the tower, San Francisco resident Larry Kenny recently posted a link to his Sutro Tower webpages, which feature a detailed photo journal of the DTV conversion thus far.  There are lots of great shots of the tower itself as well as the mangled remains of the original analog TV antennas, which, when seen on the ground, help give some idea of the scale of things atop the tower.  When assembled, these things must be the size of tractor trailers!

I also recently revisited sutrotower.org, the website of David July, a Florida resident who has been fascinated by the tower since his first visit to San Francisco in 1989.  (Sutro is also one of the things I remember most about visiting SF as a child.)  David’s site is the most comprehensive source of information about the tower I have ever seen. Included are many fascinating photos of the tower spanning it’s 37-year lifetime, such as these photos of the tower’s construction in 1971-72:

Photo credit: San Francisco Public Library (source: sutrotower.org)

Sutrotower.org also includes photos of the original Sutro Mansion and the first broadcast tower to be installed, a far cry from the tower that sits atop Mount Sutro today!  If that’s not enough for the real “tower junkies” out there, there are also links to several tours of the tower, with lots of photos.  (Sutro Tower Staff: Where do I sign up?)

That’s all I have for today, but I’ll keep my eyes on the progress at the tower.  San Francisco landmark, controversial neighbor, and engineering marvel, Sutro Tower never ceases to amaze me.

(And to those who don’t live in San Francisco and have no idea what I’m talking about: Well, now you have one more reason to visit.  )

¹ Pun intended.