new project: small home recording console

[Brian Roth]

Most....but not ALL... pro manufacturers lay out the silkscreen so we can find "R4324" somewhere.

Random pic taken from a Neve Capricorn card used in the desk. Good silkscreening:

It gets very insane with new designs which use components small than a speck of dirt! lol

Bri

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

It makes sense to label component locations on PCB’s for building and also for later servicing. I find it frustrating to have to refer to board component layout diagrams rather than seeing the components labeled on the board - 3 things to have to look at when tracing circuit flow and invariably the component layout diags look nothing like the actual board.

 

[Brian Roth]

Peeking at "new" dense boards inside the latest equipment....

Silkcreening isn't possible with the 1000000 components <g> each much smaller than the size of of a mouse turd on a PC board the size of a postage stamp.

Yeah...I'm exaggerating....but.....if it dies....into the landfill

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

If it’s that small it’s definitely not worth the time - like phones and Apple Watches - they die, they fly

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Silkcreening isn't possible with the 1,000,000 components

>> Prior to the whole COVID-19 scenario, I was working at a large defense contractor facility as a "Senior PCB Designer" and in one of the engineering meetings there, it was being discussed how in one of the other engineering groups there that they were designing some new PCB's that had >> OVER 1,000,000 VIAS << on each board!!!

each much smaller than the size of of a mouse turd on a PC board the size of a postage stamp.

>> In one of my recent comment postings in some thread on this forum somewhere, I made mention of designing a PCB for a Dept. of Homeland Security project that was only -- 1.25" square / required 4-mil tracks & spaces / had over 205 "0201-size" (20-mil long X 10-mil wide) capacitors & resistors (which were called "Gnat-****") / and required the use of 8-layers on an 0.032" thick laminate -- in order to fit within the enclosure that was designed for this covert device!!! If I remember correctly.....I think the vias that I used only had a 20-mil pad with an 8-mil drill!!!

At some other military-related company I had worked at that designed "RF" devices and products for "UNKNOWN" U.S. Government agencies (YES!!! They actually do exist!!!), we designed PCB's where we would place "0603" (60-mil long X 30-mil wide) components inside the barrels of "Non-Plated Thru" vias!!! This means that these parts were going THROUGH the PCB from the TOP-SIDE of the board to the BOTTOM-SIDE of the board!!! During assembly, the end-caps of these parts were simply soldered to the via-pads on both sides of the PCB!!! >> WEIRD STUFF!!! <<

/

 

[RoadrunnerOZ]

Sure cuts down on real estate. Dealing with a lot of SMD stuff these days I’ve found that a lot of the newer service procedures as laid out in service manuals is to replace a board rather than component level service. Less and less techs are doing on-board service, just board swapping. When a replacement board in a synthesiser costs $600 (plus of course removal, fitting and maybe flashing the firmware) and the cost to repair same board is less than $150 it has made for quite a lot of work for me (including warranty work for brands like Moog, Korg, Yamaha, Kurzweil, RME, Acces, Avid, MXL and so on).