The long-available repair pens have always worked just fine on the many flexible things I've used them on... Repair or new construction, even repeated flexing. *PERHAPS* it is more durable or something but the article doesn't say... This is ridiculous! Who allows this kind of crap to make it onto/. ??! Oh, for the good ol' days...
The long-available repair pens have always worked just fine on the many flexible things I've used them on... Repair or new construction, even repeated flexing. *PERHAPS* it is more durable or something but the article doesn't say... This is ridiculous! Who allows this kind of crap to make it onto/. ??! Oh, for the good ol' days...
Yes, a regular Sharpie will work fine when it still makes a nice, solid line but for fine work or for filling large areas for high current you'll end up with holes if you aren't very careful. (Although if you're not careful you'll get holes even with a "real" resist pen.) The cheap, Radio Shack level prototyping kits just come with a sharpie.
Even if this is the first ballpoint or rollerball, these pens (some with very fine tips) have been around at least as long as when I first started using one about 25 years ago!
It really depends on the type of circuit you are building. Some things don't need very low resistance (ie. simple digital), others it's critical and won't work well.
Prototyping wouldn't normally be done using using conductive pens. The hand drawn stuff was usually a resist pen on the actual copper-clad board, then etched.
I won't hire anyone who puts things like "certifications" on their resume. I want to know what you REALLY know and what you've REALLY done. If the shop you're thinking of working for is actually looking for certification, you probably don't want to work there. (Or conversely, perhaps you're not the kind of employee our kind of shop is looking for.:) )
No matter how well tested and bug-free these types of systems are SUPPOSED to be, a basic design principle of any system should always be to have built in safety checks for things like conflicting input values that make no sense. Even though it SHOULD never happen, the computer should watch for invalid information (like not opening the throttle past a certain point if the brakes are applied) just in case something fails. If the input values make no sense, always default to the safest case. While a throttle cable breaking could potentially cause an accident if the car returns to idle or doesn't move from a stop, drivers shouldn't be ending up in a situation where that is a problem. If is designed so that if the cable breaks the throttle spring defaults to wide open throttle, this would be an obvious design error. Why they have not managed to build this system correctly eludes me. It can't possibly be designed correctly for this application if these types of faults can even be possible.
The equation editor in WordPerfect (any version since way back about 5.1 for DOS) lets you enter equations as nice simple text and does a remarkable job of formatting them correctly for you (I used to use it ALL the time), but it probably isn't "fast" enough to enter them on-the-fly like you want.... Probably best to enter them graphically into your favorite program (perhaps with a stylus in this case) and then clean them up later if you like. I've seen several programs over the years that let you use a regular laptop touchpad as a small tablet, but can't recall any specific names off the top of my head. Used to even be built into some of the early touchpad drivers... I'm sure google would be your friend on that one...
Couldn't you have just mounted the chips from the bottom of the board? Sure, you'd have to solder from the "top" of the pins, but it would be easier (or at least less likely to break pins) than bending them all over, wouldn't it? Of course, new chips can handle having the pins bent a couple times. Old desoldered chips thar are already mashed are another story....
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The long-available repair pens have always worked just fine on the many flexible things I've used them on... Repair or new construction, even repeated flexing. *PERHAPS* it is more durable or something but the article doesn't say... This is ridiculous! Who allows this kind of crap to make it onto /. ??! Oh, for the good ol' days...
The long-available repair pens have always worked just fine on the many flexible things I've used them on... Repair or new construction, even repeated flexing. *PERHAPS* it is more durable or something but the article doesn't say... This is ridiculous! Who allows this kind of crap to make it onto /. ??! Oh, for the good ol' days...
Yes, a regular Sharpie will work fine when it still makes a nice, solid line but for fine work or for filling large areas for high current you'll end up with holes if you aren't very careful. (Although if you're not careful you'll get holes even with a "real" resist pen.) The cheap, Radio Shack level prototyping kits just come with a sharpie.
Yes, a resist pen is basically just a high quality, high-density ink Sharpie
Who's moderating these things? :)
Even if this is the first ballpoint or rollerball, these pens (some with very fine tips) have been around at least as long as when I first started using one about 25 years ago!
Exactly... There have been very fine point, silver conductive pens available for ages...
It really depends on the type of circuit you are building. Some things don't need very low resistance (ie. simple digital), others it's critical and won't work well.
Prototyping wouldn't normally be done using using conductive pens. The hand drawn stuff was usually a resist pen on the actual copper-clad board, then etched.
Pencil... Yes, that's how you scribble a resistor... Real lead pencils work even better.
This is not really new stuff... Silver pens for "circuit repair" have been available for ages... They made a ballpoint version.
I won't hire anyone who puts things like "certifications" on their resume. I want to know what you REALLY know and what you've REALLY done. If the shop you're thinking of working for is actually looking for certification, you probably don't want to work there. (Or conversely, perhaps you're not the kind of employee our kind of shop is looking for. :) )
No matter how well tested and bug-free these types of systems are SUPPOSED to be, a basic design principle of any system should always be to have built in safety checks for things like conflicting input values that make no sense. Even though it SHOULD never happen, the computer should watch for invalid information (like not opening the throttle past a certain point if the brakes are applied) just in case something fails. If the input values make no sense, always default to the safest case. While a throttle cable breaking could potentially cause an accident if the car returns to idle or doesn't move from a stop, drivers shouldn't be ending up in a situation where that is a problem. If is designed so that if the cable breaks the throttle spring defaults to wide open throttle, this would be an obvious design error. Why they have not managed to build this system correctly eludes me. It can't possibly be designed correctly for this application if these types of faults can even be possible.
The equation editor in WordPerfect (any version since way back about 5.1 for DOS) lets you enter equations as nice simple text and does a remarkable job of formatting them correctly for you (I used to use it ALL the time), but it probably isn't "fast" enough to enter them on-the-fly like you want.... Probably best to enter them graphically into your favorite program (perhaps with a stylus in this case) and then clean them up later if you like. I've seen several programs over the years that let you use a regular laptop touchpad as a small tablet, but can't recall any specific names off the top of my head. Used to even be built into some of the early touchpad drivers... I'm sure google would be your friend on that one...
Couldn't you have just mounted the chips from the bottom of the board? Sure, you'd have to solder from the "top" of the pins, but it would be easier (or at least less likely to break pins) than bending them all over, wouldn't it? Of course, new chips can handle having the pins bent a couple times. Old desoldered chips thar are already mashed are another story....