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Showing posts from November, 2021

Tips for JLCPCB for PCB manufacturing and SMT assembly

JLCPCB is an offshore (Chinese) low cost quick turn PCB manufacturer that can also perform PCB assembly (SMT components only). I've had a half dozen or so boards built by them so far and their SMT assembly service has saved me countless hours of populating SMT passives (resistors, capacitors, inductors) under the microscope. Here are some things I've learned while using jlcpcb that will likely save you a TON of time and effort. #1. JLCPCB's parts library is NOT the same as LCSC's JLCPCB (PCB fab + assembly) is related or owned by the same company that owns LCSC (parts supplier, think DigiKey, Mouser, Arrow) BUT JLCPCB's parts library is only a relatively small subset of LCSC parts . You'll want to search JLCPCB's parts catalog for parts, these are the only ones that JLCPCB can populate on your PCBs. Don't do what I've done and put together a BOM for a PCB using LCSC parts and then find out that 90% of these parts aren't availa...

Is Windows 11 Microsoft's way of asking people to consider OSX and Linux?

If you've been keeping up on tech news you've likely seen the positive stories reassuring you about the upgrade to Windows 11: Windows 11: Just say no | Computerworld No, you don't have to upgrade from Windows 10 to ... - CNET WHY did I get my hopes up? - Windows 11 Announcement There are a number of unpallatable things being pushed in Windows 11 ( specs ): "You need a Microsoft account" - what? why do I need this? any privacy concerns? "Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0" - again, why is this necessary? Windows 10 works fine without it... Shifting CPU requirements - A month ago the Windows 11 compatibility tool said you needed a pretty new CPU (for no technical reason anyone can figure out), now it looks like a wider range of processors are supported. This is a remaining area of confusion. Not excited about Windows 11? There are some options: Switch to OSX (via Apple) or Linux Remain on Windows...