[sdiy] My SMT projects

[harry]

Tony Clark wrote:  <snip>

>    As you might see, I have a tendency to over-engineer things.  :)
>

Hmmm.... what IS Tony saying.  Over-engineer ?

For those less storied builders on the list... what Tony is suggesting is
actually
good engineering practice.  Most people recognize the value of good
decoupling...
this is better than most.

An engineer seeks to make a product that performs within a given set of
specifications... should we tighten the noose on Tony (sorry dude - figure of
speech)
he might respond differently. If we demanded a very low cost.... or a very
small package... it might be worth seeing if the parts could be deleted
without too much
effect on the performance...   In Tony's case... I don't think he gonna do a
big production run (but save one for me if you do...)... so the cost is
probably NOT an object. Likewise the space is his choice.  Leaving those
electrolytic caps out of a "wristwatch-synth" would be a good idea  ;^P

The moral of the story (didn't know you were a philosopher eh Tony ?) is that
is is
far easier to add components that you think will ensure good performance...
and
delete them later... than to try to add them as an afterthought (especially in
SMT).

My latest project has 200 .1uF decoupling caps.  Think I'm gonna go back and
see
how many I can remove before it starts to stop working. NOT!

<accountant mode on>

Unless you all want to buy a whole lot of them....  /amo

OTOH.... some circuits (few imho) have gotten their 'quirky original sound' by
design
flaws... leaving out too many components and allowing interaction through the
power supply etc...

But honest... how many of you really LIKE the fact that you LFO LED indicators

make your VCF go gaga at high resonance ???

Over-engineering is always a GOOD thing from an engineering point of view...
and (double-plus) the accountants will HATE you   ;^P

H^) harry

>