[sdiy] "obsolete" 2N3906

[Scott Gravenhorst]

"Colin f" <colin at colinfraser.com> wrote:
>> I think it should be made very clear that surface mount audio 
>> electronics
>> CAN sound very good. It's up to the designer to compensate 
>> for the practical
>> variation in methods. But this would be true even of a simple 
>> board redesign
>> using identical parts, not just converting to surface mount. 
>> It's up to the
>> designer to use his or her ears and brain to get a good 
>> sounding product.
>
>I dread the day when thru-hole components are all gone, and I have to
>prototype a circuit by going straight to SMT.
>The ease with which you can experiment with a thru-hole circuit on
>stripboard is far greater than re-working an SMT board.
>Final tweaking of circuit values by ear would not be something surface
>mount lends itself to IMHO.
>Or does everybody else get their designs bang-on right from the
>schematic capture stage ?
>
>Colin f

I will second what you say about stripboard for solderless breadboard.
 I make calculations that get close, but there is often some
substitution and trimming before final values are decided.  SMD doesn't
lend itself to either stripboard or SBB unless you make a bunch of
clunky, unwieldy mini circuit boards with leads attached.  Also, I am
one who has never enjoyed or desired to make etched PCBs.  My stuff is
all one off, so stripboard serves me well.  Of course, I understand why
the industry is moving in the direction it is and I would not propose
to halt that, after all, if it weren't for SMD, things like computer
motherboards would not be as dirt cheap as they are today.  But this
does make things a tad more difficult for garage bench inventor types.
 Some of the things I read in this thread make me glad I never persued
an EE, especially the lack of hands on building of things.  So for me,
I will simply have to recognize the demise of this or that part, and if
it's something I use or think I will use in the future, I will go buy
what I need for my own lifetime.  As I said, I think this shift to SMD
does limit "electronics experimenting" to those who can work with SMD
on a PCB and requires the extra steps to etch a PCB for that purpose. 
SMD is obviously better for manufactured mass production, but I don't
believe that it is necessarily the best for getting the technology into
the hands of as many original idea generators as possible.   Who knows
what we may miss out on because of that.


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-- Scott Gravenhorst | LegoManiac / Lego Trains / RIS 1.5
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