[sdiy] Humans are not Becoming Smaller (was: SMD comming your way)

[R. D. Davis]

Quothe Scott Gravenhorst, from writings of Mon, May 30, 2005 at
10:33:34AM -0700:
> I'm a very bad boy.  I don't use much for ESD other than the way I
> touch things.  No wrist straps, grounding pads, nothing.  I've not had
> problems, ever.  Just me, YMMV.

Nor do I.  I just make sure that I touch something grounded if the
weather's cold and dry and my hair - ok, what's left of it up there,
feels like it's standing up straight from static electricity.  Yes, I
know that I may still be damaging some components, that may not fail
right away, but thus far, the digital toys I've built, which have used
CMOS chips, for example, over two decades ago, still work.

Getting back to those tiny surface mount components, one other thing
that people might want to consider about them, that I haven't seen
mentioned yet: so many of them lack any sort of identification,
particularly capacitors and resistors.  Interestingly, I don't recall
having seen a surface-mount transistor.  Anyway, troubleshooting a
circuit with unmarked components is not fun... and when one doesn't
have a schematic, what's one supposed to do, guess until one finds the
right component that works... or solder a decade resistance or
capacitance box to the circuit?  The circuits are too tiny to
conveniently use test leads... mumble.

...and if one drops a few dozen of them on the floor, who wants to
sort through them if unmarked, or even if one has to use a magnifying
glass? 

-- 
Copyright (C) 2005 R.D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: an
All Rights Reserved            unnatural belief that we're above Nature & her
www.rddavis.org 410-744-4900    other creatures, using dogma to justify such
Help to save the wild horses!    beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.