[sdiy] DIP LM13700 discontinuation

Mon May 24 15:07:40 CEST 2021

OK, here it goes:
1. sharp tweezers. If they are not sharp, sharpen them with a file
2. soldering iron of any kind, you have that already
3. flux gel in 10cc syringe
4. 10 mils (0.25mm) solder wire
5. if you don't have young good eyes, use some sort of optical aid, like 
double lenses on your glasses, or watchmaker magnifier. Some may 
recommend table lamp with big magnifier glass, but I get dizzy when 
looking through this - check it in the store if you can
6. obviously some sort of desk light if that's not covered in step 5.
7. power supply of any kind, maybe salvaged from old radio or whatever, 
modified by you with insertion of LM317 and potentiometer
8. cheap multimeter from supermarket if you don't want to spend more 
than $5 on multimeter
9. solder wick, they can be found for $0.25
10. a bottle of IPA or any >90% alcohol, a brush and paper towels to 
wipe excess of flux gel from step 3
11. scraps of copperclad to make PCBs. I don't assume you'll want to pay 
$10 shipping for $2 PCB made in China and wait 4 weeks if you can make 
PCBs at home. Maybe not that pretty but new one every day. Yes, I did 
make SOIC footprints directly on copperclad manually.
11a. all stuff for making PCBs - water resistive pen, ferric chloride, 
plastic tray. And here's the fun part - no need to drill anything as 
it's all SMD! At least for starters.
12. if you have an access to laser printer, then install free PCB design 
software and use thermal transfer method for making PCBs instead of 
water resistive pen from step 11a. And yes, SOIC or SOT23 are easily 
doable with either thermal transfer or manual pen writing.
13. Kynar wire for making bridges where traces don't fit.

You can buy most of it if not all at Aliexpress cheap, I wasn't that 
lucky when I started. Good addition would be an oscilloscope, but that 
topic was covered here inside out many times before.

And that's basicaly it, doesn't differ much from regular diy electronic 
minimalistic lab, just few things determined by SMD.

I could tell a story how electronics was like behind iron courtain. But 
that was old times. Even I cannot believe my own memories sometimes.

Roman

W dniu 2021-05-24 o 13:59, Benjamin Tremblay pisze:
> Hey, please steer me in the right direction for a minimalist inexpensive smt workflow I can get started with. I love nonlinear circuits modules but afraid to build them. I had a dream a golden retriever was trying to talk to me, maybe that’s what it was trying to tell me.
> Thanks,
> Ben
> 
> Benjamin Tremblay
> 
>> On May 24, 2021, at 5:26 AM, Roman Sowa <modular at go2.pl> wrote:
>>
>> Steve has already commented it so nicely, I just want to add a little.
>>
>> First of all it's good you want to do anything with electronics at all and not spend all day wiggling a phone. If it's SMD or DIP is not a showstopper IMHO, all doable at home. There are also salvaged parts, you can make huge stock of parts by disassembling old disposed equipment. As a free bonus your soldering skills will improve.
>> About your fat chisel tip - don't assume SMD needs thin tips. Most of the time I use 2mm wide chisel for SMD, sometimes 5mm wide.
>>
>> This is a good way of distraction from survival between paychecks, keep it up. It's fun with lots of specialized tools and materials, but it's even bigger fun with improvised minimal setup.
>>
>> Roman
>>
>> W dniu 2021-05-22 o 15:07, Benjamin Tremblay via Synth-diy pisze:
>>> I can accept that things are changing. But, the loss of through-hole larger components is a loss for me. I can adjust, but it is a loss.
>>> I don’t have much money for electronics. My purchases come in drips. $15 or $8 here and there. I’m using a fat chisel tip on my soldering iron because I don’t have budget for a new set of tips. I’m low on solder.
>>> I’m not going to have capital for tools and pcb fabrication. I never will. I use what I can get, and that’s how I will carry on. I do happen to have a cheap soldering microscope, but no nifty tools to make smt convenient. I was able to tack a ram chip onto my Teensy the stupid way and I know every time I do it that way I roll the dice to see how many times I have to do-over until all the pins are properly connected.
>>> Electronics will never be about gear or toys or well-stocked shelves above my tidy workbench. It’s how I distract myself while doing the calculus of survival between paychecks.
>>> Benjamin Tremblay
>>>>> On May 22, 2021, at 8:50 AM, Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 
>>>> In my opinion, trustworthiness of the source, primarily.
>>>>
>>>> On eBay, you’re buying a chip. It might have the right number of legs. It might be marked with the right writing. It might even be the right chip. But that’s definitely not always the case.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On 22 May 2021, at 11:22, ShedSynth via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> What are the practical differences between the TI/CoolAudio LM13700 and eBay
>>>>> items like these which still appear to have stock?
>>>>> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162776473998
>>>>> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172160273446
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Al
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> On Behalf Of
>>>>> mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca
>>>>> Sent: 19 May 2021 13:07
>>>>> To: synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>>>> Subject: [sdiy] DIP LM13700 discontinuation
>>>>>
>>>>> It seems Texas Instruments is discontinuing the LM13700N - that is the DIP
>>>>> version of the part.  Mouser lists it as "End of Life" and links to this
>>>>> discontinuation notice dated May 12, 2021, with the last order date May 12,
>>>>> 2022:
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.mouser.com/PCN/Texas_Instruments_PCN20210505000_2021051212340278
>>>>> .pdf
>>>>>
>>>>> I haven't been able to find this notice on the TI Web site, which still
>>>>> shows the product's status as "active," including the DIP version.
>>>>>
>>>>> CoolAudio makes a 13700 clone and their data sheet describes both DIP and
>>>>> SOIC versions, but the DIP seems to be a unicorn.  CoolAudio doesn't sell it
>>>>> on their Web site, neither do any distributors, and a Web search for the
>>>>> purported part number of V13700D only turns up the data sheet.  I don't
>>>>> believe it really exists in any way accessible to hobbyists.  Maybe they'd
>>>>> make it for you if you ordered a million units.
>>>>>
>>>>> A Chinese manufacturer called "XinLuDa" offers a DIP dual operational
>>>>> transconductance amplifier called the XD13700, available through LCSC, which
>>>>> seems to be a clone; I don't know how faithful it is or isn't.  They do note
>>>>> in their data sheet that there are differences in the buffer units between
>>>>> the XD13700 and XL13700 (which is their own surface-mount version of a
>>>>> similar part).  Interestingly, they claim that the DIP version is better -
>>>>> in which case why make them different at all?
>>>>>
>>>>> Alfa offers a 3280 clone (data sheet says both DIP and SOIC, but the Web
>>>>> site only lists the SOIC); and something called the AS13704, which is a
>>>>> 13700-like OTA in a quad instead of dual configuration, and only in SOIC.
>>>>> Neither can directly replace a DIP 13700.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think the 13700 may be a bellwether for through-hole packages in general.
>>>>> As basically the last OTA to be available in a through-hole version from a
>>>>> major manufacturer, it has a big share of the market for through-hole analog
>>>>> electronics.  If it makes sense to discontinue this product, that means the
>>>>> market in question is now too small to be worth serving anymore, and that
>>>>> assessment will be applied to other products too.  Memento mori.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Matthew Skala
>>>>> mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                 People before tribes.
>>>>> https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
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