design spark

[charliex]

RS components raised farnell it seems.

http://www.designspark.com/

[mikeselectricstuff]

Wish they'd spend the money making their website work properly instead of this.... parametric search has been the biggest joke in the industry for years.

[David]

Wish they'd spend the money making their website work properly instead of this.... parametric search has been the biggest joke in the industry for years.

Agreed, although the new component browser does seem to do a lot better job! While were on the subject, has everyone noticed these live "advisors" pestering you recently on supplier websites? I thought I'd give a couple a go when I couldn't find what I was looking for....their not much help!

[mikeselectricstuff]

Yeah, had those as well - immediately complained via the web contact form...
RS also seem to have got into doing those utterly pointless tick-box surveys recently.
If they want to ask me what they are doing wrong, I'm quite happy to tell them, but I won't waste time on these stupid marketing questionnaires. I've long ago abandoned RS except for stuff Farnell don't do & haven't seen anything to change my mind.
 

[RayJones]

Thinking of downloading the designspark PCB software.....

[TheDirty]

It's activateware.  Unfortunately I activated the copy on my laptop first and if you want to activate more than one copy you need to actually e-mail them, but don't e-mail them at the address they give in the activation URL or you will get absolutely no response, you need to e-mail them at the address in the quick start page.  I haven't activated my desktop copy yet, but I'm not in any rush now.  It's just become annoyware for me.

[Zero999]

Could someone please post the license agreement or at least a link to it? I couldn't find it on the website and resent downloading a 71.5MB file just so I can view it.

Basically, I don't want to use this software if it's packed with DRM because there's a risk I could design something with it and not be able to access it later. Activateware? Sounds ominous, does dial home to check you have a valid license before letting you use it? If so, there's no way I'd even consider using it.

[TheDirty]

You need to sign up for an account on the DesignSpark website.  You then register the software serial number and it sends an activation code in an e-mail.

It's not that bad, but I'm sure it will be a deal breaker for a lot of people.  Especially with the inability to register more than one copy without jumping through hoops.  I haven't seen the EULA, but I'm not actually serious about using it, I just wanted to test it out.

[EEVblog]

Watch this turn into a free PCB software war between Farnell and RS. I wouldn't be surprised is RS bought out Number One Systems who wrote the PCB software, just like Farnell did with Eagle.
Only good can come from this battle I think!

Dave.

[Rhythmtech]

I don't know if I am too keen on the - give us your address and a photo of your face to get a free USB stick. Seems a little invasive... Ahh hell I can't help myself, I want the USB stick. I'll just givem the work address and a face...

[TheDirty]

I played with it a bit this morning.  I'm a fairly open minded person when it comes to user interface, I understand that every program has quirks, but I'm not feeling this DesignSpark PCB UI.

Just working with the schematic the symbols are not crisply drawn and small text mashes into itself to become unreadable before it's time.  Dragging around a symbol brings me back to early Windows 3.1, the symbol will flash as you move it around as it's visibly redrawn about 8 to 12 frames a second.  The symbols don't seem to be on any grid and the net connections will not snap to a pin.  My two symbols are off slightly to each other, so my net connection has to make a tiny little jog to attach.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Watch this turn into a free PCB software war between Farnell and RS. I wouldn't be surprised is RS bought out Number One Systems who wrote the PCB software, just like Farnell did with Eagle.
Only good can come from this battle I think!

Dave.

Not sure I completely agree - If the PCB software is an 'aside' to a marketing function then it is vulnerable to becoming abandonware next time the suited tossers in Marketing change their minds. The licensing thing suggests they haven't bought them out but are paying a per-license fee to the original supplier.
I doubt they stand a cat in hell's change of unseating the installed Eagle user base, but I suppose a bit of competition may not hurt in terms of keeping Eagle on their toes with features etc. 

[charliex]

One of the claimed features is it can link the BOM to the RS catalogue, though i haven't tried it yet.

[David]

One of the claimed features is it can link the BOM to the RS catalogue, though i haven't tried it yet.

That could be useful. I seem to remember somewhere that Farnell were going to do a similar thing with Eagle? With so many user generated libraries this could be messy. I would like Eagle even more if Farnell created libraries for all (well most popular...) their parts!

[EEVblog]

One of the claimed features is it can link the BOM to the RS catalogue, though i haven't tried it yet.

That could be useful. I seem to remember somewhere that Farnell were going to do a similar thing with Eagle? With so many user generated libraries this could be messy. I would like Eagle even more if Farnell created libraries for all (well most popular...) their parts!

I got an email alert the other day that said the latest version now has this.
That was Farnell's intention all along.
Supplier integration is the latest hot thing in EDA.

Dave.

[mikeselectricstuff]

One of the claimed features is it can link the BOM to the RS catalogue, though i haven't tried it yet.

That could be useful. I seem to remember somewhere that Farnell were going to do a similar thing with Eagle? With so many user generated libraries this could be messy. I would like Eagle even more if Farnell created libraries for all (well most popular...) their parts!

I got an email alert the other day that said the latest version now has this.
That was Farnell's intention all along.
Supplier integration is the latest hot thing in EDA.

Dave.

I really can't see this being very useful in practice. What are the chances of any nontrivial design having all parts available from one supplier, all being in stock, not going obsolete etc. The idea that integrating supplier info at the PCB stage is going to save people time/effort, and hoping that it will help get more business just doesn't seem realistic to me. Another pointless gimmick thought up by the Marketing Droids.
What are the chances of them successfully implementing something useful like this in the BOM :
C1,2,3 : Cheapest 100nf 16V 0805 capacitor in stock, on a reel
Q2 : SO-8 N-channel MOSFET with RDSon<0.1 ohm from a manufacturer with <8 week typical leadtimes
   
..especially considering the laughable state of RS and Farnell's parametric data...

Does anyone honestly think it's remotely viable to create libraries for anything approaching a reasonable selection of their available parts when they can't even tell the difference between 5V , 5.0V and 5VDC?

'scuse my cynicism but I really can't see the point, as it's just not practical to do it well enough to be useful.

[mkissin]

With the possible exception of the really generic passives, Altium Designer does a really good job of the supplier data links. Like everything else, there's a learning curve associated with getting it working to your best advantage, but I couldn't live without it now. In AD, you link to specific parts, so the software isn't trundling off looking for a 50V 100nF ceramic capacitor; rather it's looking at specific Digikey and Farnell part numbers that you've specified.

Proper parts substitution requires a fully trained EE, and often one who knows the circuit in question. It's not something that a piece of software could do without enough supervision that you might as well do it yourself anyway.

Of course, I don't use Eagle, so their specific implementation might be terrible. I'm also not really keen on it only being linked to Farnell, but it's a good start.

[armandas]

Watch this turn into a free PCB software war between Farnell and RS. I wouldn't be surprised is RS bought out Number One Systems who wrote the PCB software, just like Farnell did with Eagle.
Only good can come from this battle I think!

Dave.

Easy-PC looks and feels much better than DesignSpark PBC. Also, the files are not compatible (most probably to avoid competition). That being said, I don't think RS bought NOS, more likely "hired" or licensed some of their IP.

[charliex]

I add to the attributes field in eagle, mouser/digikey/etc tags with the part number then use a modified BOM script to build something to load into digikey/mouser etc. I can't imagine i'd use a parametric search that doesn't work, i'd just use one that does and go back with the OEM part number.

Hopefully though with RS doing this, they'll get good feedback and improve it.