What are your electronics related quirks?

[BreakingOhmsLaw]

I will start:

- when i start a repair, i look for the manufacturing date or the youngest date code. I then order Alexa to "play music from <insert year>". Of course this greatly increases the repair success rate. It sets you in the same state of mind of whomever designed and assembled it, you see? What are you going to do, listen to Skrillex while repairing an HP5248? Stop it! You are scaring the nixie tubes!

- i keep the solder sponge wet at all times, even when i know I'm leaving for a business trip or holiday. It's gotta be wet.

- I am terrible at remembering numbers. So when i print a schematic, i add names to all active devices. Sometimes this causes involuntary humour: Nancy crowbars Bob if he tresspasses.

- i have a lifetime supply of leaded solder wire. Just in case it ever goes out of production.

What are yours? Fess up!

[ChristofferB]

I pilfer previous projects for parts for new projects, leaving me with very few completed projects. The second they're done they're in risk of being recycled.

This is why I don't use IC sockets. it's too easy just to borrow that cool chip. "I'll get a new one I swear it's just for a quick test" ..yeah right.. I should start potting my projects once they're done to ensure their survival.

[twospoons]

Hoarding.

[rsjsouza]

I find extremely relaxing to desolder old boards scavenging for parts. I always tell myself to stop desoldering through hole general purpose diodes, transistors and resistoes, but I end up cleaning up the board entirely.

Things from ancient times when parts were expensive and some very hard to find. It stuck with me over all these years.

[NiHaoMike]

I memorized the color patterns of many common resistor values since middle school, didn't think too much about it until college when someone asked me how I was so fast identifying the resistors. But now I have started to see more and more SMD resistors with really cryptic markings like "68X", I wonder if there's a trick to remembering them...

When I buy cheap parts, I often buy way more than I need because the overall cost doesn't go up by much. I have a box containing hundreds of connectors, leftovers from 100 count bags minus the few that I have used so far...

I find extremely relaxing to desolder old boards scavenging for parts. I always tell myself to stop desoldering through hole general purpose diodes, transistors and resistoes, but I end up cleaning up the board entirely.

Things from ancient times when parts were expensive and some very hard to find. It stuck with me over all these years.

I sometimes do that as well with single sided boards, since often the parts can be removed using pliers by pushing the leads, perfect to do when casually watching videos. Double sided boards generally need actual desoldering, in which case I usually get just the big, valuable stuff.

[rdl]

I have one particular pet peeve concerning electronics design. When rocker switches or toggle switches are used for an on/off function, they should operate up/down, not side to side. Up is on, down is off. A product which gets this wrong, I probably will not buy no matter how good it is otherwise.

[eblc1388]

Mine is to make a 3-position center off toggle switch to select/do three things, like light up three LEDs, selecting three ranges or providing three different voltage gains.

The fun is to have the middle switch position wired up to give the selection of the middle of the ranges.

[dave_k]

But now I have started to see more and more SMD resistors with really cryptic markings like "68X", I wonder if there's a trick to remembering them...

They're not cryptic once you've searched for "EIA-96 SMD Code" ..

[jfiresto]

I pilfer previous projects for parts for new projects, leaving me with very few completed projects. The second they're done they're in risk of being recycled.

This is why I don't use IC sockets. it's too easy just to borrow that cool chip....

Some people order ICs by the rail, so that they can "pilfer" the stockroom rather than completed projects. I sometimes buy from a distributor who encourages that: they might charge 1,43 euros for quantity one, and 0,214 euros each if you buy 25.

[fcb]

Before I start a project or pick-up an existing, I have to completely clear and clean the development bench - can't have two projects on the same bench at the same time.  I don't consider myself OCD.

[Syntax Error]

My father never threw any electronic part away because one day it might come in usefull. He was right.

[Berni]

One of mine is printing out service manual schematics when fixing things.

Im still young enough to be considered a millennial so i don't really like using paper. I even sketch ideas in vector using CorelDraw, i only really print things out when i have to for some reason. But when fixing old testgear i will print out the relevant schematics on paper and keep them near by while probing around. Its also useful to be able to scribble on the schematics about the measurements i made.

I also like to keep taking photos all trough the repair process to document it. Sometimes it might become a thread about the repair on here, other times its just for my own reference in case i forget how to put it back together.

And yes no parts get thrown out, sure most of them may never end up getting used but the ones that do get used can be a lifesaver. It helps get the job done in minutes rather than waiting days for ordered parts to get here.

[Muttley Snickers]

I have been keeping the screws and other fixings from donor equipment for decades and now have ice cream containers full of various screws. I also keep all of the little nuts, bolts, washers and spacers in separate containers to make them easier to find. When working on a project I can easily spend an hour or more sorting through two litre containers of screws until I find ones that are all exactly the same.          

[RoGeorge]

Need one of this?



 

[schmitt trigger]

On my board designs, I always align the ICs with pin 1 facing north (upwards in the computer screen).

Text is always read left to right, when the board is also aligned that way, and for those components which have to be rotated 90 degrees, text is aligned top to bottom.

[jogri]

Almost none of my projects are 100% complete, they always get stuck at 95%: I can't be bothered to put it into a case (makes troubleshooting/tweaking easier) or to replace that last potentiometer/resistor/etc. that causes only a minor annoyance. If it can handle normal problems i consider it working, if the last glitch annoys me too much it will get fixed when i need enough special parts to justify an order from Mouser.

[IDEngineer]

I hear my own echoes in many comments in this thread!

I too buy larger quantities of components unless they're ridiculously expensive. Even then, I buy a bit more than I need because if something goes wrong the additional shipping (and lost time) will drive me crazy.

I'm not too fastideous about keeping my soldering table clean, but within my projects.... I try to curve flying leads smoothly (rather than kinking or bending them). I create mechanically strong connections and only THEN solder them (so I don't rely on the solder for mechanical strength). That sort of thing. I've taught my now 18YO son (EE candidate at CalPoly) to build this way and his projects are like works of art. He actually gets compliments from strangers when they see his projects (such as his racing drones) and often gets offers to buy them - which he does accept occasionally!

I install dedicated RF connector covers (N, BNC, etc.) on all T&M equipment on the bench, and keep them there unless the unit is actively being used.

I'm sure there are others....

[nctnico]

I'm obsesive over PCB footprints. They have to match the outline of the component perfectly. Including what may stick out (like an SD card). Last year I upgraded to a CAD package which also supports 3D models. Oh boy... Now every footprint must have a 3D model! I found a whole bunch of websites which hosts electronic component 3D models and I even venture into Freecad to do stitching of models.

BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done.

[pardo-bsso]

- Hoarding (but lately I gave away for free lots of stuff)
- Aligning pin number 1, tolerance bands (for thru hole components) or denominator designator across the same axis
- Making test points easily accessible
- Ditto for connectors. To this day I hate one of my firsts projects that in order to remove a couple of wire harnesses I had to get the pcb out as there was no space inside the container to detach some pluggable terminal blocks (if I placed them about 1/4 inch closer they would be ok).
- Having more projects than bench space.

[rsjsouza]

BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done.

I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me.

[Berni]

BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done.

I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me.

I think he means more the thing im guilty of where a project that is indefinitely on hold end up sitting on the bench for months at a time or some parts from that project end up laying there, just shoved to the side. I keep moving things over to make room to work on stuff in the middle of the bench until there is so much clutter all around that there is no room to put down stuff so i go at it and mostly clear the whole bench. Slowly entropy again does its thing and stuff accumulates again over the time of months. Its not really the way to do it.

At work we tend to clean up the bench on Fridays. It doesn't happen every Friday, sometimes one person says screw it and everyone else takes it as an excuse to also not clean up the workbenches. It does keep the bench from reaching critical mass like mine at home. But at the same time the lack of organization in storage also means occasionally things get lost in the wrong cardboard box.

[fcb]

BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done.

I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me.

In my experience, the EE's with messy benches with multiple projects and stuff piled up have (in general) been 'less efficient' overall, not saying better/worse engineers, but more likely to be late with a project.

For me, clearing a bench before switching to a different project helps in the following ways:
1. The bench won't get cleared until the project is finished or at a stage where it can be put down for a period of time - it forces me to tidy up loose ends, finish those final-tweaks and ensure that documentation is up-to-date.
2. Gives me downtime to think about the project/stage i've just done - invariably I'll think of something that can be improved, cost-reduced or perhaps something that needs documentating better (sometimes this results in halting the clear-up and diving back in).
3. Breakdown test gear setups, put test leads away - basically touch everything (repair any broken bits, clean grime off test leads etc).
4. Towards the end of clearing a bench I find myself thinking about the next project and planning my approach to it.

The mental act of queuing projects also combats my in-built tendancy to start & not finish a project.

Things ALWAYS take longer than you expect - why take even longer working with less bench space and more clutter to distract/delay you?

[nctnico]

BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done.

I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me.

I think he means more the thing im guilty of where a project that is indefinitely on hold end up sitting on the bench for months at a time or some parts from that project end up laying there, just shoved to the side. I keep moving things over to make room to work on stuff in the middle of the bench until there is so much clutter all around that there is no room to put down stuff so i go at it and mostly clear the whole bench. Slowly entropy again does its thing and stuff accumulates again over the time of months. Its not really the way to do it.

Indeed. And going back & forth between various projects isn't very productive. I ended up in such a job at some point and quit. Because of all the distractions and fixing problems in other people's circuits it got to the point where none of my work was at a quality level I was satisfied with.

[Berni]

I don't mind helping other people with there cirucits since its usually a quick enough fix.

As it is with most things, i think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. Yes work becomes a problem when there are multiple layers of crap all over the bench, but also keeping the bench surgically clean at all times is also not that great. The extra time to continuously put things away and back again doesn't really get compensated by enough extra productivity. Its fine to leave some stuff around on the bench as long as its something that gets used. For example i often leave common tools around on the bench, probes and cables stay plugged into test gear...etc. Tho for equipment repair a clean bench is very helpful since you want plenty of space for big gear and you don't want to loose any important tiny parts among the junk. But for just tinkering with circuits its hard to keep things clean all that long.


But i guess on the topic of messy workbenches, still not many can compete against good ol Jim:

[tautech]

Terribly guilty of over studying PCB layout and design of PCB's that cross the bench and yet to find one that couldn't be improved on....especially with repairs in mind !