Chips/parts you hate working with...

[george graves]

Name and shame them....What parts always end up biting you in the ass.....

Or...What parts have you worked with that ended up causing a problem/re-design/smoke/fire....

[bwat]

Name and shame them....What parts always end up biting you in the ass.....

I see, this is an intelligence test, one which those that admit to repeated application of duff parts fail.

[rob77]

there is none. all parts are just parts. i use only parts i like and which are available and suitable (hobby projects).
but what i really hate is the marketing bullshit on the first page of the datasheet - and that apply for the vast majority of the parts

[AndyC_772]

I see, this is an intelligence test, one which those that admit to repeated application of duff parts fail.

We don't always get the choice. I dislike using anything that comes in a QFN or similar package, because even when manufacturers swear they can handle them with no problems at all, I just know I'll end up looking for open circuits where they've not soldered properly. Not ideal when you're trying to find the *real* bugs on a first prototype.

[con-f-use]

I ordered vishay VLM#1300 smd LEDs. I swear to god, they are made out of candle wax and spit. No matter how careful I solder them, a few always fall apart or die a heat death.

[Artlav]

TQFP and like with 64 and more pins.
They are a pain to etch for and solder.

[deephaven]

Anything that I've designed in before reading the errata 

[Kjelt]

parts where the pins are so close together that even with a pro stainless steel SMD stencil the state/temperature/fluidity of the solderpaste matters if you have a lot of shorts between the legs or a perfect reflowed result.

[brabus]

Connectors with unclear mechanical and footprint dimensions on the datasheet.

Tremendous afternoons passed with connector, gauge, pencil & paper.

[Richard Head]

Any SMD part that doesn't have exposed pins. Can't measure anything, can't remove it (easily) and can't visually inspect the connections.

[calmtron]

Cheap chips from eBay with marginal stability (factory rejects / pirate copies / crap). I guess I'll never learn
Last time it was a MC34063 which I figured was to cheap to copy, but of course it ended up widlarized together with its cheap brethren.

[free_electron]

Anythng that looks like a glass balloon with bits of scrap metal in it...

[Refrigerator]

Parts that don't have datasheets of them.

[luky315]

I hate working with Infineon parts. I worked for them and it was a terrible experience. I was glad to get another Job. Using Infineon products brings back bad memorys.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Marvell and Qualcom parts, for their stance on datasheets and two-row QFN packages that need 3.5 mil t/t on outer layers to route.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Connectors with unclear mechanical and footprint dimensions on the datasheet.

Tremendous afternoons passed with connector, gauge, pencil & paper.

OMG yes! Hirose parts are terrible for this... I mean they specify the font and embossing depth of the manufacturer logo, but if you want the distance between rows of pins center-to-center, you need to print out the PDF at 12000DPI and look with a microscope.

Or they specify so many other dimensions, so that three people arrive at four different results...

argh.

[SirNick]

Yep.  Molex has that tendency too.  A hundred measurements all referencing each other so you have to break out graph paper and an abacus to get the one dimension you care about.

The other part (vendor) I hate is E-Switch.  They always have HAD exactly the switch I want.

[n45048]

AMD Processors... they are packed full of the magic smoke.

[Corporate666]

Yep.  Molex has that tendency too.  A hundred measurements all referencing each other so you have to break out graph paper and an abacus to get the one dimension you care about.

The other part (vendor) I hate is E-Switch.  They always have HAD exactly the switch I want.

I hate that also.

Datasheet space is free... so why they leave important dimensions to be derived from other dimensions makes no sense.  It always reeks to me of an overly eggheaded engineer who abhors redundancy even at the expense of ease of use.

[wraper]

AMD Processors... they are packed full of the magic smoke.

Where did you see at least a single one?
Except that 15 years old video on youtube.

[n45048]

AMD Processors... they are packed full of the magic smoke.

Where did you see at least a single one?
Except that 15 years old video on youtube.

Nothing in the last 5 years since I changed professions (I'd like to think AMD have sorted out their overheating/self-destructive features properties). I personally swore off them back when the AMD K6 was around. Since then, I've seen several crispy AMD's first-hand in other machines I've worked on over the course of 10+ years in IT industry.

(Although the YouTube videos are amusing too!)

[NiHaoMike]

Chips where the details needed to repurpose or hack the devices containing them are unavailable.

FPGAs are my current love/hate. They are really fun to play with, except there are so many rules in how to make a working design. Tiffany Yep makes it all look so easy, except it's not...

[SL4P]

DIN connectors.  The type used in 30 year old AV equipment.
They short-out/melt and do all the things you don't want - before you try to shoehorn the conductors, insulation and strain relief back into that 1/2-inch cylinder.
AArgh

[SirNick]

Heh.  And what could possibly be the problem with using the same connector for power, serial, and A/V signals?

[coppice]

Anythng that looks like a glass balloon with bits of scrap metal in it...

How are you going to reheat your pizza without one of those?