What's all this artsy PCB stuff, anyhow?
Bob Pease was an analogue design guru who untimely died in 2011 in a car accident. I didn't personally know Bob, or much of Bob until recently for that matter, but I get the impression that on top of being an analogue design authority, he was an interesting character. Bob produced one of my favourite quotes: "My favorite programming language is solder", which I loved even before I knew to attribute it to him.
I created a tribute board for Bob that includes the above quote, and a light intensity to frequency circuit that uses one of the integrated circuits he designed, the LM331. On the front there's the quote and pads for both surface-mount and through-hole components. On the back there's the circuit diagram as a silkscreen overlay (the circuit is taken from Figure 20 of the LM331 datasheet). The corner holes can be used for power input or mounting holes. Maybe this board would be a fun way to introduce kids to soldering!
Here's how the board is rendered by webGerber (there's an error with opening the drill file, so the drills are missing):
Here's what it looks like in Inkscape:
Finally, the look from gerbv:
I wonder what would be Bob's reaction to this board ;)
If you'd like one of these boards, let me know so I can make one for you!
(UPDATE: see a more recent draft of the board here)
I created a tribute board for Bob that includes the above quote, and a light intensity to frequency circuit that uses one of the integrated circuits he designed, the LM331. On the front there's the quote and pads for both surface-mount and through-hole components. On the back there's the circuit diagram as a silkscreen overlay (the circuit is taken from Figure 20 of the LM331 datasheet). The corner holes can be used for power input or mounting holes. Maybe this board would be a fun way to introduce kids to soldering!
Here's how the board is rendered by webGerber (there's an error with opening the drill file, so the drills are missing):
 |
| Top |
 |
| Bottom |
Here's what it looks like in Inkscape:
 |
| Top and bottom |
 |
| Top |
 |
| Bottom |
Finally, the look from gerbv:
I wonder what would be Bob's reaction to this board ;)
If you'd like one of these boards, let me know so I can make one for you!
(UPDATE: see a more recent draft of the board here)