Man, I was just out for a few hours and this thread is 3 pages longer.
Some engineer before me in a tight spot for room built his control board "cordwood" style, meaning he used two PCBs with axial lead parts going between the boards. During testing the prototype one IC would fail, and the repair dept would have to carefully unsolder half the board, wiggle then apart, change the IC, then mount them back. When it failed the 2nd time I had them add a socket for it, mounted on the outside of the assembly.
It was just my 2nd job and an older engineer mentoring me asked where I got the special IC to plug in mirror image. I smiled and told him I just took a standard part and bent the leads back around the other way.
It is completely digital tuned with an LCD showing me the exact frequency it is receiving. Very cool. Sparkfun is now selling some of these chips & breakout boards too.
We always jokingly called that Japanese TV style, and since we were building military stuff we didn't even think of doing it. But...Reminds me of a joke someone told me years ago. Remember the years when consumer electronics moved into miniaturized packaging? My friend told me the difference between American and Japanese resistor placement on PCBs. Americans do it laying down while the Japanese prefer it standing up.
Some engineer before me in a tight spot for room built his control board "cordwood" style, meaning he used two PCBs with axial lead parts going between the boards. During testing the prototype one IC would fail, and the repair dept would have to carefully unsolder half the board, wiggle then apart, change the IC, then mount them back. When it failed the 2nd time I had them add a socket for it, mounted on the outside of the assembly.
It was just my 2nd job and an older engineer mentoring me asked where I got the special IC to plug in mirror image. I smiled and told him I just took a standard part and bent the leads back around the other way.
I got one of those for FREE even. Silicon Laboratories makes some real cool receiver chips for AM/FM/Short wave and I was trying to buy a few, but they had none in distribution. I had to register on the website for the data sheet which is how the local sales rep got my number and called me. I was honest with him and told him it was for personal use, but he appreciated my interest and a month later dropped off a very nice radio they were giving away at a trade show.anyway guys, you know already that im into crystal radio.
i want to have a little LCD there (lol) showing the frequency... and i want to have a clicker so i can just click the numbers of frequency so exact!
It is completely digital tuned with an LCD showing me the exact frequency it is receiving. Very cool. Sparkfun is now selling some of these chips & breakout boards too.