Is it me, or does anyone else remember the term "dead cockroach" to describe an upside down IC with wires attached to it's legs?
It seems to have been replaced with the term "dead bug"

I just want to know really if I am indeed going senile with my old age, or just not keeping up with the (times / google overload / other peoples terminology)

Please help put me out of my misery, or if I am wrong into more misery

 

Welcome to AAC Mike.

There are no stupid questions here. Only thing considered to be "stupid" is to not ask when you don't know.

I've only known the term "dead bug". Took electronics classes in high school back in the 70's. Don't know how old you are but I don't go very very far back. The term DB, I haven't heard that in many years. Not since high school, but the second time I heard it was in 2014. Haven't heard it since then.

Don't understand why you're in misery over this. You can call it anything you want. It COULD be that just one individual called it that because they may have had a cockroach problem. But again, I don't go far enough back to really be able to say.

Nevertheless, welcome.

 

Sorry, I can't help you much there. I only heard about the term "dead bug" when I moved to the US a bit more than a decade ago. I used to call it "turned centipede" (sounded better in my mother language).

 

Is it me, or does anyone else remember the term "dead cockroach" to describe an upside down IC with wires attached to it's legs? It seems to have been replaced with the term "dead bug"

I've used that method of construction a few times, and have always heard it called "dead bug."

 

Welcome to AAC!

Is it me, or does anyone else remember the term "dead cockroach" to describe an upside down IC with wires attached to it's legs?
It seems to have been replaced with the term "dead bug"

I've only heard it referred to as dead bug, 3D, or rats nest.

 

Welcome to AAC!

I've only heard it referred to as dead bug, 3D, or rats nest.

Rats nest reminds me of a poorly done wire wrap job when making a prototype board. Dead bug was an inverted IC.

Here is an interesting one. Maybe 10 years ago I was reviewing a drawing with one of our newly hired and really bright young engineers. As we went over the drawing I was making notations on it. Where I wished to denote a voltage I would write E = . After several annotations Blake looks at me and says Ron I understand the reference to voltage buy why the E? I looked up from the drawing and explained with a smile that I learned E (Voltage) was equal to I (the current) times R (the resistance. So since the E served me well for about 40 years I wasn't about to change it a few years before I retired. Today it is taught as V = I * R but all that mattered was that he knew what I was writing.

Ron

 

"Tango Upstart" is the way I learned it, although today it would be Tango Uniform.

ak

 

For the younger players, E stands for electromotive force, the (olde) pure physics term for voltage.

ak

 

Rats nest reminds me of a poorly done wire wrap job when making a prototype board. Dead bug was an inverted IC.

Here's a Bob Pease prototype:


I had some friends who prototyped circuits for military applications. Their prototypes looked a like this (maybe a little neater).

 

I've hacked (“white-hat hackers” are the good guys) a few EU manufacturing control systems that use 'U' or 'E' for voltage symbols in the protocol.

PIC controller source code fragment from a French Ion Source controller system status hack device.

// regulation feedback +- 0 center=512 600 = nom. 650 = +2.5volts
// filament voltage, 700 = nom.
// cathode current, 600 = nom.
// cathode voltage 600v = 1023
// filament current, 425 is nom.
// numbers are 10-bit ADC counts

#define IHC_CODE0       'r'  // extraction current regulation
#define IHC_CODE0_TUNE  30
#define IHC_CODE0_FINE    5
#define IHC_CODE0_VFINE    1
#define IHC_CODE0H      650
#define IHC_CODE0L      400
#define IHC_CODE1       'e'  // filament voltage
#define IHC_CODE1H      900
#define IHC_CODE1L      200
#define IHC_CODE2       'f' // filament current
#define IHC_CODE2H      1030
#define IHC_CODE2L      200
#define IHC_CODE3       'u' // cathode voltage, u is EU for voltage
#define IHC_CODE3H      1050
#define IHC_CODE3L      700
#define IHC_CODE4       'i' // cathode current
#define IHC_CODE4H      700
#define IHC_CODE4L      300

I built a Idiot Light systems monitor to replace the Laptop controller that normally is inaccessible to the operators.

 

A long time ago we received a tray of surface mount ASICs that the vendor told us had a sub-nanosecond voltage comparator on it. I handed the tray of chips to our technician for verification and he stared at me and said" But we don't have a pcb!". Then I showed him dead bug style construction. Later he referred to the style as "ugly bug". What's in a name?

 

How did current become "I" ?

P=IE seems much easier to remember than P=CV.

The romans must have quite a limited concept of power if it only equalled 105.. ...what !!!

 

 

Both E and U are used for voltage, especially in Europe.
E stands for Electro-motive force.
U stands for Unterschied which is "difference" in German.