Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#91

Post by DiThi » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 7:47 AM UTC

mastax wrote: post #9

Eridrus wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain this for someone without any hardware experience?

So you're designing a little board in KiCad and you want to add an LPC1768 to it to do some processing. You need to get a schematic representation and a physical footprint of the part into your CAD software. You could spend an hour carefully reading the datasheet and recreating all of the pins and landing pads, but this is the 21st century! You look at the manufacturer's website, SparkFun's part library, google a bit…

IMHO this should be the description in the landing page. With this (and the new KiCad) I'm considering going back to PCB design.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#92

Post by Kliment » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 8:39 AM UTC

Fiahil wrote: post #70

natashabaker wrote: post #2

Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…

> and verified using proprietary patent-pending verification technology Is "proprietary patent-pending technology" really necessary? It's the kind of phrasing seen on uninteresting product trying to pretend they're interesting (ex: "Our Proprietary Patent-Pending Technology Makes Our Product So Great This Single Mom Can't Even Talk About It. Discover Now For $99.99")

Indeed, it's an awesome product but being so excited about patents causes an instinctive disgust reaction, at least in my case.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#93

Post by nzjrs » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 9:54 AM UTC

What's the liability situation if you deliver an incorrect footprint?

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#94

Post by timecop » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 11:35 AM UTC

Anyone who cant spend a few minutes in their EDA tool of choice to create a symbol or footprint and instead chooses to pay $29 here should not have a job (or a hobby) making electronics.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#95

Post by timecop » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 11:39 AM UTC

zbrozek wrote: post #48

I'm a professional hardware engineer, and doing this kind of work is something I do frequently and begrudgingly. Having this kind of service available will be a huge help. Some thoughts: - Who writes the style guide? How do you make aesthetic decisions? - Will you support multiple symbol styles? Would it be possible to upload stylesheets or specially annotated schematics and then regenerate already-extant parts in th…

snapeda altium export comes in the form of .LIA (protel ascii), which is a pretty simple to follow text-based format. Not much to opensauce here.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#96

Post by akiselev » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 1:50 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #90

akiselev wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have other killer features in the trial then just provide discounts for parts (say $19 during the trial) and remove the dark pattern instead of removing trials all together. I actually do need this service now and $29 per part is a drop in the bucket, especially since a lot of parts I need have nonstandard footprints. I can check and correct a footprint against a datasheet much faster than I can draw it so the…

It's no dark pattern. Stop this nonsense.

From [1]: "A Dark Pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills."

This very clearly IS a dark pattern.

[1] http://darkpatterns.org/

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#97

Post by Kiro » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 2:09 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #96

Kiro wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's no dark pattern. Stop this nonsense.

From [1]: "A Dark Pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills ." This very clearly IS a dark pattern. [1] http://darkpatterns.org/

> trick users

The important bit here. There's no tricking going on. It's all clearly stated when signing up for the Free Trial. You're just being obnoxious.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#98

Post by akiselev » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #97

akiselev wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From [1]: "A Dark Pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills ." This very clearly IS a dark pattern. [1] http://darkpatterns.org/

> trick users The important bit here. There's no tricking going on. It's all clearly stated when signing up for the Free Trial. You're just being obnoxious.

Yes there is trickry. A "Free Trial" does not mean 10 days for $300 which is what it essentially is whenever someone forgets to cancel. This is the same technique slimy online businesses (i.e. credit reporting agencies) use all the time along with making it hard to cancel. They even made it quarterly so that they can make three months off of you instead of one.

If you think I'm being obnoxious you should perhaps reflect on your own behavior. Others in this thread clearly agree that this is a dark pattern.

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#99

Post by Kiro » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 3:03 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #98

Kiro wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trick users The important bit here. There's no tricking going on. It's all clearly stated when signing up for the Free Trial. You're just being obnoxious.

Yes there is trickry. A "Free Trial" does not mean 10 days for $300 which is what it essentially is whenever someone forgets to cancel. This is the same technique slimy online businesses (i.e. credit reporting agencies) use all the time along with making it hard to cancel. They even made it quarterly so that they can make three months off of you instead of one. If you think I'm being obnoxious you should perhaps refl…

I think they are wrong just like I think you are. That's no argument.

You're defaming one of the most beautiful services that has ever come out of YC. A service that will help the life of so many hardware hackers and professionals. The pricing model for InstaPart is the most noble I've ever seen and you're complaining about them being predators and dark pattern practioneers?

Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts

#100

Post by natashabaker » Sun, Sep 25, 2016, 4:05 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #87

I mostly use Fritzing. Will it be supported at some point?

We get Fritzing requests occasionally so would like to include it eventually, but don't have a timeline for it right now. Basically we're prioritizing formats based on demand so if there's enough demand from Fritzing users, we'll speed it up.