11–20 of 28 posts
I am wondering - how do these startups get the media (techcrunch in this case) to write about them on their launch day. They just launched, have no business. There are countless new startups everyday. Is it because of the relationship (YC, Google Ventures)? Or do they pay for the articles? Or the journalists' personal preferences? Or what?
I wouldn't trust a 3rd party footprint database either - the amount of times I've seen people fuck up their first prototype by throwing some footprint they found on the board and then realising the pins were wrong etc is insane. Saw 5 on the same board once!
It's basically datasheets.com but somehow even more annoying. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party footprint database either - the amount of times I've seen people fuck up their first prototype by throwing some footprint they found on the board and then realising the pins were wrong etc is insane. Saw 5 on the same board once!
Would approved manufacturer accounts that contained all the parts from a manufacturer make them more trustworthy?
Speaking as someone who designs hobby electronics, this is a very good idea. I can't count the number of times I had to type things like "mcp23018 eagle library" into google. And get no useful results except link farms. And then have to create a library part in Eagle, which is a painful process, thinking all the while that many other people are probably doing the same thing right now. I will definitely be contributin…
First impressions:
The pop-over splash screen makes me want to reach for the 'close tab' button reflexively.
If it's "the worlds fast free univeral parts library" I expect to see some part pr0n right when I pull up the site.
I don't want to click [microscopic white-on-gray X] to close the popover, I don't want to "Connect with Dropbox", and I don't want to click a magnifying glass to "Browse the library".
Then on the main page I'm presented with a GitHub-like dashboard. I see big videos for expensive CAD packages I don't own. I see 'LATEST ACTIVITY' which is a long list of entries that are all like: ibelimb updated domain template HTSSOP to var documentType = "/template/footprint/0.9" 24 minutes ago
Where are the parts?! Show me some parts!
OIC, there's a little grayed-out word "parts" at the top. Maybe that takes me to some parts.
Yay! A list of parts! While writing this, I find Firefox can't select and copy the text from this list. That's a pain, because often I have to paste part numbers into other search boxes. I click on the first entry: Microcontrollers NXP Semiconductors LPC1768FBD100,551 IC ARM CORTEX MCU 512K 100-LQFP
OK, a datasheet on the left, cool! Something on the right about dragging-and-dropping to add a symbol and a footprint.
"Add components to this part" "Drag and drop domain models here to form components." I don't get it, but maybe it makes sense if you're a heavy CAD user.
I learn that I can expand the right-hand pane to cover where the datasheet was on the left. I'm a little annoyed that I can't expand the datasheet on the left to cover the section on the right. But I learn that I can move the datasheet to the right and expand it to cover the left.
It seems the datasheet pages are just images? I can't Ctrl-F and search them. But I find the 'download pdf' button on the first try.
The 'summary' section looks useful. It would be even more useful with a parametric search.
Looks like a good start! Bookmarked.
I am wondering - how do these startups get the media (techcrunch in this case) to write about them on their launch day. They just launched, have no business. There are countless new startups everyday. Is it because of the relationship (YC, Google Ventures)? Or do they pay for the articles? Or the journalists' personal preferences? Or what?
Techcrunch literally covers every single YC start-up.
It's basically datasheets.com but somehow even more annoying. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party footprint database either - the amount of times I've seen people fuck up their first prototype by throwing some footprint they found on the board and then realising the pins were wrong etc is insane. Saw 5 on the same board once!
We think that the first time somebody makes a mistake with their library is the only time that mistake should be made. I.e everybody get's the fix automatically.
Am I missing something? I realize I didn't login (I don't use dropbox), but every part I click on has nothing but a datasheet and specifications? No footprints, no symbols, etc. listed? Unless this is a bug, perhaps it would do well to show that there are X symbols and Y footprints for those of us just perusing? Additionally, only getting reference to about 140 parts, I'd hope that you would've launched with more tha…
Here's a part that's pretty complete.
"The world's free universal parts library" "There are 124 more parts" A ways to go! If footprint/symbol files and part metadata will be sourced from users, will that communal resource be made available through an API and/or bulk data releases? Or will it be controlled and enclosed? The screencast has an old front page which mentions "Like Wikipedia[, we will not charge for access]", so my hopes and expectations are h…
Agreed we need to do better with adding more parts, please free to help out haha.
It's basically datasheets.com but somehow even more annoying. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party footprint database either - the amount of times I've seen people fuck up their first prototype by throwing some footprint they found on the board and then realising the pins were wrong etc is insane. Saw 5 on the same board once!
What would it take to make a footprint database you can trust? I would imagine that community ranking/flagging of content could surely clean up inconsistent or invalid designs making the database more reliable. Would approved manufacturer accounts that contained all the parts from a manufacturer make them more trustworthy?