Re: nice board

On Fri, 24 May 2024 07:57:35 -0700, john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:

This one
https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/33115990-electronic-circuity-intricately-designed-on-circuit-boards-driving-technological-innovations-ai-generated
looks like the pilgrimage to Mecca.

You're right.  It does look like the Kaaba:
<https://cdn.britannica.com/43/156343-050-CD194769/pilgrims-Muslim-Kabah-Great-Mosque-of-Mecca.jpg>
It works something like a compass, where Muslim worshipers face in the
direction of the Mecca.  That's probably functional if there was only
one Kaaba, but global proliferation of similar attractors might result
in some confusion.  I had a sample of that in early college (about
1965) when the national anthem was played over the public address
system every morning before the start of classes.  We were expected to
face the flag, which was rather awkward if we were inside a building
with no flags in sight.  I would usually end up facing a blank wall or
a urinal. 

My vote for the winner is this AI photo, where all the leads are
shorted together:
<https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/24158349-macro-photography-of-electronic-circuit-board-top-view-ai-generative>

>
Cool. These things are always artistically blurred, as if a bad
photographer had shot a real photo.
>
Even PCB shops use absurd stock photos of "their" boards.

There's a little more behind image defects and artifacts in
advertising photography.  I wrote something about it in RBT
(rec.bicycling.tech) where an obvious PhotoShoped image included
mistakes intended to extend the time that a reader inspects the image
trying to determine why the image looks wrong.
<https://rec.bicycles.tech.narkive.com/sGdviHeE/bicycle-infrastucture#post8>
<https://rec.bicycles.tech.narkive.com/sGdviHeE/bicycle-infrastucture#post20>

I wish my boards had traces that glow.

You can probably see traces glow in your FLIR camera.  I don't own an
IR camera (yet) so I use liquid crystal sheets.
<https://www.edmundoptics.com/f/temperature-sensitive-liquid-crystal-sheets/11878/>

I also have a flat ZipLoc bag of ferrofluid:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid>
For DC and low frequency AC, I just place the bag over the PCB.
Current flow is easily visible.  Unfortunately, the frequency response
of the fluid is rather limited making it useless for all but the
slowest responding voltage regulators.  However, that was exactly what
I needed for a switcher intended for an RF sensitive environment. Slow
down the switcher until the RFI/EMI disappears.

Actually, some recently did. We bought a gigantic power supply and
experimented with how well a big polyfuse can protect various width
outer and inner traces.

Learn by Destroying(tm)?


--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558