When PCB designers have way too much fun - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: HwAoRrDk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2023, 12:55:12 pm
content: Quotehttps://mastodon.sdf.org/@keelan/111349948124943603

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2023, 01:33:59 pm
content: So cool. Why do I never think of things like that?

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2023, 03:09:25 pm
content: Before 2000s everything was different. Remember the easter eggs in all kind of software.Then the companies took IBM path, stone-cold.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2023, 06:25:04 pm
content: I was unable to find an image of this, but I remember that Plessey Semiconductors made a long "bucket brigade" analog shift register (I think it was for LeCroy?) that had to be bent into a Z shape to fit on the chip.The chip designer had room inside the Z, which looked something like a railroad, so he copied a steam locomotive from his child's coloring book and put it on the substrate.(Tektronix draftsmen often did the same thing with their schematics, such as a skier going down a diagonal line on a flip-flop circuit.)

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2023, 05:50:17 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on November 04, 2023, 03:09:25 pmand then ibm basically crashed and burned and employee retention in jobs like that is piss poor and no one knows wtf is going on at those companies because the supposedly 'creative' roles are being cycled through like a malfunctioning carnival carousel because what used to be a fun day at work turned into 'thinking about going home while in a psychotic state due to paperwork and 'opinion management because everyone expects you to be a shady bullshitter and any fun you have might allow someone leverage against the company in some abstract way'. Every day makes you feel like that one day the VP of some companies used to have during a important life changing multinational government merger or something, even if you are only sweeping the floor on a friday. you know, like reagan visiting the soviet union for the first time.telephone pole up ass [✓]

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2023, 07:30:50 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on November 04, 2023, 03:09:25 pmNot all have turned their back on a bit of fun.

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2023, 06:17:13 pm
content: Wow - the most I have ever done is sneak my initials onto a PCB

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2023, 09:56:04 pm
content: Quote from: Neilm on November 05, 2023, 06:17:13 pmDaredevil!

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 08:27:03 am
content: Quote from: Neilm on November 05, 2023, 06:17:13 pmAs an intern I was almost thrown out for that

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 10:29:50 am
content: Sometimes there is no option. You can't include Easter Eggs in professional software that's written to an exact specification, and hand-specifying how exactly a Rainbow Road function is activated involves a whole team deciding to integrate that Easter Egg... at which point is it really spontaneous? You will see it in smaller software teams and companies where development processes are less rigid.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 05:28:19 pm
content: Quote from: Neilm on November 05, 2023, 06:17:13 pmI sometimes write "dance floor" on PCBs with lots of free space for any reason.Last PCB which had some microcontroller board soldered into it, had "Hidden text" written between the boards.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 07:04:03 pm
content: I quite like the idea of burying jokes, text, images etc on the inner layers of multilayer boards so they show up when X-Rayed

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 07:31:50 pm
content: Or you could just place a moniker like a member here did when he designed IC's.Examine top left corner.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2023, 09:49:37 pm
content: Still way better in the 80s-90s:https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/electronic-systems-design/2016/03/23/easter-eggs-on-your-pcb-or-chips/

author: newbrain
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 07:02:52 am
content: Quote from: tautech on November 06, 2023, 07:31:50 pm...pay no attention to the the obvious dick drawings

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 08:14:01 am
content: I once took the time to draw this out...haven't ordered anything with it on yet though.Tim

author: EPAIII
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2023, 07:02:52 am
content: I recall seeing Kilroy peeking over the outlines and sometimes circuit traces of one company's schematics. Wish I had taken some photos.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2023, 07:30:17 am
content: Quote from: CJay on November 06, 2023, 07:04:03 pmYou can hide one in plain view. Encode it in QR code image and place on the PCB. Typically nobody scans codes but the person who would do will be to a surprise.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2023, 07:39:00 am
content: Quote from: Bud on November 12, 2023, 07:30:17 amBetter yet - but then it's more for engineers than for end-users - hide one in your technical documentation. Nobody reads it.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2023, 05:59:11 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on November 12, 2023, 07:30:17 amWhere I work they already include QR codes in the silk and/or copper for factory use so that could end really badly, but I do like the idea.

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2023, 06:49:55 pm
content: As initials on PCBs go, I've often seen it advised to put your initials or name, or any other obvious text as a structure in some spare space in the top copper layer. It should make a board house noticed that something is wrong if layers somehow get swapped with one-another or mirrored. The beauty of having a short surname is I can get it in to PCB corners to serve this functionality.