I love it when I encounter a bit of personality... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 10:44:51 pm
content: So I was tearing down a D-Link network DVD player (it's scrap, I just wanted some of the parts) and came across this power supply. This really cracked me up.The first image is the board. The second image is a closeup of the board. Note the fishies swimming through the isolation channel. I also found one of our little friends on the top, which is the third image.I love finding these little easter eggs.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 10:54:56 pm
content: Ha that's great!Why not right?

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 10:55:16 pm
content: While quite common to see art on silicon die it is much rarer to see it on PCBs. I wonder if there's a particular reason why.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 10:58:29 pm
content: What you can't see clearly is that the name of the guy who designed it, "Charles", is also silkscreened onto the board. So I wonder if he just took a bit of license.

author: millerb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pm
content: A waste of time as far as I'm concerned. Stuff always needs to be done yesterday and there's never enough time to do everything right the way you want to. End users don't care about cutesy artwork on parts they'll never see.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:06:59 pm
content: Well it made my day, so as far as I'm concerned, thanks, Charles, whereever you are.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:09:02 pm
content: Quote from: millerb on June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pmMeh.Maybe Charles is so damn good that he had a little extra time?Thanks Charles!

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:09:50 pm
content: Quote from: millerb on June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pmJeez I suppose if you think like that what's the point of doing anything? It's an engineer's signature. Engineering is as much an art as it is a science, and some like to sign their art. Who knows the guy probably had the fish art saved as a "stamp" and it look a minute to apply it.

author: Corporate666
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:11:34 pm
content: Quote from: millerb on June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pmI think it's neat. The world will become a dull and boring place when having some harmless fun is frowned upon.I was at a clients office for a meeting on Wednesday, and during the meeting my employees sent me a crazy video of them making bizarre cookie monster noises and eating packing peanuts. It was a laugh... and so long as the work required gets done, I'd rather have them enjoy the work day and have a bit of levity than sitting at their desks staring at the clock and counting the minutes until 17:00!

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:12:07 pm
content: Quote from: millerb on June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pmWell, ask yourself why dogs piss on trees

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2013, 11:43:44 pm
content: Great find !! You wonder though, how many 1,000s never get "discovered". There are sites where die art is collected, maybe there shouldbe a PCB artwork site? Ialwaysspend extra time making my layouts clean and "artistic", doing nice layouts satisfies my past forayinto art, which I never have time for any more, plus it relaxes me. I used to write comments on 10-20 thou tracks once, you'd pick a linethickness that was obviously way too thin to actually etch, but left a faint groove, enough to see under a microscope, with the right light.Yup, it is nice to see

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 12:05:38 am
content: Quote from: millerb on June 07, 2013, 11:04:38 pmDamn straight! I wake up at 5 AM and do nothing but cranking out piles ofrealwork all day long until I go to sleep at 1 AM. Doing something because it makes me happy? Complete waste of time! Get off your lazy hippie asses, you pansies.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 01:31:32 am
content: As long as the work gets done, I reckon why not add some fun to your work day. Sometimes my guys will share silly YouTube videos with me. It's all good I say.

author: SLJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 02:48:25 am
content: Probably a logo of a designer or manufacturer.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 05:02:44 am
content: Not PCB art,but a lot of old Tektronix manuals had funny little cartoons on the circuit diagrams.For instance,External Sync was accompanied by a picture of a sink mounted on the side of a rustic looking cabin.It gave Techs a bit of a chuckle whilst wading through page after page of diagrams.

author: uoficowboy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 05:44:57 am
content: I love putting things like that on PCBs. I worked closely with a gentleman of Russian descent who had a lot of Russian pride on a board for the US military. When doing the layout, I decided he needed to personalize it as well, so we decided to put a hammer and sickle underneath a TQFP. The boss never saw the board unpopulated, so he never saw it.Another colleague there had a 6 layer PCB with its own Easter egg. He put a smiley face on an inner layer. It would have been completely invisible due to there being 2 power planes, so he put holes in the power planes just big enough for the face to shine through. However, the holes were not directly above/below the face - you had to hold the PCB at a specific angle to see the face. Nobody would ever find it unless they were shown how to look for it.

author: FrankBuss
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:43:58 am
content: Another nice artful silkscreen, from a young hobbyist:http://robotgrrl.com/blog/2012/07/25/robobrrd-brain-board-v2-lessons-learned/

author: carpelux
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 09:44:05 am
content: Also not a PCB but nonetheless quite amusing is the reverb tank in a Guitar Amp I have. The reverb tank is made by O.C Electronics and has a sticker saying "Manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton, Wis. under controlled athmospere conditions"

author: nitro2k01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 09:58:35 am
content: This reminds me ofBunnie's hidden cake.

author: millerb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 11:41:20 am
content: It's all fun and games until said doodles and eastereggs accidentally leads to some sort of unintended consequence and then you find yourself in the embarrassing situation of having to explain your behavior in a meeting. Or perhaps the cute bits don't have anything to do with the latest fsckup but your boss is convinced that it's all because you've got more time for doodles than solving problems. Not good for your career.That's my two cents. This kind of stuff is unprofessional unless it adds appeal to the product. I get that some people think that's boring but I don't think electronics and software is boring. Well designed circuits and software are works of art in their own right and creating elegant solutions to problems is rewarding enough.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 12:03:14 pm
content: I dunno, Frank, the "robotgrrl" one seems to go too far in that direction. I think a bit of tasteful art is fun and a nice surprise, but to me, that board kind of crossed the line into "cluttered and really hard to read". It's a difficult line to articulate, but I found myself thinking "wow, did she have any room to actually label the components?" and then spent about ten seconds finding the answer to that question. That's too cluttered, IMO. Now, all that said, for a hobbyist, that's just fine and don't read that as being overly critical - but for a "professional" board I'd probably be thinking more "wtf" than "that's cool!"I think millerb is articulating the other, stuffy, direction. There's a happy medium, and Charles found it quite nicely. A few fishy stamps in the isolation channel, some nerd in Portland got a nice surprise, everyone's happy. And some boss HAD to sign off on that, because unlike the sickle and hammer, that's nearly impossible to hide.A part of me wonders if the silkscreen in the isolation channel helped with seepage in any way.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 01:47:53 pm
content: I agree, that one is really going too far and produced a "wtf?" from me - one of the pads even got scribbled on.Here is something more tasteful, another fish in the DG4062 (from Mike's teardown).

author: FrankBuss
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 02:43:08 pm
content: Quote from: duskglow on June 08, 2013, 12:03:14 pmRight, maybe too much. But I guess the target audience like it, young DIY people. But you have a point: any non-functional artwork should not make it difficult to read the symbols etc.QuoteThis is an interesting question, for normal labeling, too. I guess the printer's ink is non-conductive (but how much compared to the solder resist?), but maybe the small bumps of the ink could result in collecting more dust and debris?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 04:11:00 pm
content: Still more creepage distance there than most Chinese equipment has, and any way the ink used for the printing will be similar to the soldermask ink in most cases, similar solvents so they do not react and go pink like sometimes happens.

author: MacAttak
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 04:38:42 pm
content: The engineer responsible for the power supply board probably finished his design and was waiting on the other engineer(s) or team(s) to finish theirs. If you've got nothing better to do, then might as well doodle. If nothing else, it's a small amount of additional practice. I personally cannot stand to be idle while someone is paying for my time. Heck - for all we know, the engineer might have done it while staying at work late on his own time.So what some see as pointless or counterproductive activity, I see as a sign of someone who has outgrown their job role and needs to be promoted into a higher level of responsibility and challenge.The person who enjoys their work enough to make it artful is exhibiting passion, which is a key trait for success. He/she will leapfrog past those who don't give a shit about it and count the hours until it's time to clock out every day.

author: marshallh
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 04:57:19 pm
content: some art on the back of a design I did

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 06:43:49 pm
content: Quote from: marshallh on June 08, 2013, 04:57:19 pmThat's really hard to read. What does it say?? I just see "blah active".Actually, I can kind of make out either "fart", "tart", or "bart". So unless you can offer indisputable proof that it's something else, I'm going to stick to the interpretation that it's "fart active".

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:04:37 pm
content: Retro Active.....

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:06:54 pm
content: Quote from: c4757p on June 08, 2013, 12:05:38 amOi don't walk on the grass man ! smoke it !

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:09:14 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on June 08, 2013, 07:04:37 pmEven after you point it out, I still don't see it. That "O" looks a lot like a T to me. Am I the only one having trouble reading that?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:15:00 pm
content: Quote from: MacAttak on June 08, 2013, 04:38:42 pmMy boards always have doodles on em. ( our project names are named after real places. like project vesuvius. so i dither an exploding volcano on the silkscreen. )there's also hidden monograms. i can immediately tell if i board was designed by me or not. i'm doing too many to remember them all so they have a hidden mark.besides, who says those fishies are useles.s . lets assume for a momnet that htis was designed as a library symbol indicating the minimum creepage between high voltage and low voltage. you could se tup a design rule that says : stay x distance away from the bounding board of this object. all you have to do then is plonk these down. the fishie is a visible queu where the channel is and the copper pour generator does the rest. think about it !many board use a slanted fill to indicate where the channelis. this guy simply drew some arcs. ( it is a human traint to find familiar objects in a collection of randmo shapes. you cal it a fish i call it a collection of arc segments and arcs .. )

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:16:25 pm
content: Helps having seen that font style used in DTP long ago, you get used to some weird font looks and layouts.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:18:10 pm
content: The top set of letters appear to be inverted, so yes, I'm having a really hard time reading that.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:18:46 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on June 08, 2013, 07:15:00 pmDude. I love that idea.

author: marshallh
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2013, 07:44:05 pm
content: something else I do is put "greets" on a copper layer of the pcb, of people that influenced the design or provided input.Because without other people giving me feedback and advice I wouldn't be half as good.

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 08:02:45 am
content: wow thats a nice one marmad

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 09:32:58 am
content: Quote from: M. András on June 09, 2013, 08:02:45 amThanks.I edited the image above to include the assembled board.

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 09:46:35 am
content: what is it btw? and how long did that take?

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 10:09:12 am
content: Quote from: M. András on June 09, 2013, 09:46:35 amAn artwork titled '(Blue) Moon Mask' - based on the style of Pacific Northwest Coast Native American masks (two other different 'masks' are in the works) - it's a piece which produces various sounds (either from proximity via IR detection - or by touching the tinned area) based on the phase of the moon, which it keeps track of internally. It took about 6 weeks of design and layout - mainly because of all the copper keep outs that form the image. Most of my pieces take approximately 3 months from initial idea to finished firmware.Here's another PCB design in a completely different style

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 12:02:41 pm
content: neat. i bet the boardhouse charged for those routed parts an arm and a leg or its a metal piece lasercut?

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2013, 12:23:42 pm
content: Quote from: M. András on June 09, 2013, 12:02:41 pmNo, it's PCB - but actually 'routed' by a drilling machine, using software I wrote which translated AutoCAD DXF files to drilling data. Believe it or not, before the regulations of the EU came into effect, there used to be 'mom and pop'-type board places which you could work with intimately on special projects. But those days are long gone - and it would be much more expensive to do the same thing now