Ever had a component delivery freak you out? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2022, 05:10:35 pm
content: I ordered the first set of prototype parts for my STM32+ESP32 board.It arrived in the usual bubble wrapped envelope 48 hours later. Along with it though was a large flat envelope with EXTREMELY URGENT, DHL 24HR on it!I was already wondering "What the ...", opening it, it only go worse as the first fist full of stuff was a document about 20 pages thick with my name on it and a ceriticate.What the f.... did I order?I was starting to worry.Buried in the bottom corner of said envelope was a tiny metalized plastic bag... in side it, when held up to the light was a tiny 5x8mm 8Mhz crystal.All of that for a crystal!Then I remembered on checkout it had warned me that a cheaper alternative was available for a part. I remember not trusting it, not bothering to go and make sure on the alternative, I clicked on through. The price difference was about £1.10.It seems that £1.10 is for the full official certificate of authenticity and compliance.... such as you might need for a medical device.Thankfully I didn't order a missile guidance system crystal or something... I hope.

author: bidrohini
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2022, 10:43:21 am
content: How are the components working? All fine?

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2022, 10:57:14 am
content: Quote from: bidrohini on November 10, 2022, 10:43:21 amIt will be a while before I can tell. They are all SMD parts for a PBC I'm making.It's the "pre-fab validation" stage as I call it. You have your schematic, you have your guessed footprints, you have your PCB layout.The next step is to select, source and buy a small batch of components (1 or 2 boards worth). Then go through and check, double, triple check ALL your foot prints and pin outs match. Often requires a bit of rework.Then you can order the first PCB boards to be printed and, hopefully make the first prototype. Learn which footprints were "optimistic", learn that you can't fit a soldering iron between those two components to solder them.... etc. etc. Repeat.As a beginner to beginner I would suggest, if you are laying out a PCB as a beginner. Avoid parts that have "custom" foot prints. Potentiometers, some regulators, buttons and switches. They will always mess you up unless you can get a genuine verified footprint model for your EDA software.The best plan for these to to put them "Off board" and connect them with a header. Header footprints are easy! Having to print a board 3 times because of a 0.5mm mistake on the footprint is no fun.

author: deadlylover
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2022, 12:41:54 pm
content: Every time I order wire from Arrow (just 'normal' hook up wire) I get a fat stack of papers with various tests tracing back to the mother spool. I mainly use mil spec ETFE wire as it's pretty cheap but way better than PVC.Once I had to sign a form acknowledging that this particular spool consistently failed the Wet Arc Track testing...but the supplier received confirmation from Boeing that it can be used as-is in some aircraft programs. Well if it's good enough for them it's good enough for my dinky little low voltage projects hahaha.

author: Terry Bites
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2022, 08:11:34 pm
content: I've often had to confirm that I wasn't making a nuclear device or life support system or exporting my thermonuclear weapon to a pariah state.

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2022, 12:01:14 pm
content: Quote from: Terry Bites on November 11, 2022, 08:11:34 pmI remember there being a bit of a noise when the "radio controlled model" hobby people started using flight controllers with automatic flight between waypoints. I don't know how truthful it is, but I believe in the USA any airborne guidance system capable of more than one waypoint is considered "restricted equipment" due to it's use in potential missile guidance systems. The first amatuer electronics hobbiest who tried to sell these found out the hard way, they needed to register and go through paperwork. In the end it didn't matter the Chinese market for the same exploded flooding the market with similar controllers and someone released a micro-controller framework that enabled any body would could code in C to do the same thing!

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2022, 12:12:06 pm
content: Several years ago I received some green 3mm high brightness LEDs from I think element14 with a stern warning not to export them to a variety of countries.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2022, 05:42:47 pm
content: Back in 1982/83, I was working in military radio. I was trying to specify an extended temperature spec RAM backup battery for a new controller board.One day, a steel drum arrived in the lab, about a foot in diameter and correspondingly long, with my name on it. Much crowding around and ribald 'what the hell have you done now!' type comments. Inside, the drum was filled to the brim with Vermiculite, and in the middle of that... a pair of Tadiran Lithium thionyl chloride cell samples, approx 2/3AA sized!Apparently it was airline regulations. How things have changed!

author: xani
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2022, 02:21:23 pm
content: Quote from: paulca on November 10, 2022, 10:57:14 amOr buy them early, then print the PCB and fit them in to the piece of paper, hell, if those are thru-hole controls (buttons etc.) you could print it and put it on a piece of cardboard to prototype how the UI "feels"But yeah, I keep one of my PCBs where I put the wrong footprint (part came in different footprints and of course I ordered the wrong one) as a reminder about that.

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2022, 03:30:08 pm
content: Quote from: xani on November 14, 2022, 02:21:23 pmI'm still looking for ways to reuse or repurpose them. Best thing I have come up with and not yet tried is making coasters out of them by pouring epoxy into a mold containing them.

author: vivi-d
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2022, 02:25:43 pm
content: A good friend of mine loves to collect star wars action firgures and other collectables. He got a call one day from FedEx letting him know he needed to be home so they could deliver a package. Ok fine, I'll go home to sign for it he thought. Well he got home and found the FedEx truck unloading a pallet with a tiny box shrink wrapped on top. It was an action figure! The only package on the pallet. Apparently, someone had made the wrong check mark on the paperwork. The delivery guy said he could be fired for not following the instruction to the letter. So now he had a pallet with one action figure on it.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2022, 03:16:32 pm
content: That's unthinking bureaucracy for you.The pallet was likely more valuable than the action figure :p

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 15, 2022, 04:55:48 pm
content: I was doing some beta testing of network hardware/software for HP many years ago now. A truck arrived from Heathrow to the office near Huntingdon and the driver asked me to get my forklift. I replied we didn't have one. He didn't seem that happy about that.The shipment was a 6-foot cubed box on a pallet, weighing in at over 150Kg. All wrapped in shrink wrap. He got back in the cab and said he would be back. A few hours later he reappeared with a truck that had a tail lift. We could then use a pallet shifter to drag it into the building. I wasn't allowed to unpack it on the lorry, which in hindsight was a good thing. The chassis and line cards were all separately and very carefully boxed and packaged.My boss knew something was coming, he just didn't realise exactly what. There were mutterings...Had to keep all the packing too as HP came and picked it all back up again just under a year later once it became a released product.