Hawkshead Designs' Blog
News and views from Hawkshead Designs.
31/01/12 FREE Compedium of Electronic Product Design Blog posts
You now have access to a free, no-strings download PDF which covers:
- 6 important background pointers for your specification - Specification
- 5 insights into choosing your design team - Design Team
- 4 steps to controlling your design project costs - Proposal and Quotation
- How to save 20-30% or more in a design project - Simulation
- Diagnose your designer Circuit & PCB design - A behind the scenes view - Prototyping
- 3 steps to avoid the biggest bear trap - Pre-production
24/01/12 On the way to production
Three steps to avoid the biggest bear trap
After you have a prototype of your product, the next step in the chain is production. It is a salutary warning that statistically more potential products fail in the step between prototype and production than at any other point in the chain. So what goes on here and what should you expect from your design team?
17/01/12 Design Process – Prototypes
Find out what goes on behind the scenes...
Virtual meets reality
The prototype of any circuit is the first time that all the theory and calculation meets the real world. You hope that the circuit works first time but this is an optimistic stance and fraught with supposition. There is a myriad of small details that make up a circuit; connections and component values being only a part of the the whole.
10/01/12 Design process – schematics and PCB design
5 simple ways to diagnose your designer
This part of the design process relates to schematics and PCB design. It can be viewed as the core of electronic design. It is ultimately YOUR design and you should feel able to look at and question it. However, this is an area where considerable differences emerge between designers and their audience.
20/12/11 Messy Test Bench
A messy desk is the sign of a genius?
Tidiness or the apparent lack of it was highlighted with the sad passing of Jim Williams and Bob Pease. Their work spaces had the outward appearance of chaos but no one is going to suggest that such approaches automatically lead to genius.
That said, what is it about test benches that generate interest and superficial anarchy? Perhaps part of the reason is that the tangible world is very different to the virtual virtues and disciplines instilled by working with computers. In the design environment there are many iterations and calculations. The myriad of details, trials and outcomes are all filed away - tidily. These processes lead to a final flurry of files which are sent by e-mail to the PCB manufacturer.