MEP EP#260: A Couple Months Ago...

Published: Jan. 20, 2021, 11:03 p.m.

MEP EP#260: A Couple Months Ago...

Parker

  • Homebrew going big
    • Uncle runs a brewpub down in Alvin, Tx
    • Going to help him repair and rebuild the brewery for post COVID
    • Building more electrical boxes
  • Chip shortages hit even as auto chip sales climb
    • Ford and Fiat Chrysler are temporarily closing factories due to limited supplies of electronic components that are used in displays and transmissions
    • Apple wants to make a self-driving electric car by 2024
    • VLSI Research report
      • 4th quarter auto chip sales improved by 30% over the third quarter, reaching $6.2 billion
      • Which is 11% above fourth quarter in 2019
      • Overall auto IC sales for 2020 were down about 6.4% from 2019
    • Tesla may be the best example of what happened in 2020, reaching sales of 499,000 new cars in all of 2020, an increase of 36%

Stephen

  • Searching for components kind of sucks sometimes. New idea for making this easier
    • Connectors
    • LDOs and other ICs
    • Simple search removal that doesn't require that the engineer perform their own logic to reach the “perfect part”
    • No More lists or excel sheets - Savable searches
  • Watch out for datasheet marketing wank…
    • TL052 precision voltage reference circuit
    • MCP1501T-30E/CHY
    • Opamp calls out max 80mA per channel and 160mA per chip...with low offset the best of all worlds!
    • Circuit works well in multiple designs but new one craps the bed
    • Got to pay attention to those charts - this is actually slightly worse than a normal opamp…..
    • Solution is to transistor buffer