Nearly 20 years of experience in the Tech and Finance industries as an engineer, developer, manager, and director. An accredited Private Investor, Musician, Pilot, Tinkerer, and Maker.
View all authorsIn today's story we are going to talk about the importance of checking your footprints and datasheets before you finalize your design. And more importantly, if you're going to substitue a part, make sure you check the footprint of the part you're going to use for any differences. This is a story of a simple mistake that cost me a run of PCBs and weeks of time on the project.
I was working on testing a new design and because the pinout was different than the previous design, I had to make a few cables for jumping the connectors between boards. Basically they were simple little PCB edge connectors connected via ribbon cable for data lines and real wire for power buses. This way I could easily connect the correct signals to the correct pins on the board under test. I thought I'd be clever and just sit the test board on top of the other board while testing.
Welcome to Engineering Hell! A community driven collection of stories from engineers who have experienced hell in their careers. These stories are meant to be shared with the community to help others avoid the same fate. The goal of Engineering Hell is to provide a platform for engineers to share their stories and learn from each other. We believe that by sharing our experiences, we can help each other grow and become better engineers.