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  • Author Author: rscasny
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Poll: Are You Interested in element14 Offering Reference Design Activities?

rscasny

A number of our leading suppliers have reference designs using their products, which typically come with schematics and other documentation. Some are already built and some the user would need to build.

The element14 team has discussed how we could use these reference designs in our community programs (i.e., Challenges, roadtests, special projects, quizzes, giveaways, et al.), and even new programs that we would offer to our members for fun, enrichment or practical use.

But we first wanted to gauge your interest in establishing a reference design area on element14. Hence, this poll.

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  • I see 3 types of EVM (evaluation module) boards:

    1. Must have, board can be used as if for most purposes.

    2. Capability Testing boards, designed to be hooked up to test equipment for things like power draw, waveforms of just torture testing. Not usable as part of something else due to form factor (PCB with lots of blank space), price or design choices.

    3. Complex projects, boards with many different related chips from the same company. These can be huge, many are design files only, some even need custom parts ordered to be built.

    For #2, I just quickly design my own board, test points aren't as needed when you have a set of PCBite micro probes. Would like to actually test the parameters of a part with the manufacturer's EVM, I've just had a pressing need to.

    #3 at the moment are problematic at the moment, they aren't usually made in large numbers, so can be hard to find, or the parts are just unavailable to make them.

    One I'm really interested in, has become a major project just to see if it's possible to get the parts, it's not. The temptation is always there to modify the reference design slightly, and open a whole cupboard of canned worms.

Comment

  • I see 3 types of EVM (evaluation module) boards:

    1. Must have, board can be used as if for most purposes.

    2. Capability Testing boards, designed to be hooked up to test equipment for things like power draw, waveforms of just torture testing. Not usable as part of something else due to form factor (PCB with lots of blank space), price or design choices.

    3. Complex projects, boards with many different related chips from the same company. These can be huge, many are design files only, some even need custom parts ordered to be built.

    For #2, I just quickly design my own board, test points aren't as needed when you have a set of PCBite micro probes. Would like to actually test the parameters of a part with the manufacturer's EVM, I've just had a pressing need to.

    #3 at the moment are problematic at the moment, they aren't usually made in large numbers, so can be hard to find, or the parts are just unavailable to make them.

    One I'm really interested in, has become a major project just to see if it's possible to get the parts, it's not. The temptation is always there to modify the reference design slightly, and open a whole cupboard of canned worms.

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