On Monday, March 9, 2020 at 10:56:08 AM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Mon, 9 Mar 2020 04:14:07 -0700 (PDT), bulegoge@columbus.rr.com > wrote: > > >Przemek Klosowski.... thank you for pointing to that interview on YouTube. I really liked the guys view on what the ltspice program is for which is so that the engineer can get better intuition as to how his circuits work. It is a piece of verification but should not be used is the sole purpose of verifying. I guess I like it because it resonated with my viewpoints about use of such a program > > Being an IC guy, he did miss that a little as regards PC boards. I > often use LT Spice as the only process before I go to a PC board, but > then PC boards can be modified a lot easier than linear ICs, and parts > are mostly temperature stable as purchased. > > And I design using LT Spice. Once one has some intuition, one can just > throw parts around in the sim and see what happens. That works > surprisingly well. I have several circuits in production that I don't > really understand. > > I do much less math than I used to do. I guess rough values and tweak > in LT Spice. Voltage dividers, filters, oscillators this week. So it's > a calculator, too. > > It also draws presentable diagrams to include in emails and manuals. > It's a drawing program. > > I've had his same thought before: Romans built waterworks, people > built bridges and cathedrals and cannons and sailing ships, before > Newton invented calculus. Most science explained what people had > already built.Before math was used rigorously in construction, it was not at all uncommon to either build exactly what was built before or to risk it falling down. How many of the Medieval churches fell down killing people before they got them figured out... mostly. Even today we have failures when we do something new and fail to properly analyze it mathematically. The disaster was prevented by an undergraduate student who was doing a math study of the building and found anomalous results. The rest is history and midtown Manhattan was saved. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2609257/The-New-York-disaster-never-happened-How-one-phone-call-architecture-student-saved-915ft-Citigroup-skyscraper-crashing-Manhattan-hurricane.html Engineering without math is just kids playing in the mud. -- Rick C. ++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging ++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
"Mike Engelhardt has parted ways with Analog Devices"
Started by ●March 4, 2020
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
On 3/9/2020 10:27 AM, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Mon, 9 Mar 2020 10:17:56 -0500, John S <Sophi.2@invalid.org> wrote: > >> On 3/9/2020 9:55 AM, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >>> On Mon, 9 Mar 2020 04:14:07 -0700 (PDT), bulegoge@columbus.rr.com >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Przemek Klosowski.... thank you for pointing to that interview on YouTube. I really liked the guys view on what the ltspice program is for which is so that the engineer can get better intuition as to how his circuits work. It is a piece of verification but should not be used is the sole purpose of verifying. I guess I like it because it resonated with my viewpoints about use of such a program >>> >>> Being an IC guy, he did miss that a little as regards PC boards. I >>> often use LT Spice as the only process before I go to a PC board, but >>> then PC boards can be modified a lot easier than linear ICs, and parts >>> are mostly temperature stable as purchased. >>> >>> And I design using LT Spice. Once one has some intuition, one can just >>> throw parts around in the sim and see what happens. That works >>> surprisingly well. I have several circuits in production that I don't >>> really understand. >> >> I don't throw parts around. I design first and then see if my design in >> LTSpice shows something I overlooked. If it doesn't result in what I >> expected, I try to learn why and correct it. > > My 1200 volt 5 MHz Pockels Cell pulser resulted from throwing parts > around. My current LC oscillator is almost as bad. I didn't understand > it until the simulation, and a breadboard, were working. Intuition > guides throwing. You can't design circuits by truly random fiddling > because the solution space is too big. >Good! I'm happy that worked out for you. I, on the other hand, don't randomly fiddle. Maybe I'm missing out on something.> "Something I overlooked" could be an entirely new concept.In what way? What does that mean? What concept?>> >>> I do much less math than I used to do. I guess rough values and tweak >>> in LT Spice. Voltage dividers, filters, oscillators this week. So it's >>> a calculator, too. >> >> Indeed. I do the same. Sometimes it is faster than using a calculator. > > Something like a 5-resistor voltage divider or opamp circuit, made > from parts in stock, is way too hard to design on paper.Really? You think a resistor divider is too hard to design on paper? So you make a 5 resistor divider in SPICE and then tweak the values until you get what you want? That sounds like it will take more time than doing the paper work. Maybe I don't understand your stated problem.
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
On 2020-03-09 10:55, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Mon, 9 Mar 2020 04:14:07 -0700 (PDT), bulegoge@columbus.rr.com > wrote: > >> Przemek Klosowski.... thank you for pointing to that interview on YouTube. I really liked the guys view on what the ltspice program is for which is so that the engineer can get better intuition as to how his circuits work. It is a piece of verification but should not be used is the sole purpose of verifying. I guess I like it because it resonated with my viewpoints about use of such a program > > Being an IC guy, he did miss that a little as regards PC boards. I > often use LT Spice as the only process before I go to a PC board, but > then PC boards can be modified a lot easier than linear ICs, and parts > are mostly temperature stable as purchased. > > And I design using LT Spice. Once one has some intuition, one can just > throw parts around in the sim and see what happens. That works > surprisingly well. I have several circuits in production that I don't > really understand. > > I do much less math than I used to do. I guess rough values and tweak > in LT Spice. Voltage dividers, filters, oscillators this week. So it's > a calculator, too. > > It also draws presentable diagrams to include in emails and manuals. > It's a drawing program. > > I've had his same thought before: Romans built waterworks, people > built bridges and cathedrals and cannons and sailing ships, before > Newton invented calculus. Most science explained what people had > already built.His account of siege warfare is a laugh. Besieged cities were almost always conquered by hunger, not siege machines. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
....His account of siege warfare is a laugh. Besieged cities were almost always conquered by hunger, not siege machines...... You missed the point.
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: ...> My 1200 volt 5 MHz Pockels Cell pulser resulted from throwing partsAny reference for that as commercial product? Thanks -- Uwe Bonnes bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 1623569 ------- Fax. 06151 1623305 ---------
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> wrote in news:a9a7d4a4-9d21- 4cc2-92b5-55e7c2fd0553@googlegroups.com:> On Friday, March 6, 2020 at 1:45:13 PM UTC-5, Winfield Hill wrote: >> jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote... >> > >> > I wonder if ADI will adjust the premium LTC pricing any. >> >> I hope not. It's a specific strategy to make enough profit >> on low volumes to create specialized parts that are super- >> helpful to engineers working on unique problems. They make >> enough $$ to well document their designs. This might all >> go away if AD makes big changes. > > Change is inevitable, progress is not. >Micro Cap 12 is now free. <https://www.spectrum-soft.com/download/download.shtm>
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in news:f293c74a-ccb1-46ac-9d1c-ab1ace1f520c@googlegroups.com:> LTSpice is a whole lot better than the other free Spice clones, > and Mike Engelhardt seems to have been a key figure in keeping it > that way. >Micro Cap is no clone and is free. Did not used to be. <https://www.spectrum-soft.com/download/download.shtm>
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
On Mon, 9 Mar 2020 12:56:05 -0500, John S <Sophi.2@invalid.org> wrote:> >Really? You think a resistor divider is too hard to design on paper? So >you make a 5 resistor divider in SPICE and then tweak the values until >you get what you want? That sounds like it will take more time than >doing the paper work. Maybe I don't understand your stated problem. >I often do that. I want to use resistor values that we have in stock, better yet ones already on the BOM, so the final divider may require a dozen or two iterations. Each case has to be evaluated to see how close things are. After you fiddle with it a bit, you begin to intuit about what affects what, so the process moves right along. I have a program, RUGRAT, that finds 2-resistor dividers based on parts in stock. But it can't do more complex networks. -- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet. "Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"
Reply by ●March 9, 20202020-03-09
On 9 Mar 2020 21:07:10 GMT, Uwe Bonnes <bon@hertz.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de> wrote:>jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >... >> My 1200 volt 5 MHz Pockels Cell pulser resulted from throwing parts > >Any reference for that as commercial product? > >ThanksMy launch customer is not moving his laser project along very well, so we decided to go public with it. http://www.highlandtechnology.com/DSS/T850DS.shtml It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot too. Really, this was designed by instinct and simulation. It was really a surprise. (So were some of the SiC fet models!) -- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet. "Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"
Reply by ●March 10, 20202020-03-10
Bill Sloman is Totally Weird wrote: ---------------------------------> > > > > "Intuition is the most important part of engineering." > > > > That's great. > > It's actually insane,** What an absurd claim. Makes it very clear that Bill has none so has no clue what it is - apart from reading a dictionary. Good engineers have "insight" = a deep understanding of how stuff works. This leaves all the software guys gasping. Insight informs one's "intuition" - so your assessment of what might be possible with what is currently available is very good.> but if intuition is all you've got, you might agree.** And if you have none you are stuffed. ..... Phil
