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Conundrum

Sun May 20 2012, 07:36PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059

Interesting.
Shame there aren't really cheap 64GB pendrives, that would be the best way to store every datasheet known to man in a way that doesen't depend on flaky DVD-R's with less than a year shelf life.

-A

Neet Studio

Sun May 20 2012, 09:06PM

Registered Member #4037 Joined: Fri Jul 29 2011, 03:13PM
Location:
Posts: 86

I have been tagging the file names of the datasheets I collected with description of their function as well as parameters as I download them.
So when I need a part or recycle a part from old project, I can search that in my datasheet collection. They save me a bit of time in the long run.

irf7456 20V 16A 0.006R NMOS SO-8.pdf
2SK2843 600V 10A 0.54R NMOS.pdf

I am also starting to include the marking on those smaller SOT23 packages as they are becoming impossible to decipher/remember.
The tags 7Z04. Z04, CC are the making for the various packages. I can do a search for the marking and find out what they are at least.

NC7SZ04 [7Z04,Z04,CC].pdf

Conundrum

Mon May 21 2012, 07:17AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059

Another useful thing to have is an "old" 486 PC which should be slightly tougher against EMP.
Best bet for this is an ancient laptop with its battery removed and replaced with a solar converter.
Has to have USB though.

Rumour has it that they tried one of the ancient Compaq LTEs in a test chamber, and it survived something like double the energy density found in a domestic microwave while unpowered.
Nothing else did though.. !
Screen didn't like it much but the laptop still ran and booted afterwards.

If anyone is interested I am working on building a proper EMP test jig using a modified domestic microwave with internal induction heater and pulsed capacitor unit.
It should be able to simulate a wide range of potential waveforms including the classic "oops I just keyed up my 1000W burner next to my Iphone" and the typical range of EMP scenarios you'd expect.
Goes way beyond anything typical CE/EMC would test for, these are worst case here.

Nicko

Mon May 21 2012, 11:30AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

Steve Conner wrote ...

Don't know about you, but my workshop has an intranet with a server that provides a version control system for code, and dispenses datasheets and other documentation.

The datasheets are on the server because, in this day and age of DatasheetArchive.com buying their way to the top of the search results and making you click through three pages of ads, it's easier to host them locally.

For years, for every project I've worked on, I collected all the datasheets, manuals, footprints, schematics, books etc. in a structured tree (datasheets by function/subfunction, manuals by manufacturer & device, books by subject etc.) About 200 Gb now, but because I've always been religious about it, its all there and easy to find... all on my tablet as well... served via the intranet too..

The next most useful thing is having a duplex printer which will print in A5 booklet format. Very useful, that is... saves a stack of paper and is much easier to handle...

tobias

Tue May 22 2012, 03:23PM

Registered Member #1956 Joined: Wed Feb 04 2009, 01:22PM
Location: Jersey City
Posts: 172

Nicko,
I would not mind to make backups for you, both in USA and Brazil. That would cover some of the "to have multiple copies buried all over the world"requirement stated by Sulaiman, and as a bonus I would probably be free of the DatasheetArchive.com most of the time!

But I cannot promise to you they would be accessible in case of disaster. I would probably find my way to a nice untouched beach and enjoy the lack of regulation regarding primitive buildings close to the sea.

Thomas W

Tue May 22 2012, 04:11PM

Registered Member #3324 Joined: Sun Oct 17 2010, 06:57PM
Location:
Posts: 1276

Nicko, id love to make a backup too :3, il happly pay for a HDD or somthing to put it all on and send over if you want to :D

datasheetarchive

Fri May 25 2012, 11:03AM

Registered Member #5013 Joined: Fri May 25 2012, 10:37AM
Location:
Posts: 2

Hi Everyone,
I work on the Datasheet Archive and wanted get involved in this discussion to improve our user experience. We have a new website launching very soon which addresses many of the issues commonly raised.

I will stress that we do not buy our way to the top of search. We have scanned over 9000 data books for our archive and offer all these scans for free. The project is expensive. We buy the book, remove the spine for scanning (destroying the book), scan in the pages, type the part numbers into a database. On top of this we have 15 years of collecting and archiving from mfg websites. It's a lot of hard work.

I'd like a few of you to give the new demo website a look and provide some feedback. Message here and I will supply a link next week.

Chris

Ash Small

Fri May 25 2012, 11:36AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

When I'm looking for datasheets I generally look for a link labelled as a pdf to save time, but datasheet archive is useful for some of the more obscure components.

I pay for my internet by the megabyte, so I avoid advertising/unneccessary clicking when I'm able to.

Steve Conner

Fri May 25 2012, 12:05PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

datasheetarchive wrote ...

Hi Everyone,
I work on the Datasheet Archive and wanted get involved in this discussion to improve our user experience. We have a new website launching very soon which addresses many of the issues commonly raised.

Thanks for your input. I'll be sure to check the site out.

To clarify my earlier gripings: I design industrial electronics for a living. So, I'm looking for information on current parts, not obsolete ones. When I type a part number into a search engine, what I want to see is the manufacturer's product page for that part. It is the official source of information, and carries silicon errata, end-of-life warnings and so on.

But more often than not, the product page is forced down the search results by some site that harvests datasheets and re-serves them. On clicking the link, I then have to click through at least one page of ads to get at the actual datasheet, which in turn looks like it was simply a PDF leeched from the page that I wanted in the first place, except that it probably won't be the latest version.

To be fair, there are several of these sites. AllDatasheet and DatasheetCatalog seem to be the main offenders. I did a test with some parts that I commonly use, and DatasheetArchive didn't appear above the official product page for any of them.

I guess this just means that the datasheet sites are better at SEO than the component manufacturers. And who can blame them, since the raison d'etre of these datasheet sites is to raise ad revenue, but the manufacturers have other things to do, like sell chips.

Some manufacturers used to be very bad. Google wouldn't find the part number on their site at all: if you wanted the product page, you had to use the site's own search function. Not so easy if you can't remember what manufacturer the part number belonged to in the first place.

Neet Studio

Fri May 25 2012, 01:31PM

Registered Member #4037 Joined: Fri Jul 29 2011, 03:13PM
Location:
Posts: 86

I do use datasheet archive for the obsoleted parts I have or parts sitting on old PCB. A lot of times (60%-80% or so), just because the keyword appears in the "datasheet" does not mean that it has anything to do with the part#. A larger first page image enough to read might be nice and/or the title of that page. I see that at least for TI parts, the links point to TI's website.

Datasheet archive is the first one I check. Those other site even add an extra page to the datasheets or "tag" them with their name and I avoid them for doing that. :(

For any new designs, I go to the manufacturer's site directly unless they requires registrations or NDA just to see the datasheet. There were at least 2 companies that we had to sign NDA. i.e. Fedex paper with signatures from "Officer" who have signing authority of the company I worked for etc. I flip through a hand full of datasheets in minutes when I initially consider a part as I don't play chess by correspondence. I'll go back to them if I can't any better parts elsewhere.

I pretty much given up on googling for part# as there are too many "selling for leads" and not even the actual part! I really don't want to be bothered to add a full line of exclusions to the search.

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