Got a gadget in the works that's a little more ambitious than most of the little thingamajigs I've been fiddling with in my spare time. It's loosely based on an idea I had a few years ago, plus some new ideas and information from a long-time occasional associate.
(No specifics until it's ready for market, or abandoned. Watch This Space. Won't be on the market for at least a few months.)
Anyway, this particular dingus is a piece of test equipment, which might reasonably be regarded as Durable Goods. The reference instrument to which it will inevitably be compared is... well, 30-year-old specimens still sell for like-new prices. Mine will be substantially cheaper (with a lot of functionality offloaded to a PC), but I want it to be comparably durable, partly for reputation and partly Just Because.
So, longevity considerations. Using ceramic caps instead of electrolytics is a no-brainer these days, what with the dramatic improvements in ceramics... except that I think I'll need a couple of serious bulk caps. In which case, electrolytics mounted in such a way that replacement is not too difficult (and any leakage won't destroy the main board).
Then, the PC interface. I figure on including both USB and Ethernet. Then I think about USB....
Have you plugged an old USB peripheral into a new PC lately? I mean, a PC made in the last couple of years, running Linux or Windows, and a USB 1.0 or 1.1 peripheral or hub, plugged into one of the motherboard USB ports? It Doesn't Work. And usually results in the host port becoming inoperative until the next power cycle. If you want to use a USB 1.x device, you need to go through a 2.0 hub.
So, I figure, if I design in the latest USB 2.0 interface now... in a decade, there'll be serious compatibility issues.
But the Ethernet should still work. Thirty years from now, a 100BaseT connection? Should still work. Ethernet standards seem to be much more robust than USB standards - surprise, surprise!
Comments