Anablog

Whew, I wanted to tell you about the 130 GHz amplifier in NASA Tech briefs but they don’t put current content on their website so that went in the trash. Then I saw this cool ad for a Matsusada lab power supply in EETimes but Matsusada does not have any mention or picture of the same 1.37 inch wide lab supply that they had in their ad. So that when in the trash. What is it with people too dim to realize that currency is the currency of the Internet? Oh well, since I bombed out on both electronic stories, I’ll tell you about a cool company that sent me a real live flyer in the real live post office mail. It is called First Cut and you send them a 3-d model of your plastic part and they will send you a prototype back in a day. The parts are real engineering plastic, not 3-d printer or stereolithography plastic so you get the actual properties of your parts represented. First Cut just carves them out with a CNC, all in one day.

These people at least understand immediacy and the momentum of design engineering. I keep telling people that if you gave Jimi Hendrix a 2x4 with wires and nails and pounded into it he would not have performed very well. Engineering is the same. If you give us crappy web sites and slow turnaround we lose our momentum and focus and you don’t get great products. Ken Bahl at Proto Express made fast turnaround circuit boards and that has transformed our design process. Rather than weeks spent checking and agonizing and passive-aggressing over a circuit board you just send it to Ken and he whips 2 or 3 four-layer boards back in four days all for about 150 bucks. Now instead of waiting and arguing you just send it out and when the inevitable mistakes show up you spin it and four days later you get the new board. Thanks Ken. Now this First Cut outfit allows the same response with plastic parts. CNC aluminum cannot be far behind. There will be some wonderful products in the next decade just like there was some fabulous music after Les Paul and Leo Fender invented their great tools.