FETs are disappearing???

[merlinb]

I guess another question is, if the J201 is going completely by the wayside, do we care? Can circuits that use the J201 be redesigned to use a different JFET?

+1

There's nothing special about the J201. There are loads of alternative devices that can be used instead, perhaps with a minor bias adjustment.

[LucifersTrip]

If I can still buy loads of germaniums 40+ years after production (not including the cheap Russian ones), I wouldn't even waste a second worrying about getting a modern fet for years....

[Paul Marossy]

Looks like DIY is going to get harder to do as time goes on. Everything is moving towards full automation, made in China. 

Hmm. Interestingly enough, if it's full automation, there's no reason to make it in China or other offshore place. The move to offshore production was to minimize labor. Full automation amounts to substituting capital for labor, and then the impetus would be to eliminate transportation. Right now, industry is substituting cheap(er) transportation for expensive labor. When labor is free (i.e. done by a machine almost in toto), the next cost savings becomes transportation, so siting fully automated production near the consumption becomes smart.

Yes, that makes sense. I see automation as wiping out the need for thru hole components, and so the manufacturers will stop making them because it's all about profit, and those things will not be profitable for them anymore so poof they are gone. Goes right along with people's conception that electronics are what you buy at Best Buy, and probably most everything they sell is made with SMD stuff now too.

I think there is coming a day when thru hole stuff will be impossible to find anymore. So DIYers will need to learn how to work with tiny little SMD components, if they will even be available to the average joe anymore.

[Seven64]

we should make a diystompboxes smd to thru hole adapters

[Paul Marossy]

we should make a diystompboxes smd to thru hole adapters

Ha ha, someone probably will one day!

[J0K3RX]

we should make a diystompboxes smd to thru hole adapters

Ha ha, someone probably will one day!

[defaced]

I posted this in the other thread linked on the first page, but perhaps it needs repeating.  If you can solder a wire to it, you can build with it, and you can breadboard with it.   

[Jdansti]

I posted this in the other thread linked on the first page, but perhaps it needs repeating.  If you can solder a wire to it, you can build with it, and you can breadboard with it.   

Cool!  Can you solder the leads to the PCB without the joint on the SMD heating up and coming loose?

[Jdansti]

SMD adapter:
http://www.logicalsys.com/datasht/sod3sm18.pdf

SMD Proto-Board: http://electroboards.com/proddetail.php?prod=SMDG15X15-EB



There are two holes on each pad.  One gets covered by the component and the other is available for a jumper or through hole component.

[defaced]

Cool!  Can you solder the leads to the PCB without the joint on the SMD heating up and coming loose?

Speed and heat sink are key, but yes. 

[Perrow]

Looks like DIY is going to get harder to do as time goes on. Everything is moving towards full automation, made in China. 

Hmm. Interestingly enough, if it's full automation, there's no reason to make it in China or other offshore place. The move to offshore production was to minimize labor. Full automation amounts to substituting capital for labor, and then the impetus would be to eliminate transportation. Right now, industry is substituting cheap(er) transportation for expensive labor. When labor is free (i.e. done by a machine almost in toto), the next cost savings becomes transportation, so siting fully automated production near the consumption becomes smart.

Yes, that makes sense. I see automation as wiping out the need for thru hole components, and so the manufacturers will stop making them because it's all about profit, and those things will not be profitable for them anymore so poof they are gone. Goes right along with people's conception that electronics are what you buy at Best Buy, and probably most everything they sell is made with SMD stuff now too.

I think there is coming a day when thru hole stuff will be impossible to find anymore. So DIYers will need to learn how to work with tiny little SMD components, if they will even be available to the average joe anymore.

Shouldn't there be a time when automation has come far enough to make it economical to produce small runs of through hole components, maybe more expensive than today, but affordable for geeks like us.

[markeebee]

Sorry for partial hijack.....

I visited a company a couple of weeks ago who are engaged in research into nanomaterials.  The hard-science fuhrer there told me quite plainly that all existing high-volume electronic manufacture will be obsolete within five years.  Effectively, all circuits will be kind of "chemically printed" using techniques that really are just around the corner.

I've read lots of stuff about nanomaterials - I'm no expert, but it has some bearing on my job future so I like to keep abreast.  Nanocircuits will definitely be a reality in a fairly short time frame, simply because big corps have invested so much in research and plant that they HAVE to get payback.  And the potential for profit is huge, almost as huge as the danger of being left behind by the market.

It's the first time I've heard somebody "at the coalface" make a solid prediction about timescales, though.

Implications are HUUUUUUUGE.  Not least a complete turnaround in centralised manufacture in China (or wherever).  Opinion seems to be that the large corps and first world governments are not currently too bothered about reclaiming traditional manufacturing from China, India, Brazil etc.  Instead they are planning for the nano revolution.  Could be interesting.

[Perrow]

Will probably be a while before we get to DIY-printed nano circuits though I guess.

[kingswayguitar]

thanks for the interesting insight markeebee

[bonaventura]

nanomaterials?

damn man,i just got into this thing.

should i look for a new hobby?

[artifus]

nah, just start saving up for a circuit printer to sit next to the 3d printing makerbot on your bench. star trek replicators here we come. 

[J0K3RX]

Well looks like we will have to comply or be assimilated  

If you really want to be a true DIY'er then you can just make you own parts...

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/13/transistor-fabrication-so-simple-a-child-can-do-it/

[Paul Marossy]

Shouldn't there be a time when automation has come far enough to make it economical to produce small runs of through hole components, maybe more expensive than today, but affordable for geeks like us.

It's possible. But will anyone out there think it's profitable to offer such a service? Or can it even be profitable for them? I tend to think not but I could be wrong.  

I visited a company a couple of weeks ago who are engaged in research into nanomaterials.  The hard-science fuhrer there told me quite plainly that all existing high-volume electronic manufacture will be obsolete within five years.  Effectively, all circuits will be kind of "chemically printed" using techniques that really are just around the corner.

That would change "everything"!  

[J0K3RX]

yeah yeah... and they said they were gonna stop making tubes 20 years ago... In 5 years the most powerful computers today will fit into a space the size of a of a flea > . <  stomp boxes will be thin as a credit card with no moving or singular parts... your entire pedal board will fit in your wallet They are making computers from actual living tissue like grey matter... 5 years from now they will be thinking 5 years ahead so...

[artifus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18074644