Have you ever had this experience?
After placing a purchase order, the supplier discovers they cannot manufacture the promised part.
Because you did not plan properly, you have no choice but to buy an expensive, unproven custom product. With no prior reference history, you are the unknowing design testing and verification proving ground. Hold your breath, and keep your fingers crossed.
A question to ask yourself:
with easily over 300 manufacturers and suppliers around the world, what proven product doesn’t exist and is readily available?
To avoid this trap:
Consider planning and try designing using proven technology. For ultimate flexibility between suppliers, design to an industry-standard grid. And most of all, do your homework and shop around.
Pins and sockets seem trivial compared to semi-conductors. The layout of connector space on a PCB is secondary to the required planning of signal routing channels, board layers, and the cost of manufacturing. However, this oversight comes back more often than not to bite you.
Nothing ruins a good sales meeting like telling the customer they have no choice but to purchase a custom product. A custom product typically requires tooling. Depending on the complexity of tooling this can be quite expensive. And the time required, in months, to create it. Let's not forget that nothing ever works properly the first time out, so revisions, leading to more delays and added-costs are to be expected..
Lastly, depending on the reliability of the supplier, you may discover that you are the initial test case for their theoretical design and it is very conceivable that this custom product, in fact, may not be manufacturable.
Summary:
With so many existing interconnect products on distributor shelves (COTs). Do not neglect to review connector requirements at the beginning of your design cycle.
After placing a purchase order, the supplier discovers they cannot manufacture the promised part.
Because you did not plan properly, you have no choice but to buy an expensive, unproven custom product. With no prior reference history, you are the unknowing design testing and verification proving ground. Hold your breath, and keep your fingers crossed.
A question to ask yourself:
with easily over 300 manufacturers and suppliers around the world, what proven product doesn’t exist and is readily available?
To avoid this trap:
Consider planning and try designing using proven technology. For ultimate flexibility between suppliers, design to an industry-standard grid. And most of all, do your homework and shop around.
Pins and sockets seem trivial compared to semi-conductors. The layout of connector space on a PCB is secondary to the required planning of signal routing channels, board layers, and the cost of manufacturing. However, this oversight comes back more often than not to bite you.
Nothing ruins a good sales meeting like telling the customer they have no choice but to purchase a custom product. A custom product typically requires tooling. Depending on the complexity of tooling this can be quite expensive. And the time required, in months, to create it. Let's not forget that nothing ever works properly the first time out, so revisions, leading to more delays and added-costs are to be expected..
Lastly, depending on the reliability of the supplier, you may discover that you are the initial test case for their theoretical design and it is very conceivable that this custom product, in fact, may not be manufacturable.
Summary:
With so many existing interconnect products on distributor shelves (COTs). Do not neglect to review connector requirements at the beginning of your design cycle.
