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Comment by seddona | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, we started this due to the enormous amount of 'grunt' work involved in getting hardware into production. The essence is this;

You as a designer probably have a pretty loose spec for a 3.3V regulator, why not just have the factory tell you the one everybody else is using and better yet here's the symbol and footprint.

We were careful not to restrict people though, you can use any parts but we try and gently nudge you onto the more popular stuff!

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How much of this is simply because of hobby-level or inexperienced builders, though?

When I was a full time EE, answers to questions like this were just a phone call away. The part manufacturer's FAE (Field Applications Engineer) were happy to answer questions like that ("what's a cheap, low-dropout 3.3V regulator that can handle 100mA and won't be on allocation anytime soon?") and would be around the next day with samples.

Even for our tiny company, we got excellent service. Hell, I had FAE's visiting me when I was working out of my apartment! Has that changed these days?

Yes and no. That can still exist, but many of those guys have been let go. Many of the chip manufacturers have been/were struggling to keep a float and FAE's were easy pickins. But the nice thing about having the community sort of decide which is the best 3.3V regulator is that then you can all buy that chip in bulk and know that the supply will be there and the price will be reasonable.

I like browsing through other people's designs just to see what parts they use. When I see something useful, or something that comes up again and again, I add it to the list of things to consider in the future. Yeah, it's a huge pain.

The part rank is a very good idea. Is there a place we see part rank before starting a design ?

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