Normally, I rarely ever swear, and generally have a fairly dim view of people who swear routinely — my mother taught me very good manners (spoken in my best posh British accent), in that regard at least. But on occasion I do swear, and on such occasions, people who know me well typically sit up and take note because coming from me, it actually means something. Most often, it's simple stress relief, in which I take it to an extreme, like saying with great conviction, "F#<K THE MOTHERF#<KING F#<K F#<KER"… or something along those lines, it really does depend on the circumstances.
Now, I'm just getting back into messing with Electronics as a hobby after a 20 year sabbatical in paying-the-bills land, and I'm gearing up to run a version 2 of one of those simple little "make a blinking led in KiCad" tutorials, mostly just for practice, and since these cheap PCB makers like to send you at least a couple of anything you order, I figured it would also be a good opportunity to practice my soldering by making them all up. But then, what to do with 3 blinky LED boards...?
Well, send them to people, of course! A perfectly useless flashing SMT LED on a little awesomely purple circuit board, laid out by yours truly… what better a gift to give!
So now, this thread caught my eye... because for one particularly good friend of mine — who would be quite pleased that I've rekindled my interest in Electronics after so long — silk screening onto a version of the board just for them, a nice graphic penis accompanied with an assortment of not just one but several 4-letter words not typically spoken in civilised discourse, would absolutely make their day. Especially if said blinking LED happened to be positioned at an appropriately inappropriate spot in the graphic.
If only I knew the PCB manufacturer did not employ any of those terminally curmudgeonous employees that appear to assume that the application of fowl language and/or crude graphic art in a design necessarily relates solely and directly to the maturity of the designer, rather than instead, you know, considering the possibility — however slight — that said PCB designer might actually be aware for whom they are designing the board.
So… Dispensing for the time being with the discussion of the appropriateness or lack thereof of such things being present in a design, does anyone actually know whether the various PCB manufacturers are likely to care (or even notice), such things? I ask also, because of a netcast I was listening to just yesterday, featured someone high up the food chain of one of those PCB manufacturers, and the question came up regarding the potential privacy issues surrounding designs coming through, and it was noted that they really shouldn't be taking too much interest anyhow. I would assume they treat a PCB design much like a doctor treats your prostate; get in, make sure it's okay, get out, and move on to the next (and maybe laugh about it over dinner that night with the family — though hopefully not in the case of your doctor).
Fredderic: If you go with a Chinese manufacturer, I doubt they'll raise a fuss - they don't seem terribly particular about anything that's not blatantly illegal in China. As for US-based manufacturers, who knows?
I think there will just be a few sniggers and a "come here and look at this" at the fab front end station that gets to do it.
Or you may still get your PCB but with it removed.
Or you may still get your PCB but with it removed.
If it does not break the law, business and standards of virtue should be kept separated.
wow, people get wound up over the strangest things
this was an Easter egg in an old Tek manual
What model and year scope is that? I have a few real Tektronix service manuals with similar sketches. Maybe in this thread.
Maybe in this thread I mentioned I wanted to or heard of some post of the draftsman. Or the 1960's Wollensak tape recorder I grew up with had "go crap up a tree" faintly on the record label in the instructions on how to record off your record player.
rambling
Thanks WastelandTek I have a couple Tek manuals of the within reach, bet you got them all.
Back then, who could complain, not even the scope users, but the repairers. (me)
I prefer hiding cute images on PCBs.
One of mine has a dragon which a friend designed on the silkscreen. I'm thinking of asking them to redraw it with thicker lines and use it as a logo.
I've got a few other ideas too... mostly related to PCB badges.
Hey, if you've got a few square inches of empty routing space and need to add a thieving pattern.....
Incidentally I made a Telegram sticker pack with the HP and Tek "schematic easter-eggs"... to preserve them for posterity. The cat touching the CRT HV line (and getting zapped) gets used a lot.......
Maxtor, at least I think it was Maxtor, did this on their hard drive controller boards for a while. Each series had a logo and name associated with it. I remember one with a drawing of an Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
I liked the Tektronix figures in some of the service manual schematics. Back when fixing 5xx to 7xxx series. Think I saw or read a reference to them.
Even better, all or most were puns or otherwise related to the associated circuit in some way.
http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/Tektronix_Cartoons
I uploaded the 7854 PUP (power up signal) one.
A friend was one of the people whose work went into a new kind of computer, with a very cool user interface so he and his other co workers all signed the PCB and you will find their names in there if you own one.