Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Best and Worst Component Manufacturers
mrpackethead:
--- Quote from: Synthtech on January 26, 2019, 09:53:28 am ---TI unleashed millions of sub-standard 4000 series IC’s and some op-amps onto an unsuspecting world some time ago. They were failing so badly that one company that I do servicing for had to recall huge numbers of large circuit boards and send them back to the board manufacturer in the USA to laboriously have all of the TI chips removed by hand and replaced with chips from NXP. I won’t purchase any TI DIL 4000 series IC’s, particularly 4050, 4051, 4053s because there must still be millions of defective ICs out there in supplier warehouses.
--- End quote ---
I did a bit of a google and could not find anything about this.
David Hess:
In the past TI has be pretty scuzzy with datasheets which were wrong or outright lied.
TrickyNekro:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on January 26, 2019, 03:25:35 am ---POOR: Texas Instruments. It kills me to give them a negative rating, because I've had great success with their parts in the past. But like that other thread pointed out, of late their components have seemed needlessly complex and, let's be honest, sometimes even difficult to use. And while their spec sheets and app notes used to be second to none - they sought not just to tell you about their parts but also to educate you on the technology and mindset behind them - lately they've deteriorated significantly. It's just not safe anymore to presume that a TI part will be bulletproof, and that's a shame.
--- End quote ---
I got to agree on that, but really partially. Sometimes information digging happens in their datasheets but that´s up to an extent normal.
What totally frustrated me though was trying to use the ADS1274. The information on the datasheet would really leave you wondering for minutes,
and we had to actually find ourselves how to reset the chip. We had the problem that the power-rails wouldn´t come up with the expected order (they would come up pretty much simultaneously),
and it would output junk data. Found how to reset it and then it was a green light. But nowhere in the darn datasheet would tell you how to do all that.
Apart from that though, all their other datasheets are relatively good and on spot, haven´t used TI parts for a while now.
About their parts, some are top like the best, some eeehhh, let´s say better not have to encounter them. I got cancer trying to repair a BQ24735 based laptop, but like serious cancer...
Probably not the parts fault but datasheet information was downright insufficient for debugging. And the laptop implementation was pretty much textbook also.
Microchip started having very good datasheets, especially their package cads are really top and their library support is good to be there.
Although older parts did not get the treatment, some package layout data are totally unreadable. You can still find them from their site but pfff... It doesn´t take that much to copy paste some pdf files...
Another thing I love about Microchip is how I see that they combine AVR and PIC technology. You see that more in peripherals but darn they try to make the best of it.
Although their datasheets can be very massive. Have not tried many application note up to now, so I will not complain.
AD is winner winner chicken dinner, their analog is top. Never had to think twice when using them. I also used FET drivers and isolators, again no complains at all.
And I like their datasheets, they are not overwhelming, accurate and on point. Not much else to say.
Maxim is also pretty solid. Their datasheets can be a bit overwhelming but nothing out of nightmares. Their part portfolio is a bit of an odd ball sometimes, but if you have the application for them,
well... they can fit in quite nicely. Their 1-W stuff are nice, I don´t know if they progressed as far as they would have liked though. And one thing that pisses me off is that some of their best for
the job ICs do not come in a SPI variant. I2C is relatively slow, especially if you build an RTS. Or else you got to break the execution time between repetitions and that´s a nightmare.
I have used many other manufacturers, but didn´t spent all that much time using their products, or didn´t have to spend a lot of time designing around their products, so I will refrain from saying
anything else.
David Hess:
--- Quote from: TrickyNekro on January 27, 2019, 03:32:17 am ---AD is winner winner chicken dinner, their analog is top. Never had to think twice when using them. I also used FET drivers and isolators, again no complains at all.
And I like their datasheets, they are not overwhelming, accurate and on point. Not much else to say.
--- End quote ---
I like the older AD, National, and LT datasheets which showed equivalent or complete schematics or at least input and output structures because some characteristics are just not listed.
Which way do bias currents flow? I have had to disqualify several TI parts because I had no idea, no way to find out from the datasheet, and TI was more interested in why I wanted to know than telling me and I would have had to verify it anyway.
AD's web site really pisses me off; why would I possibly want to sort by part number? I guess it is a good thing that I cannot. TI's site hides low cost parts in favor of high cost ones. Microchip does not properly list parts from their acquired businesses; who knew they make depletion mode MOSFETs now?
TrickyNekro:
--- Quote from: David Hess on January 27, 2019, 04:27:08 am ---AD's web site really pisses me off; why would I possibly want to sort by part number? I guess it is a good thing that I cannot. TI's site hides low cost parts in favor of high cost ones. Microchip does not properly list parts from their acquired businesses; who knew they make depletion mode MOSFETs now?
--- End quote ---
Every site has it´s quirks, sometimes it´s a thing, sometimes not so much... But I accept I got to do some digging when I go to a manufacturer´s page.
What I can not accept in any way, shape or form, is that when I go buy something from suppliers, like Mouser for example, they do NOT have price listing in quantities!
Like I am going to buy 1 diode or 1 IC?! FFS really... unless I am missing something really badly. But you can not select price listing in the, for example, 100 parts quantity.
Un-fffffing-acceptable. Unless I am wake-sleeping or something, checked some days ago, still nothing in the obvious field of view.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version