Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff

How do yo limit feature creep?

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technix:
I have detected a tendency of feature creep in my projects. Take my DIY stereo audio amplifier for an example:

* Version 1: A single-chip Class-D amplifier with volume knob and buck converter for power. Amplifier chip has internal volume knob support using a linear pot. Detected a power delivery bug and a click noise bug: power supply don't have enough oomph when volume is high, and when it is powered on or off it clicks. Chip count is 2.
* Version 2: Still that same single-chip solution, bugs are fixed by using a more powerful buck converter and a MCU reset chip to mute the output when the power rail is not ready. Added a headphone jack and corresponding detection circuitry that uses two chips. Chip count is 4.
* Version 3: Almost entirely an overhaul so I can implement a center speaker and a subwoofer from the same stereo input. Implemented a DSP (ADAU1701) to perform all the channel mixing, volume control and filtering. Chip count gone up to 14 (2x power converters, 2x MCU monitors, 2x audio power amplifiers - one stereo one mono, DSP + program memory, headphone detection, and four other 74LVC1G glue logic chips)

How do you limit yourself from such feature creeps?

Rerouter:
Set a BOM limit, if it gets too expensive, you need to cut stuff until your back under that budget, this makes for a much more pruning like iteration

Oh that new micro made me $2 over, well I like that, so where can I scrape back that amount, For me tends to mean I rip up areas a bit more to rework things in a cheaper way.

mc172:
Sell the centre speaker and subwoofer? That'll anti-creep your project.

I don't see how spec. creep for personal projects is ever a bad thing. It's what all people do throughout life - technically, redecorating your house is spec. creep.

schmitt trigger:
Agree with mc172;
My personal metric? As long it is a personal project, and with each successive iteration you *learn* and apply a new concept, you are fine.

Some people like to spend inordinate amounts of time and money making sure that the project not only performs, but also has stunningly good looks. There are many photos on the webs about relatively simple projects but which are frankly, works of art.

SiliconWizard:
How do you define feature creep vs. product evolution? Where's the line?

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