Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 01 May 2024 01:22:37 +0000
From: John Larkin <jjSNIPlarkin@highNONOlandtechnology.com>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: Declining datasheet quality
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2024 18:20:53 -0700
Organization: Highland Tech
Reply-To: xx@yy.com
Message-ID: <6j533j1rloi61f1ean3c49ar8rbp8u69up@4ax.com>
References: <v0s3q3$2pcac$1@dont-email.me>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 3.1/32.783
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 37
X-Trace: sv3-lcnMIp3seJe1pUmYpswO+cwqMQh0vwUPbbfqA3RbApKFaiDCesiVW5SSLlQd9xv/xchoOHPRCH5E3cU!0anXUdDdwBMuRXb9ftxNiKlRb/OwWYKOsFg4GMZJI2JHx8uYIx7wgcA7oWMY7ajB/lKjG8d/QOKC!TPFYDw==
X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.40
Bytes: 2736

On Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:53:18 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

>A colleague teaching a STEM course asked me for some details on WS2812's.
>Digging through the datasheets I've been able to find seems like they
>are sold only to hobbyists -- or, at least not to folks who have to
>*design* with them!
>
>I can't seem to find any specification of Icc -- at MAX (255.255.255)
>intensity and "dark" (0.0.0).
>
>Nor anything giving thermal characteristics of the package beyond
>ambient (70C) and max junction temperature (80C) -- I suspect it
>wouldn't be hard to melt the things if they dissipate any
>appreciable amount of power!
>
>Is this the "typ" trend taken to its logical extreme (where we
>don't really care how it MIGHT work in a given environment, beyond
>"try it and see"?)

Data sheets are increasingly awful. Some don't even say what the part
does. Some mechanical drawings have missing dims. And where is pin 1?

People randomly distribute abs max, pin function tables, equivalent
schematics, electrical characteristics, whatever. Often there is no
date or version number. File names are bizarre, unrelated to the part
number.

I especially hate a data sheet that covers a bunch of parts and
doesn't tell you what the difference is between them.

Or covers a zillion parts and makes me build the part number, and then
guess whether it's an available thing.

This isn't really bad:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi9sYqdpOuFAxV6IDQIHX-dCJ0QFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2wZFi_i6GR7eWbT12yqVZd