
Programmable capacitor - anigbrowl
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raptorbird/programmable-capacitor?ref=category
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neomech
Gerry Sweeney has been selling something like this for ages now:

[https://www.tindie.com/products/gerrysweeney/five-decade-
pro...](https://www.tindie.com/products/gerrysweeney/five-decade-programmable-
capacitor-100pf-to-9999uf-100v/)

I've got his programmable resistor, and its quite handy:

[https://www.tindie.com/products/gerrysweeney/seven-decade-
pr...](https://www.tindie.com/products/gerrysweeney/seven-decade-programmable-
resistor-1r-9999999r-1-500mw-gerrysweeneycom/)

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linker3000
A $25 assortment of capacitors/capacitor goodie bags from ebay or your
favourite supplier would be far more useful.

There really is no substitute to building up a stock of parts for prototying
where the parts can be part of the completed work.

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makomk
Interesting idea. I'd be worried that the stray capacitance from the wires and
PCB traces would make the total capacitance much higher than intended towards
the lower end of the range though.

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mafuyu
Programmable caps/resistors are nothing new. I'd be more interested if he had
a very high level of polish that would justify the cost of something I could
make myself. Either that, or he could better target the Arduino/electronics
beginner crowd.

~~~
wiml
Yes, these have been around as resistance / capacitance / inductance "decade
boxes" for at least a century, for example:
[http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem...](http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15421coll3/id/494/rec/5)
[http://www.mouser.com/Test-Measurement/Decade-
Boxes/_/N-7uql...](http://www.mouser.com/Test-Measurement/Decade-
Boxes/_/N-7uqlk)

But if the guy can kickstart an inexpensive one for hobbyist use, that's cool.

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Zardoz84
I can understand why can be useful for newbies in DIY electronics, but I don't
understand why need 3000$ for something can be draw in Kicad and put free on
Internet.

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sliverstorm
Because he's not offering a schematic, he is offering a finished board. Have
you ever had a PCB fabbed? Huge up-front cost, and the price scales down very
quickly with number of units. A $3,000 seed investment lets him produce
finished boards at $25/apiece; a $1,000 seed investment (and thus 1/3 of the
PCBs) would probably double the cost of the PCB per unit.

~~~
danellis
A PCB of that size would be about $30 at OSH Park. Hardly a "huge upfront
cost".

~~~
sliverstorm
Sure, but OSH Park is hardly the best way to offer a production board. Yes, he
could make one for himself, but is that the goal?

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forktheif
Less programmable, more like selectable.

