Some more examples. Hmm. I like the lanyard slot they have on the first 2. I figure a protractor is more useful when the edge is curved.
What if in addition to the ruler. We do a protractor that has two parts. Can do a SMT threaded hole (SMT Threaded Standoff) for the swing arm to pivot on.
Don’t like the EEVBlog one that much, agreed. Why not just put the footprints down instead of giving all of the dimensions? I go to a PCB ruler to eyeball something quickly, all the precision work gets done in the EDA tool.
I’m a sucker for quick reference tables with odd domain-specific units/measurements.
Not as dense as the ampacity chart on the digikey one, but even though that one’s a little hard to read I’ve glanced at it before.
If it had footprints, I agree, common passive chip footprints would be handy. On my dream ruler, I’d have footprints for chip caps/resistors/inductors, diodes (can never keep them straight), SMD electrolytics, and maybe tantalums. Oh, power inductors too, but those cases are all over the place.
Stunting with funky little designs is fun, but I think that’s better suited to a business card.
Here’s one I got from 2J when I was at one of their labs last year:
Thinking of duplicating the imperial measurements where the metric scale is at. Then on the backside add tick marks on the 90 degree gauge area. Then just make a metric version of the same ruler.
Then just have fitment holes for SAE fastners on the imperial ruler and Metric fastners on the metric ruler.
I have an idea. Instead of a ruler on each side, one of the sides could have castellations that match wire gauge size so you could put a wire in it to find out its gauge.
Land patterns for passives are sufficient for eyeballing purposes. Don’t think the silkscreen blocks showing actual component size are all that useful.
Text height is excellent, but you’re varying linewidth. Having that info would be helpful. Including that info would cram too much in. See #3.
Proposal: Delete the passive outlines, turn it into a silkscreen linewidth gauge. Already have those lines that butt up against that section, just vary them accordingly too. Delete the silkscreen indicating measurement increments on the angle gauge too, you already have quick references for the graduations on that side. Frees up space if you need it.
Love the wire gauge measurement, never seen it implemented that way before.
Small typo spotted: “Fastner size” should read “Fastener size”
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