Monday 7 September 2015

1206 resistor array

This is a 1206 component (third from left). It's pretty small.



When I recently created a pcb with 8 pull-down resistors, each connecting microcontroller pins to a common ground. Whenever I've got a load of resistors connected to a common point (whether pulled-up to Vcc or pulled-down to ground) the first thing that springs to mind is "resistor array".


So when there are a load of 1206 resistors that all need connecting to a common point, what about a 1206 resistor array? Here's a 595 shift register DIP with 8 x 1206 resistors (and, of course, a penny for scale).


What would be really cool would be a block of eight resistors, where one side all shared a "common bus". Then we'd have a nice big block that should be easily manageable. So what about those 1206 resistor arrays? A quick trip to uk.farnell.com and 16 hours later, and we've got some to try out


Except they're not quite what I was expecting. While the description read like it said "8 x 1206-sized resistors in an array", it turns out it was more like "8 x resistors in a 1206-sized array" (note the subtle difference).


That's right - all 8 resistors and a common connection squashed into a single, tiny, 1206 package. Given the size of those ridiculously tiny pins, I'm not entirely sure how this is less fiddly than dealing with 8 of the little buggers individually!

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