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Moronlithicpower 1

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itsmoked

itsmoked

Electrical
Feb 18, 2005
19,114
So I'm reading Electronic Design Magazine and stumble across an ad for a synchronous step-down converter with 'telemetry' by Monolithicpower. Great! On interesting products I go get the data sheet and stick it in my interesting ICs folder that I peruse before I embark on new designs.

I go to their website and find the part, go to download it and "[!]STOP! we won't let you have the data sheet unless you're registered.[/!]"

I despise sites like this. Usually I stop there - no sale. But in this case I decide to register. After giving them all my details they inform me that 'someone will review my application and possibly dine to grant me access'. But, NOOooooOOOO, no one bothers. After two weeks nothing.

I can't imagine why these people think registration should be needed to grant people access to ICs they're peddling in industry rags.

Anyone else manage to get a data sheet from these fools?

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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That's to protect all the trade secrets they would otherwise share with you.

I despise them too; I'll usually go to a competitor, unless I'm desperate because they're the only game in town.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Unless desparate, I move along to someone else. When desparate, I go one of two ways: 1) Junk info, just enough to get me what I want (often times you can access the datasheet immediately with a fake email address entered... browser cookies are your friend here), or 2) "real" info (i.e., phone number) and a plea for "IMMEDIATE!" need of 1million+ units.

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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yep.. I think everyone hates that crap and it makes me go somewhere else

If they are going to do that they had better follow up ASAP..
I've had too many of these calls..

Sales Lizard:"Hey we noticed you were interested in XXX"...
Me: "umm..ok...(pause...) ok yeah I remember now...But that was 4+ months ago and I already went another direction because you never followed up"
 
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I did it once that I definitely remember, to get design manuals and such from a large chemical manufacturer. Afterwards, I could and would get free samples of a lot of their stuff shipped to me for free, stuff that normally you need to order a 55-gallon drum of to get, or pay exorbitant prices from a lab supply house. Pissed off the boss at the time, they wouldn't even return his phone calls...
 
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A supplier of decent, if over-priced, equipment appears to have me on speed dial. Every. Single. Day.
 
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mcgyvr; I know what you mean. I've actually had them call me a year later, where it takes me an hour after their call to actually recall that particular data quest.

Scotty; After getting a 3D printer I had to come up with a 3D drawing tool to use it. Quite a shock from decades of happily 2Ding everything. I tried AutoDesk Fusion 360. Egads! They turn a team loose on you. You get called once a week they email you daily sometimes multiple times a day. It's 'free' to use if you do less than ~100k a year of work with it otherwise it's like $100 a year. I use it maybe once a month for an hour as I try to learn it. I can't believe the effort they put out to try to get me to buy it.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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Out of the blue, I started getting emails from a sales guy at SPI Borescopes. No idea how he got my email address, and I had no recollection of our company ever talking with them about their products. Yet the emails were written as if we were old pals, how happy he was to let me get a 30-day loaner, etc. Every few days a new email came in. I tried it all, from ignoring at first, then politely asking him to remove my email, putting it on my local spam list (which I still had to see as a new message), then finally blasting back a string of messages not-so-politely telling him to talk a long walk off of a short pier, followed by adding him to the company spam blacklist. I'll make it my death quest to ensure no one in this company ever purchases/uses an SPI anything, despite it possibly being a useful tool type here.

The self-defeating behavior of companies wanting to make a sale is amazing...

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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I feel much the same toward the outfit who keep calling me - I'll buy stuff from them on the day I see Satan snowboarding to work...
 
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I was once taken out to lunch by a salesman, who drove the two of us to the restaurant. Parking was scarce, so he pulled into a handicap parking spot and whipped out a heretofore hidden handicap parking placard. I never bought anything more from him.

However, that, and much of the behavior above is not necessarily "the company" misbehaving, but only certain individuals. But companies we deal with still should do the undercover customer bit, just like restaurants and hotels, to check out their own customer service.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Hmm. I have never seen a spam from the chemical company I wrote about above, nor cold calls etc. Seems to me there was a long form with boxes about "can we contact you" to which I replied in the negative...and they actually complied.

Another time, I had to fill out a form to get data sheets for a sensor...and somehow became a factory rep. for their products, so they send me their entire corporate catalog (1.5 inches of it) each year, and am getting occasional email requests for quotes from people up and down the coast. I was tempted (strongly) to reply to these with a price from the catalog including a substantial markup and ridiculous lead time...

Luckily, I work in an office with a receptionist, who knows to route sales calls to my voice mail. IMO, being a design engineer means exposing yourself to advertising for new products, with all the spam, cold calls, junk mail, etc. etc. that entails. And its kinda fun sometimes to ask pointed questions of certain reps, just to watch them squirm. Yes, I used to pull wings off flies too...
 
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I got tired of it and just made up stuff. I've been the President of a company with 20,000 employees and annual sales of $1500. I have 35 co workers, and can't approve the purchase of anything.

One place I filled out a bunch of stuff and got nothing back, so I called up and asked for technical support. I asked about my online inquiry and the guy told me that Engineering had been telling Marketing to just stop with the 200 questions, but Marketing was not interested. It worked out, but not because of the web site.

Here's one for y'all. I need replacement closers for a storm door. So I look and see that one company has this basically sewn up. I go to the web site for some selection help and am expecting things like retracted length, extended length, body material (the ones that failed are plastic and in the winter they either won't ever close or they don't dampen at all; also the UV caused the plastic to embrittle, including the vent screw which twisted off) and other useful characteristics. But happy-time door closer company has no such information. Nada. Just part numbers. WTF! Is there some industrial secret in how to build an air-damped spring loaded door closer? At least I didn't have to register.
 
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You guys have nothing to complain about since you clearly don't work on aircraft.
These days, when you buy an aircraft (almost any aircraft) you get the service and maintenance manuals for the airframe that the OEM built.
Note, that the airframe OEM did not make the engines, avionics, mechanical systems, seats or even the crapper that they put inside it.
To get the service manuals for THOSE things, you get to go to every one of those subs, sign a data license agreement, and then part with thousands of dollars cash.
Take a moment to reflect on the fairness of getting a multi-million dollar machine that you CAN'T FIX yourself without forking over thousands of dollars.

Sorry...
...you may have guessed...
I have wasted a hundred hours of engineering time recently - all for the lack of sub-component service manuals that were not purchased when my company purchased an aircraft, and now won't cough up the money.
[hairpull3]
Rant over.

STF
 
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Yes, word must have got out to those bloodsuckers that aircraft operators are rolling in spare money.
It must be the aircraft maintenance workers (who are paid half the wage of heavy truck mechanics) who let the secret out.

STF
 
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"It must be the aircraft maintenance workers (who are paid half the wage of heavy truck mechanics) who let the secret out."


Wow, really? Over here the ones who hold the appropriate certficates are paid premium rate. The certficate is worth more than the skillset being hired. ;-)
 
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