Symmetry Electronics' New PCB 13 inch Reference Ruler

We’re excited to announce the new Symmetry PCB reference ruler. The ruler is not only a handy engineering tool, it emphasizes our dedication towards supporting our customers. We wanted to create something for our customers that’s useful and includes our commitment to support them. I spoke to Symmetry VP of Marketing, David Beck, who came up with the ruler, Application Engineer, Cobus Heukelman, who designed the ruler and Anuja Upale, Application Engineer in customer support, about this cool new product.

James: So David, why a ruler, and why a thirteen-inch ruler?

David: We’ve had a lot of fun within Symmetry talking about how we measure up to our competition. Fun aside, the ruler represents something very important for Symmetry which is being a full service technical distributor for our customers. Whether a customer is looking at the newest technologies to design their next great thing, or if they are deep into a project and need immediate on-site technical support we take the extra effort to make sure our customers get their questions answered.

James: There are other rulers like this, how is this one different?

David: Written on the ruler is “We know wireless” and our direct technical support phone number is listed.  We have a very experienced team of engineers ready to help customers with their wireless and video designs. It also has our hashtag #Symmetry4U.

James: As an engineer, what information did you think was important to include on the ruler? Why did you decide to put those conversions? 

Cobus: I tried to include information that engineers would use on a daily basis. The ruler doesn’t just give information, but also a sense of the physical size of traces and components. For the conversions I focused on metric-imperial conversions but here and there tried to include a fun conversion like horsepower.

James: How do you think engineers will use the ruler?

Cobus: Honestly I think most engineers will keep it on their desk because it looks cool, and use it to measure things or draw lines. I hope that they’ll occasionally use the ruler as a reference while working on a board or designing a circuit.

James: You talk to design engineers every day, what will engineers find helpful on the Symmetry ruler?

Anuja: The Symmetry ruler provides easy access to many technical details such as difference in footprints, power conversions and hardware specifications. Especially the LTE data rate table helps to shortlist modules for customized applications. The LTE data rate table gives outlook into the future LTE for IoT.

We hope you’ll be as excited about the ruler as we are!