Looking a part up in SiliconExpert

Two questions, one action. Why does the toolbox not find this part number? and what does SiliconExpert actually know about this part?

It runs the same search the sync runs, and then shows you every step of it instead of only the outcome. Nothing is written anywhere, so you can run it as often as you like on anything you like.

When to use this

• A component comes back empty from a sync and you want to know at which step it went wrong.
• You are writing a field list and need to see what SiliconExpert returns for a real part, with the section each value sits in.
• A part number has a suffix your supplier uses and SiliconExpert does not.
• You want to compare what the schematic says against what SiliconExpert says, before deciding which is right.

What you need first

• SiliconExpert — the connection, with credentials. Nothing else: no workspace, no database, no Altium Designer. That makes this the one action you can run at a prospect without being given access to anything.

Reading the search

The log walks the same path the sync takes, and names each attempt:

• the strict search, part number and manufacturer together
• the widened search, part number alone, when the strict one finds nothing
• the trimmed search, with a trailing suffix removed, if you left Retry with the suffix trimmed on

Seeing which of the three produced the answer usually settles the question on its own. A part found only by the widened search means the manufacturer name on the component does not match SiliconExpert's; a part found only by the trimmed search means the suffix is yours, not theirs.

Reading the fields

Switch on List the parameters with their values and the action prints every field of the candidate you picked, with three things next to it: the value, the section of the response it came from, and which API supplies it.

That last column is the one that costs money:

Also fetch PartDetails is off by default. Leave it off and you see the free half. Switch it on for one part, here, and you can decide whether a field is worth paying for in a sync across the whole library — which is exactly the decision a field list records.

Comparing against the schematic

If you arrived here from Altium Designer, the action carries the designator and the parameters that component already holds. The comparison then shows, per field, what the schematic says and what SiliconExpert says, and marks the ones that disagree.

Set Which parameters to the configured field list to see only what you actually sync, or to everything to see the whole answer.

Notes

• A field available from both APIs always resolves to PartSearch, so you are never billed for something already in hand.
• Write the parameters to a spreadsheet saves the full answer, which is the quickest way to hand a colleague the evidence for a field-list decision.
• The catalogue behind the field editor is generated from real responses by tools/build_se_catalogue.py; regenerate it when SiliconExpert adds fields.

Related actions

• Syncing a library with SiliconExpert — apply a field list to a whole library
• Adding SiliconExpert data to a component — write these values onto one component