On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:59:49 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"pyotr filipivich" wrote in message
.. .
Ed Huntress on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 09:35:46
-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Or, as they used to say at GM, "Any damned fool can design a
carburettor for a Rolls-Royce. It takes a genius to design one for a
Chevrolet."

Or the tongue-in-cheek motto applied to Mercedes-Benz: "Never use
two
parts to do a job when you can get away with three." g

OTOH, when you have three parts, you can replace one of them. B-)

Nowadays, we have modules which are plug and play, do multiple
functions, and can't really be repaired. Not cost effectively,
compared to removing and replacing.
--
pyotr filipivich

That started in the 1980's with surface-mount electronics, which are
substantially more difficult to repair by hand than thru-hole, and not
reliable unless the tech who solders on the new parts is more than
usually skilled and experienced. I got the experience on lab
prototypes where a solder failure was only a brief inconvenience
instead of costing a field service call.

I didn't stay in the field long enough to get that kind of experience.


Compared to thru-hole SMT is very cheap to manufacture, costing little
more to make than the Bill of Materials, and the ICs themselves are
cheaper to make due to the smaller lead frame with much less metal. I
first encountered the no-repair policy on computer add-in cards for
Winchester drives, when the vendor didn't want us to return defective
ones.

The Army taught us troubleshooting to the transistor level. They had
so much difficulty finding recruits who could learn it that they
changed to training LRU (Line-Replaceable Unit) board-swappers.

Sad, isn't it?


The four (of ~80) of us who graduated all had science degrees. The
washouts had a choice of other repair schools so they weren't wasted.

My year at Coleman College's Computer Electronics Technology course
taught me troubleshooting down to the component level, too. I stayed
at it for only 3 years as a test tech before SKF bought out Palomar
Technology (vibration datalogging/pre-failure maintenance) and I
changed to a computer repair/software guy swapping boards in
mainstream personal computers. I've lost, from disuse, most of what I
learned at Coleman in 1986-7.

A friend just retired from the appliance repair field. He was a
natural at troubleshooting beyond the board, but most of his work was
board replacement until they learned that he could do more. He ended
up getting all the "bad" jobs, where board-replacers couldn't fix the
appliance.

Lots of these folks are either getting out of the business or dying
from old age, so what comes next, when all of the true knowledge is
gone? How far away are we from the coming global Idiocracy?

I probably have only 10% of the learning of some of you folks here,
but most of what I have is practical knowledge. I have a feeling that
I'll need all of that (and a whole lot more) in the coming years,
waiting for the other shoe to drop.

--
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.
-- Sophocles