"Michael A Terrell" wrote in message
...

They hired an expert in RF system design from a college, since it
was their first 'Million Dollar Headend'. It looked like it was laid
out by a drunken teenager who had only seen an I-pad.

My degree is in Chemistry, a very hands-on field in which you may not
have an assistant, so we learned the practice as well as the theory. I
haven't often seen the same from many recent electrical and mechanical
engineering graduates or the co-op undergrads I rode herd on. After
they left I redesigned their circuits with half the components, which
mattered when packed into a Xilinx chip.
https://www.wpi.edu/student-experien...lopment/co-ops

I picked up a lot of practical knowledge from the manufacturers' data
sheets I studied to learn how to use their products. Switches and
fuses for instance aren't that simple if you need to push their
capabilities while expecting long life.
http://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/au..._fuseology.pdf
One young engineer kept asking me for Polaroid scope camera film by
the case, until I showed him that data sheet which answered all his
questions.

The 30A output breaker on my welding transformer power supply can hold
70A for a few seconds, to quickly measure diode drop etc. At 300A it's
rated to open but not necessarily to close ever again.
-jsw