"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 20 Jan 2018 08:33:05 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 16:53:24 -0400, Leon Fisk
wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 14:56:05 -0500
Ed Huntress wrote:

huge snip
It's disheartening to become obsolete. d8-)

Yeah, I use to fix stuff, good thing I retired when I did. Still
do
for
friends when I feel ambitious, which isn't often nowadays. Now
people
replace stuff, even the "repair" guy...

Yeah, the new "techs" are board replacers because the computer
diagnostics told them to do so.

In 1970 the Army trained me to repair computer communications
'peripherals' to the component level after memorizing the machines'
operations, but the material was so difficult that only students
with
science degrees completed it. Four of us survived the forty week
course, whittled down from over 80 entrants. We were available only
because the grad school draft deferment had been dropped.

Wow, large drop rate. I learned the basics at Coleman College, but
only stayed working in the field for 3 years. That means I don't
have
a firm background in it, unfortunately, and can't look at a circuit
on
the PCB and tell you what it does and how. :-( SKS bought the
company
I worked for and moved it to Sandy Eggo, changing my 11 minute
commute
to over 2 hours per day. I took the separation package.


The Army was soon forced to revert to a test procedure for board
swappers. I think the problem was that people who could do it were
qualified for better jobs. I certainly preferred designing and
building new equipment over repairing older stuff.

Good for you, and I can certainly understand your preference.
Who repaired the boards, or did they? That would be good stock to
help turn the board swappers into real techs.

AFAIK we were trained to the Depot (highest) level although we didn't
have comparable test or soldering equipment, if any, in the "field",
more often a forest. In fact during Vietnam Europe was starved of
everything, we couldn't even get wiper blades etc for Jeeps and kept
about half our allotment of them running with personal purchases from
J.C.Whitney, which resulted in dangerously overpowered engines and
numerous roll-overs on winding back roads better suited to the
Ultimate Driving Machine. Most soldiers didn't go off base and thus
had money to burn.

Testing has evolved in the direction of not requiring expert
operators, it leverages the knowledge that designed / debugged the
prototype.
http://www.4pcb.com/pcb-electrical-testing.html

The Golden Board test is a good example. It and the Device Under Test
are driven identically in parallel and the test station or operator
looks for differences. The test station designer (me) needs to provide
a black-box imitation of the rest of the system.

-jsw