Andy Dingley wrote:
_Why_ a washing machine (or CH boiler) controller PCB has less
complexity than a Tamagotchi, yet requires more maintenance overhead
than a space shuttle, is still beyond me.

IMO this is because they are not designed for the US market, where when
it breaks too readily, the lawyers file a class action and the resulting
publicity kills the company. IME US cheaper, white goods, products are
relatively reliable and very cheaply repairable, compared to their
European counterparts, performance can be another matter. I suspect
(based on experience of designing mass production items for a couple of
US companies) that they also do more product abusive life testing. The
US also employs older design engineers, who have already made a lot of
their mistakes and learned from them. The European ideal is to make
older engineers redundant as they are too expensive and then to
subcontract out the design and manufacturing to the cheapest source with
no back up in the form of tough product testing. Some European products,
I now note, have longer warranties, so we will see if the product life
actually improves.

This almost sounds like the moans about electronics in European cars!

Regards
Capitol