On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 03:58:46 GMT, "NSM" put finger to
keyboard and composed:


"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
.. .
| I've been given a Mercedes-Benz instrument cluster where a flex cable
| has come adrift due to mishandling. The PCB is microcontroller based
...
| BTW, the mechanic that gave me this job was doing a freebie for a
| friend. AFAICT, he was trying to cover the empty lamp socket of an
| annoying glow plug indicator with black tape.

What did the indicator light say? "Don't disassemble this"?

What it should have said was "CAUTION: PCB obscures very poor design".

I do quite a few jobs for this mechanic and find that he and his staff
are very competent. Unfortunately I don't have the unit with me,
otherwise I would post a photo so you could see it for yourself. As I
said in my OP, there is no strain relief for the flex cable, and no
connector. The printed traces of the cable and the PCB rely purely on
a tiny, almost imperceptible dab of glue to keep them in contact. I've
never seen anything so abominably bad. Even children's toys are better
built.

BTW, this abortion is manufactured by Magneti Marelli.


- Franc Zabkar
--
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