If I ever become successful, my #1 item will be to make reliable electronics. I have a theory that in the end, you'll make more money because you'll have a better rep. But do people look so far as that?

If you sell to individuals, that may be a successful way to go. Corporations, however, are bottom line oriented. Managers know business theory and nothing else.

 

If you sell to individuals, that may be a successful way to go. Corporations, however, are bottom line oriented. Managers know business theory and nothing else.

I suppose, when a design is open source like Super OSD, people can see if you have cheaped out. For example I stopped using electrolytics where possible, only using ceramics and occasionally tantalums (but not that often - tantalum is expensive and supply is limited.) Electrolytics are just not reliable enough. 500 hour caps?? What a joke. My products have a minimum estimated MTBF of 100,000 hours. I plan to sell mainly to individuals.

Perhaps there should be some kind of legal requirement for companies to build reliable products. Like all consumer goods having a 3 yr warranty (excluding consumables, like batteries.) Or some kind of independent "reliability review" that looks at a product to find possible failure points.

People ask me why I keep so many old computers. It's mostly to prevent them from going in the trash bin. Most of them with a light Linux distribution are perfectly usable. My other computers are built almost entirely from donated parts.

 

One nice thing about the internet is the ability to report to a wide audience grievances like these. Sites are out there. If you go that route there is always the chance of a lawsuit, but it does get their attention.

 

One nice thing about the internet is the ability to report to a wide audience grievances like these. Sites are out there. If you go that route there is always the chance of a lawsuit, but it does get their attention.

Samsung can't sue me for saying their TVs suck due to capacitors going bad in the PSU.

 

No, but Sony can sue you for just about anything.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/sonys-war-on-makers-hackers-and-innovators.html

 

No, but Sony can sue you for just about anything.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/sonys-war-on-makers-hackers-and-innovators.html

yeah %*)$(
sony will sue themselves at the drop of a hat.
i think that it's by and large the content/software licensing factions at the helm of that pirate-ship. the mini-disc format could have been SOOO good, but it was killed by the music-industry/software lawyers and that widespread fear of loosing imaginary dollars.

 

In my electronics career I designed many circuits and bought name-brand parts from major electronics distributors. Every item worked perfectly except 2 that were tested bad before they were sold. One had an IC installed backwards and the other had a name-brand electrolytic capacitor that was shorted. Thousands of the products were sold for a few years and I never saw a defective one.

Today people are buying cheap (cheep?) garbage parts on E-bay made by an unknown manufacturer (or in somebody's garage) without a datasheet. Why?

 

Tom 66, Un fortunately making electronics super reliable doesnot make money. In the real world back in the late 70s i was selling a very reliable brand of television Toshiba, not one repair in 10 years, only money i made was in orig sale. My oposition was selling Philips TVs & was forever repairing them. He not only made a profit selling them he also made alot of money repairing them. I finished up working for him doing repairs!!!

 

Tom 66, Un fortunately making electronics super reliable doesnot make money. In the real world back in the late 70s i was selling a very reliable brand of television Toshiba, not one repair in 10 years, only money i made was in orig sale. My oposition was selling Philips TVs & was forever repairing them. He not only made a profit selling them he also made alot of money repairing them. I finished up working for him doing repairs!!!

It's a real shame, and I see your point. There needs to be actual regulation controlling reliable electronics for it to work.

 

It's a real shame, and I see your point. There needs to be actual regulation controlling reliable electronics for it to work.

unfortunatley if you try that you start getting into limiting the free market system and people will start squawking

There are reliable companies out there to buy from, you just have to search for them and do your research... and be willing to shell out the cash

 

unfortunatley if you try that you start getting into limiting the free market system and people will start squawking

There are reliable companies out there to buy from, you just have to search for them and do your research... and be willing to shell out the cash

The idea of a free market system went out of the window years ago. We don't let car manufacturers make cars from rust, because we regulate their safety. That interferes with the free market because it's not the most optimal way of making money. There are plenty of examples of regulation.

 

The idea of a free market system went out of the window years ago. We don't let car manufacturers make cars from rust, because we regulate their safety. That interferes with the free market because it's not the most optimal way of making money. There are plenty of examples of regulation.

Yup. Dont mean that people won't complain when prices start rising or that the companies will be willing to do it. The feds would need some sort of leverage over the electronics companies in order to twist their arms into it. It will be harder than it is with cars because it isn't safety related.

 

Yup. Dont mean that people won't complain when prices start rising or that the companies will be willing to do it. The feds would need some sort of leverage over the electronics companies in order to twist their arms into it. It will be harder than it is with cars because it isn't safety related.

UL, CE, CSA, etc......?
safety is one thing.
quality is another.

i've found this topic interesting because it party touches on the possibilities of applying existing infrastructure for new uses. ip over powerlines is pretty cool in that regard.
there are recent discoveries such as using transmission lines as a wave-guide... very-wide band data transmission up to 20GHz on a single (existing) wire. pretty darn cool.

 

Right, the topic of this, I have no idea how it works other than vague guesses
Does it modify the amplitude of the existing wave, or use it as a sort of carrier signal?
It seems to me that if you had one and someone in the next apartment over had one it might cause issues, but I don't know squat about data transmission. Cellphones still amaze me.

 

Right, the topic of this, I have no idea how it works other than vague guesses
Does it modify the amplitude of the existing wave, or use it as a sort of carrier signal?
It seems to me that if you had one and someone in the next apartment over had one it might cause issues, but I don't know squat about data transmission. Cellphones still amaze me.

They use frequency division multiplexing, which allows many devices to operate on the same band. Basically they add high frequency noise to the AC supply. Most *well designed* devices have a class X capacitor across live to neutral which suppresses this noise (often combined with a coupled inductor and further filtering components like class Y caps to mains earth.) What gets me (personally) is how they can manipulate a signal that they themselves are powered from. All I can think they will be able to do is to decrease the voltage, which requires dissipating heat. Perhaps this is the cause of the overheating. The power resistor there might be for that, but I'm not sure.

 

This is an interesting thread. I have a failed Devolo device that I've been meaning to take apart to find out why the lights went out. I'll post some results when done.

Tom, your rant about life expectancy of electronics/ electrical goods found a sympathetic ear in the eropean Commission a few years back. Can't remember which directive but it has been held that 2 years is the minimum service life for electrical goods sold in the EU, regardless of guarantee.

 

The power resistor there might be for that, but I'm not sure.

What is that thing? 5 watt? Ill bet they have to reduce the voltage a lot, unless the chips can run on 110V rectified (doubt it). If they were clever they might be able to power it inductively... I've always wanted to do that with something.

 

What is that thing? 5 watt? Ill bet they have to reduce the voltage a lot, unless the chips can run on 110V rectified (doubt it). If they were clever they might be able to power it inductively... I've always wanted to do that with something.

It only needs to drop about 1V to be detectable. Figure that we have mains wire with a resistance of 5 ohms (which is typical for a household.) To drop 1 volt we only need to have 1.15k resistor, and that would dissipate V^2 / R = 0.0009W. I suspect the resistor is large in size because it has to withstand up to 350V dc peak.

 

Do the mains lines run THROUGH it?
I hadn't figured that, I assumed it was parallel.

 

It's alive!!! It works! I desoldered the original cap, which was difficult as I've never quite figured out how to do that, but I managed it eventually. Then, I soldered in a new 1000u 10V Panasonic cap (in place of the 1000u 6.3V Jackcon cap.) I plugged it in and I thought it wasn't working. But a few seconds later the power LED lit and the other LEDs started blinking! And yes, it does work as an Ethernet adapter! I expect a good few years out of the capacitor in there, as it is a quality, name brand, over-rated capacitor.

Another device saved from almost certain disposal.

This goes among my few devices I have fixed myself. My oscilloscope was one of them. But few devices of mine survive once the screws are out.

Now the question is, how long will the downstairs adapter last? Any bets?