Besides, the pressure is off!
Max.

Max, dude .... remember that pressure makes diamonds ... and also sprouts hemorrhoids ...

 

Need a little fun at Xmas family parties etc this year, and get everyone away from the cell phone for while!
Got it half price on Amazon on black Friday.
Max.

 

Hello,

Electronics has changed in my job.
When I started my job about 30 years ago, you would go to the custommer with a box of parts and a scope.
You would measure where the signal was failing and replaced a part.
Nowerdays the electronics is so complex that repairs on site are not possible.
Even the software can tell you wich board or unit is defective.
You just swap the board or unit and you are finished.

In my job the fun of electronics is gone, that is why I am active here.

Bertus

It's all Plug and Play repairs nowadays. When back in the 80's, we were a manufactures main service centre, we had strict repair cost limits imposed. For instance, if a brand new 27" colour tv failed during warranty, the total cost could not exceed £27.00. This for a set that retailed at £400+.. If it did, the tv had to be scrapped and the identification stickers sent back so that the company could write it off and then add another one for later import. This meant exchanging modules only, no fault tracing to component level could be afforded.
That is why I preferred working on out of warranty equipment and use my skills to trace the faults and causes.
We had a contract with an independent television broadcaster, and with them, costs were secondary to the time taken to get their equipment up and running again.They always wanted it back "yesterday" but even though sometimes it was module or board replacement, we would repair the faulty ones and use them for the next repair. Working this way kept them and us happy.

 

I ask this question after watching the different approaches and aims of the members of my small electronics club.
We seem to have distinct differences on how the Hobby of electronics is perceived and how to go about achieving a specific end goal.
Remembering that this is from a hobby perspective, and not to be confused with commercial requirements, it seems that there is almost an indoctrinated view held by some, that unless you are using the latest components and use digital (microprocessors and code) techniques in every possible case, tested with vastly over specified for the job test equipment, then a design is not worth the effort.
On the other hand, there are those (myself included) who will use what we have to hand and can achieve the same end result.
Older components are not junk, older test equipment still works (it got us to the moon and through the cold war) so from the hobby perspective, don't dismiss older 'scopes, frequency counters and other test equipment if it will do the job in hand.

That's true. I have to be honest, for some reason I don't like old analog 'scopes even though I have been forced to use them. I used them until I got to know those fancy digital storage 'scopes. I started electronics as a hobby when I was 12, I got a technical high school diploma in industrial electronics when I was 16. Now I'm 22 and I will get my undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering next moth. I'm currently working as a level-component repair technician, but I don't feel electronics is a hobby anymore. I have taken it from a "commercial perspective" getting involved with the lastest components and digital techniques. I enjoy electronics the most when I'm outside of work.

As @bertus said, nowadays the electronics is so complex that repairs on site are not possible. What could you do if you find out a faulty microcontroller? You don't have many options. It's not the same as replacing an open resistor or a shorted transistor (if that were the whole problem). And the SMD technology makes it more difficult.

I don't feel I'm going to get tired of electronics for now, though. I still have a long way to go in this field, but I don't think it will be focused on old analog technology for sure.

 

That's true. I have to be honest, for some reason I don't like old analog 'scopes even though I have been forced to use them. I used them until I got to know those fancy digital storage 'scopes. I started electronics as a hobby when I was 12, I got a technical high school diploma in industrial electronics when I was 16. Now I'm 22 and I will get my undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering next moth. I'm currently working as a level-component repair technician, but I don't feel electronics is a hobby anymore. I have taken it from a "commercial perspective" getting involved with the lastest components and digital techniques. I enjoy electronics the most when I'm outside of work.

As @bertus said, nowadays the electronics is so complex that repairs on site are not possible. What could you do if you find out a faulty microcontroller? You don't have many options. It's not the same as replacing an open resistor or a shorted transistor (if that were the whole problem). And the SMD technology makes it more difficult.

I don't feel I'm going to get tired of electronics for now, though. I still have a long way to go in this field, but I don't think it will be focused on old analog technology for sure.

What you say is very valid, and I agree that modern component level repair has become less practical, along with the difficulty of replacing some smd components, you also have the additional trouble with working on multilayer pcb's where internal trace failures can be almost impossible to rectify.
However, in whichever direction your career in electronics takes you, I wish you every success. I can't help wondering what you will be encountering in 30 or 40 years from now

 

I will add this thought, working with older scopes and test equipment which did not have digital read out, meant that you always had to interpret and measure the on screen display yourself by looking at the display and various settings and then mentally working out the results.
Once you became proficient, it did not take a lot longer than scrolling through the menus on some modern scopes, and it kept you on your toes.
But I concede the very usefulness of on screen readout and certainly use it all the time now. The thing being is that I know how to obtain that same read out result in most cases without on screen display. Somehow I feel that gives me a more in depth understanding of what I am seeing.
Progress is essential, and I just hope that intrinsic skills are not lost in the process.

 

I have done repairs on site, off site, and even by fax and email! The best was repairing a very expensive diesel injection pump tester in a shop on the north side of Hudson Bay, in February. I did the diagnostics by fax and email and the tech, who was good in reading and meter probing and soldering, was able to replace the part, a special IC device, and get the thing fixed, and the big cost was shipping the IC from here in Michigan via express post. Hudson Bay is undoubtedly very pretty but in February it is also COLD.
I had another job as an engineer, supporting a research scientist in developing a great new product,. THAT was a job that I looked forward to every morning. Then they ruined it by replacing the division manager, who was an engineer, with an MBA, whose big thing was neatness, since he could not tell and ohm from a pipe wrench. That company is no longer in the same business, and all the engineers who could find jobs elsewhere did. All because of a stinking MBA. Do I sound just a little bitter about it? They paved paradise to build a parking lot.

 

I will add this thought, working with older scopes and test equipment which did not have digital read out, meant that you always had to interpret and measure the on screen display yourself by looking at the display and various settings and then mentally working out the results.
Once you became proficient, it did not take a lot longer than scrolling through the menus on some modern scopes, and it kept you on your toes.
But I concede the very usefulness of on screen readout and certainly use it all the time now. The thing being is that I know how to obtain that same read out result in most cases without on screen display. Somehow I feel that gives me a more in depth understanding of what I am seeing.
Progress is essential, and I just hope that intrinsic skills are not lost in the process.

There was something romantic about the old VTVMs and scopes. They were certainly a technological marvel. Simply amazing how someone was able to figure all of that out in analog.

I probably used some analog scopes that have more features than my digital. Of course if I had to buy that scope new, no way could I afford it. In fact my company could not afford to buy one, they would lease them. Digital gets the scope on the hobbyist bench at a very affordable price.

 

In fact my company could not afford to buy one, they would lease them.

what happened if someone screwed up and burned the thing?

Digital gets the scope on the hobbyist bench at a very affordable price.

you bet ya ... I couldn't afford my first scope until I was 32 or so ... on the other hand, I had other priorities before that

 

what happened if someone screwed up and burned the thing?

Don't know but it never happened that I recall. For some reason I remember the cost of the one scope that I used was something like $10K and that was way back in the early 80s

 

I certainly have had some good times in my engineering career. And also some bad times, either with bosses who were clueless about the process of creating a design, or who were so fixated on things that contributed nothing to the company's, or the customer's, benefit. Those folks who are clueless should just go away, and not harass those who can create.