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Old 31st Jul 2020, 5:43 pm   #101
Radio Wrangler
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Default Re: State of repairs...

You can get quite a nice feeling whenever you come across anything you've designed. That Spitfire and Hurricane that flew over captain Tom's birthday party had transmitters and receivers which I'd designed on board. You bet I was following it on one of the ADS-B websites.

Whether its an individual item or a number, whether they ever crop up in a prominent place or not, that 'I did that' feeling is great.

David
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Old 31st Jul 2020, 7:03 pm   #102
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I do think there are a lot of problem solvers on here. That also applies to a very small number of 'places' I visit related to cars. I'm proud to have been such a problem solver for most of my career, as well as my hobbies. There is fresh blood out there who 'get it' and take the same approach. For example I had a few maxims: never trust what a supplier tells you, never trust your instruments, and never trust what the specifications are telling you or the test results seem to prove. I've proved this to many other Engineers, and some get it while some don't. You can guess which ones I respect.

So, maybe I should clarify a bit? Never trust your instruments? Well if they are telling you something that doesn't make sense then think about how they could be misleading you (for example aliasing, loading and so on). Not trusting test results? I know of a number of tests that are carried out during normal operation of a system, that if you do the same test during the right phase of startup or shutdown of a system will kill it dead, or stone dead. Importantly, most Engineers I have shown this kind of problem to have learned!

Never trust what a supplier tells you? I once had an issue with a 433MHz stystem which was displaying the symptoms of amplifier instabilty causing in band oscillation and therefore signal blocking on that and adjacent systems. Promised, in spite of multiple requests that the antenna was passive, but given the phantom power I found to it, didn't believe it. One antenna and one vice later (to crack the housing open) I got to the truth.

Having retired earlier this year, I hope that the people I've shown how to investigate problems like this will follow.

EDIT:
Oh, and I'm quite proud of the door handles on a particular car. In order to make sure that capacitive sensing would work but still have the right appearance, I found that it's possible to have a chrome surface that isn't conductive.
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Old 31st Jul 2020, 9:53 pm   #103
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Finding something you designed on the high street is a good feeling, albeit somewhat self centred (one's own trumpet time). I did a few and I won't tell you what they are just in case someone examines it and bends my trumpet, they are still in use nearly 20 years later.
 
Old 1st Aug 2020, 7:30 am   #104
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Well, the arty people and folk in the entertainment industry get almost all the fame there is and are likely to pick up a gong just for doing their day-job. So those of us designing away in obscurity need to blast the trumpet at any chance.

Something I did turned over hundreds of millions of dollars of sales in its production lifetime. My cut was just the salary. Oh, and it did that turnover with a rather large profit percentage, too. I suppose I can look at most datasheets, point at one particular parameter, and think that most probably it was measured with something I did.

Of course, some designers wind up working for certain notorious manufacturers to design the tat they turn out. They can be perfectly fine designers, it's just the project objectives they have to work under that forces the tatty outcome. It must be very frustrating. One of the radio amateurs running round Yorkshire in the eighties was a photographer for either the Sun or the News of the World. He explained it thus: He'd rather be working for the Times or the FT or the BBC, but they paid nothing like the salaries the muck rakers did.

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Old 1st Aug 2020, 10:28 am   #105
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Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
Well, the arty people and folk in the entertainment industry get almost all the fame there is and are likely to pick up a gong just for doing their day-job. So those of us designing away in obscurity need to blast the trumpet at any chance.

Something I did turned over hundreds of millions of dollars of sales in its production lifetime. My cut was just the salary.
Me too, it only took me a few weeks and all I got was a few weeks pay....it's the way of the world.

One of our children works in the arts/entertainment industry.....it's hard work in more ways than one I can assure you.

Lawrence.
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Old 1st Aug 2020, 12:03 pm   #106
Ted Kendall
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One of our children works in the arts/entertainment industry.....it's hard work in more ways than one I can assure you.
Too true.
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Old 1st Aug 2020, 2:36 pm   #107
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Well, the arty people and folk in the entertainment industry get almost all the fame there is and are likely to pick up a gong just for doing their day-job.
They are the lucky few who 'won the lottery' in their field. They are the equivalent of Premier League footballers. Those with only marginally less skill may be fortunate ply their trade in the lower leagues whilst the vast majority will play on a park on a Sunday for nowt. (And nevertheless would run rings around the likes of me.)

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One of our children works in the arts/entertainment industry.....it's hard work in more ways than one I can assure you.
The money many people earn in the arts is often pitiful and frequently with little security in what is a notoriously volatile industry. Given the current situation they are set to be a lot fewer.

Most of my age-contemporaries I'm acquainted with who once had a career in the arts – and this at the more commercial end – have long left the sector. They are care workers, lay drives, drive taxis, do roofing repairs, breakdown truck driver, hotel handyman, policeman, cleaner, receptionists, school office assistant, clean windows, work in shops.

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Old 1st Aug 2020, 2:49 pm   #108
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There is an element of societal value lacking in the respect (financial and otherwise) given to repairs, the Arts and so on. No matter what happens, the 'Big Four' accountancy firms continue to rake it in despite numerous scandals demonstrating their ineptitude and venality.

I'm delighted to be in such august company on this forum. Even 'locked down' in a room, we can still be educated, informed and assisted by generous people who have had the kinds of careers and responsibilities that would mean in everyday life it would be very unlikely that we'd meet.
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Old 1st Aug 2020, 3:17 pm   #109
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Before we close this thread, has anyone anything new to say about the subject.
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Old 1st Aug 2020, 3:49 pm   #110
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Perhaps everyone should watch "Bagpus" for the mice in the Mouse Organ who would fix it.
 
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