[Joerg]

And that is exactly where you are going wrong. What you really need
is a few bowtie and reflector antennas pointed to specific channels or
big reflectors (big buildings / other large potential reflectors) of
them. Put the signals together with 90 degree combiners.

Ok, one bowtie antenna is ok. But one for each site? Nope. Then I hang
up TV. With this switch to digital they really screwed up.

Jim at RSTEngineering this applies to you as well.

Spatial selectivity. You may need (and build) single channel
reflector yagi or narrow band antennas to pick up some channel from a
stable reflection.

Well, there comes a point where TV ain't worth that much effort to me

BTW, yesterday around 10:30pm all except one lone station (channel 10-1)
collapsed. Meaning almost no evening news for us. I am really close to
following the next generation out here. They watch the news on the web
and rent Netflix movies. Maybe that's the future.

 

[Joerg]

krw wrote:
krw wrote:
[...]

Old rule: When only one part on the circuit board is changed in value it
is another assembly and must get another assy number. No ifs, buts or whens.
Sure, that's obvious but it still doesn't solve the schematic problem.
They want schematics for service to use[*]. We're experimenting with
"graying" (yellow, actually) out sections not implemented but it's
manual and quite labor intensive. The other problem we ran into was
that to select any component under the "fill" it has to be removed.
The fill will be selected first.

[*] I'm fighting this one.
I wouldn't fight it. Our coutry needs young technicians to understand to
read schematic.

But the same schematic with grayed out areas for two or more versions? I
wouldn't do that.
The problem is that there is no way to assure the schematics stay in
sync with each other. Everything is a manual and tedious process,
thus prone to error. I don't like adding error prone processes into
the flow.
Oh-oh, that's sound like there isn't a proper ECO process in place.
Maybe that is where some fint-tuning needs to be done first ;-)
Maybe you're not reading what I write (or I'm not writing what I
mean). ;-)

The ECO process is fine. We can build the widgets just fine. The
boss wants schematics to match the different products, built from the
same boards (actually two different revisions, but that is an
unrelated ECO process problem). The schematic reflects the board (max
population). Each of the three products is a make from, off that
schematic, with a different BOM at the higher level. Since the
schematic reflects the max-populated board, which doesn't exist, it's
"too confusing" for service.

Again, it's not an ECO problem. It is a documentation "problem",
since there isn't a schematic that matches the product BOMs. To
generate those schematics would be a labor intensive and error prone
project.

Proper documentation would be a requirement for me to sign on the dotted
line of an ECO. Drove some folks crazy, but ...

If the schematic is clearly marked, for example with dashed lines around
certain areas and some text like "not installed on XYZ version", then
it's ok. Else there has to be a matching schematic even if that means
more work.

It's not the work that I'm worried about. I dont' want any
documentation around that has a chance of not being kept up to date or
worse, being flat wrong. The schematics wouldn't be used in the
engineering or manufacturing processes thus no way to assure that
they're in sync with the documentation that is.

That's exactly what the ECO process is for. Are you sure it's
functioning at your employer? _No_ changes in schematics and/or the way
the units are built shall be allowed unless fully ECO-released. And
nobody shall sign the ECO when he or she has the slightest hunch that
not all ducks are in a row.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Ok, one bowtie antenna is ok. But one for each site? Nope. Then I hang
up TV. With this switch to digital they really screwed up.



Well, there comes a point where TV ain't worth that much effort to me

BTW, yesterday around 10:30pm all except one lone station (channel 10-1)
collapsed. Meaning almost no evening news for us. I am really close to
following the next generation out here. They watch the news on the web
and rent Netflix movies. Maybe that's the future.

http://www.roku.com/what-to-watch.a.../Only Brand/&gclid=CIX-nuemnpwCFR0SagodMQ_Jdw

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Jim Thompson]

krw wrote:
krw wrote:
krw wrote:
[...]

Old rule: When only one part on the circuit board is changed in value it
is another assembly and must get another assy number. No ifs, buts or whens.
Sure, that's obvious but it still doesn't solve the schematic problem.
They want schematics for service to use[*]. We're experimenting with
"graying" (yellow, actually) out sections not implemented but it's
manual and quite labor intensive. The other problem we ran into was
that to select any component under the "fill" it has to be removed.
The fill will be selected first.

[*] I'm fighting this one.
I wouldn't fight it. Our coutry needs young technicians to understand to
read schematic.

But the same schematic with grayed out areas for two or more versions? I
wouldn't do that.
The problem is that there is no way to assure the schematics stay in
sync with each other. Everything is a manual and tedious process,
thus prone to error. I don't like adding error prone processes into
the flow.
Oh-oh, that's sound like there isn't a proper ECO process in place.
Maybe that is where some fint-tuning needs to be done first ;-)
Maybe you're not reading what I write (or I'm not writing what I
mean). ;-)

The ECO process is fine. We can build the widgets just fine. The
boss wants schematics to match the different products, built from the
same boards (actually two different revisions, but that is an
unrelated ECO process problem). The schematic reflects the board (max
population). Each of the three products is a make from, off that
schematic, with a different BOM at the higher level. Since the
schematic reflects the max-populated board, which doesn't exist, it's
"too confusing" for service.

Again, it's not an ECO problem. It is a documentation "problem",
since there isn't a schematic that matches the product BOMs. To
generate those schematics would be a labor intensive and error prone
project.

Proper documentation would be a requirement for me to sign on the dotted
line of an ECO. Drove some folks crazy, but ...

If the schematic is clearly marked, for example with dashed lines around
certain areas and some text like "not installed on XYZ version", then
it's ok. Else there has to be a matching schematic even if that means
more work.

It's not the work that I'm worried about. I dont' want any
documentation around that has a chance of not being kept up to date or
worse, being flat wrong. The schematics wouldn't be used in the
engineering or manufacturing processes thus no way to assure that
they're in sync with the documentation that is.

That's exactly what the ECO process is for. Are you sure it's
functioning at your employer? _No_ changes in schematics and/or the way
the units are built shall be allowed unless fully ECO-released. And
nobody shall sign the ECO when he or she has the slightest hunch that
not all ducks are in a row.

I could never get my way by stamping my feet, but refusing to
"sign-off" ALWAYS got results ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Joerg]

http://www.roku.com/what-to-watch.a.../Only Brand/&gclid=CIX-nuemnpwCFR0SagodMQ_Jdw

Yep, exactly, that's the future. Gets good reviews like this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-med...player/4505-6739_7-33018087.html?tag=untagged

I have the feeling that managers at TV stations are blissfully unaware
of what they've got coming at them, and fast. Ok, for us this Roku
probably wouldn't work (yet) because the 10% of Netflix titles on line
are likely going to be the more "popular" movies with brutality in
there. But some day it'll have more, plus maybe connect to good news
channels and so on.

AFAICT the Roku box is technically able to deliver news channels but it
seems you are at the mercy of what the company elects to put on there.
But since modern TV sets have VGA input one can always place a netbook
next to it and control that with a good bluetooth mouse.

The other thing to watch out for is what your ISP is going to do if your
bandwidth consumption is deemed excessive. The amount of data for a
movie transfer is huge. But 100 bucks? Man, you can't beat that, it
sounds like a great deal.

 

[Joerg]

krw wrote:

[...]

That's exactly what the ECO process is for. Are you sure it's
functioning at your employer? _No_ changes in schematics and/or the way
the units are built shall be allowed unless fully ECO-released. And
nobody shall sign the ECO when he or she has the slightest hunch that
not all ducks are in a row.

I could never get my way by stamping my feet, ...

You need bigger feet, and army boots

... but refusing to "sign-off" ALWAYS got results ;-)

Yes. I've never used that as hostage holding and never will. But if
something isn't kosher in the ECO one has the duty to step up to the
plate. For the sake of the company.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Yep, exactly, that's the future. Gets good reviews like this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-med...player/4505-6739_7-33018087.html?tag=untagged

I have the feeling that managers at TV stations are blissfully unaware
of what they've got coming at them, and fast. Ok, for us this Roku
probably wouldn't work (yet) because the 10% of Netflix titles on line
are likely going to be the more "popular" movies with brutality in
there. But some day it'll have more, plus maybe connect to good news
channels and so on.

AFAICT the Roku box is technically able to deliver news channels but it
seems you are at the mercy of what the company elects to put on there.
But since modern TV sets have VGA input one can always place a netbook
next to it and control that with a good bluetooth mouse.

The other thing to watch out for is what your ISP is going to do if your
bandwidth consumption is deemed excessive. The amount of data for a
movie transfer is huge. But 100 bucks? Man, you can't beat that, it
sounds like a great deal.

I bought the Roku SoundBridge and now listen to ALL my radio needs
through it... my presets:

Fox News Talk
KFYI AM (PHX, Right Wing Talk)
BBC World Service News
KOOL FM (PHX, R&R)
WTIC FM (Hartford, R&R)
WOGL FM (Philadelphia, R&R)
WNEW FM (NY, R&R)
WOMC FM (Detroit, R&R)
Melbourne (OZ web, R&R)
Classic Gold R&R (NL)
WKSU FM (Kent State, Classical)
HPR1 (Classic Country)
Radio Paradise (Jazz)
KFOG FM (SF, PBS)
KPCC FM (Pasadena, NPR?)
Absolute Radio (Rock/Jazz)
SmoothJazz.com (Jazz)
SmoothLounge.com (Horizontal Mambo Music ;-)

Plays straight from my router (no PC needed) thru to my little JVC
unit in my office.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Jim Thompson]

krw wrote:

[...]

It's not the work that I'm worried about. I dont' want any
documentation around that has a chance of not being kept up to date or
worse, being flat wrong. The schematics wouldn't be used in the
engineering or manufacturing processes thus no way to assure that
they're in sync with the documentation that is.

That's exactly what the ECO process is for. Are you sure it's
functioning at your employer? _No_ changes in schematics and/or the way
the units are built shall be allowed unless fully ECO-released. And
nobody shall sign the ECO when he or she has the slightest hunch that
not all ducks are in a row.

I could never get my way by stamping my feet, ...

You need bigger feet, and army boots

... but refusing to "sign-off" ALWAYS got results ;-)

Yes. I've never used that as hostage holding and never will. But if
something isn't kosher in the ECO one has the duty to step up to the
plate. For the sake of the company.

I can't enumerate them all (for fear of retribution), but it would
give you chills to know what all defective design I've kept from
(literally) flying :-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Joerg]

[...]

Yep, exactly, that's the future. Gets good reviews like this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-med...player/4505-6739_7-33018087.html?tag=untagged

I have the feeling that managers at TV stations are blissfully unaware
of what they've got coming at them, and fast. Ok, for us this Roku
probably wouldn't work (yet) because the 10% of Netflix titles on line
are likely going to be the more "popular" movies with brutality in
there. But some day it'll have more, plus maybe connect to good news
channels and so on.

AFAICT the Roku box is technically able to deliver news channels but it
seems you are at the mercy of what the company elects to put on there.
But since modern TV sets have VGA input one can always place a netbook
next to it and control that with a good bluetooth mouse.

The other thing to watch out for is what your ISP is going to do if your
bandwidth consumption is deemed excessive. The amount of data for a
movie transfer is huge. But 100 bucks? Man, you can't beat that, it
sounds like a great deal.

I bought the Roku SoundBridge and now listen to ALL my radio needs
through it... my presets:

Fox News Talk
KFYI AM (PHX, Right Wing Talk)
BBC World Service News
KOOL FM (PHX, R&R)
WTIC FM (Hartford, R&R)
WOGL FM (Philadelphia, R&R)
WNEW FM (NY, R&R)
WOMC FM (Detroit, R&R)
Melbourne (OZ web, R&R)
Classic Gold R&R (NL)
WKSU FM (Kent State, Classical)
HPR1 (Classic Country)
Radio Paradise (Jazz)
KFOG FM (SF, PBS)
KPCC FM (Pasadena, NPR?)
Absolute Radio (Rock/Jazz)
SmoothJazz.com (Jazz)
SmoothLounge.com (Horizontal Mambo Music ;-)

Plays straight from my router (no PC needed) thru to my little JVC
unit in my office.

Nice. Some day I might do the same, $130 is a decent price and this unit
has a good WAF. But I'd have to lay CAT-5 to the stereo because WLAN
doesn't reach, and that's going to be a major job for that location.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Jim Thompson wrote:

[...]

BTW, yesterday around 10:30pm all except one lone station (channel 10-1)
collapsed. Meaning almost no evening news for us. I am really close to
following the next generation out here. They watch the news on the web
and rent Netflix movies. Maybe that's the future.
http://www.roku.com/what-to-watch.a.../Only Brand/&gclid=CIX-nuemnpwCFR0SagodMQ_Jdw

Yep, exactly, that's the future. Gets good reviews like this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-med...player/4505-6739_7-33018087.html?tag=untagged

I have the feeling that managers at TV stations are blissfully unaware
of what they've got coming at them, and fast. Ok, for us this Roku
probably wouldn't work (yet) because the 10% of Netflix titles on line
are likely going to be the more "popular" movies with brutality in
there. But some day it'll have more, plus maybe connect to good news
channels and so on.

AFAICT the Roku box is technically able to deliver news channels but it
seems you are at the mercy of what the company elects to put on there.
But since modern TV sets have VGA input one can always place a netbook
next to it and control that with a good bluetooth mouse.

The other thing to watch out for is what your ISP is going to do if your
bandwidth consumption is deemed excessive. The amount of data for a
movie transfer is huge. But 100 bucks? Man, you can't beat that, it
sounds like a great deal.

I bought the Roku SoundBridge and now listen to ALL my radio needs
through it... my presets:

Fox News Talk
KFYI AM (PHX, Right Wing Talk)
BBC World Service News
KOOL FM (PHX, R&R)
WTIC FM (Hartford, R&R)
WOGL FM (Philadelphia, R&R)
WNEW FM (NY, R&R)
WOMC FM (Detroit, R&R)
Melbourne (OZ web, R&R)
Classic Gold R&R (NL)
WKSU FM (Kent State, Classical)
HPR1 (Classic Country)
Radio Paradise (Jazz)
KFOG FM (SF, PBS)
KPCC FM (Pasadena, NPR?)
Absolute Radio (Rock/Jazz)
SmoothJazz.com (Jazz)
SmoothLounge.com (Horizontal Mambo Music ;-)

Plays straight from my router (no PC needed) thru to my little JVC
unit in my office.

Nice. Some day I might do the same, $130 is a decent price and this unit
has a good WAF. But I'd have to lay CAT-5 to the stereo because WLAN
doesn't reach, and that's going to be a major job for that location.

My oldest son and I pulled CAT-5 throughout this house before WiFi
existed. Not the most fun thing to do with a 16' great room ceiling
splitting the house into two sections. Fortunately most of the attic
space is tall enough to stand up in and walk around. And my son has a
whole set of really long drill bits to reach down through firebreaks.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Joerg]

It might not be as bad as you think -- in general it's easier for Netflix (and
others) to get the appropriate licenses required for streaming for older
movies, and of course older movies don't tend to go in for the brutality as
much as more contepmorary ones.

Our experience with rental places is that they really don't care about
old stuff, too little market. So my wife regularly stops at the local
thrifts store and picks out movies on VHS tapes. When done we give them
to friends or donate back to the thrift store. A lot of folks in the
neighborhood also do that so a tape that others may have chucked into a
donation box can generate quite some money for hospice.

Here's hoping that the VCR recorder hangs in there for a few more years.

Something else you have to worry about is the whole "net neutrality"
business -- internet service providers who are also in, e.g., the movie or
telephone business (Time-Warner, Charter, etc.) often have a vested interest
in not providing optimal connections to what's essentially their competition;
Charter in particular has been accused of actively disrupting peer-to-peer
file transfers as well as competing VoIP systems.

Well, we have AT&T and they are in the media business ...

Plus the Achilles heel of the Internet for multimedia is that the
infrastructure was never initially designed for "real time" connections, and
it's been somewhat slow going to get the appropriate protocols in place to
prioritize, e.g., voice over video over "bulk data" so that your movies don't
stutter. In many cases everything does seem to work fine, though -- given
enough buffering and a fast enough connection, you can make it through most
anything. (This is why most VoIP providers want you to have at least a
768kbps+ connection, even though the average data rate often far less than the
64kbps that POTS uses.)

So far what I've experienced with VoIP at clients was mostly the pits.
It did occasionally work well but not all the time. Like digital TV,
when it works it is very high quality but when it doesn't then it often
totally falls off the digital cliff. I will stay with POTS.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Our experience with rental places is that they really don't care about
old stuff, too little market. So my wife regularly stops at the local
thrifts store and picks out movies on VHS tapes. When done we give them
to friends or donate back to the thrift store. A lot of folks in the
neighborhood also do that so a tape that others may have chucked into a
donation box can generate quite some money for hospice.

Here's hoping that the VCR recorder hangs in there for a few more years.



Well, we have AT&T and they are in the media business ...



So far what I've experienced with VoIP at clients was mostly the pits.
It did occasionally work well but not all the time. Like digital TV,
when it works it is very high quality but when it doesn't then it often
totally falls off the digital cliff. I will stay with POTS.

We have Cox Cable and TCM (Turner Classic Movies). 'Nuff said ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

[Joerg]

For the brick-and-mortar stores, yeah... but Netflix (and Blockbuster)
DVDs-by-mail are great repositories of old movies.

True. I just checked, Netflix even has movies in foreign languages (but
hopefully the correct US region code). However, it'll take some time for
all that to migrate into online streaming offers.

Have you tried those "Red Box" machines, that rent you DVDs for $1/night
(http://www.redbox.com/)? I don't expect they're able to hold more than a few
hundred DVDs, hence they probably have very little other than current
releases. You can reserve a DVD on-line with them though, which is kind of
interesting if you want to "lock in" a new release for, e.g., Friday night or
whatever.


Do they still sell any new pre-recorded VHS tapes?

Yes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=362203701&pf_rd_i=404272

[...]

Broke a record. It was 81F in the office around 7:00am. Heavy SPICE sims
and now it's 87F while the office next door remained at 81F. Maybe I
should move over there now ...

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

For the brick-and-mortar stores, yeah... but Netflix (and Blockbuster)
DVDs-by-mail are great repositories of old movies.

True. I just checked, Netflix even has movies in foreign languages (but
hopefully the correct US region code). However, it'll take some time for
all that to migrate into online streaming offers.

Have you tried those "Red Box" machines, that rent you DVDs for $1/night
(http://www.redbox.com/)? I don't expect they're able to hold more than a few
hundred DVDs, hence they probably have very little other than current
releases. You can reserve a DVD on-line with them though, which is kind of
interesting if you want to "lock in" a new release for, e.g., Friday night or
whatever.


Do they still sell any new pre-recorded VHS tapes?

Yes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=362203701&pf_rd_i=404272

[...]

"The last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS was "A History
of Violence" in 2006"

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/22/entertainment/et-vhs-tapes22

 

[Joerg]

Our experience with rental places is that they really don't care about old
stuff, too little market.
For the brick-and-mortar stores, yeah... but Netflix (and Blockbuster)
DVDs-by-mail are great repositories of old movies.

True. I just checked, Netflix even has movies in foreign languages (but
hopefully the correct US region code). However, it'll take some time for
all that to migrate into online streaming offers.

Have you tried those "Red Box" machines, that rent you DVDs for $1/night
(http://www.redbox.com/)? I don't expect they're able to hold more than a few
hundred DVDs, hence they probably have very little other than current
releases. You can reserve a DVD on-line with them though, which is kind of
interesting if you want to "lock in" a new release for, e.g., Friday night or
whatever.

Here's hoping that the VCR recorder hangs in there for a few more years.
Do they still sell any new pre-recorded VHS tapes?

Yes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=362203701&pf_rd_i=404272

[...]

"The last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS was "A History
of Violence" in 2006"

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/22/entertainment/et-vhs-tapes22

Well, not all movies are made in Hollywood. If I am not mistaken "Son of
Rambow" came out on DVD and VHS in 2008. But I don't know that movie,
just read it somewhere and was surprised that VHS was still (somewhat)
alive. Could be from England.

[...]

 

[Joerg]

I meant at brick-and-mortar stores like Wal*Mart.

Not there, I think there VHS is all gone. Some brick-and-mortar stores
do still sell vinyl records though.

What CPU do you have in the SPICE machine? Some of the older speed demons
were something like 140W just for the CPU alone!

Intel dual-core. But I ran sims on two other puters at the same time.

 

[Jim Thompson]

For the brick-and-mortar stores, yeah... but Netflix (and Blockbuster)
DVDs-by-mail are great repositories of old movies.

True. I just checked, Netflix even has movies in foreign languages (but
hopefully the correct US region code). However, it'll take some time for
all that to migrate into online streaming offers.

Have you tried those "Red Box" machines, that rent you DVDs for $1/night
(http://www.redbox.com/)? I don't expect they're able to hold more than a few
hundred DVDs, hence they probably have very little other than current
releases. You can reserve a DVD on-line with them though, which is kind of
interesting if you want to "lock in" a new release for, e.g., Friday night or
whatever.


Do they still sell any new pre-recorded VHS tapes?

Yes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=362203701&pf_rd_i=404272

[...]

Broke a record. It was 81F in the office around 7:00am. Heavy SPICE sims
and now it's 87F while the office next door remained at 81F. Maybe I
should move over there now ...

I have a squirrel cage blower sitting on the floor next to the door to
my office... 76°F in here right now... 106°F outside ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure."
- Thomas Jefferson, November 13, 1787

 

[Joerg]

I have a squirrel cage blower sitting on the floor next to the door to
my office... 76°F in here right now... 106°F outside ;-)

Yeah, but you guys are running the A/C

We lately ran it when it climbs above 92F in the living area (by that
time the office is >95F) because the Rottweiler gets old and can't stand
such heat too well anymore. Thermostat to 87F and he's happy again.

Other than that I've got a good old Crown Deluxe fan behind me. The ones
with push buttons, 70's era design, very quiet, super quality.

 

[krw]

Jim Thompson wrote:
Jim Thompson wrote:
[snip]
Do OTA digital stations have a choice of modulation scheme?

No, but they picked the ATSC standard with IMHO way too little field
testing. The European DTV system is much more robust in that respect.


I've noticed a decided improvement since OTA digital. I used to have
some bleed-thru from OTA into my cable, causing "ghost" images... some
runs exceed 80' from my distribution amplifier. But that's now
completely gone, because they're now UHF.

Going to UHF was IMHO a serious mistake. When channel 13 was on VHF it
came through, usually with little to no ghosting. Now it's unreliable. I
do not understand how one can give up a VHF channel in trade for a
channel the inferior UHF band. At least not without serious monetary
compensation (which I wouldn't know anything about) or without putting
up a fight.
Your government at its finest ;-)

I had a chat with the station's engineer and his opinion was that UHF
travels through buildings and high-rises better. I guess we lost out to
them flatlanders

And besides, I think the vast majority of urban dwellers in high-rises
will have cable TV anyhow. IMHO it's only a matter of time until folks
on the outskirts hang up on such stations and go to non-local channels
on satellite. Or as the next generation already does, fulfill their
media consumption wishes via the web for news and Netflix for movies.
Then, ad revenue drops, station budgets begin to shrivel up, pink slips
are handed out. <brag_mode> I see that coming, just as I saw the
mortgage bubble burst coming </brag_mode>.

You are not the only who foresaw the mortgage / flip bubble bursting.
It was clear from the nature of the advertised mortgages in 2005. Plus
locally I also saw a previous tight housing market invert at the same
time as many new apartments and new houses were hitting the market
from late 2004 through early 2006 here locally.

It blows my mind that the chairman of the reserve either didn't see it
or preferred to do nothing. It doesn't take much to foresee that the
concept of ARMs and, worse, negative amortization loans is wrong and
dangerous for the country. It also doesn't take much to see that the
competence level of banking managers back then had sunk to a level that
was insufficient. I expect more from a chairman, I expect that he does
the same what a police officer would do if he saw someone entering the
freeway the wrong way.

Not sure what the Fed could have done about it. Banks were still
bound by margin rules (8%, IIRC) on loans. The problem was the
repackaging of mortgage securities traded as investments. I don't
believe they fell under the Fed's purview, rather SEC. A *lot* of
people saw the housing bubble as just that, far fewer saw the real
problem, the ridiculous leveraging going on with trash securities.

 

[krw]

krw wrote:
krw wrote:
krw wrote:
[...]

Old rule: When only one part on the circuit board is changed in value it
is another assembly and must get another assy number. No ifs, buts or whens.
Sure, that's obvious but it still doesn't solve the schematic problem.
They want schematics for service to use[*]. We're experimenting with
"graying" (yellow, actually) out sections not implemented but it's
manual and quite labor intensive. The other problem we ran into was
that to select any component under the "fill" it has to be removed.
The fill will be selected first.

[*] I'm fighting this one.
I wouldn't fight it. Our coutry needs young technicians to understand to
read schematic.

But the same schematic with grayed out areas for two or more versions? I
wouldn't do that.
The problem is that there is no way to assure the schematics stay in
sync with each other. Everything is a manual and tedious process,
thus prone to error. I don't like adding error prone processes into
the flow.
Oh-oh, that's sound like there isn't a proper ECO process in place.
Maybe that is where some fint-tuning needs to be done first ;-)
Maybe you're not reading what I write (or I'm not writing what I
mean). ;-)

The ECO process is fine. We can build the widgets just fine. The
boss wants schematics to match the different products, built from the
same boards (actually two different revisions, but that is an
unrelated ECO process problem). The schematic reflects the board (max
population). Each of the three products is a make from, off that
schematic, with a different BOM at the higher level. Since the
schematic reflects the max-populated board, which doesn't exist, it's
"too confusing" for service.

Again, it's not an ECO problem. It is a documentation "problem",
since there isn't a schematic that matches the product BOMs. To
generate those schematics would be a labor intensive and error prone
project.

Proper documentation would be a requirement for me to sign on the dotted
line of an ECO. Drove some folks crazy, but ...

If the schematic is clearly marked, for example with dashed lines around
certain areas and some text like "not installed on XYZ version", then
it's ok. Else there has to be a matching schematic even if that means
more work.

It's not the work that I'm worried about. I dont' want any
documentation around that has a chance of not being kept up to date or
worse, being flat wrong. The schematics wouldn't be used in the
engineering or manufacturing processes thus no way to assure that
they're in sync with the documentation that is.

That's exactly what the ECO process is for.

Yes, which is exactly why I'm fighting management, who wants
schematics for the product variants.

Are you sure it's functioning at your employer?
Yes.

_No_ changes in schematics and/or the way the units are built shall
be allowed unless fully ECO-released.

That's the way it's working. There is also an issue with board
assembly drawings, but the layout guy didn't fight that battle.

And
nobody shall sign the ECO when he or she has the slightest hunch that
not all ducks are in a row.

Ok, but that doesn't change the issue.

Let me try this again. The schematics are used to generate the board
layout and BOMs (one for each SKU). There is one layout made from the
schematic. The schematic has the configuration[*] information coded
in part properties, which is used to generate the BOM for each SKU.
Each SKU P/N then references the (same) raw board, and its BOM
(generated from the schematic, filtered by part properties). These
are under ECO control and that works.

What is wanted is a *NEW* schematic that shows the SKU. Making *that*
is a manual process and would *NOT* be controlled. We already do this
with the (above) assembly drawings (which are not used to assemble
anything) and it causes grief. This *new* schematic is what I'm
fighting.

[*] A SKU is a board made from Chinese menu of configurations all
wired on the board and represented in the schematic. These
"configurations" are things like relays/no-relay, channels 3&4
(deleted for two channel SKU), Channel 2 (deleted for one channel
SKU), Channel 1 (deleted if no wired channels), football,...