Yipeeeeee....its fixed.....

[Paul1566]

Its a standard 3 hour bench time at £50 an hour.......
I know ladies that charge less than that...... for a massage of course..!!!
They don't list the parts cus then we would now thier magic.....
I know for a fact that when i was an electronics technician components where peanuts from RS, but they have the voodoo to fix it and i don't so i payed the man, well the missus did.......
Cannot work out why they send a lighter ???
Maybe cus if what they do don't fix it you can always tourch it and claim the insurance...ha ha ha

Well todays drive in was great nice and quiet, no tewkesbury slappers yelling at each other and the kids and no mobiles playing sh1te music from tinny speakers and i even splashed out on a large latte at the garage.......

[Albannach]

They don't list the parts cus then we would now thier magic.....

That would make me uncomfortable.

Maybe they charged you for nothing. Maybe they gave you a known to be good £20 one from eBay?

[MattF]

That would make me uncomfortable.

Maybe they charged you for nothing. Maybe they gave you a known to be good £20 one from eBay?

It is an annoying trick a lot of engineers (used to|still) use. At the end of the day, people are paying for the expertise. Hazing over the parts list, (or not supplying it at all), is annoying and unnecessary. Its usually a safe bet that it was a minor component set when they do it too.

[Apache]

Wouldn't mind betting a 5v regulator had popped. 30p part, probably a 7815 of some description.

Like you say Matt, in the wrong job. If thats what it was, it shouldn't really have taken more than half an hour from diagnosis to test. I dunno about you, but just about any kit I've repaired, I check the power rails first.

However, you are paying for the expertise. Very few people understand electronics to component level these days.

[Paul1566]

Done my share of electronics i was a production/test engineer for 12 years but that was 20 years ago, still had to have a look inside and saw all the surface mount thought bugger that get a man who knows to fix it....
I used to make and test circuits but not knowing what does what and why anymore could lead to making a bigger mess without the right knowledge..

[MattF]

Wouldn't mind betting a 5v regulator had popped. 30p part, probably a 7815 of some description.

That was along the lines I was thinking. Caps, (fuse|fusible resistor), regulator etc.

Like you say Matt, in the wrong job. If thats what it was, it shouldn't really have taken more than half an hour from diagnosis to test. I dunno about you, but just about any kit I've repaired, I check the power rails first.

Pretty much the same here. Doing it any other way would be arse ways round. Make sure the necessary supplies are fine first and then go on the duffer hunt.

However, you are paying for the expertise. Very few people understand electronics to component level these days.

Ain't that the truth. You can't blame most of them for switching trades or just retiring. Very few places even expect component level repair these days either. They look at you gone out if they think you're actually going to do a real repair instead of a simple unit swap. Oh for the good old days when it used to be a challenge.

[MattF]

Done my share of electronics i was a production/test engineer for 12 years but that was 20 years ago, still had to have a look inside and saw all the surface mount thought bugger that get a man who knows to fix it....
I used to make and test circuits but not knowing what does what and why anymore could lead to making a bigger mess without the right knowledge..

Must admit, it is surprising how much you lose the ball when you ain't worked on stuff for a while. The main parts never change but the intricacies can be a bitch.

[Apache]

Ain't that the truth. Very few places even expect component level repair these days either. They look at you gone out if they think you're actually going to do a real repair instead of a simple unit swap. Oh for the good old days when it used to be a challenge.

There's a chap who comes here regularly from a smaller defence electronics company (I'm at work) for EMC testing. He's chief electronics engineer for said company. We get on well because we're from the same kind of engineering background and enjoy moaning about the poor quality of engineering grads these days.

He has dropped not so subtle hints the couple of times he's been in about how he's looking for good analogue electronics engineers (as opposed to PLC programmers and software engineers). He has mentioned how well they look after them because they're like rocking horse poo, and how they're prepared to pay £50-£60k to secure them.

I'm kind of tempted to hand him my CV next time he's here, but I like where I am - it's easy and stress free, and his place is a 2hr round trip commute. The dosh would be nice though...

[MattF]

I'd stick with the comfort factor over the cash. You've been there with the skanky workplace in the past. The other place could be just as nice, but it would be a risk to take, finding out.

At least now you know you have a fallback option if you do get bored with the current place.

[Apache]

Yeah, and I'm lazy these days.

Nowt wrong with staying in your comfort zone I suppose - pays the bills

I like to leave the 'fresh challenges' and 'career progression' to blokes called Charles with floppy hair, pinstripes and 3 series BMWs these days

[Paul1566]

Like you guys say there's no such thing as component level repair, its a throw it away and install a new unit philosophy....
Look at the diagnostics for fault repair in the 1KT-ZE manual it basically tells them to follow a set of fault finding rules on a flow chart and at the end it just says bugger it replace the everything till it works....

We went to a classic car rally monday and the girls said they would love and old car, tax free, and full of character, i told them if they buy one they would need to find a decent mechanic cus there aint no diagnostic socket on an MG Midget and spotty karl down the local garage wouldn't know what a set of points was if they arced across his gonads......