[sdiy] Off the rails

[David J. Hughes]

Glen,

on 22/10/04 1:09 PM, Glen at mclilith at charter.net wrote:

> At 08:58 AM 10/22/04 , David J. Hughes wrote:
> 
>> We once designed an intelligent fork lift controller for Caterpillar which
>> had to survive lightning, EMP, fire, flood and service personel though only
>> the latter was considered a serious risk.
> 
> How would you test a design which had to meet such strict requirements?

We used an EMC testing chamber for the obvious stuff. For the more esoteric
tests, we handed the box over to Caterpillar and let them break it.

I learned a lot on that project. The best paid engineers can't follow
step-by-step calibration instructions, thick-film transistors really smell
bad when you overload them and never, ever under-estimate the strengths of a
good ground plane and a couple of ferrite beads.

David.

-- 
Infection Music Limited.                     http://www.infectionmusic.co.uk

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