[sdiy] My frustration as a technician..

[Dave Brown]

This is true.  I used to work for a manufacturer who built their own PCBs.
Eventually they outsourced the assembly of the PCBs.  The outsourcer bought
all the parts so we had no access to them since all we bought was the
finished and tested PCB.  In house we still did service but stocking all the
parts internally negated all the cost savings of outsourcing the PCB
assembly.  Sometimes we would stock just the very unique parts and rely on
distributors to supply the rest.  Board exchange prices are very high, but
without specialized test fixtures, cable extenders, and such, the hourly
rate can get there pretty fast.

Many companies have also moved to outsourced design (ODM) and don't even
know anything about their designs.

I am about 50% successful with my email pleas for schematics with the
promise to not divulge them on the internet.  Usually the success is with
the older products.

I had a similar issue with a dead SMT guitar pedal.  I was probing around
with the 9V battery applied and burned my finger on a SMT part!  I couldn't
find the part initially because it had unsoldered itself from the PCB, stuck
on the end of my finger and then dropped to the bench!  9V batteries pack a
lot of energy.  The part was unmarked and my plea to that company did result
with a sympathy email with the identification.

In lieu of a IR camera, we would sometimes spray the board with cold spray
and see which parts heated up the fastest.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of rob hukin
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 8:43 AM
To: synthdiy
Subject: Re: [sdiy] My frustration as a technician..

Hi All,

My impression is that a lot of manufacturers only see their product at the
board level - they simply never have the components themselves, even if they
would be willing to distribute them...

rob.

On 10 May 2013, at 14:45, Jean-Pierre Desrochers wrote:

> Let me share with you something I stumbled on yesterday..
> 
> A friend of mine own a TASCAM DR-2d portable digital audio recorder.
> This unit could run out of 2 x AA batteries OR a 5vdc TASCAM original
supply.
> He had the bad idea to use a 'generic' adjustable wall wart power 
> supply that was supposely at 4.5vdc hmmmm...
> Bad idea.. these suplies mostly comes unregulated.
> Too many volts ? bad polarity ? I'll never know.
> The result, the blown unit doesn't power up anymore.
> Ok. That's the start of the story.
> So I opened the unit to find that all the electronics were on 2 PCB's 
> face to face, completely packed with VERY TINY surface mount parts on 
> both sides of each boards.
> First I suspected a shorted protecting diode right next to the supply 
> connector so I started looking around the surrounding parts.. oh man.. 
> microscope job.. then I decided it would be a good idea to order the 
> service manual to get the job done faster.
> TASCAM answered me the service manual was OUT OF PRINT but I could 
> order it and get it by mail after a 2-3 weeks delay.
> They were not very clear about the cost and the way to pay for it. 
> Finaly after around 6 emails TASCAM/TEAC California office gently 
> emailed me a PDF version of the manual for free.
> So I was very anxious to check out the schematic and figure out where 
> the problem could be in the circuitry.
> My reading was very short.. The service manual only contained
> - a brief list of error messages trouble shooting  (worthless because 
> the unit was dead)
> - parts Exploded view
> - parts list
> - small color prints of pcb's
> (both layers on top of each other so not readable) That's it !
> 
> NO SCHEMATICS.
> 
> So the only thing that was left to me was to ask TASCAM the cost of 
> each of the 2 main boards I cool swap for new ones to get the unit 
> working.
> Here is the reply I received:
> Main board#1 $250.00US
> Main board#2 $140.00US
> Plus shipping.
> FYI a brand new unit in its box sells today for around $189.00US !!!
> So here is my frustration explained:
> For short, in the 70's in Canada (were I live) there was 2 types of
electronics courses:
> - 1 year short course aimed for small home and cars appliances repairs
> - 3 years complete course (analog, digital, logic, software, 
> development, etc..)  this course was VERY CLOSE to the engineer's 
> university course  That's the one I chose to pickup.
> In the past 40 years (beside the elect. development I did) I always 
> put my hands on repairable electronics.
> The stuff were made using tubes, transistors, IC's, etc..
> The degree I got out of my course brought me knowledge to analyse and 
> fix blown circuits. I earned experience out of all my findings.
> Now I'm facing a world of BUY, USE THEN THROW AWAY (AFTER AROUND 5-6 YEARS
OF USE).
> We came up to a point where a qualified tech is almost worthless. I 
> talked to a repair store near Quebec City maybe they would have the 
> TASCAM service manual on hand and the repairs man said to me:
> We almost stopped using service manuals on new stuff..
> The techs know what problem comes often on the electronic stuff we 
> sell and they mostly replace complete boards without bothering what 
> the blown part(s) were !!!!!
> Conclusion:
> Now, new stuff can be repaired (when not disposed) by 'REPLACE BOARDs' 
> techs with small knowledge of electronics.
> In the next future, only:
> -repair shops that fix old repairable stuff (radios, music amps, 
> keyboards, etc..) -R&D & electronic design houses will be the only 
> place left for us techs who like to express our WIDE knowledge in our 
> daily jobs.
> 
> Just my 3 cents !!
> J-Pierre
> Quebec City, Canada
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> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
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