[sdiy] My frustration as a technician..

[John Speth]

What Rob says is correct.  I work in the biz - employed by a company that
contracts all manufacturing work to China.

Most consumer electronics use extremely inexpensive innards (save for a
biggies like HDTV panel displays, etc).  It totals a few bux in parts.
Literally.  Product lifetime is measured in months (< 18 months).  Design
cycles last a few weeks.  There is no time, desire, or profit for either
the design house nor the manufacturer to build up the systems that are
needed to support the product post-sale.  The upside is product quality
typically greatly exceeds the old style electronics.

The cold hard reality is companies are not in business to satisfy the
customer except to say that they all know customer satisfaction is the key
to sustaining sales in the brand.  They are in business to sell a product
and get as much money as possible for it.  If it works out of the box and
the price was seen as a huge bargain by the customer, it's mission
accomplished.

I sympathize.  I hate my stockpile of dead junk and that's why I hardly
ever buy it.  I love serviceable stuff and it's a major factor in my
buying decisions.  Electronics are dirt cheap.  It's the reality of the
days we live in.

JJS

> -----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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