Re: yes!

"Jan Panteltje" <alien@comet.invalid> wrote in message news:va4vv2$1h1un$1@solani.org...

On a sunny day (Wed, 21 Aug 2024 07:43:55 -0700) it happened john larkin
<jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote in <6oubcj5r9fduockf0j1ind3r1lpe5p61pa@4ax.com>:
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On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 05:27:25 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:
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On a sunny day (Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:25:27 -0700) it happened john larkin
<jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote in <3kg9cj1fp2jifl9vre6ad7tkd0cj4fp1ac@4ax.com>:
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On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 17:13:39 +0100, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
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On 20/08/2024 16:30, Phil Hobbs wrote:

Edward Rawde <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

"john larkin" <jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote in message

I preferred Popular Electronics myself.

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Just as elsewhere at the time you might only have had access to Rossiyskaya Elektronika.
The world was smaller then.

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Back when I was 21 and trying to come up to speed in RF, I learned a lot
from RF Design and Wireless World.

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WW was good on content but circuit diagrams in it were somewhat badly
typeset at times - just enough to make it tricky to get working.
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Elektor was the other European mag back then and it is still going. They
had a summer special with loads of circuit ideas much like IU. Quirky
resistors as rectangular boxes was one of their trademarks.

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Do kids these days have similar guides to designing real electronics?
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When I interview an engineer, recent grad or not, I give them my
2-resistor voltage divider test. Most start mumbling and can't do it.
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Apart from 'Elektor', that was called 'Electuur' here in the Netherlands,
we had 'Radio ELectronica' that last one was my faforite,
Way before that we had 'Radio Blan':
https://archive.org/details/radio-blan/Radio_Blan_01_juli_1960/
Used to read that and build those projects.. If I could get the parts...
Componets from 'Amroh'
https://became.nl/amroh/Geschiedenis%20AMROH/historie1.htm
their '402 coil' (medium wave coil) was seen in many projects.
 Amroh goes back to 1932...
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As to 2 resistors that sounds bad...
I remember asking to draw a transistor relais driver to see if they forgot the flyback protection diode...

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The really advanced question is to state the voltages in an emitter
follower.
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I recently hired a kid who flubed the voltage divider question. 10
volt supply, 9K and 1K divider, what's the voltage across the 1K? He
mumbled and said 9.

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Oops!
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Maybe we should ask 'did you ever design something or build something yourself at home?'

Why should he have? No-one does that any more.
If your time is taken up by other things such as your latest text message and if everything electronic that you need (such as your
Mobile Phone, TV, Microwave Oven, Toaster etc) is readily available by magic then why would you want to learn how to design anything
yourself?

In any case no-one wants you to know anything about their latest designs because you might become a competitor and eat into their
profits.
I wonder whether anyone patented the two-resistor voltage divider when it was first invented.

Most companies don't care what you do or did at home.
If they want electronic design they'll tell HR to find an individual with suitable qualifications.
If that process doesn't go well (perhaps because the interviewer couldn't tell whether a candidate was suitable or not) then a lot
of time and money will be needed to fix whatever was designed. This is seen as normal in many places. I had one manager tell me
"It's not a requirement for it to work" In an assertive non-joking tone. I didn't reply but my mind said "well in that case I think
you should find someone else to do it".

It's also true that home electronics is now so much more reliable than it was 60 years ago that no-one at home needs to care how
anything works.
My father could repair a toaster no trouble. But these days when toasters die they go to the dump not the repair shop. The repair
shop no-longer exists for that reason. Repair shops were often associated with the home of the owner and the same test equipment
used for repair could be used for design.

There are also many reasons why you can't sell anything you design at home because you don't have the money to make sure it complies
with safety and other standards.
And you don't have money for the lawsuit when someone claims your product injured them.

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He seems bright and enthusiastic and already knows a lot about
Raspberry Pi Pico (ie the RP2040 chip). So he can do software while I
teach him some electronics.

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Sounds promising, for interfacing a Pico some knowledge about voltage dividers and other components is essential.
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I don't use flyback diodes much any more. Most mosfets are controlled
avalanche, whether the data sheet says so or not. I tested an FDV301
for a billion shots just to be sure.

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In the US is the legal situation not so that when a plane crashes because of some transistor and you used that component out of
spec you pay?
As to engineering: hard to believe, but Boeing just stopped testing their 700X, it started showing cracks..
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2024/08/19/boeing-halts-777x-flight-tests-over-damage-found-in-engine-mount/
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When the old generation dies all their real experience and ideas go with them to 'effen'.
Maybe <here we go again, brain starts> we could someday grab that with a brain scan and re-insert it in the new ones?
Or at least stuff that into some AI system.