Re: yes!

On 8/21/24 17:36, john larkin wrote:

On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:09:21 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:
 

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:
>

On a sunny day (Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:25:27 -0700) it happened john larkin
<jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote in <3kg9cj1fp2jifl9vre6ad7tkd0cj4fp1ac@4ax.com>:
>

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?'
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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.
>
>

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?

 We do a lot of aerospace instrumentation, but nothing that's
life-safety critical. Our only stuff that flies is used on engine test
flights and wouldn't kill anyone if it failed.
 I have done flight stuff, planes and rockets,  and the testing and
paperwork hassles dominate the design. That's boring.
 

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/

 Boeing is a mess. So is Intel. When the bean counters and stock-market
manipulators take over from the engineers, things go bad.
 Of course, the craze for fuel savings make everything as light and
flimsy as possible. People sweat every ounce. I wonder if they weigh
the flight attendants' underwear.
 

>
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.

 Highly paid old-timers are force-retired to save money. They should
spend their later years training the next generation.
 

Yes, but if the newcomer is on a short-term contract and doesn't
get a indefinite appointment after, the effort is largely wasted.
I've seen that happen often.
Jeroen Belleman