I had to fix my transmission. I went to the dealer to buy a shift relay. They didn't sell the part. I asked what they do if someone comes in with a transmission that needs repair. The parts guy said "we replace the transmission."
So $150 vs probably more than $5000? Ridiculous.I went to Bumper to Bumper and they got the part for me in one day. Easy fix. A dealer mechanic really can't handle a repair like this?
On all the old PIC micros the pins all have diodes to the power rails to protect the micro.
On the PIC32MX I was using on the analogue pins they dont (dont know why) and its possible to latch up the processor and cause it to pass high currents.
The fix was to add Schottkys to the analogue input pins to the rails.
That, in a nutshell, is the corporate greed I've mentioned so many times.
I've nothing against a company making money or profits, lord knows they have to stay alive.
But what you said is pure greed, and taking advantage of consumers.
Decades ago, when I was in sales, and companies were considerate towards their customers, a simple part was easily available - warehouses stocked with parts.
You could buy a tiny tonearm balance spring for an RCA Victor console stereo if needed.
Try that today with anything - the customer service would tell you to buy a whole new product.
A tv set today - they'd suggest a replacement PC board, at some ungodly cost.
It's a shame how things have gotten.
It's quite a sad state of afairs wiseoldtech. I have repaired many things for peanuts that I was told I'd have to replace an entire module at significant cost.
I do a lot of auto repairs myself, but for those I can't (or don't want to tackle) I use trusted mechanics that I know have the ability to fix rather than simply replace.
In the electronics industry it has got to the point where it is almost impossible to find someone who will do repairs, and a lot of equipment is so cheap these days that it is not economic to repair, assuming you can find someone willing to do it (unless you do it yourself).
Tony.
I do a lot of auto repairs myself, but for those I can't (or don't want to tackle) I use trusted mechanics that I know have the ability to fix rather than simply replace.
In the electronics industry it has got to the point where it is almost impossible to find someone who will do repairs, and a lot of equipment is so cheap these days that it is not economic to repair, assuming you can find someone willing to do it (unless you do it yourself).
Tony.
Assemblies are factory remanufactured. I bought a factory remanufactured axle and factory remanufactured rack and pinion from the stealership. They are not any better than the crappy parts you get at the auto parts store.
They pretty much try to force you to buy an new car every ten years.
This is a Subaru I'm talking about. Subarus are complex cars; there's a lot more to them than Toyotas, which are very simple to work on. But Subarus are designed to be maintained and repaired for many years. I've worked on every major assembly of second generation Subarus and a lot of assemblies on third generation Subarus. For example, although Subaru transmissions are very complex, you can repair a lot of the components inside the transmission by accessing them from the pan. And it only takes about a half hour to drain (it actually has a drain plug), drop the pan, and remove the valve body assembly (don't mix the bolts up!). That's me so a shop ought to be able to do it in 10-15 minutes. Yet the dealership shop won't even drop the pan.
If you want to see what real planned obsolescence looks like, then check out Hyundais. Although the vehicles are simple (and supremely crappy), you can't repair the transmissions at all. I made the mistake of buying a new Hyundai; I thought that a guy like me could keep it running for a long time. Was I wrong. First, the car had two engines installed under warranty; the first one was installed at 5K miles! Then one of the control arms broke while my helper was driving it. The car was wrecked. The control arm actually broke in two! It wasn't the balljoint. This was at 4 years, 43K miles. Hyundai USA replaced the control arms and subframe under warranty (the subframe was almost completely rusted away!) and paid thousands of dollars for a body shop to replace the front clip and paint it. Then at 5 years/52K miles, the transmission took as big dump. I thought no problem, I'll just stick it up the dealer's you-know-where again. They boast about their ten year/100,000 mile warranty and to be honest that was what clinched the sale; I would have never bought it without that. Well, it was a shift relay and Hyundai USA shut me down because it's an electrical part. I wasn't happy, but I figured that I would just suck it up and replace it myself. I looked up the procedure and realized that unlike every other transmission I'd ever worked on, you would have to remove the transaxle and disassemble almost the whole thing to access the relays! There wasn't even a pan on the transmission. So now I was stuck with a piece of crap car that didn't run. I sold it to as guy that had a back alley transmission R&R shop for $1000; five years old, 52K miles, with $500 worth of brand new tires, and the car was immaculate and looked showroom new. I was not happy; I could have bought a ten year old Lexus for what I paid for this hunk of junk and would have gotten a whole lot more service out of it.
Does Hyundai really think these antics endear the customer to their brand? The whole frikking car is designed like a Bic lighter; a $12K Bic lighter.
If you want to see what real planned obsolescence looks like, then check out Hyundais. Although the vehicles are simple (and supremely crappy), you can't repair the transmissions at all. I made the mistake of buying a new Hyundai; I thought that a guy like me could keep it running for a long time. Was I wrong. First, the car had two engines installed under warranty; the first one was installed at 5K miles! Then one of the control arms broke while my helper was driving it. The car was wrecked. The control arm actually broke in two! It wasn't the balljoint. This was at 4 years, 43K miles. Hyundai USA replaced the control arms and subframe under warranty (the subframe was almost completely rusted away!) and paid thousands of dollars for a body shop to replace the front clip and paint it. Then at 5 years/52K miles, the transmission took as big dump. I thought no problem, I'll just stick it up the dealer's you-know-where again. They boast about their ten year/100,000 mile warranty and to be honest that was what clinched the sale; I would have never bought it without that. Well, it was a shift relay and Hyundai USA shut me down because it's an electrical part. I wasn't happy, but I figured that I would just suck it up and replace it myself. I looked up the procedure and realized that unlike every other transmission I'd ever worked on, you would have to remove the transaxle and disassemble almost the whole thing to access the relays! There wasn't even a pan on the transmission. So now I was stuck with a piece of crap car that didn't run. I sold it to as guy that had a back alley transmission R&R shop for $1000; five years old, 52K miles, with $500 worth of brand new tires, and the car was immaculate and looked showroom new. I was not happy; I could have bought a ten year old Lexus for what I paid for this hunk of junk and would have gotten a whole lot more service out of it.
Does Hyundai really think these antics endear the customer to their brand? The whole frikking car is designed like a Bic lighter; a $12K Bic lighter.
Sad story from Fast Eddie D and his Hyundai........ I hate hearing these tragic stories.
I never cared for those cars anyway, my sister had one a long time ago (1988).
A $17K piece of crap.
And as for Wintermute's post #1126... concerning the electronics industy....
I know well how manufacturer's work these days.
Over the last 25 years in my service shop, it became increasingly hard to turn a profit.
Parts became more difficult to get, service info costs inflated, and tech support from them was a nightmare.
It's like they were trying to put us "little guys" out of business and reap more profits.
Samsung's a big one that uses bullying to their advantage.
I gave them a piece of my mind, what little there is left to give....
"Brand recognition and pride of craftmanship along with reliability used to be something to rely on, but it seems that money and greed is the only thing they're interested in now"
Of course, they didn't care, those slobs.
Yet, now, semi-retired, I still have a following, due to my endless commitment to give the best service.
I can't say those big companies have the same peaceful conscience.
I never cared for those cars anyway, my sister had one a long time ago (1988).
A $17K piece of crap.
And as for Wintermute's post #1126... concerning the electronics industy....
I know well how manufacturer's work these days.
Over the last 25 years in my service shop, it became increasingly hard to turn a profit.
Parts became more difficult to get, service info costs inflated, and tech support from them was a nightmare.
It's like they were trying to put us "little guys" out of business and reap more profits.
Samsung's a big one that uses bullying to their advantage.
I gave them a piece of my mind, what little there is left to give....
"Brand recognition and pride of craftmanship along with reliability used to be something to rely on, but it seems that money and greed is the only thing they're interested in now"
Of course, they didn't care, those slobs.
Yet, now, semi-retired, I still have a following, due to my endless commitment to give the best service.
I can't say those big companies have the same peaceful conscience.
Manufacturers want people to send stuff back to them to repair and pay through the nose.
Cars are bad offenders for inflated part prices.
Something like a throttle potentiometer costs a fortune while the parts in it cost next to nothing.
Things started changing in the 1970's when mechanical engineers became little more than parts fitters.
Rather than fix an alternator they would simply replace it.
That not only makes more money but is less likely to go wrong again quickly than a repair.
Cars are bad offenders for inflated part prices.
Something like a throttle potentiometer costs a fortune while the parts in it cost next to nothing.
Things started changing in the 1970's when mechanical engineers became little more than parts fitters.
Rather than fix an alternator they would simply replace it.
That not only makes more money but is less likely to go wrong again quickly than a repair.
Honestly, I think you guys lamenting "the good old" days with cars are high. My 1st personal car was a 1979 Olds, purchased new from an order sheet by the family. The frequency that that thing broke was amazing. Sure it was easier to work on, it had to be. Nowadays there are reports of LS V-8's being taken apart with the factory cylinder hone still visible at 100,000 km. 40 years ago you had a major service due at 100,000 km and had to watch your oil level regularly. Sepia must be clouding your brains.
I think research and development work is fun.
Some of the stuff I have to get working has never worked at some point.
So is it a duff component or a design fault ?
And if there is a fault is it PC software, embedded software or embedded hardware at fault ?
I recently spent half a day changing resistors in USB scope as it was inaccurate.
Only to find later it was in fact a PC software bug !
When I was mechanicing in the 1970's I worked for a British Leyland garage.
We got to know Leyland cars well.
Morris Marina's had trouble with failure of clutches and 3rd gear synchromesh.
I remember the first new Austin Princess coming in. The idler gear was rattling badly ! Had to be fixed before it could be sold as new.
Some of the cars had engines with a life as low as 40,000 miles before they started to burn oil.
Yeah, the '70s were not our proudest moment for manufacturing/QC.
When I was just starting out, I got a job at a local music store as a full-time electronics tech. Mostly I worked on keyboard instruments, and I kept busy as it was boom time for the whole home organ craze - everyone had (or wanted) a Wurlitzer Funmaker or whatever in the living room, and we were literally selling them by the truckload.
The downside of this situation was that the factories were shoveling these things out the door as fast as they could throw them together. The QC was so bad, we had to take them off the semis, unbox them, and immediately move them to a large empty basement teaching studio area for troubleshooting & repairs! Getting one out of the box in perfect working condition was the rare exception to the rule - most required varying amounts of attention & head-scratching before we could let them anywhere near the sales floor.
It was actually a good education for me. The problems tended to be fairly random in nature, with a lot of intermittents. I learned some solid troubleshooting techniques, as well as various methods for "sneaking up" on an intermittent, that I still rely on today. Stuff they don't teach you in school!
As the years went by, the manufacturers slowly started to get their poop in a pile, and build quality took a noticeable turn for the better. By the early '80s, things were looking up - then came the sudden death of the home organ fad, and people stopped buying them almost overnight! Oh well...
When I was just starting out, I got a job at a local music store as a full-time electronics tech. Mostly I worked on keyboard instruments, and I kept busy as it was boom time for the whole home organ craze - everyone had (or wanted) a Wurlitzer Funmaker or whatever in the living room, and we were literally selling them by the truckload.
The downside of this situation was that the factories were shoveling these things out the door as fast as they could throw them together. The QC was so bad, we had to take them off the semis, unbox them, and immediately move them to a large empty basement teaching studio area for troubleshooting & repairs! Getting one out of the box in perfect working condition was the rare exception to the rule - most required varying amounts of attention & head-scratching before we could let them anywhere near the sales floor.
It was actually a good education for me. The problems tended to be fairly random in nature, with a lot of intermittents. I learned some solid troubleshooting techniques, as well as various methods for "sneaking up" on an intermittent, that I still rely on today. Stuff they don't teach you in school!
As the years went by, the manufacturers slowly started to get their poop in a pile, and build quality took a noticeable turn for the better. By the early '80s, things were looking up - then came the sudden death of the home organ fad, and people stopped buying them almost overnight! Oh well...
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Jim, you ever hear of the Optigan organ?
I had one come into the shop once about ten years ago.
They were made around the late 60's into the 70's.
Weirdest thing I ever came across!
The thing played optical disks.
This one was stereo, the disks were driven by an idler wheel similar to ones used on record changers.
Had a pathetic stereo amp and speakers, but I hear they're quite rare these days.
I had to completely overhaul the keyboard because the leaf switches were corroded, rebuild the amp, etc etc....
I had one come into the shop once about ten years ago.
They were made around the late 60's into the 70's.
Weirdest thing I ever came across!
The thing played optical disks.
This one was stereo, the disks were driven by an idler wheel similar to ones used on record changers.
Had a pathetic stereo amp and speakers, but I hear they're quite rare these days.
I had to completely overhaul the keyboard because the leaf switches were corroded, rebuild the amp, etc etc....
Attachments
Sure, we used to sell those damn things! Had a big old box of spare parts in the shop that eventually went into the Dumpster probably 20 years ago. About the cheapest junk I ever worked on, but an interesting concept - one of the first sampled keyboards, heh!
I still have a few box sets of those funky sound discs in the closet. Awhile back I got it into my head that it might be a fun project to scan them, then write some code to "read" the circular audio tracks from the bitmap graphic files into .wavs. But once I started doing the math on stuff like scanner resolution, backlighting, etc. etc., it seemed like the end result wouldn't be worth the effort. I think it would probably make more sense to just rig up an LP turntable with some kind of optical sensor & do it the old-fashioned way, albeit one track at a time. (This is currently Item #132 on Jim's Big List of Grandiose Plans.)
I saw a website once that was selling discs (CDs that is) with dubs from the original factory masters (on 35mm mag tape!) used to make the optical discs, but they weren't cheap! Dunno if they're still around. They did have some fun/goofy stuff on some of those optical discs - cheesy Hammond organs, scat singing, the works. We actually had fun with them back in the shop, but man, what a piece of crap.
I still have a few box sets of those funky sound discs in the closet. Awhile back I got it into my head that it might be a fun project to scan them, then write some code to "read" the circular audio tracks from the bitmap graphic files into .wavs. But once I started doing the math on stuff like scanner resolution, backlighting, etc. etc., it seemed like the end result wouldn't be worth the effort. I think it would probably make more sense to just rig up an LP turntable with some kind of optical sensor & do it the old-fashioned way, albeit one track at a time. (This is currently Item #132 on Jim's Big List of Grandiose Plans.)
I saw a website once that was selling discs (CDs that is) with dubs from the original factory masters (on 35mm mag tape!) used to make the optical discs, but they weren't cheap! Dunno if they're still around. They did have some fun/goofy stuff on some of those optical discs - cheesy Hammond organs, scat singing, the works. We actually had fun with them back in the shop, but man, what a piece of crap.
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