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RE: Ah, when disk drives looked like washing machines

73.229.163.4

In Reply to: RE: Ah, when disk drives looked like washing machines posted by kh6idf on August 01, 2024 at 03:05:35

Similar path here. Aside from the HAM radio hobby in the early 70's I got my start in electronics in the late 70's and 80's. I remember the original 7400 series TTL, 74LSxx, 4000 series CMOS, 74HCxx CMOS, and the ever so popular (to me anyway) 2N2222 and 2N2907 transistors we used for heavier duty load switching following the digital logic outputs.

I did some wire wrapping too with a little tool that you placed over the IC socket pin and twisted between your fingers. The assembly lady 'pros' had battery powered wire wrap guns so we preferred having them do the more complex prototypes.

Those auto-router systems were far from perfect. The designer had to go in and manually cleanup the layout before sending the Gerber files out to the PCB house.

Follow Ups:

RE: Ah, when disk drives looked like washing machines - kh6idf 11:14:33 08/01/24 (1)
OK, one more story from my working days:

After a few years as a circuit designer, I gravitated more toward the software realm. One day, we were testing a 777 flap/slat control unit for the first time in the lab, which had a real aisle stand, flap lever and one wing with flaps / slats / hydraulics, etc. Pretty much the real deal.

I had done an analysis of the end-to-end logic for extending the flaps/slats from the flap lever all the way to the torque tube rotation. There were a dozen or so steps and many of them reversed the logic. So we weren't 100% sure of what the software would do when the flap handle was moved out of the zero detent. Would the tube rotate in an extend or retract direction? Only one way to find out..

We had the mechanical guys who designed the gearbox watching, and as the handle was moved to extend, the tube was rotating in the wrong direction - to retract. The mechanical guys were in a panic, saying "oh no, we need to add another gear now and we don't have any room left!".

I said, don't worry, we can change the one to a zero in the code and it will rotate the other way.

The mechanical guy said "YOU CAN DO THAT??" :-)
- RE: Ah, when disk drives looked like washing machines - AbeCollins 07:12:01 08/02/24 (0)
  I like that story. Reminds me of Tesla recalls involving millions of vehicles. The solution? An over the air software update.

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