manuals/schematics and interest - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 04:04:57 am
content: Do you think that the trend with making schematics "hidden" from basically everyone will eventually lead to basically no one caring about electronics test equipment in a passionate way?When you see the schematics and all the trouble shooting guidelines and circuit descriptions for test equipment it is inspiring to look at the complexity of the device and you start to wonder if you can improve it.I noticed with the more modern 'black box' instruments... I don't care about them very much. I don't really know anyone that does care too much. It can't play video games or do anything fun. I am thinking about what could possibly drive people in the future say.. 20 years from now to study electronics. I have not seen anyone actually excited about the spec sheet of a instrument unless they know what goes into it.Mechanical engineering will remains 'hot' because you can see the machines in action. But with black box electronics, who cares? I see some very proprietary 'powerful' equipment around here, and they don't even bother showing it off at all and no one even wants to work on it lol.About as interesting as using excel (but it costs like half a million)It's kind of a heart and minds thing, but its also kind of like a intellectual thing. With the amount of effort that goes into learning how to do things, its not a good choice at all if you are interested, because if you like black boxes that much, accounting or finance is way more profitable.I think people still think its cool because they still have all the intertia of how things used to be and old timers. But if trends continue, I think the field will end up losing tons of creativity and passion.I think the designers will get worse and the reputation will become 'totally esoteric'. I would basically like to remind people of the 'dark ages,' a time where there was a massive loss of progress due to the emergence of fiefdoms that shared very little information. The great library of Alexandria seems relevant. I guess they did not burn it down (well maybe a few companies kind of tried) but they stopped printing scrolls.And what are companies going to do internally? Make massively dubbed down 'compressed' training programs to try to get designers 'up to speed'? (aka vapid). Or will they have 40 year long apprenticeships? (like japanese companies that try to sue you if you leave?). If good information is floating around out there, chances are you might find someone that at least knows 'how you think', making the employee pool more reasonable, even for obscure subject matter.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 04:42:04 am
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on November 22, 2024, 04:04:57 amno, I think things will keep getting worse until people get fed up enough to push through laws forcing schematics and parts to be available.As far as schematics go, it only takes one country to pass a law requiring schematics be available and they will be available to everyone.There will be a shake-up at some point to get rid of all this inefficiency and wastage, it's just a matter of when.Right to repair has definitely become much more known to regular people in the last 10 years. Perhaps DOGE will be the next wave of changes. Hard to say.One reason schematics are hidden in the computing industry is because so many companies are 100% copying each others circuits. Mostly they hired a design company to do the actual design and that company reused exactly what they had done 100 times before for 100 other companies.So there is some fear that if the extend of copying was known it would lead to lots of lawsuits.It's why most design companies have such restrictive contracts that mean the company selling the product can NEVER release the schematic even if they wanted to.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2024, 05:19:34 am
content: I am not even talking about repair, though I guess its true.I mean that a new person goes WOW when they see a document and they might set the next years of their free time trying to understand it on a conceptual level. It usually makes you think "a smart guy made this" and "i want to understand it like he does" and "this is what I can do in the future".Now when you see it its like "oh, so I might see that box at work if I do that area of study" Brain-dead.I cannot fucking imagine someone 'dogearing' a modern manual.Repair is a big deal and I agree with it, but I feel like the OTHER part of this issue (learning) its going to be a concrete shoe kick in the ballsto some future 'generation' of engineers eventually that even companies leaders and owners will feel. You can't even ask the government to help 'train' people for the field because of a crisis , because they got no materials to 'force' people to learn LOL. I think its already starting to peter out.Now even the 'technology handbooks' they are making are sales catalogs in disguise. To me it feels like isolated countries that have their population die off and no one will want to immigrate there, because having everything internal will make the training INFERNAL. They are complaining now that new employees don't know how to do shit (because its all secret) even though they have the 'free' generation still hanging in the back ground.. when that is too old... their problem will be 20 times worse. To me thats like going back to like small specialized guilds. Engineering should be a thing where you can bounce around depending on your interests and help various fields instead of being stuck some where forever. From a culture prospective, its like being unable to get rid of animosity in a work force. And I think this ultimately leads to stagnation.The patent office was invented to prevent the need for this stuff and to ensure a enlightened society with a large fluid labor pool that can adapt to any challenge. The entire point of general education was to make a fluid labor pool I think. All the secrecy is making people think that its too specialized but I think a big portion of the problem is really that things are just secret!And yes, It also is hiding lack of innovation. Because its secrets the investors can't determine if you are innovating or not. So that usually means the leadership choses not to innovate because people are in the dark. But they act like their innovating. Scammy.