Falling Toward Apotheosis... Again

[Jade Jaguar]

Bakana, I think the idea was for entry level people to get field experience, in itself not a bad idea, except they had no knowledge of the equipment they represented. If only the Co. had given them some training first.

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You're speaking treason! Olivia De Havilland as Maid Marian
Fluently! Errol Flynn as Robin Hood
You're talking treason! Olivia De Havilland as Arabella Bishop
I trust I'm not obscure. Errol Flynn as Dr. Peter Blood

Pallindromes of the month: Snug was I, ere I saw guns.
Doom an evil deed, liven a mood.

 

[bakana]

Well, I suppose it could be worse.

I used to install sound systems for a living.

One of our customers was a large mall. We got a call one day that the system was Dead. So, I drove over, located the equipment and found that the amp had gone dead.

Normally, I would have just stuck in a spare amp and taken the bad one back to the shop for repairs, but I didn't have a spare rated for that many watts.

So, I opened it up and noticed immediately that a couple bias resistors in the output circuit were burnt crispy. The mall had a radio shack, so I went down and bought replacements for the burnt resistors and a few other components in the same circuit.
IOW, everything that Might have either Caused the problem or been Damaged by it. A simple "shotgun" repair. Replace everything that might need replacing.

After I turned it back on, I waited the company standard 20 minutes to see if it was going to burn up again, then I put the case back together and went looking for the mall manager to get the service ticket signed.

He started giving me the third degree about what sort of test equipment I had in the car. I told him I had a multimeter, but that I hadn't needed it.
He then informed me that I MUST be lying. He said he had a BS in Electronic Engineering and that he Knew there was no way to diagnose that problem without at least an Oscilloscope and a signal generator.
I tried to point out that, with components that are burnt black, you don't really Need to test them to know they are Bad.
He kept insisting I couln't Possibly fix the amp with the tools I had.
I finally looked at him and said: Can you hear the Music Playing? It's fixed.

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Do not ascribe your own motivations to others:
At best, it will break your heart.
At worst, it will get you dead."

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Bakana, that's a good one alright. It sounds like he had BS in more than electrical engineering. My dad was a mechanical engineer, and having worked construction, I have more respect for structural engineers than for architects, so I tend to think of engineers as pretty competent people, but obviously, that isn't always the case. I'd bet he hadn't done a lot of actual repair work himself. I had a case when I managed a seven unit apartment building. We had one house vacuum cleaner, which I passed to which ever tenant asked for it, along with its attachments. One tennant called me to come get it back. When I went to pick it up, he told me I must have given him the wrong attachments, because they absolutely wouldn't fit on that vacuum. I then showed him how they went on, very standard. He was working on his ME in mechanical engineering! Hope I never ride in any cars he designs.

------------------
You're speaking treason! Olivia De Havilland as Maid Marian
Fluently! Errol Flynn as Robin Hood
You're talking treason! Olivia De Havilland as Arabella Bishop
I trust I'm not obscure. Errol Flynn as Dr. Peter Blood

Pallindromes of the month: Snug was I, ere I saw guns.
Doom an evil deed, liven a mood.