[ARC5] 70+ year old errors

[J. Forster]

"Shipping" unfinished stuff was/is very common.

I consulted for a smallish local company that made high end computer
graphics hardware.... $100,000+ in 1975 dollars. Near the end of every
month, they would put nearly empty chassis into shipping boxes and onto
the loading dock...  just to 'meet the numbers'.

The first day of the next month, they'd bring them all back in and
actually build the things. Frankly, I very much doubt they EVER caught up.

The same company wanted me to design some human interface modules. The CEO
INSISTED I use speciual Motorola half-UART chips (a receiver only and
transmitter only) rather the the ubiquitous AY-5-1013. The Motorola chips
were a few cents cheaper. Well, I did as he asked, although they only ever
built a few hundred of the units. Then Motorola discontinued the chips,
selling the line off to Nitron, who continued to make them, at 10x to 20x
the Motorola price. ROFLMAO!!!

I did a complex design for the same company. For weeks they busted my
balls to get the thing done and I worked on it very long hours. After
delivery, I heard nothing back from the client/company. I was there on
other business several months later, and saw my prototype sitting on a
shelf. I asked how they liked it, and they replied "we havn't looked at
it".

After getting paid, I never had any further contact with them, although I
knew they wanted me to do other stuff. I'd rather starve than put up with
that kind of crap.

YMMV,

-John

===============




>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "gordon white" <gewhite at crosslink.net>
> To: "Paddy Ryan" <pei7cn at eircom.net>
> Cc: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 7:09 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] 70+ year old errors
>
>
>> Were these errors on A.R.C. receivers, or
>> Stromberg-Carlson production?
>>  - Gordon White
>
>     I've run across unsoldered, or rather wrapped but never
> soldered wires several times in equipment that worked for
> years anyway.  Once in a Drake R4B and a couple of times in
> General Radio instruments.  When I worked for
> Hewlett-Packard I had a brand new 8405A Vector Voltmeter
> come in that didn't work. I had taken the top off to inspect
> it and it worked fine. I sent it back and it came back with
> the same complaint.  The problem was a couple of untrimmed
> leads sticking up from the big circuit board on top. They
> shorted on the lid, but _only_ when it was screwed down,
> when the screws were out there was no short. I learned from
> that to always evaluate equipment just as it arrived. I
> don't think any manufacturer was immune from this sort of
> thing.
>     The other somewhat startling case was a signal generator
> with _lots_ or missing wiring. We got several. It turned out
> they had been shipped incomplete to meet a contract deadline
> (government contract) and an arrangement was made with the
> customer to accept them and ship them back for completion.
> Generally -hp- quality control was excellent.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>