30 years ago before I became interested in electronics, I installed and ran a brand new diesel engine without a drop of oil in it. It ran pretty well until it didn't.
I have some very embarrassing moments from my own early years, but the best story is when I was a tech and embarrassed 3 senior engineers who were looking at a new prototype of a SONY magneto-optical disk-drive that had just come in from Japan. I'd just gotten the job at SONY's data storage lab in the USA, and the group's new assignment was to design a PC interface card for the drive and write the driver software for it and provide an English user interface. The senior hardware and software engineers were standing over the new prototype with a 'scope and multimeters and were trying to figure out why it wouldn't power up. It was actually my job to set it up for testing, but it had just arrived, and they were too eager to wait for my return from lunch. So I walked into the lab after lunch and saw them all huddled over the just unboxed unit sitting on the bench discussing the turn-on problem. Since I was standing back from the group I immediately saw the problem, and asked, "Have you tried plugging it in?" since I could clearly see the plug of the power cord on the floor at their feet. I wish I had a video of what ensued. :)
One of my first, and more embarrassing "rookie 18 year old" incidents at my career workplace was, as an apprentice "Cable Splicing Technician" I was working with a crew of 3 others in Chicago that were working in a manhole on underground telephone cable. They were planning to stay later to cover finishing up work there, and they really didn't need me, so I was planning to leave, but before I left, they asked me to inflate a bicycle inner tube ( for a 26" tire) that would seal a metal extension crown to the manhole cover crown so they would stay dry during an impending thunderstorm. Reading the marked directions on the crown, it said "Inflate to 10PSI" , so, that is what I did, and left them. Well, the thunderstorm arrived not long after, with a good torrential amount of rain, and.... that 10PSI inflation was not enough to create a very good seal. Water started to drip, then run in on them, and close enough to the open telephone cable splice where they had to scramble to cover the splice with what they had until they were able to inflate the inner tube for a tighter seal. I learned a lot from that incident.#1 - It actually takes about 30 to 40 PSI, not 10, to create a good seal on that crown extension,#2 - always have at least one waterproof tarp handy if rain was impending, or even if you needed to leave the manhole to go topside for something, #3 - if heavy rain was going to happen, it was best to either close up the splice before the rain got there, or not plan to open one in the first place, and #4 , never trust a rookie to do something important, and if you do, double check their work. Luckily, no telephone service was harmed, my senior co-workers got a little wet, but survived and didn't totally hate me afterwards, and life went on.
lovely stories... and really surprising the most expensive damaged hardware was just a vanilla 8086 IBM PC. The IBM Tech. reference looks a piece of art, a reminder of a bygone era.
I had one for my Tandy color computer. I recall there being a warning in there about peeking and poking certain locations could damage the hardware as they had not fully decoded the bus.
Some 35 years ago, I assembled first PC, for the friend of mine, because I was HAM and electronics geek (closest to PC expert, he could get :-). Case didn't have standard connectors for the front panel, HDD activity LED among them, so I decided to solder those two wires to the Seagate ST-225 connector. His soldering iron, that I used, wasn't properly grounded and it burned through HDD electronics, making it non-responsive. Luckily, after carefully removing traces of soldering, we were able to push that HDD through the Seagate RMA and he got replacement unit.
What do you think 7400 logic sold for 40 years ago and what's your guess on engineering costs? I'm sure I could figure out which IC it was but what would be the point?
30 years ago before I became interested in electronics, I installed and ran a brand new diesel engine without a drop of oil in it. It ran pretty well until it didn't.
I have some very embarrassing moments from my own early years, but the best story is when I was a tech and embarrassed 3 senior engineers who were looking at a new prototype of a SONY magneto-optical disk-drive that had just come in from Japan. I'd just gotten the job at SONY's data storage lab in the USA, and the group's new assignment was to design a PC interface card for the drive and write the driver software for it and provide an English user interface. The senior hardware and software engineers were standing over the new prototype with a 'scope and multimeters and were trying to figure out why it wouldn't power up. It was actually my job to set it up for testing, but it had just arrived, and they were too eager to wait for my return from lunch. So I walked into the lab after lunch and saw them all huddled over the just unboxed unit sitting on the bench discussing the turn-on problem. Since I was standing back from the group I immediately saw the problem, and asked, "Have you tried plugging it in?" since I could clearly see the plug of the power cord on the floor at their feet. I wish I had a video of what ensued. :)
It's amazing that you actually got back the improvised IC replacement and had it for the story all these years later
One of my first, and more embarrassing "rookie 18 year old" incidents at my career workplace was, as an apprentice "Cable Splicing Technician" I was working with a crew of 3 others in Chicago that were working in a manhole on underground telephone cable. They were planning to stay later to cover finishing up work there, and they really didn't need me, so I was planning to leave, but before I left, they asked me to inflate a bicycle inner tube ( for a 26" tire) that would seal a metal extension crown to the manhole cover crown so they would stay dry during an impending thunderstorm. Reading the marked directions on the crown, it said "Inflate to 10PSI" , so, that is what I did, and left them. Well, the thunderstorm arrived not long after, with a good torrential amount of rain, and.... that 10PSI inflation was not enough to create a very good seal. Water started to drip, then run in on them, and close enough to the open telephone cable splice where they had to scramble to cover the splice with what they had until they were able to inflate the inner tube for a tighter seal. I learned a lot from that incident.#1 - It actually takes about 30 to 40 PSI, not 10, to create a good seal on that crown extension,#2 - always have at least one waterproof tarp handy if rain was impending, or even if you needed to leave the manhole to go topside for something, #3 - if heavy rain was going to happen, it was best to either close up the splice before the rain got there, or not plan to open one in the first place, and #4 , never trust a rookie to do something important, and if you do, double check their work. Luckily, no telephone service was harmed, my senior co-workers got a little wet, but survived and didn't totally hate me afterwards, and life went on.
Love these kinds of stories, thank you for sharing.
lovely stories... and really surprising the most expensive damaged hardware was just a vanilla 8086 IBM PC. The IBM Tech. reference looks a piece of art, a reminder of a bygone era.
Outstanding! Thank you.
I've got that same technical reference manual. Also had one for my Tandy 1000. They were brilliant.
I had one for my Tandy color computer. I recall there being a warning in there about peeking and poking certain locations could damage the hardware as they had not fully decoded the bus.
I didn’t realize the BIOs source code was so readily available. I thought Compaq had reverse engineered the BIOS.
Nice stories! Thank you for sharing the embarrassing but teachable moments on one's engineering path...
Excellent stories Joe. I remember those IBM reference binders from my first co-op work-term. Incredibly interesting to read as an eager newbie.
Nice 🙂 thank you for sharing
Some 35 years ago, I assembled first PC, for the friend of mine, because I was HAM and electronics geek (closest to PC expert, he could get :-). Case didn't have standard connectors for the front panel, HDD activity LED among them, so I decided to solder those two wires to the Seagate ST-225 connector. His soldering iron, that I used, wasn't properly grounded and it burned through HDD electronics, making it non-responsive. Luckily, after carefully removing traces of soldering, we were able to push that HDD through the Seagate RMA and he got replacement unit.
That ST225 had to be one of the most popular drives of the AT era. I still use one today in my oldest scope.
Extra stories :)
I was afraid that first ends with pile of desoldered IC's ;)
In my country that books was only for domestic equipment...
Oh, that smell of fried epoxy and exploded capacitors...
Let me guess: the 2 replacement ICs were 10 times cheaper than the destroyed IC.
Which IC was it and what did you replace it with?
What do you think 7400 logic sold for 40 years ago and what's your guess on engineering costs? I'm sure I could figure out which IC it was but what would be the point?
Shame you not get the AHEM (fixed) pc xt to place on a shelf though 😆
genius