From: Bjorn Brandstedt (super_deuce@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Apr 16 2004 - 04:12:13 PDT
Some things can not be made better, just differently. I'd like to call it
prime technology as opposed to high (latest) technology.
Bjorn
>From: "aee002" <foo@wavebuilder.com>
>Reply-To: MVlist@yahoogroups.com
>To: MVlist@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [MVlist] Re: new light switch available - it can't just turn on
>the lights - right?
>Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 18:08:41 -0000
>
>--- In MVlist@yahoogroups.com, David Cole <davidcole@t...> wrote:
> > Somebody please tell me that the new $260 light switch does something
> > really special for that kind of money!
> >
> > I'm at a loss.
> >
> > Dave
>
>I think what it does is provide a nice juicy contract to some company
>which has been a reliable and generous donor to a key senator or
>representative.
>
>I'm an electronics engineer myself, and I prefer mechanical switches
>and relays over transistorized microprocessor-controlled electronics
>whenever possible if reliability is an issue. Yes, switch contacts
>theoretically wear out and transistors theoretically do not, but the
>heavy silver-plated contacts in the standard 3-lever switch have not
>worn out in 50 years, although the switches do get broken by
>incompetent drivers now and then. Transistors and microprocessors, on
>the other hand, get zapped by voltage spikes, fried by
>reverse-connected batteries, and even damaged by cosmic rays and
>nuclear radiation. Once something gets zapped, there's no telling what
>could happen -- all the lights could stay on or they could all stay
>off, some could go on or off intermittently, or any number of other
>annoying and dangerous combinations could happen. Furthermore, all
>those rubber pushbuttons still have mechanical switches behind them,
>which will still wear out or get dirty eventually.
>
>A standard 1950s MV with a generator (not alternator) contains no
>silicon electronics and is thus pretty well immune to neutrons, gamma
>rays, or nuclear electromagnetic pulse. With an alternator it becomes
>a little more succeptible, but when you start adding fragile
>transistorised micro-processor contolled stuff to it, power supply
>noise can easily destroy the whole system.
>
>I would love to have been able to do the qualification testing on this
>electronic light switch. I would have loosened up the alternator
>ground strap and revved up the engine. I would have put a worn-out
>brush in the alternator. I would have turned the voltage regulator up
>to maximum output. I would have disconnected the batteries and reved
>up the engine. I would have hooked the batteries up backwards. These
>are all things that could easily happen in real life, and none of them
>would damage the normal 3-lever switch, although some of them might
>burn out a light bulb. I strongly suspect that any one of those
>very-realistic mistakes would destroy the new electronic light switch.
>
>---David Sherman
>
>
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