Unnerving

[DrEntropy]

I'll bell this cat:

I think we'll see the end of automotive technicians soon. Set some of these ASE Certed kids loose on a pre EFI machine and they look like deer inna headlights. It's coming down to: read the data, replace the offending assembly. There will be scant call for anyone who can actually disassemble and repair any unit down to the level of discreet components.

Culturally, socially, we've accepted being stuffed into a box*. The extremes bear witness: Rolls-Royce was a high-end product, meant to be passed on generationally with the estate and repairable ad-infinitum. Most other manufacturers aspired to the same philosophy to a greater or lesser extent until post-WWII. The latest crop, like Smart, Prius, etc., not so much. If we see one of those rollin' under its own power in ten years it'll be next to miraculous. Too-expensive, throw-away transporters are what we see now in showrooms. After the seven year obligation, parts will be hen's teeth and we'll have succumbed to the hype shoving the Latest-Greatest rolling jellybean up our.... ummm... noses. All for too much money, in the name of correctness or bling factor or flash. feh.

How many folks are there who're virtually held hostage by their cars, homes, computers? If it konks out in some way, the only recourse is call a plumber/electrician/geek/auto tech. No wonder we're in debt as a nation. We're IRRESPONSIBLE as a nation!

Self-sufficiency is no longer a thing to aspire to. We're hopeless.



*double entendre <span style="font-style: italic">intended</span> :wink:

 

[Basil]

There will be scant call for anyone who can actually disassemble and repair any unit down to the level of discreet components.

Reminds me of how computers and their repair have evolved. Back in the day (as my son likes to say), I was a maintenance man on the largest computer (physical size, not computing power) ever made, the IBM Q7 that comprised the NORAD Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system that was used for our air defense. This system had about half a million vacuum tubes and over a million diodes and that many miles of wire. When something went south, we had to troubleshoot the problem down to which leg of which AND gate, OR gate or flip-flop. Today, if a computer has a display problem, the "repair person" simply replaces the entire display control circuitry (i.e., they replace a "card") that is the equivalent of replacing a huge rack of equipment back in my day. To repair "the beast" we had to understand how that thing worked down to the 1s and 0s level. The technical manuals for the Q7 were massive.

SAGE System from my "ute"

 

[DrEntropy]

Scary, no?

I LOVE the generators! :laugh:

I was building flip-flop, AND, & NAND circuits from components on 'breadboards' when transistors first became available. '63~'64-ish. The Ol' Fella indulged my curiosity. :wink:

Looong way from then to now. Some of these things I now fettle with for <span style="font-style: italic">clients</span> have the capacity to run third world governments!

 

[coldplugs]

I'm a computer "ancient" also, and remember vacuum tube machines such as the IBM 650. When I started in the business, "unit record" machines were still common. These were programmed using wiring boards & jumpers - the picture is not simply circuitry, it's a user program. No main storage, no disks or tapes, and in many cases no frills like multiply/divide capability.

Wiring board

 

[PAUL161]

I only go back to the old Commodore. Only DOS, no windows kids! I think my first filing program was Word Perfect or Word something? Been so long, the name could be wrong. I do remember it had 52 different commands to move around in it, each had to be individually typed in. I had to keep a command list on the desk as I could never remember them all. My first computer with a hard drive had a whopping 164 mega bites and 5 1/2 inch floppies. Couldn't believe it when the 3 1/2s came out. Don't you just love these modern computers! PJ

 

[Basil]

Been so long, the name could be wrong. I do remember it had 52 different commands to move around in it, each had to be individually typed in. I had to keep a command list on the desk as I could never remember them all.

Sounds like "Word Star" that I remember using back as a young LT when "desk top" computer screens were all green.

 

[Banjo]

Yup.. my first encounters with computers were the Commodores with the keyboard built into the CPU housing. Green screens, those printers that used the one long piece of paper with the strips of holes down the sides and could be heard in the next county while they operated. DOS boot off the 5 1/2 inch floppy, no hard drive. What's a mouse? I remember learning to program a Pong game with some basic graphics for a computer class I took in high school.
the "lab" had one or two computers that actually had color monitors! you had to boot your program up in one of those ones to check that you had put in the right colors.
I remember typing reports on a typewriter. It really wasn't that long ago at all.

 

[Banjo]

Doc, of note... Prius was introduced in '01. there are still plenty of '01s on the road with well over 200K on the clock. They hold up remarkably well. But I doubt you'll see them get restored in the future for the reasons you mention. Tecs these days still need to know diagnostics. It's just more computer based that it ever was before, and the culprit is more often electronic than mechanical.
Throw some of you old schoolers under the hood of a modern car with a CAN-BEAN communications issue, or even an evap. emissions code and I bet I'd see that same "deer in the headlights" look emerge. It's all just keepin up with the technology.

 

[JPSmit]

Yup.. my first encounters with computers were the Commodores with the keyboard built into the CPU housing.

I took computers in High School - computer was as big as a phone booth and we used computer cards to program in basic. Word Processing? what is word processing? boys weren't allowed to take typing unless marks were below a certain level.

 

[DrEntropy]

101010!

Throw some of you old schoolers under the hood of a modern car with a CAN-BEAN communications issue, or even an evap. emissions code and I bet I'd see that same "deer in the headlights" look emerge. It's all just keepin up with the technology.

"Like a farrier confronted with a Coats 6200HS." :smirk:

I'm okay with OBD, that "keeping up" thing is not an issue. I suspect that's the case with most on the BCF, as in the main we're "curious" by nature. The idea of a car (or about anything else) that can be renewed indefinitely is. Its just not being accepted/acceptable. Not by makers or consumers. Both for different reasons tho.

I'm much happier pedalin' around in a clapped-out Alfa or LBC than a cookie-cutter, wheeled jellybean controlled by zeros and ones. Not because I couldn't diag/repair it, rather because it is unnecessarily complex/expensive and DESIGNED to be obsolete sooner.

I much prefer "repurpose" to "recycle". Much more difficult to do with most goods produced in this post-Y2K "world economy".

To make REAL money in this environ we should become "Certified Recyclers".

 

[Banjo]

~<span style="font-style: italic">Thought better of my rant, and retracted my words.</span>~

 

[bgbassplyr]

Thanks for belling the cat, Doc.


lol