I have a fun job. Simply put, I’m a Test Engineer. (^_^)
Now, I’m not exactly an on-paper engineer. I kinda don’t have that degree thingy or something. (>_<)
But, I do all the stuff. Programming, mechanical design, and electrical design. The production floor out here is loaded with tests and equipment I’ve created. =^-^=
What drives me nutzo is how I have to deal with getting the information I need to make the tests I do. Thing is, communication out here is nightmarishly bad. I have to practically reverse engineer every product I develop for. (>_<)
Today it was a GPS device. Designed in Australia to be produced here in America. It has 2 GPS boards and a radio modem for receiving error corrections from another GPS “base”. It’s more simple than the things I’ve worked with in the past, so, I figured the test I’d develop would be simpler as well. (^_^)
Then the interconnect board caught fire. (O.o)
So now I get to tell the design engineer that the thermal dissipation for the voltage regulator is not enough to survive over-volt conditions… Like, say, a tractor with battery problems. (>_<)
And, that’s the fun part. It’s almost my job to point and laugh at the bad board design because of how I quickly found a way to blow it up. XD
The main reason I catch things like that is that I’m ‘flying blind’. That’s to say, I I’m not told how the devices actually work. I almost always have to sort it out for myself with little more than a power cable and a schematic. And, a lot of GPS is voodooblackmagicmojo. DX
Lots of times I find myself faced with a new gadget that has ump-teen different communication ports, different output voltages, strange analogue properties, RF noise issues, or (like today) protective circuitry that’s supposed to prevent damage under nearly any condition. =^-^=
I gotta say, I enjoy the heck out of it. XD
It’s like every new device is another toy to play with and find various ways to break. =^-^=
When I introduce myself, I normally say “If you smell smoke; it’s me!” XD
