BF2S Forums Tech: Open thread

Dilbert_X wrote:

Two of my PSUs have been making high frequency pulsed noises for a while, when the PC is off. Meeeep Meeeep Meeeep just within the audible range and very quiet.
Are they about to die?

Could be resonance. Unplug it from your components and see if it still makes a noise. Then from the power source and see if it still makes a noise. If out of warranty and you feel safe opening it up (you're an engineer, so you know everything), try pressing on various components with a non-conductive material and see if that addresses the issue.

I do know that there were a ton of faulty capacitors made in the 00s. See "capacitor plague" if you don't mind reading a bit of history. Replacing a busted or worn capacitor is certainly within my knowledge, though it's not something I'd generally bother with.

Pochsy wrote:

I checked out that Drop site discussed above. Some really nice things there. Hilarious that there's a hobby market venn diagram overlap between mechanical keyboards and headphones. I think there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, I'm in that section of the diagram myself...but man, it's never been presented to me so starkly.

It's hilarious to me that you can replace a key with a jabby triceratops head if you feel so masochistically inclined.

Pochsy wrote:

I checked out that Drop site discussed above. Some really nice things there. Hilarious that there's a hobby market venn diagram overlap between mechanical keyboards and headphones. I think there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, I'm in that section of the diagram myself...but man, it's never been presented to me so starkly.

that's wholly unsurprising to me, really. that's why i was trying to explain to larssen above why many, many people are interested in buying nice wired earphones/headphones for home listening, as opposed to hi-fi systems. a lot of coders, gamers and subreddit moderators who sit in front of a screen all day and want to listen to music at a quality beyond 'bluetooth gym buds'.

Last edited by uziq (2021-01-06 02:18:54)

OK, if you all hate engineers so much feel free to not use technology.

Maybe you need to reevaluate.

Erm that all evolved fine by itself.

Nobody's hating on technology and the comforts it affords. Just on the engineers who need to take it down a notch. You lot are a TV trope.

If an engineer is happy why not leave them alone?

Having spent many years designing products, packaging electronics I'll explain how it works.

The engineer may have fucked up.

Equally likely the whole process was a shitstorm - here's how it works

Marketing - "We designed and styled the product, released early images and performance specs to the public and started the marketing campaign - all you smelly nerds need to do is design the electronics, get the software working, fit it all in the box we've designed, tool it all up and start shipping products on the drop dead date"

Engineering - "Um you know if you put the speaker grill there the speaker will have to go next to the hard drive and thats going to cause trouble?"

Marketing - "WE'VE DONE ALL THE HARD WORK ITS TOO LATE NOW JUST MAKE THE FUCKING PRODUCT YOU STUPID NERDS"

If you ever want to see the difference between marketing led and engineering led companies put a Ford and a Toyota side by side and open the bonnets.

Who knows what the truth is in that particular fuck up.

Personally I've had endless similar situations where an issue has been raised early on, the decision is taken not to fix it, it goes wrong in the market and then the whining and finger pointing starts, everyone denies all knowledge and responsibility and blames engineering.
I've learned to put everything in writing and keep all my emails.

My company has two marketing people I'm dealing with, both have lied to management and customers and blamed other people to cover up their fuckups, one is being fired, the latest fuckup - failing to send information to purchasing which will likely delay a submarine refit - may see the end of the other.
"We should have ordered a custom chip six months ago"
"Oops, you should have told me six months ago"
"Can you just go on the market and see if you can source any"
"LMAO They're custom chips on a six month lead time - you knew that"
"Can't they just make some today?"
"The IC industry is overwhelmed with demand at present, now they're on a 12 month lead time"
"OK, I'm going to tell management and the customer its your fault"

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2021-01-17 17:21:38)

Um yes. If engineers know there's a problem and a product is released anyway, then they are morally responsible to leak the issue to the press (and regulatory authorities). You can't just blame it all on management or marketing or whatever even if they were the ones that pushed.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Who knows what the truth is in that particular fuck up.

Personally I've had endless similar situations where an issue has been raised early on, the decision is taken not to fix it, it goes wrong in the market and then the whining and finger pointing starts, everyone denies all knowledge and responsibility and blames engineering.
I've learned to put everything in writing and keep all my emails.

My company has two marketing people I'm dealing with, both have lied to management and customers and blamed other people to cover up their fuckups, one is being fired, the latest fuckup - failing to send information to purchasing which will likely delay a submarine refit - may see the end of the other.
"We should have ordered a custom chip six months ago"
"Oops, you should have told me six months ago"
"Can you just go on the market and see if you can source any"
"LMAO They're custom chips on a six month lead time"
"Can't they just make some today?"
"The IC industry is overwhelmed with demand at present, now they're on a 12 month lead time"
"OK, I'm going to tell management and the customer its your fault"

Keeping stuff in writing is an idea that serves many more facets of business than just engineering. Anyway, this is just one facet to engineers needing to get out of their own skulls and stop being such dicks. You guys really don't have the best reputation when it comes to being "people persons." See your endless ranting about humanities graduates for ex.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Anyway, this is just one facet to engineers needing to get out of their own skulls and stop being such dicks.

How so?

You guys really don't have the best reputation when it comes to being "people persons."

So what?

Dilbert_X wrote:

management take commercial decisions based on cost and risk, engineers advise them of cost and risk, its their decision.

This is how production works.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

I could sweep through years here for examples from you alone. Also from college anecdotes in or in the orbit of STEM.

Thats not really relevant, internal company communication is usually simple and blunt.