Reset-me Zephyrus

A while ago I posted a picture of a reseteable Zephyrus tone decoder in my Facebook profile - I received a couple of questions regarding the what for and the how to so here it goes with some detail... the story behind the modification.

In the daily use of the 380 series decoder, having the display latch and hold the status of the last tone received is a no issue, but maybe you're troubleshooting a system in which several tone sequences are used and all tones are the same one - unless you keep a close ear to the decoder board you'll miss the reassuring click of the relay each time a tone is decoded... the 7 segment display remains on the same though. If the circumstances of the testing enviroment impede to be close to the decoder, the latched display will prove to be unhelpful; there is a way to reset it to something else: power cycle the box... convenient for one or two shots but can grow to be a tedious task if the troubleshooting effort requires more attention. There has to be an easier way.

There is. Within the logic of the decoder board there exists an MC14538B Dual Precision Monostable multivibrator. With a just-waiting-to-be-used reset pin. Lacking a schematic for the decoder board I just traced the reset pin I needed from the IC to a convenient point I could safely solder a wire to - that would either be a feed-through eyelet on the board (preferred) or a pin on a support component (a resistor preferably).

For one end of the momentary switch I chose to attach the wire on the "power bus side" end of a 100k resistor as seen on this picture (click on them for a bigger view):

The connection can be made on either side of the resistor, but it is technically wiser to have the contact closure to go through the resistor and not directly onto pin #3 of the IC. The other wire for the switch can go into any conveniently located electrical ground point, and I found a board pass through eyelet right by the 7 segment display suitable for this:

The next task was to play test the modification, before doing anything else. Then clean up the soldering job (the pic above prior to that task ok?). As with all mods, anything done should be very easy to get undone... I doubt Zephyrus would appreciate receiving a unit for service with an undocumented feature installed in.

I had a nice cable hold down clip available and used it to secure the momentary switch to the front end of the board. Whenever I am in need of troubleshooting any of our air chains in regards to the sub audible tones, I just remove the plastic cover on the decoder and press the button every time I need the readout go back to zero.

And this is a bird's eye view of the whole 5 minute retrofit:There you have it. A quick and useful mod.

Should I worry about putting a fine-print footnote that this post makes no guarantees nor endorses undocumented modifications to industrial equipment? that it is the sole responsibility of the person who attempts to perform such modifications and none resides on this blog author nor provider?. I think we're all grown ups here. And good engineers at that :-)

Eleven Pound Pencil

Barry Gerber wrote a very interesting essay back in March 5 2006, published in the Tom's Guide website and titled: Who Designed This Crap? The Case of the 11 Pound Pencil. I suggest you take a few minutes and read the article (if you haven't done before) - it is extensive as it spans four chapters:

1. The Decision

2. The Execution

3. The Disaster

and a recap and last thoughts as

4. Productivity Increases? What Productivity Increases?

Look around in your own workplace, your department, your desk. How many 11 pound pencils can you identify? There has to be at least one... yes, even in the most tightly controlled world class lean operated environment there will always be at least one - the difference in such environments is that procedures will be in place to allow the involved parties to quickly identify the wasted resource, then efectively dispense solutions to minimize its negative impact and improve the health of the quality system.

When implementing the quality management system at your site or location, the goal is to create a system that works for you and not the other way around. When proper care in the planning is not taken seriously - as it happens oh so sadly more often than not - that quality system will become the most prominent 11 pound pencil in your operation, a resources hog that will eventually run the company down; one of the tell-tale signs of such condition is seeing your staff spending their time and effort on fighting brush fires all day long... no growth perceived beyond band-aid "solutions" to ever present problems.

That is the key element I believe: make the system you implement work for you and avoid ending up with you being the one working to sustain the system. That should be a banner reminding such policy displayed on top of the main entrance to your business areas.

An update was published shortly after the first installment of the 11 pound pencil story, you can read all about it following this link.

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The Making of a Good Engineer

Many people - including some in the professional circuits - take and think of an engineer as a know-it-all person on a specific field, a notion perhaps stemming from the fact that mostly in the past century, a shadow of a well studied individual was cast on whomever made it through the years of college or university education.

I strongly cater to the idea that it is not the schooling what makes an engineer - studying only serves to open up the thinking horizon of the individual, that's it; the real value of an engineer is in a person that knows where to look for the tools and other resources to resolve a problem.

Back in school one of my favorite experiences when facing an exam was when the 'open-book' option was thrown in; I always have seen this a as true test of character for prospective engineers - there were some students that even as they were savvy individuals with a good deal of theoretical knowledge, they got not so brilliant results when faced with a real-world problem that strayed away from the beaten path, a slew of books in hand and yet some solutions escaped them; they did not know how to effectively search for the tools they needed. Then there were the goof-ball types that despite having severe long term memory problems (too much partying out maybe?) managed to whiz by the tests just by effectively applying the resources at hand.

Of my earliest experiences on the wrongly perceived notion about what a good engineer is, was while working at an AM/FM combo radio station. There was a problem with interference from an adjacent channel on the FM operation and the engineer on the task of investigating the problem got hold of a very nifty and top of the line Spectrum Analyzer (lent by a big name garage door openers manufacturer's lab BTW - we had none in our arsenal at that station). I was observing from a distance as he setup the SA and checked the immediate field to our center channel; one of the sales managers walked by and saw the big box, the blinking lights and the live trace on the screen and stood by to see what was going on. A couple of minutes later my friend finished doing the analysis and while printing out the results the manager with some awe asked if we had learned to do this at school - "no" said my friend, "we did not had access to such equipment there, maybe a digital storage scope or two but that was it". The sales guy was a bit dumbfounded about the whole thing and uttered that he thought that the college we had attended to was up to the latest and greatest, which it was not (really)... but the bottom line is that even as that was the first time we ever touched a SA, there were tools on the side to help us out do the job: the user manual and some theory we had gleaned from assorted books and from playing with scopes and curve tracers a couple of years before that.

One of my favorite teachers back in college once told the class: "kids, you have to be ready to face the challenges in your productive life up ahead, be ready for anything; just because you will graduate as Industrial Engineers doesn't mean you won't be able to function in other areas, this what we see here in the classroom only shows you a very narrow approach at a thinking process - you will have to develop and nurture your own. I am a chemical engineer, teaching materials management here and working also as a process engineer making flutes and clarinets". Those words from Mr. Machado - may he rest in peace - left a mark on me, and to this day I deem them as one of the most valued concepts I ever followed up upon.

First Post

Because I have nothing else better to do and time is of abundance, I decided to open up yet another blog. Have two more where I usually rant about politics and life events, one is in English and the other in Spanish, neither follows the other one in terms of articles posted except on extremely rare instances.

Having recently opened a LinkedIn account I found myself lacking of a proper venue on which to rant about all things engineering, both in the Industrial and the Broadcasting fields... my two passions besides the music. I felt that the content usually dispensed in the other blogs was not up to par to what is expected from a Mild Mannered Engineer so here it is... Mr Engineer at Blogger.

Prepare for round one.