1 Jun
2005
1 Jun
'05
4:50 p.m.
You would advocate physically marring a board as
"reversible" since you
could "solder a piece of wire over the break", but someone swapping screws
is permanently altering a machine's make-up?
Please tell me you're joking.
No I am not joking...
A PCB cut and repair is (a) generally a useful modification (either to
trace a fault, or to improve the machine in some way, and then to go back
to the original configuration). And (b) it's bleeding obvious what's been
done.
It is _not_ obvious that the original screws were, say, Bristol Spline
head if they've been replaced with Pozidriv or whatever.
Now, if the machine was assembled with fasteners that were genuinely
impossible to get the right tool to remove, or if it was pop-riveted
together, or something, then I would agree it would be sensible to
replace said fasteners with something more conventional and make a note
to that effect if the machine was rare/significant. That's what I would
claim to be a useful modification.
My moan from the start is that there is no good reason to replace the
original Bristol Spline screws with anything else. Period. And if there's
no good reason to change something, you don't change it.
When there is a good reason to change something, then I see no problem
with changing it, provided you document the changes and attempt to make
sure said documentation is preserved.
-tony