Component level repair

On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 23:10 +0000, Tony Duell wrote: Back in the ancient days, I worked repairing computer boards for a company that made warehousing robots. The robots communicated with the central computer via the ac mains, buffered by optical isolators. Boards were not technically repaired, but replaced. A customer would send in a failed board (and they had GREAT diagnostics to show when they failed) and would be sent a functional board in return. They kept a couple spares of each kind on site, usually, as well. I took the failed boards, and repaired them, and put them in the shippable stock to be sent out in exchanges. (New sales were all freshly manufactured.) I worked out a system for repair... I simply removed the optical isolators, put in new ones, and tested the boards. That simple ploy had about a 90% success rate. I then asked to make 25% of repair fees in lieu of salary. I should have done it in the OTHER order... Board swaps cost about $400, and I did about four a day using their system, and about ten a day using my system. Of course, once I was bringing in $4,000 a day, there was no way I was going on commission... A bit of digression, but the point is that, in some cases, it is only certain particular components which are subject to frequent failure, and in these cases, if no others, board repair is cost effective. (More cost effective if they were to socket those parts...) Likewise in my example -- the boards each had two Optical Isolators, which were significantly less than a dollar the set. Peace, Warren E. Wolfe wizard at voyager.net