28 Sep
2010
28 Sep
'10
12:58 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dave McGuire
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 9:50 AM
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Evolution of the Apple Mouse
On 9/28/10 12:35 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I've replaced two in mice, which admittedly isn't many, but do you
really think they're as reliable in the long term as a multiple-zone
capacitance touch sensor?
Our clothes dryer quit working one day, so I cracked it open to see what I could see.
What quickly became obvious was that a safety circuit, activated by a microswitch,
wasn't working right, and careful test jumpering around the switch showed that it was
in fact the switch to blame. I removed it so I could take it to a parts store and get a
replacement, and its cover came off! It was clear it was designed to do that, and after
cleaning up the contacts I reassembled everything and put it back in place. Not a problem
with that dryer for about eight years now....
It's nice when things are engineered to be fixable. -- Ian
Not
really. The replacement of one expensive, failure-prone
mechanical part with a cheap-and-getting-cheaper silicon part is
almost always a good thing.
I won't quibble wth the "cheaper" part, but exactly how "failure-
prone" are microswitches? I can remember only one failing and that
was on an automatic coffeemaker (handled lots of current in a wet
environment; arcing eventually destroyed the contacts).