EEVblog #545 - Vintage Design Rant

[ddavidebor]

Because leonardo is cool and clipart nerdy

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

Well, Leonardo often used methods and techniques that were later abandoned due to problems with oxidation, humidity etc.

I guess when we look at old designs we have to look at it in context where half of design decisions were ingenious but another half was just just stupid and later replaced by something better. Point of looking at it is in knowing which one is which.

[Agent24]

While I certainly agree that teardowns are a great way to learn things, and that old teardowns are often much more fascinating, I don't agree that teardowns of modern devices are always bad - in my opinion it matters more on the actual equipment itself than the age.

For example, you will hopefully find good examples of proper board layout for high speed digital connections on a Kindle PCB, design considerations which are just as valid now as they were decades ago.

And you don't find out how someone used a technology on an old piece of kit that doesn't use that new technology, eg: it wasn't invented yet.

[vk6zgo]

Well, Leonardo often used methods and techniques that were later abandoned due to problems with oxidation, humidity etc.

I guess when we look at old designs we have to look at it in context where half of design decisions were ingenious but another half was just just stupid and later replaced by something better. Point of looking at it is in knowing which one is which.

Agreed,sometimes old designs do use something that with hindsight looks stupid, but in many cases the Engineers were forced to do it that way because the "suits" wanted to use up old inventory.

"Penny pinching" has been with us for many years.
A classic case is the way Marconi used big,clunky pots & other such components for decades.
Maybe they stocked up big in the 1940s because they thought WW2 might go another 10 years!

What I think is interesting about old equipment is mainly the mechanical side of things.
Lots of people can design Electronics,but it takes a high degree of professionalism to produce something as physically stable,& just plain "useable"as some of these old beasties.

[Seg]

Hmmm, I have a 3rd gen Kindle that found its way under my knee on the bed one day. Keep an eye out for it in the mailbag...

[mimmus78]

I think this generation is very fortunate to have this stuff to play with. Old equipment is like open source software, you can understand how it works and try to improve repair it if you know what you are doing.

I repaired many analogic equipment in last few years and I enjoyed it because every time i learnt something.

I find more interesting watching this old equipment teardown than poking with boring new digital stuff.

D.

[kcozens]

If a person is watching teardown videos only to see what circuitry is inside the boxes they are missing out on part of the learning opportunity offered by the videos. A teardown shows you see the circuitry inside the box and what parts are used but more than that, and equally as important, is how the circuitry was packaged. You can learn whether one circuit board was used or if there are multiple boards. You can see how the boards, and other items inside the box are mounted and interconnected. You can see how the displays, buttons, knobs, and switches are mounted, and how they are connected back to the main circuit boards.

There is more to electronics than just making a circuit that works if you are trying to create a product.

[CHexclaim]

Which is the best part of the teardown of a modern scope or similar signal gear? The black squares with heatsinks on top? The switching power supply? The handle? NO! The signal front end, with all that black magic shaped traces that make a beautiful background picture for the computer.

It comes to my mind that it is really a pity when technology gets lost in time. Sometimes engineers need to copy old designs to achieve a goal. Nasa, on the process of designing the new spacecraft, sent engineers to the museum where one of the Apollo capsule sits to learn how certain things were designed then and why. I cannot find the quote for that but I clearly remember. I did find this though: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2268189/Nasa-fires-museum-piece-rocket-time-40-years.html

CH!

[samgab]

Hmmm, I have a 3rd gen Kindle that found its way under my knee on the bed one day. Keep an eye out for it in the mailbag...

He's already done a teardown on one of those...

[madshaman]

Which is the best part of the teardown of a modern scope or similar signal gear? The black squares with heatsinks on top? The switching power supply? The handle? NO! The signal front end, with all that black magic shaped traces that make a beautiful background picture for the computer.

It comes to my mind that it is really a pity when technology gets lost in time. Sometimes engineers need to copy old designs to achieve a goal. Nasa, on the process of designing the new spacecraft, sent engineers to the museum where one of the Apollo capsule sits to learn how certain things were designed then and why. I cannot find the quote for that but I clearly remember. I did find this though: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2268189/Nasa-fires-museum-piece-rocket-time-40-years.html

CH!

Great point wrt NASA.  Honestly, if a person cannot see or refuses to see value in studying designs of the past in any field they are only hurting themselves.

Design is a creative process (I'd go as far as saying it's artistic) and the more ideas one is exposed to, the more ideas one has to draw from when facing a design challenge.

[Bored@Work]

I think the worst offenders are usually software people. Everything older than a few month and they don't want to use it. They have a new, useless programming language every six month, new web frameworks, new libraries to blink a LED every six month. They just can't have it to leave something alone and just let it work.

The irony is that their shiny "new" is often just another rehash of something decades old.

[JoannaK]

I think the worst offenders are usually software people. Everything older than a few month and they don't want to use it. They have a new, useless programming language every six month, new web frameworks, new libraries to blink a LED every six month. They just can't have it to leave something alone and just let it work.

The irony is that their shiny "new" is often just another rehash of something decades old.

A good example of the 'new' are languages like Java (and later) that use immediate compiling and virtual CPU.s to run the identical precompiled code on all machines. Like using Byte (or 16 bit) stack based computers were something new.. Even on home/personal computers have been having those Since System-P (that was available at least AppleII at it's heyday, and I'm quite sure the System-P is a lot older than that.

And IIRC, it's still available at some variant.