Cringe car crash camera repair over at Linus Tech Tips

[Howardlong]

Well, this was seriously painful to watch.



For a guy who's in the hole for several $100,000 for his new "testing lab", this doesn't bode well: this was a case of almost no gear and mostly no idea. Hopefully the guy he's hired to run his testing lab (Gary Key, ex-ASUS) will put him right, but it's not clear what his real hands-on technical skills are beyond marketing and vendor management are either.

But, to be fair, I am sure that Linus will rack up enough revenue to pay for a dozen new cameras.

[ataradov]

They are in the entertainment business. The cringier it is, the better for engagement. And it clearly worked. I had no idea about this video and whatever Linus is doing, yet you brought it here.

[TheAmmoniacal]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

[Monkeh]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

Beyond Youtube ad revenue, which is probably greater if they make a mess of it, is there any return on investment for that? They're not in the repair business, they're not in the design and manufacturing business.

[Howardlong]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

That was precisely where I was going with this. The power supply tester thing was another cringe, boasting about how it was a better more modern setup than the power supply manufacturers'. I was left on that occasion with the impression of all the gear, no idea. I have a lot more trust in what Gamers Nexus is doing on that front, and has been doing for some time.

I can't help but think Linus's lab gear risks sitting there gathering dust, becoming little more than trophy gear: it will be very dependent on who he hires to make it work: a cheap 21 year old straight out of college is unlikely to be the right fit, you need a wealth of technical experience, an SME, someone who knows a lot more than he does in the field. AIUI the financial justification for his lab expenditure is to provide third party test facilities, but he'll need people who know WTF they're doing, and right now I don't see much evidence of that, although TBF he tends not to put probation employees on video.

[Howardlong]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

Beyond Youtube ad revenue, which is probably greater if they make a mess of it, is there any return on investment for that? They're not in the repair business, they're not in the design and manufacturing business.

But they are in the T&M business... or trying to be.

[Howardlong]

They are in the entertainment business. The cringier it is, the better for engagement. And it clearly worked. I had no idea about this video and whatever Linus is doing, yet you brought it here.

Indeed. I'm not sure why I frequently watch his videos, I rarely if ever learn anything new technically, but it is sometimes useful for product awareness.

[coppercone2]

does anyone just get pissed at how small those parts get?

I want to shrink ray myself like a lego man and do the job with a OA torch Technology is just not there yet to solder these parts comfortably.

[Jackster]

100% cringe.

They even show them using a camera cage for another one of their A7s cameras.
Said cages have accessories to help protect the HDMI port such as a clamp or even a Micro to full-size HDMI block so you don't have to use the Micro port.

Not sure what is going on with their camera department. It used to be okay but they have made quite a few mistakes over the past few years.
I feel half of it is down to incompetence and the other half is clickbait content worthy which is why we get videos like this.
2-3 hour shoot for a main channel daily upload? Pretty cheap...

They make enough money to buy even hobby-level rework equipment but still half-assed it. Those connectors would not melt if they used the correct heat and pre-heated under the board.

[hans]

I watch LTT mainly for entertainment. Take their execution with a grain of salt. It's all entertainment..

Now I must confess I give them the benefit of the doubt.

YES the job was total cringe to watch. But how was your first year of SMT soldering? Never smashed some pins on a QFP? Never ripped some pads of the PCB? (was done in a retro console repair video) Never burnt a brown mark in your mat with the hot air gun? Never heated a board for so long at 400C+ till it charcoals? If I would need to weld something together, which I've never done, then I'm sure it's also a pretty shit job.

Been there done that. Computer building these days is mostly about plugging in cards and cables, and then clicking a button "benchmark" (gross simplification), so I can't fault them for not having these skills. He is better off hiring a dozen more people to do all those tasks for him.

Not everyone is an EE's in electronics world. They may hire some EEs in the lab, but TBH thumbs up to them not bothering ad-hoc for every video they are shooting right now where they can use some EE hands. And thumbs up for trying to repair something and give this camera a 2nd life, even though it now costed them a second mainboard.

[nightfire]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

That was precisely where I was going with this. The power supply tester thing was another cringe, boasting about how it was a better more modern setup than the power supply manufacturers'. I was left on that occasion with the impression of all the gear, no idea. I have a lot more trust in what Gamers Nexus is doing on that front, and has been doing for some time.

Well, as previously stated (and being the consensus of this thread so far) LTT is doing a lot for show. To be honest, he probably understood what this targeted audience is, and how to please it.
If you want to be a big shot in youtube and elsewhere, you have to be able to rack up numbers of people watching your stuff, and then you can get the additional money with sponsorships, product placement etc.
So he has to cater for the masses, which mostly are half-knowledgeable and need some perk for viewing "THIS" channel, otherwise they hop on the next video with a flick of the finger.

And in this regard, some super-duper highend equipment lots of serious EEs would wish they had access to, is one key to do so- give the audience the impression that you are that cool guy that has better stuff than parts of the industry- most of the audience also do not want to have some detailed report of a power supply including ripple statistics- they do want to have some show, want to have the impression that some cool guy might eventually discover some lie or wrong promises, and want to see that their favorite brand of PSU is declared a "winner" of some sort of tests.
Tests, that in this regard only LTT or a few select labs can do because of the fancy trophy equipment present.

simple selling psychology- nothing else. I myself have experienced this in different regards, and in german there is a saying: "Der Wurm muss dem Fisch schmecken, nicht dem Angler" (The worm has to be tasteful to the fish, not the fisherman)

[tooki]

… and in german there is a saying: "Der Wurm muss dem Fisch schmecken, nicht dem Angler" (The worm has to be tasteful to the fish, not the fisherman)

Oh, I like that saying!

P.S., you mean “tasty” (lecker), not “tasteful” (gediegen).

[coppice]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

That was precisely where I was going with this. The power supply tester thing was another cringe, boasting about how it was a better more modern setup than the power supply manufacturers'.

The Chroma gear they bought is really popular with the power supply makers in East Asia. When they say the stuff they bought is better, they probably just have the latest models. These aren't things you replace very often, so there is a lot of old stuff still giving perfectly good service in the labs.

[Howardlong]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

That was precisely where I was going with this. The power supply tester thing was another cringe, boasting about how it was a better more modern setup than the power supply manufacturers'.

The Chroma gear they bought is really popular with the power supply makers in East Asia. When they say the stuff they bought is better, they probably just have the latest models. These aren't things you replace very often, so there is a lot of old stuff still giving perfectly good service in the labs.

I don't disagree. ISTBC, but I thought he said in that video that it was specced up by an acquaintance who works for one of the PC supply OEMs.

[janoc]

Well, Linus is the guy who was repairing things by "reflowing" them with a hot air gun from a hardware store, among other things.

Until certain Louis Rossmann took him to task over this, in a fairly viral expletive-laden rant video. It ended up by Linus actually visiting Louis, conceding he had no clue what he was doing there (kudos for that) and that replacing/fixing a BGA chip is a taaad more tricky than what his "guide" with the heatgun suggested.

He has (waay) more money than actual technical knowledge/skill, sadly. As said by others, it is a pure clickbaity entertainment produced professionally with a large crew and budget, aimed straight at "gamers" who don't know better and who are the target group for his sponsors. He is a very good businessman milking that particular "influencer marketing" cash cow, though.

What Linus produces is a stream of stuff to keep Youtube algorithm happy, nothing more. He actually admitted some time ago that he had some major personal issues because it is a very stressful job after a while - finding material to film, produce the footage, get it edited, published, etc. Plus all the paperwork, sponsors and so on. And this a week after week because bills and salaries have to be paid.

He runs a fairly sizeable media production company (https://linusmediagroup.com/our-team - almost 60 people!) to produce the content for his channels (he has several + podcasts, etc.) - and in every episode he is personally involved. I wouldn't want a "life" like that.

If you want actually meaningful technical content, go elsewhere.

[eti]

Thank you. You saved me posting it. Yeah it was pretty haphazard. I think he knows his limits, but posting a video makes him $$$ (sadly the ONLY metric, apart from “likes” and “subs” anyone seems to care about)

[coppice]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

That was precisely where I was going with this. The power supply tester thing was another cringe, boasting about how it was a better more modern setup than the power supply manufacturers'.

The Chroma gear they bought is really popular with the power supply makers in East Asia. When they say the stuff they bought is better, they probably just have the latest models. These aren't things you replace very often, so there is a lot of old stuff still giving perfectly good service in the labs.

I don't disagree. ISTBC, but I thought he said in that video that it was specced up by an acquaintance who works for one of the PC supply OEMs.

I think he said someone at Seasonic specified the package LTT bought. The probably took one of their own rigs, and listed the latest model equivalents of what is in it.

[nightfire]

Thank you. You saved me posting it. Yeah it was pretty haphazard. I think he knows his limits, but posting a video makes him $$$ (sadly the ONLY metric, apart from “likes” and “subs” anyone seems to care about)

Well, the amount of money someone makes in his job/profession is one of the many ways to measure success. And it is a fact that to stay on top of the social media machinery/grinder, at some point you have to invest some serious money to get your ducks in row. And if you do not stay on top of the wave you ride, you will go under fairly quickly. There are lots of examples of once-cool channels, that were well regarded some years ago, and where you see that the people there are totally dependant- and do things according to the likes of the actual version of the youtube algorithm.

Here it becomes clear, where the customers really are, that drive lots of things: The companies with the advertisement budget. Everything else is only some exchangeable provider of content to get the desired target audience sorted...

[coppercone2]

WHere is the power supply tester? What is wrong with buying a chroma???

[grumpydoc]

If you want actually meaningful technical content, go elsewhere.

Yes, largely agree - Linus does stuff which is 20% OK technical reviews and 80% entertainment. But he's built quite a business out of it so he's doing something right - even if it is only keeping the YT algorithm farm happy.

What Linus most certainly isn't is any good at actual electronics, in fact I'm not sure anyone on his crew has much knowledge at that level.

Someone mentioned Gamer's Nexus - yes but (sorry Steve) I can't listen to his voice for very long.

[hans]

Well I get the impression that the people at GamersNexus has similar personnel. People that like tinkering with computers and tech, but need to learn new skills and 'the trade' on the job to push their channel forwards into new directions (like PSU testing).

Because let's be realistic.. if you're a design engineer that knows all the tricks in the book.. what incentives do you need to start working on reviews for a YT channel? People that assimilate all the details have other things to do (probably more design lol). I've only seen very very few engineers that have gone journalists (such as here on EEVblog), and even if they have done, they kind of get to the long rambly content that's not really tech-mainstream purely because it contains all those details. GamersNexus is more on that rambly side, but they are quite thorough. Other review channels like HardwareUnboxed are also quite lengthy, where it's focus is on completeness (e.g. benchmarking 25  games isn't needed to establish the mean, but it's nice to see the outliers)  rather than short summarized punch lines. I doubt LTT"s lab will ever get to the same level of detail, mainly because LTT also has a clear focus on entertaining the masses.

[thm_w]

For someone who spent >$100,000 for an ATX power supply tester I wish they would get better soldering and reflow equipment.. and some low-melt solder.. I don't know if they do this on purpose for the entertainment or because they want to use "accessible" gear.

858D is perfectly adequate tool to replace a HDMI connector once a year. But yeah at some point they should consider better equipment.
As for low melt solder, he may not know about it. Or, there is also the fact its not going to not be as strong as lead solder. So might not last as long.

He has (waay) more money than actual technical knowledge/skill, sadly. As said by others, it is a pure clickbaity entertainment produced professionally with a large crew and budget, aimed straight at "gamers" who don't know better and who are the target group for his sponsors. He is a very good businessman milking that particular "influencer marketing" cash cow, though.

Why is that sad? He has tons of knowledge and skills, SMD soldering is just not one those.

[grumpydoc]

As for low melt solder, he may not know about it. Or, there is also the fact its not going to not be as strong as lead solder. So might not last as long.

But you don't use it for the final join, just for desoldering. Though leaded solder is "low melt" compared with lead-free.

[AVGresponding]

Seems to me a lot of his issues would have been avoided by just having the board securely held while he worked on it, and by using a bit of kapton tape to hold the socket in place while he soldered it on.

[Cyberdragon]