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| What are your electronics related quirks? |
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| Berni:
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on May 19, 2020, 01:39:13 am --- --- Quote from: nctnico on May 18, 2020, 09:07:21 pm ---BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done. --- End quote --- I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me. --- End quote --- I think he means more the thing im guilty of where a project that is indefinitely on hold end up sitting on the bench for months at a time or some parts from that project end up laying there, just shoved to the side. I keep moving things over to make room to work on stuff in the middle of the bench until there is so much clutter all around that there is no room to put down stuff so i go at it and mostly clear the whole bench. Slowly entropy again does its thing and stuff accumulates again over the time of months. Its not really the way to do it. At work we tend to clean up the bench on Fridays. It doesn't happen every Friday, sometimes one person says screw it and everyone else takes it as an excuse to also not clean up the workbenches. It does keep the bench from reaching critical mass like mine at home. But at the same time the lack of organization in storage also means occasionally things get lost in the wrong cardboard box. |
| fcb:
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on May 19, 2020, 01:39:13 am --- --- Quote from: nctnico on May 18, 2020, 09:07:21 pm ---BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done. --- End quote --- I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me. --- End quote --- In my experience, the EE's with messy benches with multiple projects and stuff piled up have (in general) been 'less efficient' overall, not saying better/worse engineers, but more likely to be late with a project. For me, clearing a bench before switching to a different project helps in the following ways: 1. The bench won't get cleared until the project is finished or at a stage where it can be put down for a period of time - it forces me to tidy up loose ends, finish those final-tweaks and ensure that documentation is up-to-date. 2. Gives me downtime to think about the project/stage i've just done - invariably I'll think of something that can be improved, cost-reduced or perhaps something that needs documentating better (sometimes this results in halting the clear-up and diving back in). 3. Breakdown test gear setups, put test leads away - basically touch everything (repair any broken bits, clean grime off test leads etc). 4. Towards the end of clearing a bench I find myself thinking about the next project and planning my approach to it. The mental act of queuing projects also combats my in-built tendancy to start & not finish a project. Things ALWAYS take longer than you expect - why take even longer working with less bench space and more clutter to distract/delay you? |
| nctnico:
--- Quote from: Berni on May 19, 2020, 07:07:28 am --- --- Quote from: rsjsouza on May 19, 2020, 01:39:13 am --- --- Quote from: nctnico on May 18, 2020, 09:07:21 pm ---BTW I see some think they are obsessive about clean work benches. I think those are actually sane. On various occasions I visited fellow EEs which had their (daytime job) work benches littered with circuit boards and other stuff. That is not a way to get work done. --- End quote --- I disagree with you there, as it depends on the job. My context switching is quite quick and I return to the same boards and instruments several times a day or week. I need to have many different boards, equipment and cables at hand and storing everything on their place every time is counterproductive to me. --- End quote --- I think he means more the thing im guilty of where a project that is indefinitely on hold end up sitting on the bench for months at a time or some parts from that project end up laying there, just shoved to the side. I keep moving things over to make room to work on stuff in the middle of the bench until there is so much clutter all around that there is no room to put down stuff so i go at it and mostly clear the whole bench. Slowly entropy again does its thing and stuff accumulates again over the time of months. Its not really the way to do it. --- End quote --- Indeed. And going back & forth between various projects isn't very productive. I ended up in such a job at some point and quit. Because of all the distractions and fixing problems in other people's circuits it got to the point where none of my work was at a quality level I was satisfied with. |
| Berni:
I don't mind helping other people with there cirucits since its usually a quick enough fix. As it is with most things, i think the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. Yes work becomes a problem when there are multiple layers of crap all over the bench, but also keeping the bench surgically clean at all times is also not that great. The extra time to continuously put things away and back again doesn't really get compensated by enough extra productivity. Its fine to leave some stuff around on the bench as long as its something that gets used. For example i often leave common tools around on the bench, probes and cables stay plugged into test gear...etc. Tho for equipment repair a clean bench is very helpful since you want plenty of space for big gear and you don't want to loose any important tiny parts among the junk. But for just tinkering with circuits its hard to keep things clean all that long. But i guess on the topic of messy workbenches, still not many can compete against good ol Jim: |
| tautech:
Terribly guilty of over studying PCB layout and design of PCB's that cross the bench and yet to find one that couldn't be improved on....especially with repairs in mind ! :horse: |
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