General > General Technical Chat
Why do companies try to take patents out on standard schematics?
<< < (5/16) > >>
Benta:
I've never experienced this, but your employer might have identified you as a special case/danger as it would appear from this thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/electronics-companies-putting-viruss-onto-usb-sticks/

Zero999:

--- Quote from: Bassman59 on October 26, 2021, 09:04:18 pm ---The only exception was the time I spent working for a defense contractor. Then access to designs was limited because of security reasons. And that sucked, because there was a lot of interesting stuff going on.

--- End quote ---
I've also encountered that, but most projects were restricted, which everyone was cleared to work on. Only secret designs/projects had a small select number of people who were allowed access to. It was a pain sometimes, but it made sense.
thm_w:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on October 26, 2021, 01:03:26 pm ---Oh you mean as an employee?

Ahh, so this is just another in a carnival of terrible companies you've worked at?  Par for the course I suppose.

--- End quote ---

What are the chances that every single company is that bad though, at some point you have to start reflecting on yourself. OP seems to work at companies for at most a few months (contractor?).
If I knew he's going to be gone in a month I wouldn't want to bother setting up an account to access whatever protected folder or site contains the product schematic, unless they had some specific need to look at them. Not to mention accounts sometimes cost a lot of money to add, if this is an online database.


--- Quote from: Benta on October 26, 2021, 09:42:33 pm ---I've never experienced this, but your employer might have identified you as a special case/danger as it would appear from this thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/electronics-companies-putting-viruss-onto-usb-sticks/
--- End quote ---

IT probably controls access then and has him on a watch list. Too much risk in ransomeware taking over important folders at that point.
Benta:
At the other end of the scale, you have engineering companies that trust their employees completely and give them free hands. This only after a very thorough vetting, though.
The legendary Lockheed Martin "Skunk Works" is a shining example that also delivered brilliant results (P-38, U-2, SR-71 etc.). But I doubt that the OP would even get to vetting.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: GlennSprigg on October 26, 2021, 02:18:18 pm ---This may be off topic... so shoot me!!  (End it quicker!!  :phew:)
My BIGGEST qualm about 'Schematics', has always been about 'up-keep' of the bloody things!!!
When/where many people/depts work on systems, they often fail to update the drawings/documentation...  :scared:
The only thing worse than tech info that is non-existent, is stuff that is out of date or wrong!! Worse than having nothing!   |O

--- End quote ---

Many years back, the old PMG Dept produced magnificent schematics for all their "in-house" stuff.
One such, was of a Programme Fail Alarm.

Some years later, after the Broadcast/Comms part became Telecom Aust, we were working after hours at an AM station in the WA Kimberley region, doing yearly checks.

While we were doing this, the PFA failed, so we put it to one side to fix at the end of proceedings.
Looking at it, early in the morning, the schematic "seemed to make sense", but after a "cuppa", we realised that one position showed a PNP transistor, where such a beast would clearly not work.

Yep, the draughtsman had carefully drawn the wrong polarity of device!

The actual (dead) transistor was an NPN type, & changing the drawing made the operation understandable.

The down side was we didn't have the particular type, but luck was with us, & there were some MM1711 NPNs in the spares for the defunct HF comms stuff, which worked a treat, using the "about the same size, three legs, NPN---Yep! that'll do! school of engineering!"
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod