The Prius is just filled with all kinds of electronic goodness. As I was thinking about this recently, it occured to me that I should post some wisdom that I like to give to the service engineers with whom I work: "Never let the smoke out of an electronic circuit. Once you let the smoke escape from any component in the circuit, that circuit will most likely stop working." This is not common knowledge, so I concluded that some would benefit from sharing this here in the forums Best wishes,
Smoke is essential to all electronic devices. In a similar vein, the propeller on an airplane is used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, watch him sweat. Tom
I mentioned that very thought in another thread concerning "Help! Son put Penny in CD Slot !" Seems a 2 years old wanted to listen to Lincoln, and dropped a penny in the CD slot. A ZAPP was heard, RIP!!! I hate it when I smell "The Smoke", it means I have to get up and go to work, 'cause the show is grinding to a halt, untill the item in question is "Desmoked" and put back into service!!! Thank God for spare boards and Service Manuals! Tom, don't forget the "Jesus Nut" that holds the helicopters swash plate assembly to the power drive shaft. Nut busts ....forget Autorotation, OH Jesus!!!
Actually, what needs to be done is for the device to be "REsmoked". It broke because the smoke escaped, and needs to be put back in.
At one point in my career I worked R&D for a pharmaceutical company. This was back in the days when people still smoked at work. One of the engineers was working on a large rack of electronics. What he didn't know was that another of the engineers had run a small piece of clear plastic tubing from the back of the rack into the next room, where he sat smoking a cigarette. At the appropriate time he blew a lungful of smoke through the tube, into the rack, where it preceded to roil out the front in an alarming manner. The poor guy working on the rack was throwing switches and pulling plugs like crazy. The rest of us thought it was pretty funny. Tom
KK -- If you call Tom & Ray Mogliazzi, you'll be an NPR star! Great story (for the listener at least...) !ound:
I can't take credit for this one. Check out the original thread!! http://priuschat.com/forums/audio-electronics/60160-help-son-put-penny-in-cd-slot.html I like Tom's idea!!
Reminds me of the time I was working on the PGA Pro Golf Tour for the Network I work for. We had a extra truck that had the extra cameras that the main Production truck could not carry. It was called "Satellite Video". One day the "Engineering Maintenance Transmission Crew" which is the crew I work with, decided to pull the same type of joke on the guy who controlled the cameras. Each work space had its own comm's system, named "PL's". On the intercom turrets, they have 4 digit alpha numeric readoutouts, so you could quickly key down and talk to the PD, TD, VTR, etc. They boys had an unused position on the Satellite Video PL. Thek took the unused position, and named it "MILK" These are pretty complex systems, with the ability for the talk key to do more than just open the talk circuit. We wired a motor driven pump squirtgun into the system, placed it behind the PL panel. There was just enough space for the snout of the gun to poke out, UNSEEN. The Video Guy see's the new name on the panel, get's on with the comm's guy, and asks.. "What the hell is Milk".. He was told, well if you want to talk to him, call him and ask yourself. So he did....You guessed it, the squirtgun was filled with "MILK" and when he pressed the Talk key to ask the question, it activated the squirt gun, and shot him in the face with COLD MILK!!!! No matter where you were in the compound, you heard the response from the Video guy!!!! Practical jokes were the rule rather than the exception!!!
The absolute experts on the electrical/smoke theory are former MG owners. The first writeup I ever saw on the smoke theory was in the MG owners club magazine. It was explained that all British things leak and that Lucas electrics never worked because they always let the smoke leak out.
I suspect the only reason English are desperate enough to move to a frozen wasteland like Canada is to have access to cars that don't normally leak, with reasonably reliable electrical systems
ound: I know a couple of British families, now in their fifth year in Canada. Why they chose the Frozen part of Canada is beyond me, perhaps they couldn't comprehend temperatures that cold They quickly learned that little electrical plug you see poking out the grille of every car and truck around here, is there for a damn good reason They also learned to never, ever keep cases of pop in an unheated, uninsulated attached garage
