Happy Valentines Day! - What do you Love / Hate about Electronics?

My pet peeves are

• devices built down to a price but designed to last just long enough to see out the warranty.  I’ve had quite a few Nespresso machines that have lasted 3 years and 2 months - guess what the warranty is (I can’t help it, I like the convenience!). Or manufacturers who won’t stand behind their shoddy product: Dualit that releases a kettle that leaks after a year that is clearly a design fault judging by the number of similar complaints.  Or Mercedes having to replace a convertible roof at the cost of £4500 albeit under warranty but not standing behind their work - i.e. it is covered as long as the rest of the warranty on the car holds.
• Manuals that are just useless bits of paper (or even PDFs).  Q. What is this Yc/Br/Ls feature?  A.  Check the manual: “Yc/Br/Ls: select this option to turn on the Yc/Br/Ls function”. Who approves this stuff???

From a purely electronics point of view, I’m in a loving relationship simply because it’s new to me so I’m really having to stretch myself to understand stuff without any formal education/mentoring support.  I’ve always liked getting to grips with new things: there’s always something to learn and one never knows what’s around the corner.  After 30+ years in IT, I kind of find computers boring and I’m not that interested in them anymore except to the extent they support any of my other learning activities.

My pet peeves are

• devices built down to a price but designed to last just long enough to see out the warranty.  I’ve had quite a few Nespresso machines that have lasted 3 years and 2 months - guess what the warranty is (I can’t help it, I like the convenience!). Or manufacturers who won’t stand behind their shoddy product: Dualit that releases a kettle that leaks after a year that is clearly a design fault judging by the number of similar complaints.  Or Mercedes having to replace a convertible roof at the cost of £4500 albeit under warranty but not standing behind their work - i.e. it is covered as long as the rest of the warranty on the car holds.
• Manuals that are just useless bits of paper (or even PDFs).  Q. What is this Yc/Br/Ls feature?  A.  Check the manual: “Yc/Br/Ls: select this option to turn on the Yc/Br/Ls function”. Who approves this stuff???

From a purely electronics point of view, I’m in a loving relationship simply because it’s new to me so I’m really having to stretch myself to understand stuff without any formal education/mentoring support.  I’ve always liked getting to grips with new things: there’s always something to learn and one never knows what’s around the corner.  After 30+ years in IT, I kind of find computers boring and I’m not that interested in them anymore except to the extent they support any of my other learning activities.

Andrew J  wrote:

 

My pet peeves are

• devices built down to a price but designed to last just long enough to see out the warranty

Annoying when some are seemingly almost deliberately crippled, like bits of plastic that are too weak and so on.

Thing I love to see - the repairability of my home Synology NAS since I had to open it the other day.. it's had 8+ years of uptime, and auto-shut down after a fan failure. I ordered a spare, but instead thought I'd use an air spray on the old fan.. it's back to normal : ) As is the 8-year-old spinning disk inside it from Hitachi.. (It doesn't store anything critical that isn't backed up). It is now decade-old tech, but I'm glad I don't need to replace it.

Dolce Gusto machines it is for me then!

Espresso makers normally die from gasket failure and subsequent fluid leaks.  This is due to the immense 9-15 Bar pressure and high temperatures.

Owning a Mercedes - Benz is an expensive ordeal.

I hate the fact that their power window switches break all because a plastic stalk wears away by less than 1mm.

One extra life can be obtained by dobbing epoxy resin on the tip but the surface area is so small that it falls off.

The replacement cost is AUD$150 each.

The combination switch on the same vehicle had to be replaced because overtime the high beam switch ends up turn itself on permanently.

It's replacement cost was AUD$700 and the replacement has the developed the problem of not being able to switch on to high speed wipers.

The same car also had its engine computer die just out of warranty for a cost of AUD$4,000 or so.  Some bright spark integrated the computer into the engine air input assembly where it is subject to vibration.

The replacement had to be sent out from Germany.

I also hate the interior lights in this car because they all operate with inductors. over the years the coils have worked loose and you always hear a buzzing sound even when the light is turned off.

The only solution is to remove the bulb. For some reason the circuit senses the absence of the bulb and stops buzzing.

The same car has issues with its electronic Oil level sensor.  It is located in a position where the entire engine has to be dropped out of the chassis (subframe) to get access to it.

Cost AUD$ thousands just in labour.

The unused keyfob for the car died. It sat in the drawer for years and when needed, new batteries were installed and it didn't work.

Like the engine computer, the replacement needs to come from Germany.

The CD player in the same car just died. I had to pull it all apart to get the CD out of it.