Short a pin? There ain't no more up!

Picture Kentucky Coal Miner on the phone to the maker of their Man-Hoist ("Coal Miner" for open air elevator, beats any Amusement Park ride, only next to the 'Man-Trips', the Roller-Coaster like ride that takes you into the Mine, where you may lose your head at any moment).

Our Hoist only goes up. We've run out of cable, it is all on the spool. There ain't no more up!

I'm sure you have experienced the frustration of needing just one more pin on your Micro. Here is why you don't let the Boss force you into take shortcuts to increase company profits, in the shortsighted short-term. Seems the Hoist designers used two inputs one for Run/Stop and one for Up/Down. Up/Down faulted to 'Up', no mater what you wanted it to do, you only went up.

They should have used four inputs, Run, Stop, Up, Down. Seeing both Up and Down asserted simultaneously would then signal a fault.

The morale of this design tip: Do not take short cuts, people ultimately pay the price. Warrant Repairs are expensive when you have to travel to the mine.

Buggy Toyota Software. Don't they have hills in Japan?

After years of experience with "American" cars, for reasons of reliability and hidden rust (Did they design places for the rust to hide on purpose?), and not wanting to buy from a company that stopped honoring its warranties, my wife and I went for a used low mileage Toyota Van.


After the years of hype about Toyota Reliability I keep running into software bugs.  The annoying kind I could fix if they supplied source code with their vans.


I'm not talking about their well know sudden acceleration issues, but more every day issues, that are clearly caused by software.


First of all if you put the windows down on the sliding doors, then the doors will not latch into an open position.  The manual says that this is a safety feature.  How is having to race a door to keep it from smashing your hand anytime you unload groceries or load up on spring water at the local spring (Neither being on a level surface) a safety feature?


To make maters worse, the amount that windows must be down before the doors do not latch, is different between the two sides of the van, and the grade that the van is parked upon impacts the latch point as well, so the only real choice is to always remember to put up the windows on beastly hot August days.


Then we have the headlights.  There is a very rigorous sequence of events that must be followed to get the headlights to turn themselves off automatically.  Deviate from that sequence in any way, and you end up with a dead battery.  No chime, or anything else, that your lights are on when you open the door (there is a chime, as it goes off for reasons yet unknown while driving down the road at times, usually related to something about the passenger air bag).


I simply do not comprehend why simple software issues like this even have to exist in our vehicles.


Slash Dot has a story on the New Jaguar XJ Suffers Blue Screen of Death as well.


Am I the only person left that wants my vehicle to be a tool to transport me and mine from point A to point B, and not be an Infotainment Center?


Not to leave sudden acceleration issues completely out of a Toyota related post, I noticed this in the 2008 Owner's Manual:

Installation of a mobile two-way radio system

As the installation of a mobile two-way radio system in your vehicle could affect electronic systems such as multiport fuel injection system/sequential multiport fuel injection system, electronic throttle control system, cruse control system, dynamic laser cruise control system, anti-lock brake system, traction control system, vehicle stability control system, SRS airbag system and seat belt pretensioner system, be sure to check with your Toyota dealer for precautionary measures or special instructions regarding installation.

So what do I do about the guy driving next to me with the two-way system, her cell phone in the passing car, the cell phone tower I drive by, or the transmitter from the traffic control system at the intersection?



If Toyota can not get simple things like headlights and door correct, what should we think about their ability to handle complex real time code?

Survival is Not Mandatory, Right the First Time, in an environment of Penguins; free eBooks

Flex007 has started to offer free eBooks that you can download:

• Survival is Not Mandatory by Steve Williams.
• Right the First Time: A Practical Handbook on High Speed PCB and System Design by Lee Ritchey.
• HDI [High Density Interconnect] Handbook by Happy Holden.
• Flexible Circuit Technology - Third Edition by Joseph Fjelstad.
• Flexible Circuit Technology - Addendum by Joseph Fjelstad.
• BGA Breakouts and routing - Second Edition by Charles Pfeil.

To get the first five click on the "Download Now" link from the above links, you are then offered the selection of books that you can chose to download. For the BGA book, simply click on the link above. Both sites will request your name and email address, where they will send you a download link.

Even if you only do the software in Embedded Systems, these books are at least worth a quick skim. Doing so might give you some insights to better communicate to the hardware designer why you think the system problem is their hardware, and not your software. It is unfortunate that we even have to get into finger pointing issues in some companies. You could be fortunate, like me, to do both the hardware and the software, that way any system problem is your fault either way. :-)

The newest of the books is:

"Right the First Time: A Practical Handbook on High Speed PCB and System Design by Lee Ritchey [*], President of Speeding Edge. Ritchey, one of the world's foremost authorities on high-speed design, first published the hard copy of Right the First Time in 2003. Today, Ritchey, BR Publishing and their sponsors are making this updated, how-to guide available to all PCB and system designers at no cost.

With 48 chapters, this comprehensive guide includes chapters on Electromagnetic Fields, RF/Microwave versus Analog, Time and Distance, Inductance, Capacitance, Resistance, Impedance, Reflections, Signal Integrity, Crosstalk, Differential Signaling, Noise and much more. This high-speed design handbook is an essential tool for any designer."

The book Survival is Not Mandatory covers process, rather than hardware or software specifically, so it applies to both. Being written a few years ago Steve Williams holds up Toyota as the "Gold Standard" to follow. Today I'm sure we might rethink that idea, at least as far as denying that a problem exists, or blaming the user for the problem.

What I have found frustrating with design books of this type in general, is they do not address the overall system design, all the way up to outside of the box. None of our systems work in isolation. For example what if you are designing a system to be used in Gars O'higgins Antartica?

The Penguin Cam pictures are updated live every fifteen minutes. Something the whole family will find of interest.

* This Lee Ritchey is not related in anyway to the Lee Ritchey that was co-founder my former employer, Matric Limited, the "ric" part of the name.