On 6/14/2014 10:57 AM, Jeff Antonucci wrote:
Reminds me of a guy I met years ago who said he would not buy a car built after the intro of transistorized ignition. Transistorized ignition became popular in 73 with GM's HEI. Now there is a true Luddite.
The trick is it's possible to build really crummy electronics just as it's possible to build really good mechanical controls. I fix pocket watches from the 1870's, they run fine. However it is a mistake to assume *all* pocket watches from 1870 run fine; there were millions of junky "dollar watches" along with the good ones. The only thing that survives is the good stuff, doesn't mean everything was good.
Same with electronics: Lots of controllers were garbage. Some were really good. It's hard to find a running 70's vintage computer, how many computers from the 80's are around?
The Elec-trak first generation tractors had an expensive and high quality contactor system. Reversing the armature with interlinked contactors allowed for 30-40 years of operation, and when they have problems you just flip the contactors (putting reverse on the worn connections, and getting another 40 years of use). No problem.
The second generation E15 used electronic controls for delays, interlocks and the like and have some more reliability problems. However the main cheapening error was putting in that stupid relay to reverse the field. They had to build a whole system to do voltage sampling on the field to try and ensure it didn't burn the relay. And that sort of works, but still blows up.
Such is life. You can build a very good electronics controller that can last 30-40 years, but it's expensive and hard to do. Easier to build with high quality mechanical contactors, but also a lot more expensive and harder to mass produce.
C