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Forum Index : Off topic archive. : The state of the electronics industry
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ifred Newbie  Joined: 02/06/2006 Location: CanadaPosts: 1 |
A personal grip about the electronics industry. Hi Glen, I read your gripe on the electronics industry (if you wish to call it that). I have been in the field since the early 80’s. Here are some of my observations to the field. My primary schooling was in industrial machine design, this turned out not to be a lucrative field in the 80’s I originally thought, nope, didn’t happen..sooo…I went back to school and took up commercial electronics in the 90’s, opened a company for tv-vcr repair, and again within a few years this became obsolete with dvd’s, lcds and no parts specs or schematics available, which I could live without, I can repair just about anything, but what I can’t live without is manufacture support (vcr gears, sliders and other plastic and mechanical parts). The part manufactures that where supplying parts for commercial electronics industry moved out “all of them –mid 90’s” leaving us holding the bag so to speak, and in Canada the electronics infrastructure & repair industry that took over 40 years to build and had a future, crumbled in less then 10 years. Where there was 3-6 pages of tv-vcr repair companies in the phone book 20 years ago, there is only now 1 page left! Where there where parts stores around the block, there are none. Hasn’t been in years, only one or two parts stores in the entire country now exist! I switched yet again, this time to computers.. oppps, well that’s another lost cause, too many large corps have taken over and swamped the Market to the point that your profit margins are going to be less then 2 percent. Why do I even bother? I have some theories as to what has happened here. The entire industry got swamped with cheap cheap cheap Chinese and Taiwanese commercial electronics and mass manufacturing. Part specs as well as schematics where history because the devices where not intended to last long and not intended to be repaired. Non serviceable. As a result they dropped support. Go where the money is, and the money is in sales. Pricks! This is devastating on an international scale. The second thing that really bugs me is the SMD technology. Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for mass production if it makes jobs, but SMD extinguished any hope of new technicians getting a job more or less, and anyone that has worked on SMD know how difficult if not impossible it is to work with, let alone determine part value and type (caps?). Today’s electronics technicians haven’t got a prayer in the future, don’t mess with this field (personal experience) know it for knowledge and that’s about it, but as a job and making money at it especially self employment, forget it. The parts are mass produced and I doubt highly that they check them. As you mentioned Glen, those rectifiers, there are really cheap cheap ones and they are crap. In closing, I’ll say that I learned a lot in the field but if I had to do it all over again, I would become a lawyer or banker, there has got to be at least 20 pages in the phone book of these … well I won’t say.. but you know what I’m thinking! Lol I wish you all the best…  Now if I can just keep it from exploding... |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5036 |
We have a parts supplier called WES Components ( www.wescomponents.com ), and they stock just about everyting for consumer electronics. If you need a Pinch Drive Cam to suit a Sharp model VCA37, they have it ( $7.50, part GR1216 )  . You can get magnatrons, CD lasers, EHT coils, etc etc. They even stock a small range of old radio valves. Their web site is plain, but they put out a paper catalogue every year, and its 3 inches thick!
It sounds like I've been down the same path as you. Currently I write software for an engineering firm and take care of about 40 PC's on a intranet, but I hate computers. Go figure. Its a job. I still play around with electronics at home, and have a test bench with cro, meters, etc. I get most pleasure from fixing old gear, and have a collection of valve radios. They dont make them like that anymore. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| petanque don Senior Member  Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
I would suggest that these are typical product lifecycle issues. In the electronics industry product lifecycles can be short. For instance for playing music, vinyl records have come and gone. I would suggest that with the new MP3 players that the days of CDs are numbered. Some services there will always be a demand for such as electricians that are prepared to do modest size jobs in residential housing. What they will be installing is another issue. Could you buy a four gang power point 50 years ago? This is because it is impossible to import this product. I would suggest looking at the trend of wind generator producers in 20 years it will be cheaper to buy one ready made rather than make your own. However there will always be people who will think the tinkering/experimenting side of things is more important/enjoyable than producing electricity. |
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