How *not* to design things...

[kengr]

The "pup" in the comics below is Florence a Bowman's Wolf (uplifted wolf species). She's as intelligent as a human.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3100/fc03018.htm
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3100/fc03019.htm
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3100/fc03020.htm
http://freefall.purrsia.com/default.htm
(after thursday the above will get the wrong strip, try http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3100/fc03021.htm)

I agree with Chris's dad. Especially given that it's a mobility device *with communications*. Killing the comms when there's a fault in the drive system is an *insanely* stupid decision.

What stupid design decisions have *you* had to deal with?

Comments

[siliconshaman]

*Gah!* Yeah... I've encountered designs that challenged my vocabulary. When it's that level of stupid, I start swearing in Klingon. [lovely language for that, you can say exactly what you mean and have it sound just dreadful!]

My solar system has a similar problem... the charge controller module requires a certain amount of power to work, if battery it's charging runs too low, it shuts down supply to prevent damage to the battery. Which kills the power to the controller module, so when the battery voltage then picks up because it no longer has a load on it, the controller module turns on, and turns on everything else because the voltage is now above threshold.

Result.. the lights turn on and off repeatedly at an ever slower frequency as the battery runs down... thus defeating the whole purpose of having low battery protection.

In addition, if the battery is flat, or stuck below the critical voltage threshold, the charge controller won't switch on...which means, in the morning, it won't charge the battery up!

I had to build a by-pass circuit to charge the battery bank directly from the small solar panel, but only if the charge controller is off. [which wasn't actually too difficult and should've been part of the module from the start!]

[kengr]

I've run into several power related problems on things. On computers, especially, it should be *required* that you be able to tell the BIOS whether to restart the system or stay off if the power cuts out.

You *used* to be able to buy power strips that required a reset to start things up even if the power had come back on.

But my new air conditioner takes the prize.

They tell you, right in the manual that if you turn it off you should wait 3 minutes before turning it back on again (something about the compressor, I think).

But when the circuit breaker popped because I was using the vacuum in the same room, it started right up when I reset the breaker.

And given that the buttons are the domed bit of plastic type, I'm fairly sure that pressing the power button while there was no power to it wouldn't have done anything.

So if the power goes off and then back on again, it does exactly what they tell you *not* to do.

[siliconshaman]

Yeah... designers just don't think about these things. Lack of joined up thinking I call it.

Like washing machines that require you to clean the water jets, otherwise they clog...but there's no easy way of actually getting to them to do that! Had to disassemble half the damn machine. Or a reset button on the integrated PSU/UPS... which sits at the back of the server rack, against the wall. [great idea in principle, but that damn reset button ruined it.]

[kengr]

I had great fun with one new-to-me computer. I needed to reinstall Windoze. Or at least update it, I forget which.

Problem was whoever had owned it last had tried that and not had the driver disk for the machine.

So neither the CD nor the ethernet were working. Fortunately, the USB was working with just the Windoze drivers. So I could use a USB stick to get the drivers over.

Still a mess because there were several sets of drivers available, and without the ethernet, I couldn't run the manufacturers "grab the right drivers" program.

[stickmaker]

That's one of my favorite comics. Florence is more intelligent than most humans. She's an engineer. :-)

Also: Don't get me started. :-)

[kengr]

Florence is more intelligent than most humans.

Like *that* is difficult...

[chanter1944]

... Wait. Killing the comms when there's a fault in the drive system? That's the last thing you'd think anyone would do! The heck?

[kengr]

Well, it wasn't *deliberately* killing the comms. It was "merely" killing *all* the power (except for whatever drove the error display) upon sensing a "ground fault" somewhere in the system.

That fact that that killed the comms was a side effect. One that they really *should* have thought about.

There are equally dumb things that happen in the real world.

Like the two hospitals in NYC that lost power in the Big Blackout in the 60s. Both had emergency generators. And they'd even *tested* them.

But one had an electric fuel pump that wouldn't run off the starter batteries. They fixed that one by basically running a hose up enough stories in a stairwell and using a funnel and a bucket to get enough pressure to get things started.

The other one ran just fine. at first. But they were next to the east River and the generator was in a sub-basement. And nobody had thought to have the sump pump considered a critical system. so It wasn't wired to the emergency power board.

After a while, the water seeping in got high enough to short out the generator. Ooops.