In the next lab, they've been working on an immense project: an acoustic filter array. Two of the guys have been soldering tiny surface mount components onto tiny printed circuit boards for days. This week they've been assembling it and testing it as parts were made. Today they had to finish everything and then pack it up to take to a university on the other side of the state.
I got to help: they had me testing the filter boards to make sure they worked and recording data on the performance each filter. I also helped identify the problems with the ones that flat-lined on the scope. Sometimes that was easy.
"Hey, this one is missing an op-amp." I take the board over to Second Amendment Guy (no explanation needed for this nickname, I think).
The Welder (so called because he says he knows how to weld. He learned in high school, in north Georgia where welding is considered to be part of the college prep curriculum) surreptitiously comes over to the workbench and checks the non-functional boards to see if any were his work. Not one is and he smiles.
He picks up some filters and arranges them in order of their serial numbers. Going back to the array to plug them in, he brags, "We've got a zero percent failure rate."
"Stop saying that," chorus the others.
"How many spare filter boards do we have?" asks Dr. Smith.
"Uh. One if we can fix that board there," says Closet Extrovert.
The Welder needs to pipe down or karma will be incurred. Solder joints will pop. Chips will work loose from their sockets. It's best not to draw too much attention to that spectacular failure rate.
287 words | July 16, 2004 08:34 PM | Rocket science