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Old 08-10-14, 08:54 PM   #11
jeff5may
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ICanHas View Post
And... how's disposable, unreliable foreign made junk appliances eco?
E-waste is a serious modern issue hence the development of RoHS and such.
I was being sarcastic. In reality, I agree with you completely. The consumer electronics industry in general has taken a turn for the worse, pretty much since the flat-panel HDTV and blu-ray discs hit the market. Gone are the days of discrete components and modular construction. Nowadays, everything the unit does is crammed into a tiny postage stamp. What space used to house wires, boards, and components is now either empty or shrunken out of existence. What used to be a durable, beefy power supply is now a separate, dinky AC/DC adapter pack or wall wart.

How can anyone in their right mind pay $699 for a phone made of glass and plastic? Or $2000 for a super-sized laptop/tablet made of glass and plastic? And why do none of those who purchase said fragile devices also purchase armor to clad them with? Cuz you know they will eventually try to skydive.

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Old 08-10-14, 11:50 PM   #12
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I was being sarcastic. In reality, I agree with you completely. The consumer electronics industry in general has taken a turn for the worse, pretty much since the flat-panel HDTV and blu-ray discs hit the market. Gone are the days of discrete components and modular construction. Nowadays, everything the unit does is crammed into a tiny postage stamp. What space used to house wires, boards, and components is now either empty or shrunken out of existence. What used to be a durable, beefy power supply is now a separate, dinky AC/DC adapter pack or wall wart.

How can anyone in their right mind pay $699 for a phone made of glass and plastic? Or $2000 for a super-sized laptop/tablet made of glass and plastic? And why do none of those who purchase said fragile devices also purchase armor to clad them with? Cuz you know they will eventually try to skydive.

pretty much. the idea is don't sh!t where you eat, but reality is that you're just doing all the sh!tting in China so you can act like you didn't do pollution here. Wall wart? Flat panel monitors used to have them, but now its another victim of embedded systems streamlining where the power supply is a separate proprietary purpose specific board or even worse, a section of land on main board.
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Old 08-12-14, 04:06 PM   #13
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Well, I can say that I only install some European branded boilers and Grundfos ECM and older tech pumps and they have not failed. It is very rare BUT anyone buying a newer LG or similar washing machine should know its PLANNED lifespan is 5 years (yes... planned). It is not an accident that these things don't last.

When i bought my last electric razor, I looked for a Phillips one that was made in Europe, from European made parts. I did not get a battery one and the Euro ones are the mid line and up and I'm told is only 20% of their market. The cheap chinese stuff pays for the better stuff.

That said, I am sick of tossing out all the junk.
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Old 08-12-14, 06:59 PM   #14
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The solution to the failure prone power electronics in consumer equipment is not to get rid of them, but rather to make them not so failure prone. That means spending a few dollars more for better quality/higher rated parts, which is something the profit-seeking OEMs rarely do in a market that is so tightly bound to price.

As for us, we can use surplus VFDs originally designed for commercial and industrial use. They're built to last and in the event one does fail, it's pretty easy to keep spares.
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Old 08-13-14, 12:24 AM   #15
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I'm with NiHaoMike on this said subject.

don't blame China for all those failures, for it's the consumer-driven market that demands such low price and reliability associated with it, period.

I have been involved in linear and SMPS design and repair for quite some time now, and I can tell you that things like SMPS can certainly last if you design and build them conservatively (with twice the operational headroom if possible).

I have SMPS that lasted at least 6+yrs continuously running @ 80% duty and still tested good. Of course: it costs me 5 x more to source the highest quality components and also to build them in the most conservative manner (I add DC cooling fan as forced air cooling when it's being called for.

For linear PSU: it's all about the copper and the laminates and one must over-build them (or build them conservatively) in order to make them last. Duty cycle must not be more than 80% continuously for the copper wires and the laminates will heat up and hasten their failures.

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Old 08-13-14, 06:03 PM   #16
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Isn't the whole idea of SMPS these days cost reduction and streamlining? Think of how many more of them ships from China per container and product value per pound.

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I have SMPS that lasted at least 6+yrs continuously running @ 80% duty and still tested good.
If an alarm clock lasted only 6 years, consumer would be highly disappointed. AM/FM clock radio's power supply based on the line frequency steel core and copper wire do not produce interference to the radio and it is very resilient.
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Old 08-13-14, 07:46 PM   #17
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There is a trend towards using switching supplies in alarm clocks, mainly so they can charge phones plugged into them. The really basic alarm clocks tend to either use a capacitive power supply or are battery operated.
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Old 08-13-14, 08:47 PM   #18
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oh, good to know. then it will go on my do not buy list.

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