require simple electronic designs

There are no simple electronic designs.

John

Maybe he merely means "simple circuits". ;-)

Cheers! Rich

But really, think about someone who knows nothing about electronics, who needs maybe a simple time delay. We'd say, use a 555 timer, or a relay and a big r-c, or something equally easy. What's his chances of building something that actually works?

And why do people think they can find "a simple circuit" to do complex things, like NTSC-to-PAL conversion or such? They wouldn't expect to find a simple diagram to build, say, their own helicopter, so why do they think circuits should be simple?

Oh, we gotta go now and see the mayor.

John

The beauty of working in this field is that everyone outside it KNOWS just how simple electronics really is. I mean, it's just a bunch of wires and switches right? How hard can it be?

You think that's bad in electronics...try electro-optics. Most software people think that the way to do anything optical is to point a webcam at it and crunch the daylights out of the resulting crappy video.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Optics... that's just a few standard lenses and mirrors, right?

John

Before it got insanely expensive. They now have an "amateur" division, Anchor Optics, that's merely very expensive.

John

Software is even easier! It's just a bunch of letters of the alphabet strung together and then converted to a bunch of ones and zeros strung together, right? How hard can it be?

Biology and medicine is REALLY easy! It's all just a bunch of C's G's A's and T's strung together, right? How hard can it be?

Multidimensional string theory is... uhhh... understanding the female mind is... errr... Quantum mechanics is... OK, bad examples.

"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to management than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones." --Nicolo Machiavelli

R ,-------/\\/\\------, V-BATT - 1.6 _|_ | I-LED = ------------ | | V = 3V _|_ R |___| Alkaline, _\\ /_ | two cells | red LED '-----------------'

The applicable sense of the use of simple:

a. Having or manifesting little sense or intelligence. b. Uneducated; ignorant. c. Unworldly or unsophisticated.

This is what they mean when they ask for simple. This type of OP (who may be an EE undergrad or recent graduate) is confused and unresponsive even when presented with the simplest practical circuit, they are a waste of time. Undereducated should be included in b.

Well, there you are, doing higher mathematics already!

John