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jgazal

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Everything posted by jgazal

  1. jgazal

    cosmos

    I am also enjoying this new one. I know it is the spaceship of imagination, but I did not like two narrative licenses: 1) view under the perspective of a unicellular organism; 2) manned space travel to a black hole with conscious registries up event horizon and beyond...
  2. Hong-Kong may have higher standards. Some Korean manufactures just throw away any failing pcb because SMD service is challenging for their affiliated electronic services. That is easy to understand if your facility has automated routines and extremely low rate of failure. I just wonder if such model is economically viable with manmade PCB's (which failure rate would one need to break even?).
  3. I recall Stax saying that improvements on the current line would mean large heatsinks and that was supposed to increase costs more than the audible benefits. Now you have regulated power supply, more current and more voltage in comparable package. Nice proof of concept. I hope Stax licenses the boards from KG to mass market a similar platform. Do you think EI transformers with same current would fit? Congratulations!
  4. Thank you very much for the input. So I think I will give it a chance.
  5. I have just bought the Weller WTCPT, which is the only one readily available in my country, and I am already regretful. According to Weller tech sheet that comes with the solder station: It is like an on/off switch. That means discrete inputs of constant power. Metcal instead send RF to the coil which is inside the tip and the coil loose resistance when the tip achieves the curie point, reducing the power transfer. So Metcal power transfer seems to be almost continuous and faster than the physical decoupling in Weller. I will try to get a refund and go to the pain of importing the Metcal...
  6. Since we are in this subject, I have read that Weller WTCPT also works with a coil magnet and the curie point of the tip ("Magnastat" vs. "Smartheat"). WTCPT housing is polycarbonate plastic and 45 Watts of output power. Is there anything else that makes Metcal/Oki superior?
  7. Different output power: PS-800 has 35 Watts while PS-900 has 60 Watts.
  8. Ok International webstore is selling reconditioned PS-800E soldering station with PS-CA2 coil compatible with SxV series tips for 79 USD: https://www.okinternational.com/us-web-store/english/globalnavigation/us-webstore-product-detail?productId=97366838-478c-439c-aa28-9cfaa96c172e Anybody in US willing to help me buying this (+ an extra coil and some tips) and shipping to me by USPS?
  9. jgazal

    cosmos

    Natgeo, Brazil, March 10th, 23hs. Always on Mondays here.
  10. I was interested in electronic circuits, particularly electrostatics. Tubecad, headwize and finally here.
  11. I do not know much about electronics, but just by looking the inwards of a Stax amplifier from the 90's I guess they had a 4.5 sigma level of failure already at that time (99.9999998% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects). And if they did not, they had a distributor’s chain to repair the products. I think an audio amplifier manufacturer has half the way prepared to achieve low level of defect by simple using components that come from six sigma industrial plants (transistors, resistors etc.). I suppose that if you want to keep such low level of failure on your amplifier you need to path the other half way. According to this thread this means to respect the tolerances of each component, to order PCB’s with the right amount of substrate and to design your copper traces not only predicting the low current, but only the thermal requirements of the solder joints, to assure that your employee apply standard soldering technics (I think this is easier to achieve with Japanese workers) etc., everything to reduce failures derived from shorts and cold joints. How much would this add to cost? Stax currently matches the input transistors and add a thermal pad on them. How many man-hour this add to the cost? There is a philosophical discussion. On the one hand, seeking for a 6 sigma level of failure is the dream of an engineer. Those are products that are going to function for decades. Usually this kind of consumers value vintage equipment and components that were done to match engineer’s criteria and not only the costumer’s perceived value. On the other hand, there are companies that deliberate decide to sell low quality products because they know that the costumers wants to change it in months. Those products need a good fascia though. And this sure is expensive. And that business model keeps the economy flowing fast. Although SMD helps to achieve low level of defect within a production line, they really challenge the repair and led to simply discard the product. Avoiding those precaution costs in your production line may increase your repair cost, mainly with direct sales. But not adopting safety requirements is a more serious argument. I feel sad that some posts have been deleted at the other forum. I usually feel uncomfortable posting here, but I think the hostility keeps the noise down. I for one have done some unwise questions regarding electronics and all the knowledgeable head-casers were always patient to explain the basics. Nevertheless, what I really appreciate here is the freedom of speech. Sorry for the long post... edited: my poor english...
  12. Is it possible to substitute all electrolytic capacitors? No more recap's? I wonder if one could seal a solid state amplifier with SF6 "forever" at reasonable cost.
  13. Well, if digital amplifier is a must, hurry up, they have just discontinued the ICD-SX813 (16 bit, 44.1 khz, perhaps a "1st generation" s-master amplifier).
  14. They have just released the PCM-D100 recorder with DSD recording and playback. It does not fit in a pocket though. Perhaps they will update the PCM-M10 with DSD. I do not know if such recorders have digital headphone amplifiers.
  15. What is the cause of a poor soldering? a - Worker without skill experience; b - Thin PCB substrate and thin traces that cannot handle the temperature; or, c - Soldering station without temperature control?
  16. Well, it seems an animal to me. I saw it twice. The first time is worst to see it, but I think it is there. It appears at 10:32. There is a tree on the left of the house (from our view). You have to see near the trunk, the animal comes out of the water on the other side of the street. Perhaps a white lion? A white jaguar? An akita? Who knows?
  17. 10:45 to 10:50 in that video. Botton third of the image, left corner. What's that? It comes from the water and jump into to the house? edit: I saw it at 10:30 to 10:35 also, look for it next to the trunk of the tree in front of the house. Agile. I hope it survived.
  18. RIP Amar Bose. Kevin Gilmore, thank you for that link.
  19. Happy birthday, Birgir.
  20. jgazal

    The Abyss

    There is no simple answer to your question. This is the total tax revenue (arrecadação tributária) as percentage of the GDP (Produto Interno Bruto): http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/Publico/estudoTributarios/estatisticas/CTB2011.pdf The TTR/GDP does not tell you who is paying those taxes. So we have to investigate which kind of taxes is being imposed. Here we have a chart with collection according to the type of taxation: http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/Publico/estudoTributarios/estatisticas/CTB2011.pdf Most of the revenue comes from excise taxes (bens e serviços) and payroll taxes (folha de salários). Rice has a 7% excise tax rate in Sao Paulo State and it is consumed by the vast majority of Brazilians. People with high income are usually entrepreneurs or businesspersons with income to travel abroad and bring Veblen goods with their luggage that may not be taxed. To answer your question directly, there is a study that shows this chart of tax burden according to the per capita family income (renda familiar per capita) in 2002/2003: http://ppe.ipea.gov.br/index.php/ppe/article/viewFile/1224/1072 So a person with with R$120 family income is giving R$24 in taxes. If you exempt excise tax on rice, they would probably eat better. IMHO, people on the top are not equally taxed. In Brazil there are at least 37 taxes. The following chart shows the total revenue per tax. "ICMS" is an excise tax. "ITCD" is the inheritance/estate tax (in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro the inheritance tax has a 4% flat rate no matter the amount of estate): http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/Publico/estudoTributarios/estatisticas/CTB2011.pdf Here we have ”Summary of Collections Before Refunds by Type of Return, FY 2011”, in USA: Estate tax is lower, but most of the imposition is exempted since Americans are rather donating their fortunes instead of leaving it to the government. Such flow has an impact in education, private foundations etc. Low and simple taxation during lifetime and high taxation at death. So you keep having the "self-made mans". If you want to compare the TTR/GDP with other countries, including USA: Not saying such view is right. The economy of taxation is a complex subject. Unfortunately people do not have the knowledge and data to reach meaningful conclusions, they do not dig deeper, whether is audio electronics or taxation. Anyway, everyone is entitled to have an opinion.
  21. jgazal

    The Abyss

    Well, in Brazil a Lamborghini Aventador was worth R$2.800.000 in 2011 (Lamborghini Aventador chega ao Brasil por R$ 2,8 milhões), more and less USD1.550.000 at that time. Most of that price are indirect taxes. You are not going to make such money with a small business because government is your main partner. On the other hand, if your parents found a legal - or illegal - way to make a fortune in Rio de Janeiro, do not worry, you are going to inherit 96%. It is not the same in UK (HM Revenue & Customs) or USA (26 USC § 2001 - Imposition and rate of tax). One should ask the effects of such percentages in donations to charity, health, universities or foundations (Charitable Giving at Death Reported on Estate Tax Returns). Donations to education allow critical mass to debunk bad business (True to your school: US college donations rise dramatically in 2011). So maybe you are in the wrong country.
  22. jgazal

    The Abyss

    Even with Yen recently devaluation and grey market, they still sell them in Japan at the same price. It is impressive how they respect its domestic market. They are really honorable people.
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