> > No problem with spikes or anything else untoward AFAICT, this
> > particular regulator just decided to give up its day job
>
> Well, maybe, but my experience with customers who have sudden
> unusual field problems is that there's usually a very different
> explaination. In other words they're not going to tell you "We
> accidentally touched your gizmo to the arc welder".  You're going
> to hear "It just went.Nobody has been near it for 3 years, and the
> whole time it was alone on a table on an anti-static mat in a climate
> controlled chamber surrounded by 3 inches of lead shielding"

This very afternoon I've had returned to me a prototype that someone's
been testing for a couple of weeks. As far as I was aware it was working
perfectly well to the specs as arranged. The work of art (IMHO ;-) ) that
was taken away is virtually unrecognisable. I'm livid. Having changed
their mind after delivery, it's been hacked something awful. Relays are
hanging out of the box, the LCD doesn't work, probably the PIC neither,
an LED is missing and who knows what else is OS. Apart from the
obvious physical changes, they've tried to bypass s/w controlled relays
with toggle switches (incompetently, as they admitted......so why do it
????), with the result that many pins of the PIC have had 12V on them.
Which explains why the bloody thing is dead in the water and "doesn't
work". It's not so much the repairs, (which they will pay for), it's the
total lack of consideration and being already busy it's not much fun
doing the same work twice

I shall, however, maintain a dignified composure and mutter just a
gritted-toothed "flippin' 'eck"

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