00:07 <Joerg-Neo900> haha >>However, despite using a series-elastic spring and a foam pad to avoid over-stressing the servo motor, over time, we’ve found the motor still fails, and operators have disconnected it in favor of manually pushing the button at the right time.<< shit happens

00:08 <Joerg-Neo900> I had used a massive solenoid

00:09 <Joerg-Neo900> don't ever use gears when you can get along without

00:11 <Joerg-Neo900> proper solenoid may be rated for a guaranteed 1 million cycles

00:11 <Joerg-Neo900> a gearbox needs 20 ointments during that time

00:15 <Joerg-Neo900> the motor itself might not even be tested for the number of on-off cycles it can do before MTBF

00:25 <Joerg-Neo900> >>functionality of indicator LEDs and the fan are visually inspected by the operator;<< hey Bunnie, power consumption monitoring goes a long way ;-)

00:27 <Joerg-Neo900> in case of fan, you'd guess a nifty EE might have a thermosensor near a source of heat to read out and check efficiency of fan

00:36 <Joerg-Neo900> looking at >>That’s me about 12 years ago...<< I can't help but think I did similar thing 12 years ago when in GTA02-A8 the increased size of audio decoupling capacitors ruined the awkward serial connection to modem via audio port. It shouldn't but it was my fault to not instruct the tester software guys to disable the audio amp oputput and switch it to high impedance so the probkem would never have happened. Caused a full day of no testing

00:36 <Joerg-Neo900> and massive panics at fab

00:40 <Joerg-Neo900> and ^^^ this was the true reason why we had unbearable small audio decoupling until very last GTTA02 run since the chinese colleagues knew that would happen when they get larger caps but didn't think of the fix ever

00:50 <Joerg-Neo900> hehe >> Can the 2017 badge have sex with 2015 badges? Yes.<<

00:51 <Joerg-Neo900> >> How much worse is the range on this badge than the 2015 badge? It’s hard to say at this point, but early tests indicate it’s sufficient to have blinkysex with people within casual conversation distance, but not within shouting distance. <<

00:52 <Joerg-Neo900> aaaaand on topic: >> Why is the badge more expensive than 2015? The primary cost driver for the badge is the cost of the injection molded case.<<