I remember a long time ago, probably in the mid 80’s, going on an IEEE tour of the test labs at Motorola. Something I remember is the wind driven dust tests they did on cellphones and that they even had special dust made to their specs.
From: Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 12:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Cambium Force 100 - Dysfunctional Rube Goldberg Back when Motorola made the product, there was interest to either OEM or outright buy the stinger. Some progress was made in that direction. At one point they wanted to do the shake rattle and roll test as well as all the 6 point drop tests of the shipping cartons etc. Almost seems like there was a liquid spray test involved too. Wonder if Cambium is still doing all that. From: Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 11:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Cambium Force 100 - Dysfunctional Rube Goldberg I spent about 25 years in telecom product design. Before something could be released to manufacturing, lots of groups had veto power including QA and field service who would get prototypes and install them per the documentation. I think with the time-to-market demands today, overseas manufacturing, and the philosophy of release the HW and then fix everything in SW, some of that has gone by the wayside. Also, selling to ILECs, a handful of customers were very powerful and could kick a product back for what seemed like a minor issue. Telcos hate OPEX and will not tolerate equipment that requires more labor than necessary. We even had to get approval for the packaging, putting it through drop and shake tests, and would sometimes ship it to a field sales guy and have him ship it back and see how it survived. Maybe product managers need to recruit friends and relatives who have never seen the product before, give them a prototype and the documentation and see if they can assemble and install it. Then try again outside on a cold windy day while standing on a ladder. And isn’t it strange, supposedly labor is so cheap in Asia, but these things always come as kits. From: David Milholen via Af Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 11:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Cambium Force 100 - Dysfunctional Rube Goldberg OMG :) On 9/21/2014 10:28 AM, Mike Hammett via Af wrote: Does anyone know why the Force 100 has not been recalled for being an absolutely dreadful product? I think the designers of the Force 100 looked at the NanoBridge and said how can we make this worse. *slow clap* Give them a bonus for they succeeded. I bought 12 units because of an emergency and now I'm not sure how far I'll be able to go as I surely won't be able to get the required 10 units even assembled. 1.. Why so much assembly? 2.. I'm reminded of 2004 by the amount of coax that needs to be sealed. Ubiquiti got it right with IP67 connectors and those little rubber boots on the Rockets. 3.. If we're sealing the coax on the radio, why the rubber boot and zip ties? Surely they aren't more at risk than the N connectors on the antenna. 4.. That feedhorn assembly is the worst! Does everything look stable? Yup. Okay, screw in the set screws. Check. Everything look good? Feedhorn falls out. WTF. Oh, apparently it wasn't all the way in. Try again. No. Try again. No. Try again? Can't because by now the set screws are striped and I can't get them out. I can't blame them for they should only be fastened once. Try another unit. Nope, this feedhorn just won't go all the way in. Now I'm not certain that the first two that actually went together are together correctly. Yes, I separated the dish from the mount in an attempt to 5.. I like the flexibility of the mount, but that is just a massive hunk of steel and too complex for a CPE. 6.. Is the idea of a simple clip like the Rocket too easy? Did someone need a science project? 7.. For the record, I have correctly assembled (on the first try) a few Jirous dishes and they're a bear. Can I drive them all up to Rolling Ghettos today and have you guys assemble them for me? I need them actually operational by the AM. ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com --
