Sorry to hear about your job , Trap. I've been a Firefight/EMT since 87, I love it!! Theres nothing better........well wait..........I should have listened to my mother, and been a porno star!!!

 

canyonslicker:

You do the same thing I use to do and still do part time from home. I have 4 different automated test stations where I work that I designed from the ground up including developing the software to run them. They are used for testing electric motors. I use National Instruments Labview for the software development.

The first one has been in use now for approx. 7 - 8 years and has operated well with very few problems. The testers love using it since it is so simple. What is really nice is they, the automated stations are very consistant for testing where as when they use to do manual testing you could see test errors in the range of 20 - 30%.

The test stations I designed and development use mostly Magtrol equipment, power analyzers, dyno cotrollers and brakes, TCR DC power supplies. They test no-load and full-load rpms. current, full-load torque, pull-in, pull-out torque, stall torque, ramp test, multivoltage points and load point test and some other speciality test for certain motors. We sale alot to medical, and have some big names like Intel, Honeywell, Abbott Labs, Ingersal Rand, as well as government. We make the fuel regulator motors for the B-52. Pretty interesting stuff.

It's nice to know there is someone else here who has and is doing something I have done, and part time on the side still today. I love developing the software the most.

 

Hey 01 XLT ,
It's nice to see someone else on this board doing the same thing. My last company I had 260 automated test sites with 15 different test platforms. They were used for testing High Power RF Amplifiers for cellphone base stations . Anywhere from 25 watts to 180 watts , some with a peak power rating of 800 watts. Many of them were "Smart" amps and had alot of digital interfaces . We used spectrum analyzers , network analyzers, power meters , power supplies , modulation analyzers etc... It was all HP (now Agilent) equipment . Each test site average cost was about 125,000 each . A great job but the wireless industry just took a dump .

Later

 

Like the "job;" the company sucks, however.

Never been an *** kisser nor do I care for office politics. Why is it that people get pissed when you tell them the truth?

Most important things I've learned:

1. Focus on the "Process," not on the people.
2. Before making any decision, talk to the people closest to the work.
3. Don't get involved in any employee "problems" unless (or until) it gets in the way of the work.
4. Don't over-react: they're either jerking your chain or it can wait til you think it through.
5. No matter how simple it looks, there's probably more to it than you think.

 

Well, things may be looking up for me a little. I just tested for a new postion as a Financial Associate with CitiCards with Citibank group. On the upside the pay would move up $1-5 on the hour on what I make now, benefits start on the date of hire (dental, med, vision) paid training, onsite gym, onsite cafe. Downside is the drive would be double what it is now making it around 1 hr long one way. The drive is pissy but I have drove that far before for a good paying job. The stress of this new job will be hard to deal with, right now I have very little stress in my job. The other downsides are the starting hours all of which are later than 10am, I prefer in early, out early.
I also have an offer from a friend for a position as a union benfits insurance rep. No door-to-door selling, lots of driving, flexible schedule ( I would set my own). Do some of the work from home (good and bad). It was stated with a little effort and 40-50 hrs a week you can expect about 40-50K a year.

Trouble is neither is what I really want back into and that is the IT field. Maybe that's a good thing from what some have posted here and what I have seen. Well, see what happens, wish me luck...