observation

Phil_aka_Pip

our agricultural equipment works for years without maintenance even when covered in pigshit

whereas

our fire alarm system in a warm & dry building requires maintenance every few months and the wallah who does it takes yonks

frankus

I think one works mechanically and has big gears and wheels and the other works by electrickery and uses small transistors and Sillicon chips.

RocknRollDave

I don't think routine maintenance on a potentially life-saving device is such a bad thing. You sort of know when a tractor's not working..it doesn't start. It's not quite as satisfactory to say "Ah well, now we know the fire alarm's busted...half the staff are dead"

Phil_aka_Pip

our gear is the electrickery. some of the designs aren't new (based on PIC16F877 for example)

FX_Munkee

It's worse than that they're NUCULAR! Americium to be precise (also shouldn't that be Americum?)

Phil_aka_Pip

we don't make tractors. we make weighing equipment, from weighbridges and platforms your piggies walk across to weigh them, to gear that tells you how much grain is in your combine harvester. The load cells are the mechanical bit. the rest is all electronics

RocknRollDave

Same principle, though, in that if your gear doesn't work, you find out when it doesn't work, whereas with a fire alarm you need to know before then.

TTony

Phil_aka_Pip said:

our agricultural equipment works for years without maintenance even when covered in pigshit

I could introduce you to a fair few farmers who would disagree with that.

It might look as if it has had no maintenance, but that's because it's covered in pigshit (ie has been used).

Phil_aka_Pip

they contact us when it breaks, we fix it. no maintenance contracts. sometimes it works for years ....

boogieman

From experience fire alarms usually go off when they're faulty rather than staying silent . And always when a) it's your mate's day off and you're the only maintenance bloke on duty b) the building is full of visiting high level managers c) you can't silence the sounder, so the building gets evacuated and d) it's pissing down with rain outside. :-S
Edit. Oh and e) the fire brigade are quiet that day, so come down to have a look. Firemen are notoriously willing to bash every door down too, rather than wait for someone with a key.

Phil_aka_Pip

@boogieman I had similar with smoke detectors. 2 houses ago, I had a rewire job done and the bloke insisted on fitting them. The one in the hallway would go off without fail whenever I fried an egg, or made toast, when the kitchen door was not fully closed. However when the oil-filled motor-run capacitor on my Hammond L100 blew up leaving smoke so thick in the music room and hallway (the door was open) that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face - did it go off? did it heck. I sellotaped a white plastic bag over it after that. Worse than useless.