I've walked this earth for almost seventy years. It used to be the very first item of the agenda to teach personnel tending cash registers how to "count up" when making change. Today, not one in 500 register attendants have the slightest ability to do this because they cannot count. The machine has to tell them what to do or utter paralysis sets in.
I am reluctant to speak with "application's engineers" at many tech companies because other than being trained rote reciters they have almost zero ability to handle abstract thought process. y god, at age 18, we youngsters were discussing cc'ing engine combustion chambers, the merits of camshaft timing event changing and modification, room acoustics and speaker frequency response, and even aerodynamic high speed car body and chassis modifications.
I am deaf on the port side. Yet because of "inherent consumer safety restrictions" I am unable to purchase earphones that allow sound pressure beyond a specific db of amplification.
NONE OF THIS USED TO EXIST! Product safety was mainly confined to child-proofing merchandise. Common sense was necessary.
A comment was made about regulating chargers so a neighbor's battery charging negligence somehow cannot endanger or inconvenience an individual. The chances of that neighbor driving DUI and killing or injuring another motorist are about 10,000 times as great, but switch gears here - if something like that happens the lawyers who are not failed and move on to government have a field day in litigation. This sounds rude and uncouth but if you doubt it you are naive.
There are two LEGITIMATE factors at work in replacing transformer type chargers with pulse width modulated chargers. The first is, the transformer contains a lot of copper. Perhaps 100 times or more than a PWM charger and copper is costly compared to a fourteen cent IC. The second point is weight. A PWM charger of similar output wattage weighs about a fifth that of a transformer charger. PWM charger OEMs then have gained the audacity to reply to challenges about inability to individually control their product with "Oh we can't you see. The charger is now all "solid state" and controls are mandatory". Breach the subject of product liability and resultant litigation and the other end of the phone becomes dead silent. THE ISSUE IS THIS... (courtroom)
"This new charger is controlled entirely by electronic circuits designed and approved by the manufacturer. The manufacturer CHOSE TO violate common-sense limitations that COULD HAVE BEEN EASILY INCORPORATED into his product and that omission caused yadda, damage, to the extent of yadda dollars to my client the plaintiff".
Look, I do not mind automatic battery killers. Let the paisley shirts with fluorescent tie crowd tout the laziness factor ease of "foolproof" consumer use. They are superb brainwashers. Their spiel will convert easily swayed rational consumers to hum the corporate jingle. Look ma no hands.
But when things get to the point where a thinking consumer CAN NOT FIND CAN NOT BUY a manually controlled device is where I draw the line.
New breed chargers destroy heavily cycled batteries. New breed chargers are not green they are BROWN and you do not need an explanation for that.
Hell no, most people do not boondock so this issue is not endemic to RVers. But regular chargers have dried up unless you feel like paying a hundred ten dollars for a Schumacher charger than is rarely stocked on store shelves.
The high pressure psychology of "superior menu charging" has permeated both retail sales and the public.
When I went to purchase tires for the toad I looked for the once mandatory speed, wear, and temperature alphabet letter coding on the sidewall. SURPRISE! It wasn't there! But the next aisle over the shelves were jammed with plastic junk that charges a battery to 85% then screams *FULL*. "You screwed sonny. Take it or leave it"
EMS systems are great, except when they shut off power in a campground. Most regional parks, and remote campgrounds with 15-ampere receptacles have voltage so low, the EMS commits you to boondock. Take it or leave it. You are not permitted to think or even bypass the EMS and use common sense and JUDGE how much of what type of lead is appropriate. And yet many roar and fume that EMS is the the hot setup and anyone who thinks differently is a fool (or worse). They have been brainwashed to a turn.
Let the psychologically modified have things their own way, it's a free country. But when mandates FORCES me to live a similar Rhesus Monkey In A Cage existence sans choices or options, I tend to get worked up.
NUFF SAID
