NRI ?????

NRI is officially Non Resident Indian, in reality I was treated in India as Not Required Indian, if I ask fees for the job I did. Almost everyone I met asked free service or advice from me.

1977 got a break in my monotonous life. I joined a company in Iran, as a Plant Technician Electronics. That company was making Biscuits, Wafers, Sweets, Corn products, Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics products. Without any previous experience of automated interlocking system I completed many important jobs for that company. There was an air compressor, supplying pressurized air to the oil fired burners of biscuit ovens. After many complaints of failed air supply I made an automatic motor control for that compressor and advised them to increase the capacity of the air tank.

There were four dough mixing machines, mixing rate was 800 KG/hour dough, for biscuits. That dough used to get flattened to a required size long sheet. As per the ingredients pressure of rollers and the dough feed speed had to be set to form a continuous long sheet. Before I joined they were spending many hours to set the right feed speed. While setting the right speed the overloading of drives used to damage Electronic motor control units. I did formulate a method to start and control flow of the biscuit dough for every line of biscuits. With my method the starting time was around 30 minutes and the control unit damage occurrences almost stopped. Every morning at 4 I was called to assist and watch the correct flow to start the production line of biscuits and synchronize the flow of biscuits. That was production supervisor’s job yet every time starting was done by me for trouble free production for the entire shift.

Those electronic motor control units were using Thyristors for accurate stabilized speed control. The failure rate was very high. From specification sheets of those Thyristors I had found out that the high altitude from sea level of that plant was the cause of that failure. I had sent my findings to the Manufacturer and they sent appreciation for finding out the solution and sent me some 200 hundred Thyristors and VDRs free of cost. 

There were 4 lines for biscuit production, out of those line 3 was shut down, two years in row there was big explosions. Even the roof of the plant was blown away. After I joined the manager gave me the challenge to solve that explosion problem. There were seven oil fired burners on each line. I enquired the senior production supervisor the history of those explosions. Based on that information I suspected the air pressure drop could be the cause of explosions. I installed air pressure gauges on burner one and the last burner seven on Line 3 oven. While other three line working I asked the operator to start firing burner one to seven one by one of the third line. At the third burner firing I noticed the air pressure drop at the gauge on burner seven. After rearranging the supply pipes and bigger air supply tank. Till the time I was with the company for three more years, there was no explosion. 

As a Plant technician electronics I was not responsible for any electrical jobs, yet I had installed and commissioned auto start up / shut down system on 5MW generator, on the request of the Plant Manager. Also installed change over automation of 22KV power line changing to generator and back to main supply line during power cut operations. During the installation the Iranian jealous electrical supervisor tried to operate main generator switch and caused a huge explosion. I had taken extra precaution of shorting the main feed cables by very thick chain to safe guard the 6 Iranian colleagues working with me on that 22KV electrical supply line.

There were huge production losses caused by faulty Capsule packing and Injection bottle packing machines. The maintenance supervisor at Pharmaceutical Plant in Tehran was unable to rectify the fault for three months in a row. That Plant manager called me through my Plant manager. During the online check I found the break pad setting of the main electrical motor and the registration system settings were mismatched. The maintenance team refused to accept my findings. But That Plant manager found it logical and told me to do the correct settings. After corrected settings those machines were working 24 x 7 to patch up loss of production of three months. Again I had same experience of work culture, the job was not related to me, the company did not give any extra benefit to me, it was considered as a timely help for a colleagues in Tehran.

all images from Google image search

Job in a Bank????

First time I was exposed to work culture in an organization during 1972 - 75 job in that educational institution. That job was more of maintaining personal relations with authorities than doing good proper work towards education as a technician. That resulted in leaving that job. A friend of mine told me to meet maintenance engineer for a job in the 22 storied central office building of a bank. This engineer was newly appointed in that bank, the old staff was not supportive, lot of infighting. 

I had to maintain the smoke detection system installed in the entire building. The electrician colleague was not good at electronic devices, those were used in the building. I had been told to help him as well. Within couple of months I was showing good results and prompt actions on malfunctions of devices. The electrician colleague was more exposed for his delaying tactics in attending the emergencies.

All these sort of conditions brought me to a fatal accident. The job timing for me and the electrician was different. He used to come and go earlier than me by two hours. During my fifth month in that bank, on one occasion in the evening the electrician had left and I had to attend a call of defective auto control of a water pump located on 23rd service floor. As a rule for safety precautions I removed the main fuse holders from the main panel located in the 24/7 manned security control room on ground floor. I kept those fuse holders in my cupboard, locked the cupboard shared with that electrician and made entries of my actions in the log book of that control room.

I went to 23rd service floor gone on top of 15 feet ladder, opened the control panel and put my screwdriver on the 400 volt connectors. BANG !!!! an explosion, I fell down from the ladder. I was bleeding. It took me 15 minutes to catch a lift and go down to the ground floor control room. There were few people in the lift, surprised to see me bleeding. In the control room the log had entry by the on duty security guard that the electrician had replaced the fuse holders because the fault was rectified and wanted to test the pump. But the gate keeper had seen that electrician running out of the building around same time of my accident. Duty security guard gave the first aid and the bleeding stopped. Those people who saw me bleeding in the lift came along with security guard to verify my accident at 23rd floor. The security guard made entries of entire episode in the control room log book.

Next day there was an inquiry of that accident. First that electrician had shown ignorance of that accident. After the reading of control room log by the chief engineer and security officer he got frightened " please forgive me, I have not done this for any purpose, it just happened as routine check before leaving." I understood the intention, it was simply jealousy, that electrician found my job as a threat to his future. Till today I believe " no friends is alright, but no enemy is better." I left that job on the same day of that accident inquiry. That was one more incident taught me the work culture in large size organizations.

This made me Technician Electronics

1972 I got a chance to work as a Laboratory Technician for Industrial Electronics Lab of a Polytechnic Institute in Mumbai, India. During interview then principal of the institution and the department head was surprised with my knowledge, experience and approach of the subject. The line of duty was to assemble new circuit boards as teaching aids for Lab experiments, repairs of lab instruments and help the students and teaching staff to solve the day to day practical problems.

I had prepared many practical application circuit boards by use of Audio, Pressure, Heat and Movement sensing devices to operate day to day appliances.

1 - In the first month I had made a 4 stage process sequential timer, using Vacuum Tubes, Relays, R/C variable timing control on a 3 X 2 feet Bakelite board as teaching aid.

2 - I had drawn a big circuit on a 3 X 2 feet Bakelite board, assembled the components, made working oscilloscope to teach use of each component. Provided special switches to switch off certain component to create usual defects caused by failure of a component.

3 - assembled / made a wireless variable positioning remote control device using stepper motors.

4 - assembled / made  single phase / three phase motor control circuit board using Thyristors and Triacs to explain the functionality in the practical environment.

During first annual practical exam of second year students, by rule I should not attend any student yet I was called by the external examiner to find out the cause of unusual current readings of photo cell in total darkness.  That photocell experiment was tried by seven more students, every student had almost same readings. While checking the readings of the 8th student examiner had some doubts. There was a silly practical mistake that made every one laugh. See the fig.

On one occasion I was asked to give my advice to a question, never tried by any one in last four years, though it was asked to solve in every exam. The final year students were preparing for final exam, the concerned lecturer told them about this unsolved question. The question was "explain and make block diagram to check the speed of a fired bullet." I had given them some clue by following method, using dual beam oscilloscope. Two sensing devices or  switches, one at the gun trigger and second at the target. connected to the dual beam oscilloscope. Two beams would show the time difference between two spikes.   

5 - 1974 color TV transmission started in Mumbai, that Institute started a TV Technician course. I made a functional teaching aid circuit on a 4 X 3 feet Bakelite board.

I did enjoy my three years in that institute, had valuable knowledge by reading theory books as a staff member. But one topic made me doubtful about those books. I was searching for a solution to find out the value of a coupling capacitor in two amplifier stages. Book A was giving reference to book B, that referred to book C, till book M. I got frustrated at the end of 5th day when I saw book M referred to book A. In reality I was simply selecting a capacitor in a minute by checking the output of the previous stage, should not cause a drop in the total output and should not create a time delay for next stage of that amplifier.

In this institution one incident made me proud to prove my ability and sad as well to know the lack of human values even in educational institutions.

A defective instrument was brought to that electronics lab, there was no documentation of that unit, only the operator explained how it was working as a device controlling the surface accuracy of crank shafts. Without any help, not a single person in my department helped or given guidance, I prepared the circuit diagram of that device in just two days and on third day made it fully functional. There were 6 stages of comparator circuits with variable selection control. There was a defective transistor pair in one comparator stage. That client paid 25,000 rupees to that institute as repair charges. This was a proud moment for me.

But the distribution of that amount was very sad for me because it was shared by many as per seniority and post, I was paid only 250 rupees. All others who shared that amount had more share than me. When I inquired this injustice to my efforts. My shameless Department head told me " Bigger fish eat smaller fish, you have to learn the law of nature". I was furious "this law of nature is true for animal world, I consider my self a human being and expect to be treated as human in this educational institute, sorry no know I am in the animal world."

I used images from Google image search and made my own for photo resistor circuit

My Computer skill

Computer as a tool was an introduction to me, even today it remains the same. For me computer helps to get results in short time. It has reduced my tensions, did not create more tensions. This all started when I was involved in industrial electronics subject, way back in 1972, had known the use of hydraulic, pneumatic and electronic gate system to achieve interlocked automation's of machines and time bound process. I had handled a magnetic core memory unit on IBM main frame computer, even suggested the replacement technique for defective core by connecting a fresh core externally on a pcb.

 

Till 1990 I did not show interest in computers because those models of 286, 386 or 486 were of no use to my interest in Video - Photography. In 1990 the Amiga 500 has given me chance to see the the use of computer in the fields of my interest. By reading every issue of C U Amiga I started getting the hang of new terminology, applications, requirements to achieve some results.

My first Apple Mac LC 475 and the requirements of peripherals made me study every thing and any thing related to computer, that was year 1992. My elder son had good pickup to digest everything in detail and could explain me in his own way by treating me his subordinate in computers. I had learnt the trick, by submitting to be naive I could get more explanations. We both realized the basic difference in processing Text, Image, Audio and Video information, and the difference of hardware requirements. Till 2002 we had only one answer to all our needs, an Apple Mac machine and related application software. The hardware were really fail safe and always to the expectations, may be our expectation was much below the capability of Mac machines and devices.

 

Year 1999 Me and my elder son had developed and installed a Video projection system on standard 6 feet screen displaying video advertisement using Apple iMac Bondy blue computer, Sony projector, Pioneer stereo audio amplifier, controlled by specially made electric timer to On - Off the power to this entire projection system. There were 4 such installations. There was no operator, normal delivery boy used to visit every installation for adding new video clip, used to connect external hard drive through fire wire port, there was specially made apple scripts to transfer new video clips, old unwanted video clips were automatically removed. All this was done when projection system was showing advertisement. Those days broadband was not available in Oman, we gave that option as well to feed live content from a server located in that company main office, then it was simple for them to operate number of installations.

Returning to India in year 2002 I had Mav iBook, the plastic external casing started showing bad cracks. I inquired about replacement, it was possible at Rs.15000/- I made my own cabinet for it. Those days I happened to meet people who believed only Windows machines are the best and Apple computers closed down in 1990. People started distancing me. I had to survive in such biased, blind folded comp society. I started learning about Windows XP using my own way of learning. I assembled a Desktop computer and learnt the practical side of Windows machine using Vista Ultimate with Fore Front as anti virus + many things. I never ever give importance to any hardware or software, any thing serves my purpose at affordable price is good for me.

On Jan 16, 2011 morning I thought of making changes to my assembled Windows computer. I used these rack rails and stoppers to put my LCD monitor on the side panel. This style has helped me to make all hanging cables clean and tidy, taking less footprint on my table.  

Under VPAC banner I am arranging training program in Desktop Computer assembly / OS / Software Installation / standard trouble shooting skill, with individual or group of 10, for details contact me on v.k9121@gmail.com

** photos - Transformation of iBook and my assembled PC are taken by me and rest images from Google search **