Well gents, I'm out

Steve Bailey said:

As a Caltrans employee you could be the resident expert on traffic lights.

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I swear I saw a car with that "blinker" thing to turn lights green. I think it's someone from the nearby fire station. There were no cars around at the time and the way it work is obvious once you seen it as it only turn green in one direction and put all other direction to red.

I don't blame you.
I did call outs for 20 years.
In the beginning I offered the service to anyone.
People would find my services on the net in the middle of the night.
So many rude strangers barking at me in bed at 02:00. (usually after I told them the price for me to come)
One told me to F off when I told him how much and said he'd look elsewhere.
Called again half an hour later to say he's accept the price.
He got the same reply he'd given me.

I stopped the all-comers service after that.

I feel you on this one. I love doing automation & control work as well. But after 18 years in 24/7/365 call ins. Upset wife, upset kids, events canceled or missed and all the things I just cant/wont do anymore for fear of it getting screwed up like hobbies that involve me going more than a few KMs from home or work. Even a fellow having a few beer is impossible most the time.
I to have been pushed nearly to the point of no return with each of my 3 career employers. Yet, each one is the same. Exploit their finite resources without adding any new people to learn and share responsibility load, push them till they break then wonder why! I always say, we are a victim of our own success. It sure takes the fun out of it when your so mad that your shaking while trying to troubleshoot. Its usually always something stupid as well. I cant even fill one hand with the actual PLC failures I've seen in my years, yet get "emergency" calls steadily.

Im' focusing my spare time now into starting a panel building shop. and going through the certification process So far, so good. Hopefully someday it will take off a bit.

I feel that I'm lucky with the company I'm with. We're primarily an integrator but have about 15 people. Most of the work we do is with the steel mill literally across the street from the office. We have worked elsewhere too, we'll go anywhere there's a PLC. Steel mill, food packaging, printing press, machine tooling. It isn't 24/7 and there isn't really any travel. If we do get called after hours, it's minimum 4 hours of OT.

Right now I'm contracted out at a catalyst plant and expected just to work there. If there's any service call anywhere else, someone else will handle it. My only concern is the catalyst plant.

I found my materials for the class, but i gave the manuals back to the school because they were out. i do have a book on the 6800 "6800 assembly language programming by lance a. leventhal"

i did google search and also found several manuals.
regards,
james

6800 now that brings back memories. That was about my first programming experience back in college in the early '80s using a decommissioned supermarket cash register. I think all programmers should start with an understanding of the hardware, registers etc.

Like you, I was pushed to the limit about 10 years ago workign 102 hours between Christmas day and new years day for one of those customers that you just want to punch. I haven't written a great deal of software since changing to a project managment role but I still keep tabs on this site and enjoy reading what people are up to and offering advice where I can.

All the best in your new role. It sounds like you have a vision for better traffic managment.

Nick

defcon.klaxon said:

Hi everyone. Today I gave my two weeks notice. I'm burned out on being on call 24/7/365, dealing with certain clients who are "difficult", and having to travel so much. Thanks for the seven years of all the help, this forum has saved my bacon more times than I can count and I've learned a lot about control theory. Thanks for everything and I wish you all the best.

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Well, I wish you the best. I'm glad the company I work for currently gives me the option whether to take calls off hours or on the weekend instead of requiring it. It definitely gives a bonus to the quality of life aspect, especially when you get a call at 1 pm, and know you'll probably be there til' 7 pm, but have the option of calling it a day and returning if need be.