For the last 5 years, I have been repairing point of sale hardware in the state of Iowa for a major world-wide corporation. Kind of fell into it after doing gig work for a couple of years and impressing a couple techs that worked for the same company I work for now. I got started with B4A because I wanted to have an app on my phone to help me manage my van inventory since there were no corporate systems in place to do that. I made the mistake of showing my app to my boss, and now it's required usage for all techs within our division in the U.S. So now apart from my regular repair duties, I'm writing and maintaining software.
I've had the privilege of doing many different things over the years, from driving semi-trucks (grew up in a family of drivers) and commercial passenger buses, television and radio repair (started in my early teens), pinball machine and video game repair, worked in I/T for 20 years, and yes learned to code in a variety of computer languages all the way from RPG II on main frames to the B4X family of dev tools.
I am retirement age as you might have guessed, but I have no intention of doing so. Working keeps my mind engaged, a roof over my head, and food on the table. Besides, my wife and love of my life for the last 42 years is afraid if I retire I might spend all my time in front of the television. You know, she's always right!
Thats awesome. I have always wanted to be a professional repair tech, but I tend to be on the consumer side of things, and sadly that industry has died for the most part. Granted, I did electronics repair on the side for the longest time before moving into engineering and designing my own product lines.
However, I do miss the hands-on experience of electronics tinkering and repair that I grew up with. So any time we get back product sent in for service, I enjoy working on it.
Currently I am part owner and sole electronics engineer/developer on our product line, which is scoreboards. Pandemic has killed us for the most part so if things dont change, its only a matter of time before we fold up shop sadly, as our primary target marketshare are school sports, and park & recreation industry. Things in the USA are a complete mess right now.
Otherwise, I created all the electronics and software/apps in our scoreboards, and I got started in mid 2012, chose to use B4X back at that point in time. No one else was doing mobile/tablet based scoreboard control so in a way, I invented the modern ability to do so. Wish I would have patented it, but I didn't have any money at the time, or an official company as it was just a side-gig, as in the beginning I was just retrofitting newer technology in older pre-existing scoreboards.
I didn't even own a smartphone yet, and a buddy of mine gave me a Google G1 phone to work with. (I still have that phone)
Then I partnered with another guy and reincorporated in NC back in 2014, and things kind of exploded to the point where we diversified into LED video displays etc, had to move into a bigger manufacturing facility, hire employees, etc... 2017 was our best year.
Then, the pandemic hit. we went from a full manufacturing business with around 10 employees to just me and my business partner, moved out of that facility into a smaller building where we are packed in like sardines. Went from a million dollar a year company of sales, to maybe 4 sales last year. All of our savings are gone, Been on government loans which have run out for the most part, and we are basically broke, in debt, with the only money left tied up in raw assets.
Its been a fun ride. Its so sad things are likely going to end the way they are.
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