Right To Repair

I have to admit I've not read all the comments so please excuse me if I repeat anything someone may have written.

The right to repair should not even be up for debate.

If I buy something and it runs out of warranty I will fix it myself, or try to.

I own it, I can do what I like with it. If I can't fix it I will either replace it or get it repaired.

What big tech companies are doing is adding features to products that are directly tied to the operation of that product when they have no need to be.

e.g. Making it impossible for a third party (me, my phone) to take a battery out and replace it with a new one from the original manufacturer.

I recommend everyone buys their future 'tech' from Toys-R-Us next time if you wish to avoid that sort of nonsense, at least they allow you to change the batteries in your item from time to time.

 

Braun will replace failing batteries for toothbrushes and shavers. At a price; unless you can convince them that it's still under warranty...

 

Thanks for posting .. it gives hope

 

I've just discovered there's a Repair Cafe started up near me, so have volunteered my services, been looking for something like this to volunteer at, quite excited!

 

My son is about a month down the line with a modular, configurable, and repairable laptop from here http://frame.work/
Delighted with it, and as well designed as an Apple product - a beautiful bit of kit - indeed rumoured to be ex Apple people on the team.

 

https://www.facebook.com/SevenoaksRepairCafe/

It's part of a larger movement that started in Amsterdam and is growing worldwide: https://www.repaircafe.org/en/about/

I'm slightly nervous and genuinely excited by it!

 

Most electric toothbrushes are designed to enable battery removal for recycling. This often allows for repair. The Philips Sonicare ones can be opened without damage with a little care and batteries can be swapped. Not trivial but it is possible (and does require soldering). I've got one from around 2015 that's had a replacement seal and a new battery using parts from eBay that's in daily use.

 

I Tried Apple’s Self-Repair Program With My iPhone. Disaster Ensued.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/...gram-iphone.html?referringSource=articleShare

Subscription required I suspect. Seems to be a political move by apple to provide the self repair option.

 

Two things.

1] Don't subscribe to the NY Times unless you're really committed. Trying to leave the Church of Scientology is a simpler and less traumatising process than cancelling a subscription to the NYT.

2] A response to the article: https://daringfireball.net/2022/05/grave_insult

 

Great news, as a retired A/V service techie, seeing the throw away society it had become caused me to be seriously depressed, landfill, what a f'in waste of land.

Costs will rise for audio and video units, white goods and domestic appliances but will be made more reliable to gain respect and reputation.

Spare parts will also be better quality, I hope.

 

My son's calculator has given up the ghost. Only about 3 years old, Casio FX 85GT X. Tried a new LR44 battery, no luck. Took the back off. The PCB is fixed by pillars coming through the board, which are then "mushroomed" by some sort of heat process. So not easy to get into. Ordered an identical replacement (it's the "standard" school one), but in the meantime, I have got out my trusty FX-350 from 1981 that I got during my HND at Newcastle Poly for him. Still works fine for a 41 year old machine! On-off switch is slightly dicky, but should not take much to sort. It's so old, it has Made in Japan on the back.

I might take his old one apart when I have a bit more spare time....

 

Lenovo has computers that are "TCO certified" (Total Cost of Ownership) in other words TCO = purchase price plus maintenance costs minus resell price. This means they are repairable and do not cost as much over the time you own it. And if you look hard enough you can find the service manuals on their website. Must be a leftover from when IBM owned the PC division before selling it to Lenovo.

 

Hi Tony - I was not 100% clear: I was referring to the business line of computers that Lenovo has. I'm impressed with their Yoga Thinkpad. After I'de the A31 and T61 I moved to Apple Mac Mini with their Intel CPU's and ran windows on those (I've got one application that needs to run on Windows, never found something equivalent for OSX). But when Apple started to use security torq screws in the bottom and non-replaceable / upgradeable memory I moved away from Apple. Had a HP business laptop before trying a Yoga Thinkpad.

FWIW Before my health collapsed I was an IT director / senior system & datawarehouse architect and had a lot of staff.

 

I have just brought back to life a friend's old Pioneer SX400-L tuner/amp - it must be old as the only inputs are phono & tape! Intermittent off on one channel, controls very crackly. Turned out it just needed a spray of contact cleaner in the right places and it is back to full function. For testing I was feeding it a signal from my Chord transport/DAC which was perhaps overkill. The lady owner is chuffed to bits.

 

My Denon DBT-3313 Blu-ray player packed up after 2.5years just out of warranty. I was so annoyed I pulled out the power supply myself and checked the output voltages against a service manual I found online. Surprisingly it was straight forward to troubleshoot as the procedure was well documented. After finding myself at the point the manual,said ‘Replace power supply board’ I ordered one from Spares2Repair. Turned up after 5 weeks and once installed the player was fixed. I surprise myself sometimes

 

Many DVD players were made with power switches that operated the power supply output, so the PSU was on all the time. The result is worn out electrolytics after a few years