Right To Repair

That’s exactly what happened to mine. If it goes again I’ll have a go at replacing the components myself. Should cost pennies.

 

If you replace electrolytics beasr in mind the following: Use higher temperature caps if you can: every 10 degrees Celcius doubles/ halves the life of the electrolytic. Check the specs, some are designed for consumer duty, 2000 hours, but others are rated for up to 10000 hours and you might even find some that can do 20000 hours. So if you have a capacitor that is rated for 10000 hours at 120C then at the unit's temperature, likely around 50C it will last over 1million hours....But then you have to cope as well with spikes on the mains so I normally go one step higher in voltage.... Surge protectors in todays environment are a must with all the electronic gadgets that use switched mode power supplies.

I put in some capacitors desinged for car use, and rated for 120C, as bypass capacitors in my tube amplifier. They were about 5 times the size of a "normal" bypass cap but I know that I will not have to replace it ever: I'll be gone before that. I calculate all my electrolytic capacitors for at least 30 years continous use... (I'm a tad OCD) By that time I'll be 100.

Just watch the size, the long life ones are often larger. The first cap in a PSU is the one that has the hardest life, I go all out to ty to find the one that has the longest life and can cope with the highest ripple and has a voltage one step higher than what's in there / should be in there.... It's a balancing act and finding something suitable can take me half a day or more.

Hope this helps.

 

Macclesfield Repair Cafe meets monthly here

https://www.scoopandscales.co.uk/macclesfield-repair-cafe/

 

Interesting thread. It does not apply to me because there are no repair techs within many thousands of Kilometers from me. It seems that there is less repair of all things, eg household appliances when it is cheaper to replace it.

 

As an owner of a Fairphone 3+ that was very interesting, thanks Tony. The 3+ is "old hat" now, but what makes Fairphone really special, in my opinion, is not the attempt to make something like a mobile phone more ethically (welcome though that is) but the combination of an easy battery swap and longterm software support. The ability to simply replace a battery when it gets to the end of useful life is a huge thing, many older mobiles allowed this, almost all modern designs don't and that is very retrograde. My last two phones went to WEEE because the batteries were just too hard to replace without breaking the phone while trying to get past the combo of glass, metal and glue. This is a very common issue: batteries cycled daily just don't last many years. However without the longterm software support security gets compromised and eventually the ecosystem will not let you use new apps. Fairphone recently released an Android update for Fairphone 2 I think that is something like 7 years old and still supported. Fantastic effort the Fariphone team. Incidentally the 3+ has a good old headphone jack and is still avaiable with an expectation of similarly good longterm software support from Fairphone.

 

Not exactly a right to repair issue -more like -worst bad idea in years ? So there's a company to the North of US in the USA who is justly famous for not getting the memo about short warranties. One of their products shows up for out of warranty repair -covers come off and WTF? All sorts of stuff is wrapped in aluminum foil with a insulating layer under that : The power transformer is in a bag made out of this stuff -leads from transformer to drive and circuit boards are covered with this stuff -portions of the disc drive are covered with this stuff -IC's have little tabs of this stuff on 'em as do regulators . You can not read component numbers or values on the boards 'cause they are covered with anti-resonate goop that obscures the printing. Apparently someone offers this "service" with the goal? of cutting down on RFI (comin or goin ?) and "resonances" for $1000 USD. I have a well established reputation for dumpster diving for audio gear -not going after this piece. Wild guess would be unrepairable on this planet.

 

Everyone should have the right to repair.

In my experience a lot of the time getting hold of decent spares is a major problem. I bought 3 separate screens to replace my Xiaomi phones screen, each one was faulty and each seller tried to not give a refund as it was "used" even though I had not glued it in.

 

Mrs Nobeone decided to help me by doing some paper shredding, on her watch the shredder "died". Might not be anything to do with her shoving too many sheets through. Anyway, dead shredder. I pop it apart easily enough, it seems tolerably well designed in that respect, and see the primary drive gear has stripped against the secondary gear in the gear box. A quick google and there is this guy on Etsy that flogs 3D printed spare gears for shredders, amongst other stuff. Single handedly saving countless shredders from WEEE. However the gear he has for my model of shredder is the secondary gear not the primary, still, I message him with a photo to check he doesn't have the right gear somewhere I can't see. He doesn't, but he says post it over to Poland, he will make me a free one and post it back. Of course this is how his designs grow, but how great is that? Of course it will be even better if it comes back, fits, and works for more than 5 minutes, but so far so good.

 

Just had a message to say the replacement part is on its way back to me

 

Had to buy a new kettle, as the (concealed) element went on the old one. Had to get an (identical) Dualit one, to match the toaster.
Hope to get a tenner or so back putting the base on ebay though, as they seem to sell.

 

Back, fits, has worked for more than 5 minutes: awesome. Having dismantled and re-assembled the gearbox it is now a bit noisy but I'm sure it will grind itself quieter, break in, or indeed break, after a while! It has taken a while but Oskar has bespoke made me a free replacement and will now add this design to his collection. I notice he has a wide variety of designs, including a Thorens tonearm rest, Revox A77 feet for wooden case, Reel centers, all sorts of stuff.

 

Good news:

Apple expands DIY iPhone and Mac repairs to UK and Europe
Online service will offer tools and sell screens, batteries and camera parts for some models released since 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/06/apple-expands-diy-iphone-mac-repairs-uk-europe

 

I had an expensive Linn Kisto(£12k)few years ago and the service dep left me on air without any solution.They stopped servicing this model after 10 y or so and of course no schematics provided to try to find someone to fix it.

 

I own audio research in 2 systems and one of these has been fixed by a local valve expert. I guess I have been drawn to valves philosophically because of their simplicity and ease of maintenance.

I did notice however that some of the ICs used on Audio Research would be difficult to identify replace if they ever were at fault !

 

Interesting development I saw this morning on the BBC site:

US farmers win right to repair John Deere equipment

 

there's two respectable big companies that I know who are always ready to help clients Bryston and Mcintosh.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64704104

 

Surface Mount components are a PITA to remove / replace.

Loads and loads of those lovely 80s Sony short wave radios are ending up in land fill, cos so many people are not prepared to do the microscopic work, lacking the tools needed to replace the dead or failing SM capacitors.

I see lots of them listed for sale, spares or repair on e-Prey.