On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:37:11 -0500, "Charles"
wrote:



"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
.. .

http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto

Sorry, but the year is 2010 and repair of recent and future electronic
products is not going to happen, as least as what can be accomplished by Joe
consumer.

Really? The iPhone is allegedly unrepairable, but various non-factory
people have done quite well at cracking the case and doing useful work
inside. Plenty of other "no user serviceable parts inside" examples.
I agree that this is not for the timid, but it's certainly still
possible to do useful repairs. What the manifesto is about is the
attitude, policy, design, and conspiracies of the manufacturers to
intentionally prevent users from fixing their gadgets, often for no
better reason than to sell more replacement devices. While the days
of user repairable devices seems to be shrinking, so are the days of
designed obsolescence and landfill fodder.

For the factory authorized geek squad, sure they PERHAPS have
access to data and modules and software and they can, in some cases, repair
electronic items.

That's the problem. There's no reason for that to happen except the
greed and policy of the manufacturers.

I'd love for it be so, by the way.

Ask yourself. Are you part of the solution or the problem? If you
think you're part of the solution, then do something that will make it
happen. A nasty letter or email to the public relations department of
your favorite eWaste destined supplier might be a useful start.
Purchasing repairable products might also be useful.

Incidentally, in 1983 I purchased a new pickup truck. On the original
order was a printed copy of the service manual. When the manual was
not forthcoming about 1 month later, I attempted to return the vehicle
to the dealer for failure to complete the transaction. I was serious.
I had no intention of purchasing a car that required the dealer to
repair. At 285,000 miles and 23 year later, I sold it without ever
having to deal with an "authorized" repair situation. Much of what I
currently own and use follows the same policies. I avoid buying
anything that I can't fix myself. It's not always possible, but given
a choice, it's high on my list of selection criteria.

I detest sending stuff to landfills and
to recycling centers.

Yep. However, a major source of spare parts for my repair biz is the
local recycler, so please continue to send stuff to the recyclers.

But the truth is that there is not much inside a
modern electronic gadget that is repairable. SMT has rendered component
replacement impossible, for many cases.

I can handle SMT parts. It's not easy and does take both special
equipment (hot air SMT desoldering station and nozzles) and
considerable practice. I sometimes use a microscope. In my case, the
limiting factor is my failing eyesight. However, I'm lusting after a
USB microscope camera.

Schematics are no longer
obtainable.

http://kythuatvitinh.com/forum.php
http://www.eserviceinfo.com
etc. I have some nicely reverse engineered schematics of some popular
equipment. What I miss are the voltages and waveforms on the
schematic. I annotate mine whenever possible.

Embedded software makes troubleshooting almost impossible.

Plugging into a JTAG port and hacking my way in is quite easy. That
port is designed specifically for development and troubleshooting and
often includes some tolerable diagnostics. There's usually a
password, which can be Googled or guessed.

Repair parts are not available.

Have you looked on eBay? There are large numbers of parts and pieces
vendors selling cannibalized devices at often reasonable prices. I
have nothing against using used parts, but some of my customers don't
like it. So, I buy brand new parts from Chinese vendors.

And the list goes on.

Don't forget badly conceived legislation regulating unscrupulous
repair shops and company policied forbidding employees from repairing
anything. Liability-R-Us and such.

Richard Feynman (a Nobel winner) often talked about taking radios apart. If
he would try that now, he would move on to biology.

True. What you're missing is that repair these days is rarely down to
the component level. Most often, it's by the board, module, or
sub-assembly level. These can be found and are usually easily
replaced. Repairing the individual modules, without the necessary
fixtures and test equipment is a problem.

The real problems are that these devices are not designed to be
repairable and are designed to be assembled, not disassembled. It
would not take much for a manufacturer to fix these, but it would
result in a slightly more expensive product. Perhaps if manufacturers
were required to deal with their own eWaste, they might reconsider
their policies.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:08:36 -0800 Jeff Liebermann
wrote in Message id: :

Schematics are no longer
obtainable.

http://kythuatvitinh.com/forum.php
http://www.eserviceinfo.com

Some more good sites, mostly test equipment:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/
http://128.238.9.201/~kurt/manuals/manuals/
http://www.ko4bb.com/

On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:14:56 -0500, JW wrote:

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:08:36 -0800 Jeff Liebermann
wrote in Message id: :

Schematics are no longer
obtainable.

http://kythuatvitinh.com/forum.php
http://www.eserviceinfo.com

Some more good sites, mostly test equipment:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/
http://128.238.9.201/~kurt/manuals/manuals/
http://www.ko4bb.com/
And a few mo
www.elektrotanya.com
http://english.electronica-pt.com/
http://www.4shared.com/dir/7126951/4..._INVERTER.html

Complaining to manufacturers about the lack of service manuals may be
useful. Bragging about the big bucks invested in test equipment, and
whining about how unrepairable hardware is may be satisfying to the
ego. The above links certainly helped me, so I added a few. Thanks,
Jeff and JW.

PlainBill