Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

writes:

Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

Because they don't want anyone reverse engineering the thing.
Because they want to be the sole repair source.
Because they're jerks.
Because they don't want any future business.
etc.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
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| Mirror Sites: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Note: These links are hopefully temporary until we can sort out the excessive
traffic on Repairfaq.org.

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name is included in the subject line. Or, you can
contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

"Jamie" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

to keep you from repairing it. most likely using common
components.
also it helps to keep others from duplicating the
product.


The thing is, it's fairly trivial for an engineer to identify the components
in most cases, particularly for IC's, it just makes it a lot harder to
service.

On 24 Jan 2005 04:42:34 -0800, put finger to
keyboard and composed:

Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

My treadmill (different brand) has been similarly defaced.

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

beginning of rant

Because governments allow them to. These despicable practices are just
one reason why some equipment is uneconomical to repair and is
consigned to landfill. If the useless, whale watching, tree hugging
Greenies had any testicular fortitude, they would lobby for
legislation to make *complete* service information compulsorily
available in paperless format from manufacturers' websites or from CDs
included with the product.

end of rant


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:57:08 +1100 Franc Zabkar
wrote in Message id: :

On 24 Jan 2005 04:42:34 -0800, put finger to
keyboard and composed:

Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

My treadmill (different brand) has been similarly defaced.

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

beginning of rant

Because governments allow them to. These despicable practices are just
one reason why some equipment is uneconomical to repair and is
consigned to landfill. If the useless, whale watching, tree hugging
Greenies had any testicular fortitude, they would lobby for
legislation to make *complete* service information compulsorily
available in paperless format from manufacturers' websites or from CDs
included with the product.

end of rant

C'mon, now. Don't hold back on us