Steve Wozniak weighs in on right to repair

[restorer-john]

 

[restorer-john]

And this:

 

[McFly]

I hope this amounts to something and isn't just noise. The world as it is is far too wasteful.

*Goes and buys iPhone 12

 

[restorer-john]

Things always go full circle eventually. It will take time, but the big companies will be dragged to the table whether they like it or not.

I've been fighting it my whole life in electronics. There was a time in the 70s/80s and into the early 90s where every part was available for every model of consumer electronic HiFi gear. From the cheapest to the TOTL. Service manuals and documentation were always available, but sometimes a little difficult to get and often the manuals were very expensive. $50-70 for a service manual was not unheard of. Most parts suppliers had huge libraries of orignal service manuals they could 'loan' to their trusted repair shop parts customers.

Companies prided themselves on the spare parts distribution all around the world. The big players could pull parts from another country to satisfy an order and even then, the parts were not expensive. 4-6 weeks was typical for parts ex-Japan, no matter what you wanted.

 

[eric-c]

My dad had a 1970's Sansui Quadrophonic receiver and it came with a service manual in addition to the users manual and if I remember correctly, it even came with a large maybe even "actual size" laminated schematic. I can't imagine companies doing that now a days. Many products don't even come with user manuals. Bought my son a Fitbit Ace 3 health watch and the expectation is you go to the web for the user manual / instructions. It only came with a generic "product" information booklet which I assume is required by law.

 

[Ron Texas]

I support the right to repair, but I would rather see it handled through legislation than executive order.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I look at it from another POV: we have become a throw away society. People personally don't like dealing with repairs, especially undertaking them by themselves, and would just as soon go buy a new and more recent version of the product.

I'm a throw-back and, if possible, repair my broken TV's, washer or dryer, PC and other items. I kind of like doing it and learning about it. I think I am a dinosaur.

Other than cars, roofs and higher-cost appliances, people don't bother with repairs.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The place where I think precedents will occur to set tone for everyone else is in the field of farm equipment. Yes, there is a now long running battle between farmers and John Deere about the right to repair issue.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m...it-would-make-tractors-easy-to-repair-it-lied

https://www.agweb.com/news/policy/p...ens-planned-executive-order-over-right-repair

 

[amirm]

And this:

This is significant development. I gave a sub to my son and it broke recently. I tried to fix it and it is just maddening without schematic. This is a long overdue problem that needs to get resolved.

 

[matt3421]

I support the right to repair, but I would rather see it handled through legislation than executive order.

it will get struck down if that happens.

 

[JuliaCoder]

I once fixed test equipment at a semiconductor factory down to discrete components. Then came surface mount devices and pins too close together for a soldering gun. Everything became board swapping, my technican skills were obsolete. Woz should know a user repairable iPhone would be the size of an 80's cell phone and still few would attempt repairs.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Imagine the frustration of farmers who own late model John Deere tractors which are crammed with proprietary electronics so that they can't even fix their own tractors in the field. This shit has gotten way out of hand.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Right to repair is swapping at presumably lower cost. I doubt, unless equipment is expensive.

 

[sergeauckland]

I entirely support the Right To Repair, it's been a bugbear of mine for years.

However, having the right doesn't make it practical.
Firstly, there's the cost of repair, where even one hour of a technician's time is worth more than buying a new item.
Secondly, unless there's also legislation on the cost of spare parts, those again could easily exceed the price of a new item, and thirdly, there's the near impossibility of component level repairs due both to the small size of components, and the ubiquity of embedded software that precludes buying components from Farnell, CPC or Mouser.
I fear that except for largely mechanical items, like washing machines, there's still going to be precious little repairs done on cellphones, computers, or indeed DACs and streamers. Every bit helps, but I can't see it making a huge difference as Joe and Josephine Public would rather buy a new 'phone than keep their 10 year old Nokias.

S

 

[FrantzM]

I support the right to repair, but I would rather see it handled through legislation than executive order.

In which case it may never happen …

 

[Frank Dernie]

Other than cars, roofs and higher-cost appliances, people don't bother with repairs.

Well yes, that is the big problem that is, at last, being addressed.

 

[abdo123]

Imagine the frustration of farmers who own late model John Deere tractors which are crammed with proprietary electronics so that they can't even fix their own tractors in the field. This shit has gotten way out of hand.

It’s funny to think that farming is still a one man industry in 2021.

it takes thousands of either people or machines to get competitive yields.

 

[abdo123]

While i think right to repair is incredibly important, it’s only relevant to household appliances that have been pretty much the same like a blender or a toaster.

For phones, TVs, computers people usually throw them away when they’re no longer supported or are considered outdated.

people like to hate on Apple for not being 3rd party repairs friendly but they support ALL of their products for 5-7 years at least.

While support for my TV which was the LG flagship TV last year is already phasing out.

 

[restorer-john]

Here is a Matsushita part from the early 1970s. For a National transistor radio. The tuning capacitor.

This is a spindle motor from a Pioneer PD-xxxx CD player in the late 1980s. Not a whole expensive mechanism. Just the spindle motor. It was about $5.

This is a takeup reel motor from the early 1990s from Sony. Note it fits various models.

This is a warranty replacement in 2021. Sitting on my bench for investigation. The entire 2ch amplifier and SMPS gets trashed. What's the point of token lead free solder when this entire board and all those chemicals goes into landfill? How old? 41st week of 2019 build date.

 

[solderdude]

In the Netherlands we have something called a 'repair café' where people can bring stuff they want repaired (also not elec-tric/tronic stuff) but because of Covid this all stopped because most of the repairmen are either retired or close to retirement folks with little to know knowledge of todays, often not repairable because of proprietary chips or programmed stuff or exotic components that are impossible to obtain.
It was fun to do and help people out this way. Expect it to start again... someday.

Have been in A/V repair the biggest part of my life and have seen the slow demise of repair possibilities.
Nowadays TV repairs, phones, tablets are mostly board swaps and only a handful of guys attempt some component repairs when it is possible.
Even if one had schematics it could be impossible to repair without specialized tools.

One of the realms where still a lot of discrete parts are used is audio but even there complex digital stuff will be difficult.