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I think electronics should be designed for repair and easy recycling as a main design goal. For example a cell phone, you could build it with an aluminum back

by acd 10y ago

I think electronics should be designed for repair and easy recycling as a main design goal. For example a cell phone, you could build it with an aluminum back with small phillips screws instead of glued back. Open the phone up with a standard screw driver and you will be able to replace the battery, main board and screen yourself. What kind of environment do you want to leave for future generations. A big pile of electronic garbage or a world as clean as it could be? What about the carbon foot print of upgrade phones every two years? If we can reuse electronics components the garbage foot print should be smaller. Why do we have to throw a working screen and battery in a cell phone if you just want to upgrade the cpu speed or camera of your phone? How about laws that require that consumers should be able to repair their things, average life time. Good projects on the right path so far Google has Project Ara Fairphone2

extrapickles 10y ago
I don't mind them gluing things like the battery in since it make for a more rigid phone provided they use a glue that a moderate amount of heat can greatly weaken. The problem with upgrading parts of something like a phone is that the components interfaces change frequently. Even desktop cpu/memory sockets change every few years. Compact form factors are worse as you dont have room for the connector, and for the larger components they are like the engine in a F1 car, a important structural piece. I do like the concept of Ara, but I don't think it will be practical anytime soon.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  > Even desktop cpu/memory sockets change every few years. Amusingly, AMD seems to manage fine without nearly as many socket changes as Intel...
  - jdboyd 10y ago
    It may be stretching things to say that AMD is managing fine.
    - wtallis 10y ago
      But it's pretty clear their problems are not at all caused by them not retooling the CPU sockets often enough.
Grishnakh 10y ago
>For example a cell phone, you could build it with an aluminum back with small phillips screws instead of glued back. Open the phone up with a standard screw driver and you will be able to replace the battery, main board and screen yourself. You don't need screws on the back. The Samsung Galaxy phones (particularly the S4, S5, and S7) do just fine with a snap-on back. The S5 in particular is nicely water-resistant, even though the back is snap-on and can be removed with your fingernail. I guess an aluminum back might be nice for ruggedness, but as Samsung shows, screws aren't really necessary. It's entirely possible to design something made of inexpensive plastic that works great, is waterproof, and just snaps together, and can be opened and re-snapped together countless times without breakage.

by acd 10y ago

extrapickles 10y ago

I don't mind them gluing things like the battery in since it make for a more rigid phone provided they use a glue that a moderate amount of heat can greatly weaken. The problem with upgrading parts of something like a phone is that the components interfaces change frequently. Even desktop cpu/memory sockets change every few years. Compact form factors are worse as you dont have room for the connector, and for the larger components they are like the engine in a F1 car, a important structural piece. I do like the concept of Ara, but I don't think it will be practical anytime soon.

Nullabillity 10y ago
> Even desktop cpu/memory sockets change every few years. Amusingly, AMD seems to manage fine without nearly as many socket changes as Intel...
- jdboyd 10y ago
  It may be stretching things to say that AMD is managing fine.
  - wtallis 10y ago
    But it's pretty clear their problems are not at all caused by them not retooling the CPU sockets often enough.

Grishnakh 10y ago

>For example a cell phone, you could build it with an aluminum back with small phillips screws instead of glued back. Open the phone up with a standard screw driver and you will be able to replace the battery, main board and screen yourself. You don't need screws on the back. The Samsung Galaxy phones (particularly the S4, S5, and S7) do just fine with a snap-on back. The S5 in particular is nicely water-resistant, even though the back is snap-on and can be removed with your fingernail. I guess an aluminum back might be nice for ruggedness, but as Samsung shows, screws aren't really necessary. It's entirely possible to design something made of inexpensive plastic that works great, is waterproof, and just snaps together, and can be opened and re-snapped together countless times without breakage.