5 ms·

And this is the kind of aussie ingenuity that is sometimes missed by the world. Because of resource and distance, sometimes the battler needs to think creativel

And this is the kind of aussie ingenuity that is sometimes missed by the world. Because of resource and distance, sometimes the battler needs to think creatively and repurpose what is available. Sadly as we pivot to a pure consumer society of plenty this ingenuity is no longer a necessity. (China is closer to Australia than US. Cheaper consumer goods, sometimes cheap ($<10) every day mfg goods are cheaper in AU vs US).

yoodenvranx 10y ago
> Sadly as we pivot to a pure consumer society of plenty this ingenuity is no longer a necessity I guess the necessity is still there but often you can't do anything because most products contain way to much electronics. The only thing you needed to fix an old farm tractor was a hammer, a piece of pipe and a screwdriver. But nowadays you need to study computer science before you can get such a thing running again... Or look at old TVs or audio equipment. Back in the day you could repair them yourself but nowadays it's full of non-servicable SMD parts.
- mrob 10y ago
  >non-servicable SMD parts It's just a matter of having the right tools, and in most cases you don't need anything expensive. A cheap Chinese hot-air rework station, some flux, and tweezers will let you service a lot of those "non-servicable" parts. People tend to overestimate the difficulty of surface mount soldering simply because the parts are small. In many cases it's actually easier than through hole because surface tension does so much of the work for you. You don't need perfect alignment. BGAs are admittedly more difficult but even those can be replaced with cheap/improvised tools if you're sufficiently dedicated. In the old days tools were more expensive and we didn't have easily accessible video tutorials for most common repairs. I think a bigger reason for the decline of repair is the lower costs of replacement products.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    A soldering station isn't the problem, but you don't want to do SMD with a cheap chinese one you'll ruin your components if the temp control is off. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to get schematics for most devices, and I'm not even talking about legally since you'll have to do it illegally for virtually any device any how. Many SMD components are not marked at all, which means that if some tiny SMD component gets fried you can't even know what it was for sure not to mention it's value without having another board to measure. Not to mention that with 402 and 603 sized packages becoming more and more common goodluck soldering those at home even with professional kits, these are 0.4MM packages, sure 1608 and even 1005 are doable by a steady hand but anything smaller and you likely won't even be able to see the damage on the board. And without schematics you can't really debug anything, you might be able to reverse some of the boards but anything beyond 2-3 layers is impossible to RE by hand without an x-ray scattering machine. And then we get into active components and custom chips which are either impossible to get hold off without cannibalization or would cost you more to buy even in bulk on digikey or any other store than the devices you attempt to fix. Sure a 2000$ Macbook is worth a 400$ fix, but a 50$ controller board doesn't.
    - countingteeth 10y ago
      You say all this like it is a problem. Go to the yard sale and get yourself a 1970s era color TV if you like it so much.
      - dogma1138 10y ago
        I don't say it's a problem, I'm was actually making an argument that fixing modern equipment isn't easy, and you need considerably more things than just a cheap soldering station with a hot air gun.
      - rbg246 10y ago
        I dont think wanting to have the option to repair something deserves such ridicule, from my experience working in fridges, washing machines etc back in the early 2000s one of the biggest complaints was it was uneconomical to repair these items anymore. Im not sure why as a society we have moved so far into the mentality of replace over repair.
  - s_m_t 10y ago
    You don't even need a hot-air rework station. A normal hot-air gun will work if you give it a nozzle (hose fastener and a thin sheet of metal folded over will work in a jiffy)
- the-dude 10y ago
  > Or look at old TVs or audio equipment. Back in the day you could repair them yourself And they included the schematics!
  - pcl 10y ago
    This is still a common thing. Over the last 5 years, I've opened up my dryer and my dishwasher to fix up problems with them, and both included schematics. Both are about 10 years old. This was useful in the case of the dryer -- I was trying to disable the buzzer that unhelpfully wakes me up to tell me that my clothes are dry, and the schematic pointed the way to the right circuit to clip. It was less useful in the case of the dishwasher, as the root cause was user error. But, the schematics were there, nonetheless.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      White appliances tend to include some basic schematics for the high power components e.g. the main switch is connected to the valve and the pump and so and so. But there are still no schematics for the logic boards which is what tends to die more often than the solenoid that controls the water intake valve for example, and those logic boards are either impossible to get or cost as much as a new dishwasher or a washing machine.
      - qb45 10y ago
        Firmware can be another issue. My parents have a washing machine with busted power transistors and MCU which drives them. The MCU could be replaced but without FW it's a brick.
- WalterBright 10y ago
  I have several old VCRs, when they break I just throw it on the pile and get another from the thrift store for about $20. I noticed one day that although electronics of the VCRs vary widely, the spinning heads all seem the same. So I had one with a damaged head, replaced it with a head from another one (different brand, different electronics) that was broken in another way, and it worked perfectly.
_Adam 10y ago
http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/reporter/stories/s3026247.htm http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/reporter/stories/s3... Another great example of Aussie ingenuity! One farmer's way of dealing with the 2010 locust plague.
grecy 10y ago
As an Austrlaian living in North America, this is something I feel on a daily basis. When somethings stops working, needs repair, or just some attention, it boggles my mind when my suggestions of repair and improvise are completely ignored in favor of "order a new one with overnight shipping". I personally derive great satisfaction from fixing the stuff I rely on, and it's working out really well for me now I'm traveling through West Africa.
- thejosh 10y ago
  >order a new one with overnight shipping ahhh, the things we do to our stuff when things can't be shipped and already cost a fortune (AU) :).
- walking 10y ago
  I was in my late twenties before I started programming professionally. Always had super crappy jobs before that, and grew up without a lot of money, so I ended up with a fix-all-the-things mindset. I'd think something like "well, I don't have hundreds of dollars to get my truck's ignition fixed. Guess it's time to learn how ignition systems work and fix it myself before I need to goto work on monday." It could be super stressful, but I appreciate knowing those things now that I could afford to ignore them if I wanted to. I actually ended up getting a side job working for a stage magician because I worked for the moving company that moved his stuff. I overheard them talking about a motorcycle they used in a trick, and how it wasn't working. I told them how they could fix it and they asked if I wanted to make some extra cash fixing other tricks, which by their nature were all cobbled together one-offs.
- knz 10y ago
  Kiwi in the US here. It probably varies depending upon your social circles. Plenty of North Americans repair and improvise, especially those not in dense urban areas. Americans may love their disposable consumer goods but I wouldn't write of their ability to adapt and improvise just yet!
  - grzm 10y ago
    I remember hearing (perhaps apocryphally) that the repair meaning of fix was one of the early American English words, dating back to the 1730s or so.
oh_sigh 10y ago
How much does the doubling the distance of shipping on massive container ships increase the price of a product?

yoodenvranx 10y ago

> Sadly as we pivot to a pure consumer society of plenty this ingenuity is no longer a necessity I guess the necessity is still there but often you can't do anything because most products contain way to much electronics. The only thing you needed to fix an old farm tractor was a hammer, a piece of pipe and a screwdriver. But nowadays you need to study computer science before you can get such a thing running again... Or look at old TVs or audio equipment. Back in the day you could repair them yourself but nowadays it's full of non-servicable SMD parts.

mrob 10y ago
>non-servicable SMD parts It's just a matter of having the right tools, and in most cases you don't need anything expensive. A cheap Chinese hot-air rework station, some flux, and tweezers will let you service a lot of those "non-servicable" parts. People tend to overestimate the difficulty of surface mount soldering simply because the parts are small. In many cases it's actually easier than through hole because surface tension does so much of the work for you. You don't need perfect alignment. BGAs are admittedly more difficult but even those can be replaced with cheap/improvised tools if you're sufficiently dedicated. In the old days tools were more expensive and we didn't have easily accessible video tutorials for most common repairs. I think a bigger reason for the decline of repair is the lower costs of replacement products.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  A soldering station isn't the problem, but you don't want to do SMD with a cheap chinese one you'll ruin your components if the temp control is off. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to get schematics for most devices, and I'm not even talking about legally since you'll have to do it illegally for virtually any device any how. Many SMD components are not marked at all, which means that if some tiny SMD component gets fried you can't even know what it was for sure not to mention it's value without having another board to measure. Not to mention that with 402 and 603 sized packages becoming more and more common goodluck soldering those at home even with professional kits, these are 0.4MM packages, sure 1608 and even 1005 are doable by a steady hand but anything smaller and you likely won't even be able to see the damage on the board. And without schematics you can't really debug anything, you might be able to reverse some of the boards but anything beyond 2-3 layers is impossible to RE by hand without an x-ray scattering machine. And then we get into active components and custom chips which are either impossible to get hold off without cannibalization or would cost you more to buy even in bulk on digikey or any other store than the devices you attempt to fix. Sure a 2000$ Macbook is worth a 400$ fix, but a 50$ controller board doesn't.
  - countingteeth 10y ago
    You say all this like it is a problem. Go to the yard sale and get yourself a 1970s era color TV if you like it so much.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      I don't say it's a problem, I'm was actually making an argument that fixing modern equipment isn't easy, and you need considerably more things than just a cheap soldering station with a hot air gun.
    - rbg246 10y ago
      I dont think wanting to have the option to repair something deserves such ridicule, from my experience working in fridges, washing machines etc back in the early 2000s one of the biggest complaints was it was uneconomical to repair these items anymore. Im not sure why as a society we have moved so far into the mentality of replace over repair.
- s_m_t 10y ago
  You don't even need a hot-air rework station. A normal hot-air gun will work if you give it a nozzle (hose fastener and a thin sheet of metal folded over will work in a jiffy)
the-dude 10y ago
> Or look at old TVs or audio equipment. Back in the day you could repair them yourself And they included the schematics!
- pcl 10y ago
  This is still a common thing. Over the last 5 years, I've opened up my dryer and my dishwasher to fix up problems with them, and both included schematics. Both are about 10 years old. This was useful in the case of the dryer -- I was trying to disable the buzzer that unhelpfully wakes me up to tell me that my clothes are dry, and the schematic pointed the way to the right circuit to clip. It was less useful in the case of the dishwasher, as the root cause was user error. But, the schematics were there, nonetheless.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    White appliances tend to include some basic schematics for the high power components e.g. the main switch is connected to the valve and the pump and so and so. But there are still no schematics for the logic boards which is what tends to die more often than the solenoid that controls the water intake valve for example, and those logic boards are either impossible to get or cost as much as a new dishwasher or a washing machine.
    - qb45 10y ago
      Firmware can be another issue. My parents have a washing machine with busted power transistors and MCU which drives them. The MCU could be replaced but without FW it's a brick.
WalterBright 10y ago
I have several old VCRs, when they break I just throw it on the pile and get another from the thrift store for about $20. I noticed one day that although electronics of the VCRs vary widely, the spinning heads all seem the same. So I had one with a damaged head, replaced it with a head from another one (different brand, different electronics) that was broken in another way, and it worked perfectly.

_Adam 10y ago

http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/reporter/stories/s3026247.htm http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/reporter/stories/s3... Another great example of Aussie ingenuity! One farmer's way of dealing with the 2010 locust plague.

grecy 10y ago

As an Austrlaian living in North America, this is something I feel on a daily basis. When somethings stops working, needs repair, or just some attention, it boggles my mind when my suggestions of repair and improvise are completely ignored in favor of "order a new one with overnight shipping". I personally derive great satisfaction from fixing the stuff I rely on, and it's working out really well for me now I'm traveling through West Africa.

thejosh 10y ago
>order a new one with overnight shipping ahhh, the things we do to our stuff when things can't be shipped and already cost a fortune (AU) :).
walking 10y ago
I was in my late twenties before I started programming professionally. Always had super crappy jobs before that, and grew up without a lot of money, so I ended up with a fix-all-the-things mindset. I'd think something like "well, I don't have hundreds of dollars to get my truck's ignition fixed. Guess it's time to learn how ignition systems work and fix it myself before I need to goto work on monday." It could be super stressful, but I appreciate knowing those things now that I could afford to ignore them if I wanted to. I actually ended up getting a side job working for a stage magician because I worked for the moving company that moved his stuff. I overheard them talking about a motorcycle they used in a trick, and how it wasn't working. I told them how they could fix it and they asked if I wanted to make some extra cash fixing other tricks, which by their nature were all cobbled together one-offs.
knz 10y ago
Kiwi in the US here. It probably varies depending upon your social circles. Plenty of North Americans repair and improvise, especially those not in dense urban areas. Americans may love their disposable consumer goods but I wouldn't write of their ability to adapt and improvise just yet!
- grzm 10y ago
  I remember hearing (perhaps apocryphally) that the repair meaning of fix was one of the early American English words, dating back to the 1730s or so.

oh_sigh 10y ago

How much does the doubling the distance of shipping on massive container ships increase the price of a product?