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> Basic electronics knowledge and soldering skill could help anyone at home. Just like being able to do light plumbing and electrical work comes in handy and wi

> Basic electronics knowledge and soldering skill could help anyone at home. Just like being able to do light plumbing and electrical work comes in handy and will save you lots of money. I'm skeptical of this. When a sink is clogged, the toilet won't flush, or a light switch doesn't work, there are only a handful of potential causes, all of which are well known and can be remedied after watching a Youtube video. When electronics fail, there could be a million reasons why. Most people are better off buying a new device and getting a warranty on it.

pessimizer 8y ago
When electronics fail, it's generally a handful of causes, or one or two well-known design flaws in some particular model of device. I'm not sure I've ever had a device that I haven't repaired at least once, and I haven't had a laptop I haven't repaired at least a half-dozen times before upgrading. You know what's usually useful? A youtube video of disassembly, digging up a service manual with google's help; pretty much the same as a toilet, but generally far safer than trying to fix a light switch.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  > When electronics fail, it's generally a handful of causes, or one or two well-known design flaws in some particular model of device. Once upon a time in the age before I dedicated my life to all things software repairing color tvs was one my sources of income. I respectfully disagree with your assertion, electronics can fail in very many different ways. All the way from 'rodent electrocuted in HV power supply' to passive component that never fails somehow in fact did fail. Even something as mundane as a coil-over-a-resistor can fail if the conditions are right. And don't get me started on bad soldering connections, corroded connectors and a million other little details that can affect the functioning of a device to the point where the repairguy gets called. This was before the days when oscilloscopes were portable, and unfortunately also before the days when I had a driving license. A typical house call would end up with a working TV or VCR and me learning yet another way in which things could fail. Main tools: a couple of folders of schematics of the most commonly encountered models of TV/VCR (pick the right one before you leave, hope the user read the type plate correctly), a stack of matchboxes with passive components, some of the more common active components with enough spread that you could cover most cases, a soldering iron and a very large collection of parts scavenged from old TVs waiting for the opportunity to recycle them.
deleted 8y ago
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kokon 8y ago
Just remind me of the story about a consultant that got paid a lot of money just to fix one line of code. The cost is not on the component, but the knowledge to know which component to fix. That's not something that come cheap.
snaky 8y ago
> there could be a million reasons why Yes, but 990,000 of them would be capacitors. Check capacity and ESR, replace bad ones - done.

pessimizer 8y ago

When electronics fail, it's generally a handful of causes, or one or two well-known design flaws in some particular model of device. I'm not sure I've ever had a device that I haven't repaired at least once, and I haven't had a laptop I haven't repaired at least a half-dozen times before upgrading. You know what's usually useful? A youtube video of disassembly, digging up a service manual with google's help; pretty much the same as a toilet, but generally far safer than trying to fix a light switch.

jacquesm 8y ago
> When electronics fail, it's generally a handful of causes, or one or two well-known design flaws in some particular model of device. Once upon a time in the age before I dedicated my life to all things software repairing color tvs was one my sources of income. I respectfully disagree with your assertion, electronics can fail in very many different ways. All the way from 'rodent electrocuted in HV power supply' to passive component that never fails somehow in fact did fail. Even something as mundane as a coil-over-a-resistor can fail if the conditions are right. And don't get me started on bad soldering connections, corroded connectors and a million other little details that can affect the functioning of a device to the point where the repairguy gets called. This was before the days when oscilloscopes were portable, and unfortunately also before the days when I had a driving license. A typical house call would end up with a working TV or VCR and me learning yet another way in which things could fail. Main tools: a couple of folders of schematics of the most commonly encountered models of TV/VCR (pick the right one before you leave, hope the user read the type plate correctly), a stack of matchboxes with passive components, some of the more common active components with enough spread that you could cover most cases, a soldering iron and a very large collection of parts scavenged from old TVs waiting for the opportunity to recycle them.

deleted 8y ago

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kokon 8y ago

Just remind me of the story about a consultant that got paid a lot of money just to fix one line of code. The cost is not on the component, but the knowledge to know which component to fix. That's not something that come cheap.

snaky 8y ago

> there could be a million reasons why Yes, but 990,000 of them would be capacitors. Check capacity and ESR, replace bad ones - done.