6 ms·
Is that where faults really occur though? Could repair shops troubleshoot and repair a bad trace or capacitor on a multi-layer board? I recognise that there is
by greggsy 3y ago
Is that where faults really occur though? Could repair shops troubleshoot and repair a bad trace or capacitor on a multi-layer board?
I recognise that there is environmental and functional value in repairing a $600 part, but the reality is that it’s not currently economical, even with schematics.
- junon 3y ago> Could repair shops troubleshoot and repair a bad trace or capacitor on a multi-layer board? With schematics, in certain scenarios, absolutely.
- naikrovek 3y agonot for less than the cost of a new board. not at scale. a small shop can do it if they grow slowly. a component-level repair shop run by Microsoft which did not swap parts, but repaired them, can not scale quickly. there just isn't that much talent available to do this, and even when there is, it would be tight, economically. it costs Microsoft less to build a main board than the price they sell it for. the hourly time of the repair person multiplied by the time to diagnose, repair, test, document, and clean a main board would quickly go beyond what a new one costs Microsoft. component-level repair just is not feasible at scale. should they make schematics available anyway? yes.
- Zagitta 3y agoExcept if the environmental cost wasn't externalized it would be unfeasible to not do component level repair at scale. Another aspect to this is that it board repairs could be made significantly easier if companies bothered designing boards with proper test points and expected values documented in a diagnostics manual. Just take a look at how old school oscilloscopes and other test equipment was designed with not only full schematics but well defined diagnosis procedures.
- blackoil 3y agoA repair person near customer in US may have a very large environmental cost.
- tinus_hn 3y agoWhy would you have it repaired by an expensive American when someone in China will do it for next to nothing?
- naikrovek 3y agobecause we should not be relying on employment practices which are effectively slavery, no matter what country it is.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kalleboo 3y agoLouis Rossman ran a profitable repair shop doing precisely that. Lots of minor damage like water damage that kills a computer is just a board-level single fuse or chip replacement. Some specific computer models have weaknesses where you can diagnose it pretty quickly.
- Vogtinator 3y ago"ran"? AFAIK he still does, he just moved from New York to Austin, Texas.
- kalleboo 3y agoThe last time I watched him he was putting himself down about how much his business is failing (=unprofitable) since he started the move, it was probably just modesty but I hedged my wording...
- not_your_vase 3y agoThere are small specialized shops doing that using schematics that fell off the schematics-delivering-truck. Their success rate is not 100%, but enough to make a living. If it could be done officially, even with real support from the originator companies, it could be even better economically. Doing these programs is just hindering the real right-to-repair cause. They pretend that these programs help, but once they get bored of selling these parts 3 years later, nothing changes. Everything becomes e-waste at the exact moment when it was planned in the original powerpoint they created before starting the development of the product. At the same time if you know which capacitor to change, you will be able to do it 50 years later too (with a bit of hand-dexterity) - or you can ask someone else to do it for you. It is not expected that whatever basecomponent will go out of production (with the exception of specialized MCUs). An "xbox controller left trigger sensitivity assembly (rev 6)" on the other hand was never meant to be manufactured longer than the life of a domestic hamster.