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My low-cost plastic Casio watch based on a very old design is waterproof and battery can be swapped out by undoing 4 philips screws, no glue. Its buttons can al
by joe_mamba 6mo ago
My low-cost plastic Casio watch based on a very old design is waterproof and battery can be swapped out by undoing 4 philips screws, no glue. Its buttons can also be operated under water while staying waterproof.
What is this whicraft?
- kccqzy 6mo agoI normally much prefer screws over glue but Apple has at least been using repair-friendly glue like the electrically debonding adhesive in use for iPhone 16e/17e.
- alt227 6mo agoFriendly for who? I certainly cant electrically debond chemical compounds, but I sure do know how to undo a screw.
- SauntSolaire 6mo agoAnd you can't follow a guide either? All you have to do is clip a 9v battery on. Do you also consider yourself incapable of jump starting a car because you might have to look up instructions first?
- alt227 6mo agoYes. Dont assume that everybody is technically minded such as yourself. I know plenty of people that would never even consider jump starting thei car. However are also quite happy with poppping open a battery cover and doing a simple swap like any other battery powered device.
- SauntSolaire 6mo agoYou don't have to be "technically minded" to figure this out. It's not spinning up a Kubernetes cluster, it's a picture with an arrow that says "Clip red wire here". Simply driving a car is a thousand times more complicated, and we expect most everybody to be capable of that. There's also a difference between not wanting to do something, and not being capable of it.
- alt227 6mo agoYou seem to judge the world by your own accument and ability, which is very dangerous. Many milions of people are scared by things such as red and black wires and wont touch them with a barge pole.
- SauntSolaire 6mo agoIt's ridiculous to baby proof the world to that level. For a significant portion of that group, taking a screwdriver to their phone is also beyond comfort — those people can take their phone to a mall kiosk just like they do now.
- blackguardx 6mo agoIt is probably a good idea to review some instructions before jump starting a car because even though it is simple, if you do it wrong (connect the battery terminal last) you can blow up your battery from the ignition of hydrogen gas.
- SauntSolaire 6mo agoAgreed. But having to reference instructions is very different from being incapable of something, which was my point.
- kccqzy 6mo agoWell yeah any glue is worse than screws: this I agree with you. But attaching a 9V battery to the glue is about the same difficulty as aligning the screwdriver with the screw and applying torque with a screwdriver.
- kmeisthax 6mo agoThere's little metal tabs you can alligator-clip a 9-volt battery onto, which will release the adhesive. Way better than the stupid pull tabs you had to pull and roll in a very particular way in order to not tear them and render the battery unsafe to remove.
- al_borland 6mo agoMaking these devices repairable is not just about taking it apart, it's also about getting it back together. If I need to electrically debond the adhesive, then I'd also need to new strips of this special adhesive to hold the new battery in place. All of this is after needing a heat gun to weaken the adhesive just to get into it, which I assume also needs to be reapplied on reassembly to retain the same level of water and dust resistance. It's not just a matter of buying a battery and using some tools the average person has on hand. A whole kit of specialty tools and parts needs to be ordered to facilitate the repair. Apple's own repair kit is the most extreme form of this, where they ship 70lbs of tools, which would be comical if it wasn't so sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsc6UypDOI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsc6UypDOI
- i_am_jl 6mo agoAn Apple product manager just fainted at the thought of a user taking a screwdriver to an iPhone.
- luqtas 6mo agonot if they manage to find a screw head that can only be opened by a clean, minimalist, proprietary, expensive Apple screwdriver
- bonestamp2 6mo agoYou joke but... https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lukyamzn-P2-P5-P6-Pentalobe-Screwdriver-Set-for-Apple-iPhone-MacBook-Pro-Air-Retina-Repair-Tool-with-T5-Trox-3-Sizes-SA1127B279/336091288#overlay https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lukyamzn-P2-P5-P6-Pentalobe-Scre... At first it looks like a normal torx head, but then you realize it has 5 lobes instead of 6. Apple used these on early iPhone models when you actually could open them with this proprietary screwdriver.
- i_am_jl 6mo agoI honestly had no idea that Apple had moved on from the Pentalobe.
- exe34 6mo agotechnically you're meant to replace the rubber ring around it, but yes, not hard to do.
- joe_mamba 6mo agoI actually never did. I think you're only supposed to replace it on those scuba-style watches with screw-on casebacks that shred the gasket when fully tightened to ensure a tight seal. But on those watches with 4 screws on the case, the gasket seemed fine to me to keep reusing.
- mikepurvis 6mo agoI think a lot of sealing rings / gaskets are meant to be single use. I had to swap the heater on my hot tub a while back and the store told me to change the o-rings on the inlet and outlet as it was unlikely the prior ones would re-seal after being loosened.
- marcosdumay 6mo agoThat's common on high-pressure systems. It's not very common on diving-depth water-proof equipment.
- exe34 6mo agoWorse than I thought: https://support.casio.com/en/support/answer.php?cid=009001014001&qid=51561&num=1 https://support.casio.com/en/support/answer.php?cid=00900101... "• To maintain water resistance, have the gaskets of your watch replaced periodically (about once every two or three years)."
- al_borland 6mo agoIt seems like the same can be true for the glue used on the iPhone. > Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Liquid damage is not covered under warranty, but you might have rights under consumer law.[0] If a gasket has a predictable life, there could be a warning after that period that the water resistance may be compromised and to replace the gasket if this is a concern for how the user use's the phone. With glue, it seems less certain and Apple goes so far as to say even dropping your phone can compromise the seal enough to risk liquid damage. Meanwhile, a G-Shock was designed to have a battery life of 10 years, have a water resistance of 10 bar, and survive a fall of 10 meters. Dropping the watch doesn't nullify the water resistance claims, the goal was to be able to do all of those things at once. [0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/108039 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108039
- ryandrake 6mo agoI get it for watches, but I've never understood the mass-market need for a waterproof phone, outside of a few niche hobbies. Are people showering and swimming with their phones or something? Or dropping them in their toilets? The wettest my phone has ever been in 8 years is in my pocket while it's raining.
- fragmede 6mo agoWhat, you stop refreshing HN while you're showing?
- seanmcdirmid 6mo agoLife happens, people want the assurance that their phone isn’t necessarily e-garbage after an accidental dunk.
- vardump 6mo agoI like to wash my phones every now and then. Even submerging them in water.
- chongli 6mo agoPeople in humid climates and cold climates were regularly having their phones get denied warranty service because the water ingress stickers turned red due to condensation, without ever exposing their phone to water immersion. This was understandably upsetting for a lot of people who just wanted their phone to be fixed under warranty. Thus, companies put in a big effort to seal their phones against dust and water, which ought to have dramatically reduced these service issues and led to a better customer experience overall!
- catlikesshrimp 6mo agoThere is waterproof specification levels. I haven't met one consumer product which doesn't let moisture in. I live in a hot country (not over 40ºC mind you) If I not being precise, keeping your phone in your jeans deep tight pocket when you are sweating or raining will cause you problems. It might seem too many coincidences for you, but it is common enough that some of us avoid keeping the phone in the pocket.
- ok123456 6mo agoA gasket.
- kaiwn 6mo agoThe buttons can’t be operated underwater. You’ve been lucky thus far. Casio asks you not to use the buttons underwater. https://www.casio-intl.com/asia/en/wat/water_resistance/ https://www.casio-intl.com/asia/en/wat/water_resistance/ > Even if a watch is water-resistant, do not operate its buttons or crown while it is submersed in water or wet.
- zahlman 6mo agoHow do they waterproof around the screws?
- kergonath 6mo agoUsually there is a gasket, which ages just like glue (it gets stiff and brittle) and should be replaced every decade or so.
- Zak 6mo agoThey don't. The screws are outside of the gasket: https://rmdd.net/writing/2023/sensor-watch/2.jpeg https://rmdd.net/writing/2023/sensor-watch/2.jpeg