WSJ: We Need the Right To Repair Our Gadgets

An anonymous reader writes: An editorial in the Wall Street Journal rings a bell we've been ringing for years: "Who owns the knowledge required to take apart and repair TVs, phones and other electronics? Manufacturers stop us by controlling repair plans and limiting access to parts. Some even employ digital software locks to keep us from making changes or repairs. This may not always be planned obsolescence, but it's certainly intentional obfuscation." The article shows that awareness of this consumer-hostile behavior (and frustration with it) is going mainstream. The author links to several DIY repair sites like iFixit, and concludes, "Repairing stuff isn't as complicated as they want you to think. Skilled gadget owners and independent repair pros deserve access to the information they need to do the best job they can."

Comments

Good example

[jez9999]

A good example is removable batteries in mobile phones. I was shopping around a few days ago and the only major Smartphones that still have removable batteries are the LG G3/G4, Samsung S5 (not the S6), and I think the Moto X. Everyone else has jumped on the Apple ship and denied you access to the smartphone battery, preventing a hard reset.

Stop copying Apple, you lemmings!!

Re: Good example

[guruevi]

People don't care about battery replacement and you can still do a hard reset on iDevices. A typical battery these days has a 5-10 year lifespan, by then your device is sorely obsoleted and most plans will have paid for a 'free' replacement twice over by then.

Re: Good example

[sremick]

Wrong

A typical lithium ion battery will show noted loss of capacity even after 2y. And it's not just about the overall lifespan of the battery: it's about being able to quickly pop in a freshly-charged spare and get on with your day without having to be stuck tethered to a charging cable.

Or, if you work remotely from charging sources for extended periods, having a handful of $10 charged batteries handy is a lifesaver.

Re:Good example

[sremick]

This is precisely why I got the S5 even though if I had waited a month I could've gotten the S6. I knew the S6 wouldn't have a removable battery, and with that being a critical feature I made sure I voted with my wallet.

Re: Good example

[jandrese]

Phone batteries tend to be around 50-60% of their original capacity after a couple of years. Here is the thing though, it may be difficult but it is not impossible to replace the battery in something like an iPhone. It requires a special screwdriver, but that is easily found online from the same places that sell replacement batteries. The actual procedure isn't especially difficult on most phones. It's not something you would do regularly, but as something you do maybe once to a phone its really not so bad. The tradeoff is that the phone is thinner and lasts longer on the charge. You also lose the ability to carry extra batteries with you on a trip and swap them in as needed, but that was not typical even when it was possible, and less necessary with the higher capacity "permanent" batteries on phones.

The one thing you do miss is the ability to pull the battery from your phone if you suspect it has been compromised and is spying on you. With baseband hacks you can never be sure if the phone is completely off the way you could back when you could yank the battery.

Re: Good example

[jez9999]

it is that more people would rather have a thinner phone

What is it with that, can anyone explain to me? My LG G3 is maybe a centimetre thick and I don't need it to be any thinner. Honestly, why do you need your phone to be thinner than that (and probably more likely to bend)? Are you planning to use it as a credit card?

Re: Good example

[AmiMoJo]

A typical lithium cell used in a phone is good for about 500 full cycles. If your phone gets down to 10% every day you will hit your 500 cycles pretty fast, like 18 months.

Batteries are consumable items. The EU should mandate that they be replaceable, just like they mandated USB for charging, because a lot of otherwise perfectly good devices end up in landfill when the batter dies after a couple of years.

Re: Good example

[thinkwaitfast]

What is it with that, can anyone explain to me?

Who doesn't want to shave with their phone?

Unibody?

[Aqualung812]

Since we love car analogies here, do you think the trend towards non-removable batteries is comparable to the changes in car body design?

It seems older cars used body-on-frame and other designs that basically allowed the person performing the repair to unbolt parts, work on them or replace them, and then bolt them back on.

The disadvantage to this was a weaker body, or a heavier one.

That seems to be the trend with phones: A lightweight and small phone means a sealed case.

Re: Unibody?

[postbigbang]

The maker and hacker communities do a good job of spreading non-official/unsanctioned information about repair/modding/refurbishing many, many items.

It's true that vendors limit parts stocks, as the life of a product is maybe nine months in the marketplace until something new emerges, as consumerism has as its addiction, new stuff with one-upmanship. This means that the parts stocked for any particular model are as absolutely as slim as possible, lest they go into a dumpster, landfill, or on a good day, to a parts remarketer.

The "intellectual property" behind schematics, source code, is the rubric given for not releasing schematics, construction models/diagrams and repair components-- but also because they don't want to support the costs of modders, hackers, and others from whom they make not one penny. A few vendors are smart enough to make a few pennies from these communities, but it's not the focus of their business.

This has also evolved an aftermarket of an array repair businesses, some of which are particularly shady (think cracked screen repair) while others are legitimate and back-fill rotten customer service from the big vendors.

These aren't your dad's Western Electric phones, or the old Selectric, as you imply, but the business models aren't for products with a five year shelf life-- or longer.

Re: Unibody?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can still fix those cars/devices, it's just a little harder, especially for the people used to the old 'bolt and ratchet' style.
 
The same exact thing can be said for phones in this case... If all you have is a n00bs experience and the 30 dollar Radio Shack toolkit you're going to have a hard time of it. We see plenty of non-manufacturer-trained techs out there setting up businesses for replacing screens, batteries, etc. I guess the "lock-in" is more a matter of "I can't do it as easily as I could with the phone that did half as much but twice the weight and volume."
 
This, to me, is like the guys who remembered a time when you could replace daughter boards in a PC that are now mostly integrated devices. When's the last time you seen a consumer level PC with a discrete ethernet card or sound card?
 
You're going to have to put up with this if you want your spiffy phone with all the bells and whistles in a slim form factor while maintaining an acceptable battery life.

Re:Unibody?

[itsenrique]

Cars have become much harder to work on over the last 2 decades. At first, before that, during the muscle car era, things were simpler and there was a lot more room under the hood to work and see. Then things became compact, lighter, more efficient (and complex). Makes sense. Got a little harder to work on, and definitely harder to learn, but we got really efficient cars. But recently, with the increased electronification of cars, the automakers have been fighting in court to prevent reverse engineering their software. The thing is, what is done by software is a list that gets bigger all the time. So, yes, people who work on cars a lot have been feeling the lack of love for a while. A lot of these cars that are coming out now will have a lot of broken gadgets and other irreparable systems possibly leading to an early trip to the metal scrappers. The auto makers want you to buy new, the aging American fleet concerns them for obvious reasons.

Re:Unibody?

[sinij]

If your car analogy post was a car, it would be a messy high-speed wreck wrapped around a tree.

Modern cars suffer from the same problem electronic gadgets are - manufacturers intentionally making it harder to work on them. Any car is modular - you have individual components that make a whole, and there is no reason why any of these components couldn't be taken out and replaced. You have bolt-on components like alternators, exhaust, AC compressor, radiator, struts... and you have integrated components like valves, chassis, seals. It should be obvious that bolt-on components should be interchangeable, but so should integrated components. For example, you ought not to have to "activate" or "genuine OEM part" an alternator, because there is absolutely no legitimate reason for this.

Re: Unibody?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, just squeeze the glove box and let it fall down. Preferably after you have removed the customer's shit and put it in a bag. :) Takes about 15 seconds to find the catches.

Now, if you said you were removing the heater core, I'd be down with your advice. Seems in most factories they hang up a heater core and build the car around that.

Re:Unibody?

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Most of that is scare tactics. Most cars are basically the same with varying build quality and materials. There is nothing mechanically special with a Saab when compared to any other gasoline powered FWD vechicle. Granted there may be some differences like with BMW and their current double VANOS system but even that isn't all that special just a neat way of doing variable valve timing and valve lift. Of course an unbalanced half shaft is going to cause problems and there are shops that can check and fix that that aren't Saab. Also all brake systems are high pressure and are really easy to work on. Since most vehicles don't use drum brakes anymore it is so much easier to do. The hardest set of disk brakes I have ever done were the ones on my old Bronco II and that was only because there were 2 pins that you have to pound out that held the caliper in place. The most difficult repair I ever did to a vehicle was replacing the valley pan on my previous car and I decided that since I was in there any way I would also to valve cover gaskets, and the CCV as well. It took about 8 hours but I didn't have any problems. After that the next worst repair was replacing the blower motor in that E39 BMW and that was mostly because physically getting the dash in and out of the car was a real bitch.

Re:Unibody?

[sjames]

Actually, to reach apple level, the manufacturers would have to do away with the openable hood as well. If it needs an oil change, throw it away and buy a new one.

Re: Unibody?

[sjames]

When's the last time you seen a consumer level PC with a discrete ethernet card or sound card?

About 5 minutes ago. The built-in ethernet failed so I stuck a card in it.

Re:Unibody?

[sjames]

You've never heard of having brake rotors turned? You've never heard of 3rd party brake rotors? There's nothing about any of those parts that precludes a 3rd party making replacements.

Re: Unibody?

[postbigbang]

But they don't even do that-- want to earn any revenue on modders. Think of how many electronic devices you have in your house this moment, and how many of those vendors supply a schematic. In days gone by, vendors would include a schematic in the manual or glued to the back of a washing machine or inside of a TV set. No more.

They want to control their entire revenue stream, and that doesn't mean give information to third parties.

Re:Unibody?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you are looking at this wrong.

Those rotors or bearings or half shafts are like the circuit boards, capacitors, and transistors. Sure they are a bit more specialized (IE this rotor works on model years 95-02 on these ford and mercury vehicles) but you usually have numerous brands and retailers to choose from. For example here in town I can go to Autozone, Advanced Auto, Napa, or O'Rielys. I also have the option of choosing from online retailers like rockauto.com (highly recommended) and Amazon. All of those retailers will at a minimum have two different brands for most parts.

you can't manufacture your own half shafts or wheel bearings or brake rotors, you must rely on those who have the specifications and the ability to produce items of sufficiently high quality.

So do you expect people to produce their own touch screens, IC chips, hell even their own capacitor? No you buy it.

You can easily find parts, choose brands, and even choose performance levels for parts. There are MANY options and it is very independent. You don't even need to own the tools, all of those retailers will let you rent any tool you need for FREE. (You pay the deposit, or price of the tool, use the tool and the return it for a full refund.) Very very independent, very very DIY friendly. Hell the diagnostic computer that many cars "require" for "proper" service is replaced in many cases by a 10 dollar obd2 bluetooth dongle and a 5 dollar smart phone app. I keep a dongle in my car, my gf's car, and give them away as gifts to my DIY friends. Its nice being able to pull your own computer codes and watch your vehicles performance in real time.

When it comes to fixing a phone you can only get parts from the manufacturer, except maybe for batteries it is hard if not impossible to find a third party part for your phone.

Ohh and in your example car manufacturers say a lot of stuff like that so you don't sue them if something crazy happens. In your brake example, you can easily work on your brakes in most cases without ever loosening the lines. Replacing pads, rotors, drums, etc can all be done without ever being "in danger" from the high pressure. In fact I can bet that it should be safe to work on the lines themselves. That warning is in case the ABS system has malfunctioned and is keeping the pressure turned up to max, in that case you should disconnect the battery (which I am sure it tells you to do, hell it will say to disconnect the battery to change the tire half the time) and then loosen the bleeder, all of the excess pressure is relieved and you can work on the car normally.

TLDR: You are incorrect, if anything it is more independent to work on vehicles then it ever has been to work on consumer electronics. In fact I bet if I ask all of the guys in my office (strictly IT) if they would feel more comfortable replacing blown capacitors or bad brakes I would have at least a 90% response for replacing the brakes. My guess Fran is you have never in your life even changed your own tire. If that is the case I would refrain from speaking about which you know nothing, it makes you look like an idiot.

Re:Unibody?

[Grishnakh]

That's a bunch of BS. Cars built in the last 2 decades are lasting longer than ever and easily going 100-200,000 miles without any major repairs. And who cares about reverse-engineering the software in your power steering controller anyway? If it goes bad (which it doesn't, because there's no hydraulic pump any more and rubber hoses to degrade, just an electric motor), then you just replace the parts; it's a simple bolt-in affair, and certainly much easier than messing around with hydraulic fluid taking a circuitous route around the engine compartment.

Honestly, things are *simpler* now, from a repair perspective, and far improved in reliability. Those shitty old cars needed a LOT of work all the time; constant "tune ups" and adjustments, which modern cars don't ever need.

Finally, electronics never fail, unless you have bad capacitors. No moving parts, remember?

Re:Unibody?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I wish that were all true, but...

Time required to change headlight bulb in my car 15 years ago: 1-2 minutes.

Time required to change headlight bulb in my current car: usually faster to drop by the dealer, because they seem to know a shortcut for doing it without disassembling the entire front of the car per the handbook and have whatever tools they need to take that shortcut.

Time required to change headlight bulb in next generation car with state-of-the-art lighting: it's not one headlight bulb, it's a whole assembly with multiple lighting components, associated sensors, and software. And you'll be needing a mortgage if it ever goes wrong.

Also, MTBF for headlight bulbs in my car 15 years ago was probably 2-3 years, while for my current car it's probably under a year despite all the claims that bulbs in modern cars should last the lifetime of the vehicle. $DEITY help the poor schmuck who gets a shiny new executive car with the cool new lighting technologies if those lights are similarly unreliable, though.

Re:For a reason.....

[Guybrush_T]

Just the opposite. Of course you won't fix a dead pixel. But very often, the failing part is a really dumb component.

In those frequent cases, it is very frustrating to throw away a wonderful piece of technology (the OLED screen) because a stupid capacitor or resistor that is broken somewhere (but you don't know which one, of course).

FCC's trying to break improving router firmware

[jddj]

The FCC is currently trying to end 3rd-party wifi router firmware (think Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc.), by requiring manufacturers to build devices that only accept firmware updates signed with the manufacturer's keys.

This means you'll only be able to install software the manufacturer has certified comes with their own bugs, embedded backdoors and security #fails, rather than be able to put something better on your hardware.

It also may mean that router manufacturers will be required to place NSA backdoors in the firmware and be unable to tell consumers about them due to National Security Letters.

The WSJ is right: We Need The Right To Repair Our Gadgets.

Re:FCC's trying to break improving router firmware

[jonnythan]

They're trying to end 3rd party *radio* firmware, because so many of them allow you to boost power levels well beyond what is allowed by current regulations.

They don't give a whit about router firmware. Of course, the end result will probably be manufacturers locking down router firmware entirely, but all they would need to do is lock down the radio itself.

Re:For a reason.....

[mordjah]

Pffft! Come on.. PSU, main board, sound board, breakouts for controls, driver board.. Come on. Not a big deal.. Sure, you aren't doing any component level repair any more beyond some shitty cheapo dried caps , but that ship sailed a while ago unless you are a hobbiest with good tools and a steady hand. It pisses me off to no end that you cannot even buy a repair manual unless you are a "factory authorized service center" no matter how out of warranty.

TLDR: quit buying Apple products

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I only buy Android phones for me and my family that cost less than $100. If they break (and it has yet to happen), oh well - I'll just buy another one. Ditto tablets (though I've tossed and replaced two of those). Our laptops are also cheapy Toshiba/HP's that cost maybe $300 each.

All of these have replaceable batteries, and I can generally replace the disk, screen, keyboard and other major parts of the laptops for $60.

The common thread here? None of these are Apple products.

Re:TLDR: quit buying Apple products

[bobbied]

I can repair apple products. I've replaced screens, buttons, and batteries in a number of iPhones and tablets. It's usually not any harder than Android based devices of the same type. The issue is obtaining the parts, which is drop dead easy for nearly all Apple products, just look on EBay...Android devices are harder to get parts for, mainly because there are so many variants out there and they sell less of each type as a result, which makes it less cost effective to build replacement parts so less android devices have readily available parts. Apple devices don't have this problem.

Nonsense!

[idontgno]

Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches.

Now for my mid-morning soma break.

Hostility towards Consumers

[Sir_Eptishous]

I think in general there is hostility towards consumers, and not just with things like consumer electronics.

Digital media such as music, books, video or films?
While there is an immense catalog of choice with what we can consume, we are are getting less and less able to have control over their choices, due to how "rights holders" and others corral us into their vision of how to consume and deliver this media.

'Skilled gadget owners'

[kheldan]

For various values of the word 'skilled'. I've been working in electronics for over 30 years. To 'repair' something used to mean 'replace components', but after a certain point it became 'replace an entire circuit board', which will always be a weak substitute so far as I'm concerned. But the real problem is that with the advent of surface-mount components, the door to repairing a circuit board largely became shut and locked to the vast majority of people. When you need (high) magnification and some specialized soldering equipment and supplies just to replace common passive components (YOU try to remove and replace 0402 SMCs with the naked eye!) it puts the job just out of reach of many. Of course most times passive components aren't the problem, and when the integrated circuits are in BGA (ball grid array) packages, and you need a $3000 setup just to remove one, and help from a diety to install a replacement, for 99% of anyone thinking of trying it, it just went entirely out of reach. This is not even touching on the subject of schematics for the device you're trying to repair, which for many/most things you're not getting your hands on for any amount of money, and in some cases you might get threatened with legal action just for trying to get it. Then there's the subject of proprietary software tools that might be necessary, and you're not getting those for any reason from a manufacturer. Even the manufacturers themselves often don't bother repairing anything, they'll just 'recycle' it and send you a new one because the cost in labor alone to repair exceeds what the thing costs.

Of course I'm going to be reminded that nobody is trying to repair the circuit board in their phone, they just want to replace the battery or cracked screen or whatnot. Manufacturers have never wanted consumers repairing their own devices, so yes they make it as difficult as possible sometimes. It's always been like that. Don't expect that to change, either. You're always going to have to go to 3rd party sources for parts and supplies and information. When we really need to cry 'Foul!' is if they try to make it illegal, though.

Re:'Skilled gadget owners'

[Opportunist]

Actually I cry foul if they deliberately make it hard. I don't complain about SMCs, that's something you can hardly influence as a manufacturer. After all, the phone should be small, so the parts have to be. And you can actually hand solder most SMCs with a bit of practice. Not with the naked eye and you do need a bit of equipment, but it is possible and nothing to blame a manufacturer for.

What I do blame them for is pointlessly gluing parts together, filing down chips so you can't read their part ID or encasing them in a blob of epoxy for no reason other than ensuring you cannot replace it. That's what really irks me.

Maybe it's time to start a page to shame the worst offenders in that area.

my 1st gen kindle fire doesn't charge any more

[circletimessquare]

it's a well-known issue

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers...

amazon said they'd give me $15 off the purchase of a new one because it doesn't charge any more. instead i purchased the $5 repair USB port:

http://www.amazon.com/Charging...

looked through some videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

and tried it out

in the first 15 minutes, i succesfully broke a tiny plasticzif connector:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

great, nothing to see here, move along, cross your fingers it will stay with some rubber cement

then i made a hilariously inept attempt to solder tiny connections of the new USB port with a fat soldering iron and some eye glass repair magnifying glass

but lo and behold it worked. it charged! ...for half an hour. now it's dead as a door knob

here's the real issue:

i don't have the time to do this shit, and the cost of modern electronics makes the cost of new electronics compared to the time investment to attempt a repair means repair is not an option

go to repair places and the cost of a repair is also prohibitively expensive as compared to the cost of a new item

therefore: welcome to our throwaway culture

i tried. i really did

i just don't have the time or patience anymore, not to join now myself

sorry

Re:my 1st gen kindle fire doesn't charge any more

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I'll fix your SHIFT keys for free.

Re:my 1st gen kindle fire doesn't charge any more

[Anonymous Coward]

I take it you turned his offer down then?

How about a manual at least?

[Maxwell]

Could we start with requiring documentation? We just got a new FTTH Hub from our ISP. No manual. No instructions. Vendor has nothing online and refers to ISP insists who there is no known documentation for the Hub. Sagemcom f@st 5250 for those wondering. So not only is it non repairable it's non-troubleshootable and no way to tell anything about the device.

It depends on the device and user

[cyberchondriac]

There is both a valid point to the article and a flaw.
"Easily fixable" is in the eye of the beholder, but given the nature that this is a tech blog, I'm not surprised most people assume this is common; lots of people think they can handle something until they get elbows deep in it, and then find themselves out of their depth. Then they're likely to try to button things back up as best they can, and return the item as defective: if it was defective in the first place, they probably just made it several times worse; but if they were trying to hack or mod it, there's no excuse for returning it after they broke it. Companies are not going to settle for eating these costs, and their legal teams are there to prevent this sort of thing. I used to be a bench tech, repairing consumer electronics (chiefly VCRs, but stereos, preamps, cassette decks, etc.. as well) and, outside of head cleanings (which are also tricky on helical scanning head), idler/belt replacements, or minor alignments, the repairs I made were typically outside the capability of the average buyer (and how many people have an oscilloscope and function generator in their house?) I think it would be opening a can of worms to court their tinkering by say, posting schematics publicly on a website. But it also depends on the device and it's complexity.

On the other hand, some simple things, i.e. lack of access to batteries, is ridiculous. Also, if schematics were made available upon request (an email for example), that would probably nip a lot of the impulsive weekend hackers in the bud while still allowing serious techs access to them.

Re:It depends on the device and user

[DerekLyons]

I used to be a bench tech, repairing consumer electronics (chiefly VCRs, but stereos, preamps, cassette decks, etc.. as well) and, outside of head cleanings (which are also tricky on helical scanning head), idler/belt replacements, or minor alignments, the repairs I made were typically outside the capability of the average buyer (and how many people have an oscilloscope and function generator in their house?)

I used to be a service writer for a repair service, and I have to agree with you - the degree of DIY repairs in the past isn't nearly what the golden rosy past crowd here on /. seems to think. The /. demographic are, in the main, tinkerers and it simply doesn't occur to them that most people aren't.
 

Also, if schematics were made available upon request (an email for example), that would probably nip a lot of the impulsive weekend hackers in the bud while still allowing serious techs access to them.

That's the real problem with planned obsolescence and the unavailability of information and parts - the death of the authorized service center and the resulting loss of jobs. This isn't just consumer electronics, it's a broad base of consumer goods - everything from cars to appliances.

Consumers made this decision ...

[MacTO]

Consumers helped to make this decision a long time ago when they decided that it was better to replace than to repair. Yes, there were external factors. This includes things like the cost of getting someone to make repairs and the faster turn around of buying a replacement. On the other hand, their inability to conduct the most basic repairs on their own (e.g. fixing a frayed cable or swapping a replaceable component) went a long way in convincing manufacturers that planned obsolescence can be a viable business model. The prioritization of compact and more integrated devices over serviceability is also a huge factor. Computers are an excellent example of that. Contrast an early 80's computer, where nearly everything was in a socket or soldered through-hole, to a modern phone where there is barely enough space for a plug and socket for the battery.

We also can't claim that consumers didn't see this coming. Again to the computer example: there was a shift from the early 80's computers to modular desktops of the late 80's and early 90's (where the modules were more or less standardized), to the laptops of the late 90's and early 2000's (where the modules were less standard), to the present day. Ah, the present day: a time when a replaceable battery or an SD card for memory expansion (not so much to repair as to extend the service life of a product) is considered an anti-feature by some.

Manufacturers may have implemented these decisions, but it was the consumer who made the decision.

Re:Saw the handwriting on wall in early 1990's

[oh_my_080980980]

Did you bother to survey the appliance repair industry because it's doing quite well. Electronics are no all major appliances today and those appliances need servicing. A lot of people will repair before buying a new one because the new one is not cheap.

Re:WSJ? Bastion of free market?

[Opportunist]

I don't know the WSJ, but if it is for "true" capitalism rather than what we have now pose as such, the position makes sense: True competition can only exist if you cannot force your customer to buy from you instead of hiring anyone else (i.e. competition) to fix his problem.

Spectrum and interference

[xtal]

Blame people using frequencies and EIRP they're not supposed to and interference generated as a result. That's the downside to the software defined radio approach; the software needs to be locked to maintain compliance with FCC regulations.

Has nothing to do with networking or repair.

You can always get a router that takes a FCC-approved wireless card and route to your heart's content.

Re:Sometimes knowledge saves your back!

[Rei]

Not everything is as tough to fix as a washing machine. For example, I live in a little island country and imported low-volume goods are very expensive. A hinged plastic door on the cheese compartment has now twice fallen out of my refrigerator - whether the hinge breaks first or after it hits the ground I don't know, but it's some sort of design flaw. It's just a little piece of thin plastic, but getting a replacement costs about $40 USD. It would be a lot cheaper to 3d print a new one... but of course, like 99.99999% of all parts on Earth, there's no publicly-available model.

Hmm, maybe I should check into whether anyone in the country has a 3d geometry capture setup... then I could not only print out a replacement, but also modify the model to stop it from breaking and/or falling out so readily.

Re:This is why...

[itsenrique]

Very few do major work on new cars because they are all under warranty *eye roll*. I worked at an auto parts store, and have done quite a few repairs and part replacements. Yes, cars started becoming more of a hassle to work on during the 90s and through the 00s. This is fairly well known stuff, you make it seem like car companies haven't been openly against people working on their cars these days. There was a story on it on /. within the last year, probably the last 6 months.

Re:Product Liability

[itsenrique]

Really? When was the last time someone won a case against an auto manufacturer over something that was inappropriately serviced? They have the money to pay experts to find out what really happened, it's just easier/cheaper to settle in most cases apparently. Appropriate warnings have got to have legal weight as well. The reason they want you to to not repair your old stuff is because they make money when you buy new stuff.

Re:Sometimes knowledge saves your back!

[Immerman]

You left out one big point: did you call your local back-yard washing appliance repairman to see what the repairs would cost before giving up?

It's all part of the same phenomena:
- They don't make repair information readily available except to overpriced "Factory authorized" repair centers, if at all
- They usually don't design the machines to be repaired in the first place, why would they when nobody repairs them cost effectively?
because
- They make a lot more money if you buy a new machine rather than repairing your old one
- Most consumers would rather save $50 up front than buy a machine that was designed to be repaired (often because it's not obvious at the time of purchase)

That last point is a real kicker, and has helped this phenomena snowball. You can still buy most appliances, etc. in "repair friendly" models, but usually only at the high end. At the low and midrange you'd end up with two basically identical products, one of which was substantially more expensive because of features that are only apparent after unboxing and dismantling them.

Perhaps we could start a new trend to counteract the decline, something like a "Certified Repair Friendly" logo that could be put on appliances so you'd know up front that the premium you're paying is getting you something designed to be repairable, and free access to official repair documentation. Sort of like Energy Star id for appliances where the premium bought you greater energy efficiency that would pay off in the long term. Maybe even a couple grades, like silver and gold, to indicate whether it's competent repair-man friendly, or fully DIY repairable.

Re:Sometimes knowledge saves your back!

[tlambert]

And this is why we have an environmental problem. If people would fix what they have instead of constantly replacing it, lots of environmental damage caused by manufacturing and transport could be avoided.

But I notice no "Green" group ever mentions this.

You could get the same net effect by the green groups offering repair services that were cheaper than a new purchase, or by the green groups offering to haul the old stuff away, and refurbish it, and sell it to other people so that they *don't* buy new stuff.

Of course, the problem with that is that the equipment is till going to take energy to operate, and the green groups would generally prefer we live in caves or trees, after at least 90% of the human population is "unfortunately" killed off by something.

Re:Story I heard

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

That was a GNU/Richard Stallman reference. Allegedly, being dicked around by the vendor of the fancy new laser printer with the magic binary driver that he wasn't allowed to fix helped inspire him to recognize the importance of software freedom.

Unfortunately, these days it'd be a fancy new laser printer with a binary driver, a EULA forbidding everything including running 'strings' against it, and a vendor hellbent on asserting that copyright, patent, or both, rights allow them eternal control over what consumables the device will deign to interact with(*cough* Lexmark *cough*). I don't know if that origin story is true or not; but it is practically edenic by comparison to the current situation.

This is incorrect.

[tlambert]

The FCC is currently trying to end 3rd-party wifi router firmware (think Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc.), by requiring manufacturers to build devices that only accept firmware updates signed with the manufacturer's keys.

This is incorrect.

What the FCC is wanting to require is that the SDR chips in these devices only accept radio firmware loads that are signed.

This is because they license the radios, and the radios are licensed as a combination of hardware and software, Loading different firmware into the radio part makes it an unlicensed radio, and permits it to receive signals in prohibited ranges, as well as transmit signals to interfere with the allowed signals in those prohibited ranges, or in bands which require a license for you to transmit.

The FCC does not give a flying crap about the *router* firmware... "(think Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc.)", what they care about is the radio, in the same way they care about the baseband firmware in mobile phones.

So the only thing the FCC wants is to control the air waves (which is what they, as an organization, were created to do).

Several router vendors would prefer you not replace their firmware, and cable companies which are now deploying WiFi hot spots in their service areas using your house and the router they sold you in order to do it, are objecting to you loading your own firmware, since it means they can't offer paid hot spot service out of your house because you happen to have a router that does WiFi from them.

But that's not the FCC, that's the people who want to use *your* equipment in *your* house in order to further *their* business model at the expense of *your* total available bandwidth (particularly, upstream bandwidth).

A free market in repair services

[tepples]

As I understand it, this article is about reducing Imaginary Property barriers that interfere with a free market in repair services.