AbazabaYouMyOnlyFren t1_iuhazzx wrote on October 31, 2022 at 10:03 AM

Reply to comment by 745395 in New York could become first state with a ‘Right to Repair’ law for electronic devices by thinkB4WeSpeak

Sounds like that would violate the idea here...

Milk_A_Pikachu t1_iuio19l wrote on October 31, 2022 at 4:54 PM

Idea? Definitely. Law? It depends

In terms of "normal" electronics? Use increasingly thin ribbon cables and everything you can to make that super scary to open up and likely to break something in the process.

And for the higher end stuff, you are already working with an SoC for all intents and purposes where "just replace a capacitor" is... sort of possible for some people. But you also pull an apple and make the price and hassle for replacement parts such a mess that people are still disincentivized from working on their own gear or even going to a repair shop versus buying a warranty.

Which is more or less where we are with cars. I can replace my tires and do basic maintenance. I even have an old code reader somewhere in a box. But once I get that code (assuming the interface hasn't changed) and look it up online... I am not going to know anything about getting into that engine or transmission. And I have had enough bad experiences with mechanics that I am not convinced they know either. And when they DO get in there? Oh, a board is fried and I need these new gears and everything is so tightly coupled that it isn't worth keeping a bunch of 5A251ZZ4 sprockets on hand.

So I more or less end up in the same state of "buy a new X".

AbazabaYouMyOnlyFren t1_iuiv023 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:41 PM

Ok, that could happen, but making it more fragile will increase their own production and repair costs significantly.

Milk_A_Pikachu t1_iuj0y32 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:20 PM

Eh. Ribbon cables in particular are one of those things that are super easy to install, but not to remove. For a robot it is trivial. But even for a human, you just need to connect them and then close the clamshell. The reason why they suck for repairs is that you tend to need a bit of force to pry apart the two halves of the device. But too much force and you break the ribbon cable

As for repair costs? That is already noise as far as all the premium plans go and you can very much reduce effective costs by just fully replacing modules. Break the ribbon cable? The refurb department can do the repairs back at the nearest factory.

Once you know what you are doing, it is pretty easy to apply just enough force to break the friction of the glue you pried through or deal with the clips without tearing the cable. But just look at all the people who lose their god damned minds over taking apart a nintendo joycon.

Hell, I've been doing my own repairs/mods for literally decades. And my butthole still puckers ever so slightly when dealing with stuff like this. Same as seating ram on a mobo.