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Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

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AVGresponding:

--- Quote from: vze1lryy on December 11, 2022, 02:44:13 am ---Hah! Just got linked to this. Sorry to revive such an old thread, but can't let this one go. This is some disingenuous garbage. Let's go line by line.


--- Quote from: bd139 on March 24, 2021, 07:17:19 am ---They will laugh all the way to the bank while shouting “it’s out of warranty - here’s the schematics” when you knock that poorly chosen USB-C connector on the motherboard and damage it. Hint: they mostly aren’t replaceable or repairable these days. You’re then at the mercy of a network of idiots and morons to do your repairs.
--- End quote ---


Mercy of a network of idiots and morons to do your repairs - you mean the independent repair community that figured out the design flaws & solutions to these devices before the manufacturer could even release a recall program? For many of the products with design flaws, WE proposed modifications so they can work again before the manufacturer issued a recall program.

Are they giving iPhone 6+ boards with M1 jumpers, or reflowed broadcom chips? Are they giving 820-2850 with modified framebuffer 1.35v buck converter circuits, or with the same inappropriate tantalum capacitor on C9560? Are they replacing iPhone 7 boards with audio IC issues with stock boards or with the requisite jumper so the board WON'T have intermittent audio within a year?

Several of my videos go over fixes Apple themselves weren't using in their own recall programs, instead just replacing a dead device with another board that will fail in the same way. You come here with blanket insults of the entire industry calling us idiots and morons; I can provide at least half a dozen citations to repairs we do that last longer than the manufacturer's, that were available long before the manufacturer ever issued a recall.

You know nothing about our industry and are willing to speak in disparaging absolutes. You have no knowledge base with which to make such statements and just spout your mouth off to sound edgy.


--- Quote from: bd139 on March 24, 2021, 07:17:19 am ---We need better than a right to repair. We need the manufacturers to support the device for the full lifecycle with all costs covered including ones from crappy engineering decisions like mounting wear items like connectors on the motherboard of laptops etc.  .... Also Mr Rossman is there selling this ideology because he’s a salesman selling his repair product. He wants you to come to his business and wants the manufacturers to keep on with this crap because it fills his pockets. And some of his repairs are quite frankly shit. I’ve actually had a discussion with him about this on the forum  :-DD
--- End quote ---


In terms of manufactures keeping on with not supporting customers, this couldn't be further from the case. In every video where I go over these design flaws, I shame Apple for not providing a proper warranty recall program to the customer. You don't care about that because it cuts against your narrative of me as the happy merchant or some shit. 

I agree that manufacturers should take accountability and responsibility for their design flaws - which includes fixing them for free for people who purchased the product. This is why my videos shame the manufacturer for not releasing extended warranty programs for issues, and repeatedly call on them to recall issues - whether it's flexgate warranty applying to a1706 2016 but not a1707 or a1706 2017 models, the 51v to the CPU problem, the 820-2915/820-2914 GPU problem prior to spring 2015, the A1278 2012 hard drive cable problem, the A2141 SSD buck problem, or a number of others on my channel.

I pull no punches in criticizing Apple for not supporting their customers properly when it comes to confirmed design flaws on their products. The argument here is that I am some salesman, as if this is a bad thing. I make money doing what I do, and I am proud of how we make our money. I don't make money off of artificially restricting a marketplace or depriving people the ability to have their items repaired, by a third party or themselves. I spent ten years showing everyone else how to do what I do, publicly, and have a non-profit dedicated to funding educational guides so everyone can do this work, including my competition. My non-profit, which I take $0 in pay from, funds the creation of guides like this so that EVERYONE - end users, or professional technicians who are my competition alike, can be more likely to perform successful, quality repairs.

In terms of my work, I stand by what we do with a longer warranty than the manufacturer provides on their own repairs. We maintain a better rating on google than any apple authorized service provider in a 30 mile radius - and any apple store in a 30 mile radius, and our reputation for the work that we do is second to none.


--- Quote from: bd139 on March 24, 2021, 07:17:19 am ---We need the manufacturers to support the device for the full lifecycle with all costs covered
--- End quote ---


Why should the manufacturer be forced to cover and pay for you spilling something on a device you own, or you dropping it off a table?

--- End quote ---


You won't get a reply from bd139; he's left the EEVBlog forum, several months ago now. EDIT: I will let him know of your post though.

While I broadly agree with you and your position (I am a subscriber), the point about manufacturers properly supporting their product in the use environment (ie from a repairable design POV to the ease of EOL recycling) is a difficult one to address. Want a device that can shrug off an accidental dunking into the toilet? It's going to have to be glued together. Want it as small and compact as possible? It's going to have to have everything on one board.

The trust issue is another difficult one. As you pointed out yourself in a recent vid, a piece of paper with the words "I promise not to steal your data or use substandard parts when I repair your device" is worth precisely nothing. Large organisations have (usually) lots of procedures around vetting, supply chain etc, which quite often don't get followed. Should they not have them? In a sense, in your position as a small business, you have an easier job in this respect; you can personally interview each prospective employee, and supervise them relatively closely if you chose, until you were sure of them. It's not really practical to scale that up to a business with tens of thousands of employees, so they use lots of written procedures and hope that they are followed. Neither will ultimately protect you from a bad actor, but in the small business case it's more likely to be picked up sooner, since one or two customer complaints are a much bigger blip for you.
The Google reviews point is tricky too. I've seen many review pages with obvious fake reviews, both positive and negative. Wading through the crap to find the nugget of truth is no easy task sometimes. I have a phone that needs repair, and wouldn't hesitate to use your company if I lived in NY, however I live in the UK, and have no idea about reputable local repair shops. They all seem to be market stalls, or integrated into head/vape shops, none of which inspires me with confidence.


Anyway, keep fighting the good fight, RTR is slowly gaining traction over here too.

Brumby:

--- Quote from: AVGresponding on December 11, 2022, 11:49:58 am ---
While I broadly agree with you and your position (I am a subscriber), the point about manufacturers properly supporting their product in the use environment (ie from a repairable design POV to the ease of EOL recycling) is a difficult one to address. Want a device that can shrug off an accidental dunking into the toilet? It's going to have to be glued together. Want it as small and compact as possible? It's going to have to have everything on one board.

--- End quote ---
As I understand it, the questions about "repairable design" and "EOL recycling" are not key to the fundamental principle of Right To Repair.  The core issue here is that manufacturers actively block third party repairs through various means.  The one on the top of my list is preventing manufacturers of certain chips from selling them to the open market.  That is an artificial impediment.

Issues such as this are the real problem, not about unfriendly design.

If a manufacturer deems it necessary to glue bits together in order to produce a more attractive product, then so be it.  If a repairer wishes to work on such a device, then let them work out how to deal with the glue - with the knowledge that when they reach the defective part, they will be able to purchase a replacement.  Having repairers work out the processes for repair isn't something new - they have been doing this for quite some time.  While having a design that's easier to work on would be nice, that is NOT a core element of Right To Repair.

Getting the right parts shouldn't be any worse than it is for anything else.  If a product manufacturer has, say, rights to the design of a chip, then - by all means - let that chip carry a royalty which the chip manufacturer can pass on each time a chip is sold to Digikey, Mouser or whoever.  Selling a $2 piece of silicon for $22 sure beats the idea of purchasing a $100 device in order to harvest that chip ... not to mention that the rest of that donor device instantly becomes eWaste.  Also note that there has never been any requirement for an equipment manufacturer to stock spare parts.  No.  On this topic, let the open market dictate supply of parts, just as it does for 1/4" headphone jacks and 7400 series TTL.

Providing documentation such as schematics is something that is not unreasonable either.  It's not as if someone is going to use them to clone a major manufacturer's product.  Circuitry is only a small part of manufacture.  Tooling, processes and programming are some of the other considerations.  Schematics need not provide full detail of protocols that could aid in the defeat of security measures - they just need to have sufficient information to assist with fault-finding.  I still have several dozen schematics from products I have collected over the years from pocket radios to television sets ... that actually came with the product.  Those products are no longer hot items (except, perhaps, as museum pieces) due to technological progress, not because of the schematic.


I make these points because I (and I'm sure many others) feel it is paramount that we are quite clear about what Right To Repair is - and what it is not.

TERRA Operative:
If anyone has one, I just uploaded a HQ version of the instruction manual for the Tektronix Type 284 Pulse Generator to TekWiki

https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/284 (070-0754-00)

It's a high quality scan with colour schematics and exploded diagrams, and you can actually clearly see the waveform images too. :)



Next up to hit the scanner, a Fluke 335A DC Voltage Standard/Diff Voltmeter/Null Detector manual...

Vince:


Starting to "process" all the TE I got from my haul the other day.

Today on the podium we have this Férisol NA300A mW meter.

I have no use for it but I understand these things are still popular. SO since it's a decent brand and looked in decent nick cosmetically (sorry didn't clean it), I didn't have the heart no to take it, knowing it would end up in the scrap yard soon.

So I only took it, hoping someone here might want it ?

I mean for free of course... it's worth nothing anyway I guess, it's not an HP and has a special probe connector and no probe with it so... maybe use it for parts ? Wattmeter specific part that might be reusable in other brands/models of watt meters ?

I don't even know its specs, can't find a manual for it... the range switch suggests it can measure from -20dB up to +10dB.

It weighs a bit over 3kg, shipping cost 13 Euros for Germany. Free shipping for any of my  German benefactors of course, that goes without saying...

Anybody want to save the life of this puppy ?

No.... I knew it, asked anyway, for peace of mind.... now I guess all that's left to do is scrap it for parts. There are a few ceramic trimmers and a nice adjustable air cap, for starters.


xrunner:

--- Quote from: Vince on December 11, 2022, 02:15:50 pm ---Today on the podium we have this Férisol NA300A mW meter.

I have no use for it but I understand these things are still popular. SO since it's a decent brand and looked in decent nick cosmetically (sorry didn't clean it), I didn't have the heart no to take it, knowing it would end up in the scrap yard soon.

So I only took it, hoping someone here might want it ?

I mean for free of course... it's worse nothing anyway I guess, it's not an HP and has a special probe connector and no probe with it so... maybe use it for parts ? Wattmeter specific part that might be reusable in other brands/models of watt meters ?

--- End quote ---

Probably the same story as with hp power meters - no sensor comes with most of them. The sensor is what brings the BUCKS, and so, if there are any left that haven't been misused (that is - burned out due to mistakes), prepare to shell out the CASH for that part.  :)

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