Will this make any practical difference? If an SMD integrated circuit goes wrong in a TV, will making the SMD itself available make the TV "more repairable"? How much will it cost? How much would the complete circuit board with SMD already fitted cost? Isn't the latter what's done at present? It seems to me the manufacturers will just charge what they see fit for the replacement part, no doubt with an exorbitant P&P to cover "administrative costs".
In message <s2a17f$dvq$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Jeff Layman snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid writes
Playing a green card without cost to the Govt?
Planned obsolescence has been a factor in maintaining employment for so long, I can't quite spot where this is going.
Unreliable imports from Turkey used to prop up repair activities here?
Not many votes in telling manufacturers to give longer free guarantees?
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Hopefully.
Apple needs to change its ways.
In contrast, Dell provide detailed downloadable service manuals for their computers. It is also often possible to buy spare parts, either direct from Dell or from places like eBay.
The BBC need to do some explaining. I have a Samsung TV which used to support iPlayer but this capability was removed, apparently at the request of the BBC, because its performance was not adequate. I was perfectly happy to accept occasional crashes in preference to not having it at all. (I know there are other ways...)
John
This is an EU-led initiative.
I wonder how much the UKs involvement is a reflection of that fact that UK manufactures (the few left) would have to comply with this regulation if they want to sell into the EU anyway ?
On the down side I think it might just put prices up and stifle innovation but on the up side, it could lead to products designed around more ?generic? components rather than custom ones. This would reduce the cost of providing a spares service.
Tim
It would be interesting if all software sellers were required to support Windows 95 and 16MB of RAM.
A compulsory escrow system might be better. No use waving your "right" to support around in the face of a 20 year deceased company.
With systems like github/gitlab and the like available, there's no excuse.
Would be nice, but I remain sceptical.
I wonder how Apple will respond ?
It might be amusing if they decided to do a Facebook vs. Australia job and refuse to sell their fruity products on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
Nick
Yes, very much so. Currently independent repairers are frequently forced to buy scrapped boards from various shady dealers in eWaste, and then scavenge components because there is no official way to buy the part.
Or acquire schematics from dodgy Russian / Chinese ftp sites because the maker will not make them available.
(yes Apple I am talking about you!)
Of even if you can get a part, there is no legal way of obtaining the manufacturers configuration software that would enable the new part to be "keyed" to the existing system.
(John Deere being famous for pissing off lots of farmers with this one)
Or you can get a part but that relies on firmware that the maker does not make available etc.
If buying a complete board is an option.
Not when that is either not an option, or the fix is a trivial bit of board rework.
Well quite possibly - hence why any legislation needs to impose a requirement that the costs be proportionate and "reasonable".
Needless to say the makers will use any argument in the book they can - say claiming that the product is too dangerous to allow "unskilled" repair (hoping to conflate unskilled and third party repairers), or they will erect bogus "authorised repairer programs" like apple did in the US to try and stave off legislation. Needless to say they hoops one is required to jump through to qualify to join and onerous, and once joined the T&Sc actually prevent you from offering a useful repair service in the first place!)
It's a movement that has been driven mainly from the US - arguments have been rumbling there for many years.
I had an interesting one with an after market starter motor for the old car. Basically a modern Denso unit adapted to fit my car by making an custom adaptor plate. Two companies do much the same - PowerLite and WOSP. I had a PowerLite, and a small thrust washer broke inside the pinion drive
- allowing the pinion to move freely on its splines, and only engage when it felt like it. PowerLite don't supply any spares, and the best they could offer was an new unit at a slightly reduced price. WOSP - who are slightly more expensive, carry a full range of spare parts. And a fitting kit for the pinion, which includes this washer (it's a one off - not a standard washer) cost a couple of quid.
But PowerLite, being cheaper for much the same thing, have the biggest share of this market. And not supplying spares likely keeps down costs.
Which likely means the average customer wants the cheapest price, not the availability of spares.
It all stems from socialism.
Basically we can make a lot of material wealth. With remarkably few people The problem is how to distribute it. Consumerism creates jobs and allows the private sector to distribute the wealth instead of the government being involved.
manufacture, supply, distribution sales, and marketing - all massive job creation schemes that would be totally unnecessary without obsolescence.
What 'right to repair' does is shift a very few of these jobs to repairmen.
Why socialism? Well its like renewable energy - the alleged aim is to on the one hand get wealth into peoples paws and on the other, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but teh method chosen becomes an end in itself that doesn?t really help., Instead of jut giving people decent stiff free, or building nucler power stations, we end up 'creating jobs' or 'renewable energy'
I see no virtue in work. Peole should stay at home and get paid for doing so. And let the robots build decent stuff that doesn't need replacing every few years.
We need to decouple wealth creation from 'work' once and for all.
It already has done that in the car industry - where pattern parts are de jure...
All that has happened is that the price of new cars and service labour has increased, as a result.
The consumer hasn't really won
Or perhaps the average customer only finds this out too late?
It's not clear to me from skimming the Government's papers if they propose to follow the EU Directive which IIRC only requires spare parts and repair manuals to be made available to professional repairers. And also allows parts to be bundled - e.g. w/m bearings only available with a shiny new s/s drum.
So TL:DR a difference that makes no difference ?
You seem to forget the issues regarding landfill, CO2 generation from making new and not repairing old. It's our throw away society and you are misguided to associate this with socialism.
It does help, as would building more nuclear power stations. The failure is through allowing defective power stations to poison the environment to put off the public. Your obsession doesn't help, any more T i m promotes veganism through his fanatical views.
I agree, there should be a national wage. Oldies get it and call it a pension. Work should be a choice, where pay and keeping the lion share of that pay as an encouragement to work.
Of course that's a socialist idea, where you would subject everyone to draconian means testing.
So you can sit on your bum doing nothing? Wealth creation is all about work with the aid of investment.
When a robot can build your house and cook every meal for you, then perhaps you have a point.
That would depend on how long a manufacturer would be required to provide spare parts.
Remind us, when was the last copy of Windows 95 sold?
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