Right to repair 2021

A lot of people are asking for the right to repair. Many people believe products should last longer, and therefore when broken, they should be repaired. This requires products to be designed for repair as well as support for repairers of all kinds. The goal of right-to-repair rules, advocates say, is to require companies to make their parts, tools and information available to consumers and repair shops in order to keep devices from ending up in the scrap heap. The surge in interest in right to repair is good news for consumers and environment, but it isn’t great news for those companies keen on planned obsolescence.

Fix, or Toss? The ‘Right to Repair’ Movement Gains Ground article says that in USA both Republicans and Democrats are pursuing laws to make it easier for people to fix cellphones, cars, even hospital ventilators. In Europe, the movement is further along.

Vice article The Right to Repair Movement Is Poised to Explode in 2021 article says that in USA fourteen states are exploring “right to repair” legislation as the movement gains steam. Whether it’s John Deere’s efforts to make tractor repair costly and annoying, Apple’s bullying of independent repair shops, or Sony and Microsoft’s attempt to monopolize game console repair, US corporations have done an incredible job the last few years driving bipartisan public interest in the “right to repair” movement. Last year witnessed monumental progress for right to repair and 2021 is expected to take the effort to an entirely new level.

In addition to the environmental impact of slowing the rate of expanding landfills there are also other benefits. A recent report by US PIRG found that repair monopolization comes with significant costs for American consumers. It also found that American families would save $40 billion ($330 per family) per year if they repaired more products and used them for longer periods. That’s of course

The French repair index: challenges and opportunities article tells that since January 1st 2021, France is the first country in Europe to have implemented a repairability index on 5 categories of electronic devices. While this index is a key milestone for the Right to Repair in Europe, it isn’t without limitations.

302 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    How To Find Where A Wire In A Cable Is Broken
    https://hackaday.com/2025/02/15/how-to-find-where-a-wire-in-a-cable-is-broken/

    Determining that a cable has a broken conductor is the easy part, but where exactly is the break? In a recent video, [Richard] over at the Learn Electronics Repair channel on YouTube gave two community-suggested methods a shake to track down a break in a proprietary charging cable. The first attempt was to run a mains power detector along the cable to find the spot, but he didn’t have much luck with that.

    The second method involved using the capacitance of the wires, or specifically treating two wires in the cable as the electrodes of a capacitor. Since the broken conductor will be shorter, it will have less capacitance, with the ratio theoretically allowing for the location of the break in the wire to be determined.

    In the charging cable a single conductor was busted, so its capacitance was compared from both sides of the break and compared to the capacitance of two intact conductors. The capacitance isn’t much, on the order of dozens to hundreds of picofarads, but it’s enough to make an educated guess of where the rough location is.

    How To Find Where A Wire In A Cable Is Broke. Which End Of The Broken Cable?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOzEpJogSFg

    I was recently working on an ebikecharger and a I have a broken wire in a cable. It’s easy to find which wire is broken, but wher in the cable is the break? In this video I test two different methods to find the break in the cable.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    EEVblog 1407 – Right to Repair with iFixit Founder Kyle Wiens
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x82p6mi

    iFixit founder Kyle Wiens talking about Right to repair at the inaugural 2021 Australian Right to Repair summit.
    Dave also talk about the Right to Repair initiative and the Australian Government Productivity Commission Right to Repair Report just released.

    00:00 – Dave talks about Right to Repair
    05:32 – Kyle Wiens from iFixit
    20:30 – Kyle smacks down a John Deer apologist!

    Reply

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