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.
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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.
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!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.housedigest.com/1786560/how-use-multimeter-fix-repair-appliances/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/03/06/plastic-gear-repair/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Verge:
A look at the rise of “Frankenstein” laptops in India, made by salvaging parts from multiple brands and sold to students, gig workers, and small businesses
The rise of ‘Frankenstein’ laptops in New Delhi’s repair markets
India’s repair culture gives new life to dead tech.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/639126/india-frankenstein-laptops
“India has always had a repair culture … but companies are pushing planned obsolescence”
Sushil Prasad, a 35-year-old technician, wipes the sweat off his brow as he carefully pieces together the guts of an old laptop. It is a daily ritual — resurrecting machines by stitching together motherboards, screens, and batteries scavenged from other trashed older laptops and e-waste — to create functional, low-cost devices.
“India has always had a repair culture … but companies are pushing planned obsolescence”
“Right now, there is a huge demand for such ‘hybrid’ laptops,” Prasad says, his hands swapping out a damaged motherboard. “Most people don’t care about having the latest model; they just want something that works and won’t break the bank.”
“We take usable components from different older or discarded systems to create a new functioning unit. For instance, we salvage parts from old laptop motherboards, such as capacitors, mouse pads, transistors, diodes, and certain ICs and use them in the newly refurbished ones,” says Prasad.
As he explains, Manohar Singh, the owner of the workshop-slash-store where Prasad works, flips open a refurbished laptop while sitting on a rickety stool. The screen flickers to life, displaying a crisp image. He smiles — a sign that another machine has been successfully revived.
“We literally make them out of scrap! We also take in second-hand laptops and e-waste from countries like Dubai and China, fix them up, and sell them at half the price of a new one,” he explains.
“A college student or a freelancer can get a good machine for INR 10,000 [about $110 USD] instead of spending INR 70,000 [about $800 USD] on a brand-new one. For many, that difference means being able to work or study at all.”
But this booming market does not exist in isolation. It is entangled with a much larger battle, one between small repair technicians and global technology giants. While these Frankenstein laptops are a lifeline for many, the repair industry itself faces significant roadblocks. Many global manufacturers deliberately make repairs difficult by restricting access to spare parts, using proprietary screws, and implementing software locks that force customers to buy new devices instead of fixing old ones.
Satish Sinha, associate director at Toxics Link, a nonprofit working on waste management, believes repair technicians like Prasad and Singh are on the front lines of a larger battle.
“India has always had a repair culture, from fixing old radios to hand-me-down phones. But companies are pushing planned obsolescence, making repairs harder and forcing people to buy new devices instead,” Sinha says.
“We need to encourage such reuse of materials. These repaired or new hybrid devices minimize waste by extending a product’s lifespan and reducing overall market waste. Reusing components cuts down on the need for new materials, lowering energy use, resource extraction, and environmental impact,” Sinha adds.
The Indian government has started discussions on right-to-repair laws, inspired by similar efforts in the European Union and the United States. However, progress remains slow, and repair shops continue to operate in legal limbo, often forced to source different parts from informal and e-waste markets.
As a result, many repair technicians have no choice but to rely on informal supply chains, with markets like Delhi’s Seelampur — India’s largest e-waste hub — becoming a critical way to source spare parts. Seelampur processes approximately 30,000 tonnes (33,069 tons) of e-waste daily, providing employment to nearly 50,000 informal workers who extract valuable materials from it. The market is a chaotic maze of discarded electronics, where workers sift through mountains of broken circuit boards, tangled wires, and cracked screens, searching for usable parts.
Farooq Ahmed, an 18-year-old scrap dealer, has spent the last four years sourcing laptop components for technicians like Prasad. “We find working RAM sticks, motherboards with minor faults, batteries that still hold charge and sell it to different electronic workshops,” he says. “These parts would end up in a landfill otherwise.”
But while e-waste salvaging provides cheap repair materials, it comes at a steep price. Without proper safety measures, workers handle toxic materials such as lead, mercury, and cadmium daily. “I cough a lot,” Ahmed admits with a sheepish grin. “But what can I do? This work feeds my family.”
Despite the dangers, the demand for Frankenstein systems continues to grow. And as India’s digital economy expands, the need for such affordable technology will only increase. Many believe that integrating the repair sector into the formal economy could bring about a win-win situation, reducing e-waste, creating jobs, and making technology more accessible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/10/clever-engineering-leaves-appliance-useless/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/16/using-a-mig-welder-acetylene-torch-and-air-hammer-to-remove-a-broken-bolt/