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filterfish 1 days ago [-]
My ex-partner and I used to have "drink it and fix it" on Sunday evenings where she would bring stuff out for me to fix and we'd slowly get pissed! Some things remained fixed, some things, erm, needed re-fixing!
shin-ra 1 days ago [-]
Love those places! We have a very vibrant one here in town that is open almost every day of the week (with different focuses per day, like textiles, electronics etc.).
Sometime ago I've been there to have an old German radio from the 60s repaired and there was actually a guy there who used to work in a radio manufacturing company in the 80s and really knew all about these kinds of devices. I think he was retired and going to these repair cafés just as a pastime and for fun and was super enthusiastic to repair it.
I think these places are not only a great way of community-building, but also great for passing on knowledge. And to prevent electronic waste of course. (The repair café actually got some fundings from the federal state government, who were subsidizing these repairing initiatives for a while. Not sure if that's still going on.)
jaredhallen 2 days ago [-]
Like others, I love this idea. A related idea I had was a library of 3d models of parts. Like thingiverse, but specifically for repair/replace components and not limited to plastic. My thought was if it's plastic you could 3d print whatever little busted plastic part was going to send your household item to landfill. But also models of things like automotive parts that you could have made by somewhere like xometry. I thought of it as an "international component database."
It's a lovely event and people happy. If you're into repairing stuff, you might know about some nasty tricks by the manufacturer like plastic gears where past models had metal gears and so on. Modern stuff is really hard to repair. Electronic components are just too small to repair, stuff is controlled by a microchip and debugging and understanding it, is not a project you do within an hour. There are also people who bring stuff from Temu to fix which is almost impossible.
Time and necessary effort for repair are one of your biggest enemies in a repair cafe. Sure you can repair a fully automated coffee machine. But that usually takes some hours. So technically you could repair it, but the time just won't let your. It's voluntary work after all. And most people appreciate it and are generous with their donations.
The biggest downside of voluntary working at a repair cafe are a certain type of people. I've heard things like "You should do this more often" (in a way of once a month isn't a good service), people act like it's a free service, where they can bring stuff and come back later to pick it up again.
But really: Most people are really sweet and it's fun to figure out what's wrong and in best case fix it. Some people are already happy to know that they at least tried or what they have to do to fix it later on their own. Sometimes you also get the chance to explain that people have to be more careful about their devices. Once I had a 3 year old vacuum cleaner with so must moisture that the carbon brushes were stuck because the frame oxidized. Or another vacuum cleaner that was probably used outside with very rough dirt. The hose was clogged because of a stick and a mixture of leaves and dirt that pilled up.
It's a fun job and making people smile makes me happy too
wilgertvelinga 1 days ago [-]
Considering that for the average person things, not food, nor housing, nor transport are the main drivers of our negative impact on this world. Repairing instead of throwing away is very undervalued.
With nearly zero meat Im still 125% on food compared to the control group??
ASalazarMX 22 hours ago [-]
I was surprised my house got me so up. It's not a big house by my country's standards, although it would be immense somewhere like Amsterdam. Still, practically all our energy comes from solar panels, I expected its impact to be better than average.
dieortin 22 hours ago [-]
Maybe you eat a lot of calories, or dairy?
cwillu 1 days ago [-]
You linked to the dutch language page.
ASalazarMX 22 hours ago [-]
English link, because the site defaults to Dutch, and I'm not sure if I want to "Ik wil geen cookies" or not before selecting English.
I love this idea. A lot of repair knowledge is buried in non-English forums or unsearchable Discord servers (grr Discord). We need to localize it and rebuild community expertise.
jfsebastian 1 days ago [-]
I fixed a lot of stuff over the past couple of years. Recently I put alot of our shellys back to life. They were taking care of our rolling shutters, but died due to a low quality capacitor. I soldered quality ones in it and they now do their job as expected again.
TonyTrapp 1 days ago [-]
Similarly, even the higher-priced Logitech mice often use tact switches that are only rated for a relatively low number of clicks (probably 1 million?), so many of them started failing on me after about two years. Replacing the switches with higher-rated ones (50 million clicks) is trivial on all the mice I have disassembled so far. The switches and replacement glider pads (which need replacing after removing the screws hidden below them) are often just a few bucks but make the mouse last for several more years.
happymellon 1 days ago [-]
That was a frustrating fix.
The MX Master has a "gesture" button under the rubber where your thumb rests.
I don't believe I ever used it intentionally.
But because it is a gesture button, when it fails the mouse no longer responds as it always thinks it is gesturing.
Pull the wire and it is fine, but diagnosing it is rough.
andechs 1 days ago [-]
I've done this fix on at least 3 MX Masters, just going in through the rubber on the side to remove the switch, since disassembly through unscrewing everything is more work.
Needing to replace the feet every time you open the mouse is pretty frustrating.
This applies to the MX Master 1 & 2.
jfsebastian 1 days ago [-]
I feel you. Here in Europe you have to pay around 100 bucks or more to get some decent quality from Logitech. In the past I used mice like the G9 which was build like a tank. Nowadays it's something like a throwawy part, even in the higher price range. Same goes for keyboards, which I tend to build now on own.
unregistereddev 21 hours ago [-]
Yes, I no longer pay extra money for Logitech. If the quality is as bad as a cheap offbrand from China, why wouldn't I pay less for the cheap offbrand?
I'm glad to pay for quality, but Logitech no longer seems to offer good quality.
TonyTrapp 3 hours ago [-]
Personally speaking: I could not find anything that would be a match in terms of quality and ergonomics for the MX Vertical. Tried a small number of cheap vertical mice, none of them felt right.
washbasin 2 days ago [-]
I have been a "repair mentor" at our "repair studio" for 3+ years. It's very rewarding. We did have to set some ground rules: (clean your fan/vac, bring batteries, etc).
Collaborated with our local library.
canada_dry 2 days ago [-]
> clean your [item]
Anecdote: I gave an apprentice a small vacuum to fix, when he opened it up several live bed bugs emerged. That was fun! /s
benj111 1 days ago [-]
In my experience most vacuums are 'broken' because they aren't cleaned.
cwillu 1 days ago [-]
“If you can fix it, you can have it”
‹pulls out a giant clog of hair and carpet strands from the hose between the head and the motor›
canada_dry 2 days ago [-]
I've been involved for several years. If you don't yet have one in your area, are handy at fixing things and have the inclination - contact them for info on starting one up.
tagami 1 days ago [-]
We have a Fixit Clinic join us every other Friday at our maker space open build nights in Berkeley. Next event is 28 August https://eastbaymakersclub.com
raybb 1 days ago [-]
There's also one I nopa and Mission. Mission event coming up September 13.
Would love the idea in Ireland as we are flooded with vape selling and repair shops on every street. Fixed Dyson v11 twice now and I wish there was a place I could come to get someone with experience to help I broke PSP in attempt to fix it and had to rely on repair shop for broken button on steam deck
padraic7a 1 days ago [-]
Have you looked into the different Hackerspaces around the country? TOG in Dublin run Repair Cafe events [https://www.tog.ie/repair/] and I'd be durprised if other spaces don't.
TIL there are people who throw knives away instead of sharpening them.
herbst 24 hours ago [-]
Our economy is weird. Paying someone to sharpen a knife in Switzerland (high hourly wages) can easily be more expensive than a new cheap knife. Same for a proper sharpener tool.
Yeah mine too. Swear to God I'm not a bot, folks. I just use Firefox and a bunch of extensions.
Actually pretty pissed off about that. A site like this should understand their audience is technical.
raddan 1 days ago [-]
Huh, I am using Firefox and it seems to work OK.
eterm 2 days ago [-]
We have one in my town, meets once a month at the local community centre. I've only been there once, but It's pretty awesome seeing all the stuff people bring in to get repaired.
QuercusMax 2 days ago [-]
We have at least one in Portland, and they do both clothing and electronics repairs. It's great to see a repairability movement!
tocs3 2 days ago [-]
Is it growing? Is anyone in Austin TX starting one up?
ZenoArrow 1 days ago [-]
I live in the UK and we have a decent network of repair spaces here, including in my home city.
As for one in Austin TX, closest I could find is this:
However, there's nothing stopping you from setting one up if you see the value in it.
ravetcofx 1 days ago [-]
Worth reaching out to Rossmann Repair Group https://rossmanngroup.com/ to see if they are willing to do more free repair workshops/cafes which they were in the past.
Junk_Collector 1 days ago [-]
If you live in Austin proper, your local library may have repair meetups as part of the Austin Fix-it program.
tocs3 17 hours ago [-]
I do not live in Austin but I also know that Canyon Lake, Wimberley, and Bulverde libraries all have nice maker spaces.
matthewfcarlson 2 days ago [-]
lol, I was just thinking that. The assmbly makerspace is probably closest I know of to something like this.
contingencies 1 days ago [-]
I had a washing machine break a couple of weeks ago. 3 years old. Just past warranty. Manufacturer advertised 10 year warranty on the motor. Motor controller burned out: not covered. PCB looked perfect. Had it swapped today: suddenly everything back to working. $240 for the part, $170 labor. As an individual, I can't buy the part.
In theory, our national government has a 'crackdown' on 'bullshit whitegoods warranties' this year. In reality: they're letting it happen.[0]
When it costs $400 and two weeks of screwing around to fix a $900 appliance, you just buy a new one.
I'd happily fix the thing myself, but it's not designed to be fixed, and they refuse to sell the part: the supply chain is designed to make the option impossible.
In vengeance, I kept the old motor controller but haven't yet taken a look at it. Might send it to China to get it reverse engineered if necessary or if simple enough just release an open one as a KiCad file. Frankly I think it's just a large motor controller IC, a cap, a heat sink and one or two other components.
The guy fixing it told me basically they're all bad, and designed to fail after warranty now. He said Samsung has good service, Miele has good value, the rest are meh. I hear good things about Fisher & Paykel, which is an AU/NZ brand. He said don't buy combined washer-dryers, and always buy a larger one than you need: mostly they die from overloading not from under-use. He also said: unplug them when not in use. Sadly, that makes sense. I guess they sometimes design them to 'slow burn'.
I'm unplugging by using a remote-controlled plug that also measures power consumption. That way I'll also know when it is done.
contingencies 22 hours ago [-]
Interesting approach however what's the physical interface for re-enabling when you get back to the machine? If it's a wireless plus socket plus switch thing that's starting to get a bit exotic / high failure mode.
benj111 1 days ago [-]
Problem is, in Europe at least the Energy efficiency isn't very joined up. Separates have lower spin speeds because it uses less energy (to spin) so you need more energy to heat dry.
Combined ones have a higher spin speed because spinning uses less energy than heating to dry the clothes.
Supported by the Switzerland Department for the Environment.
The biggest downside of voluntary working at a repair cafe are a certain type of people. I've heard things like "You should do this more often" (in a way of once a month isn't a good service), people act like it's a free service, where they can bring stuff and come back later to pick it up again.
But really: Most people are really sweet and it's fun to figure out what's wrong and in best case fix it. Some people are already happy to know that they at least tried or what they have to do to fix it later on their own. Sometimes you also get the chance to explain that people have to be more careful about their devices. Once I had a 3 year old vacuum cleaner with so must moisture that the carbon brushes were stuck because the frame oxidized. Or another vacuum cleaner that was probably used outside with very rough dirt. The hose was clogged because of a stick and a mixture of leaves and dirt that pilled up.
It's a fun job and making people smile makes me happy too
See: https://myhiddenimpact.com/nl/en to discover your biggest impact driver and https://thinkbigactnow.org to learn more.
With nearly zero meat Im still 125% on food compared to the control group??
https://myhiddenimpact.com/en
The MX Master has a "gesture" button under the rubber where your thumb rests.
I don't believe I ever used it intentionally.
But because it is a gesture button, when it fails the mouse no longer responds as it always thinks it is gesturing.
Pull the wire and it is fine, but diagnosing it is rough.
Needing to replace the feet every time you open the mouse is pretty frustrating.
This applies to the MX Master 1 & 2.
I'm glad to pay for quality, but Logitech no longer seems to offer good quality.
Anecdote: I gave an apprentice a small vacuum to fix, when he opened it up several live bed bugs emerged. That was fun! /s
‹pulls out a giant clog of hair and carpet strands from the hose between the head and the motor›
https://repaircafesf.org/ https://www.instagram.com/sfmissionrepaircafe/
You can find a list of other Hackerspaces here [https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Ireland].
https://ejectdisc.org/2017/11/05/repair-all-the-things/
Actually pretty pissed off about that. A site like this should understand their audience is technical.
As for one in Austin TX, closest I could find is this:
https://www.austintexas.gov/resource-recovery/fix-it-austin
However, there's nothing stopping you from setting one up if you see the value in it.
In theory, our national government has a 'crackdown' on 'bullshit whitegoods warranties' this year. In reality: they're letting it happen.[0]
When it costs $400 and two weeks of screwing around to fix a $900 appliance, you just buy a new one.
I'd happily fix the thing myself, but it's not designed to be fixed, and they refuse to sell the part: the supply chain is designed to make the option impossible.
In vengeance, I kept the old motor controller but haven't yet taken a look at it. Might send it to China to get it reverse engineered if necessary or if simple enough just release an open one as a KiCad file. Frankly I think it's just a large motor controller IC, a cap, a heat sink and one or two other components.
The guy fixing it told me basically they're all bad, and designed to fail after warranty now. He said Samsung has good service, Miele has good value, the rest are meh. I hear good things about Fisher & Paykel, which is an AU/NZ brand. He said don't buy combined washer-dryers, and always buy a larger one than you need: mostly they die from overloading not from under-use. He also said: unplug them when not in use. Sadly, that makes sense. I guess they sometimes design them to 'slow burn'.
[0] https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/rising-contacts-raise-...
Combined ones have a higher spin speed because spinning uses less energy than heating to dry the clothes.