What is the current status of modern electronics repairability ?

[EEstyleZ90]

Hello everyone on board.

Back in 2010s , i was doing mostly switch mode electronics repair back when Pwm ics were mostly used along with 3 leg mosfets or igbts.

So now with most pcbs integrating BGA :

How things have turned out ?

For the good or the bad in terms of repairability.. ?

Is it worth keeping up with ?

 

[Papabravo]

Nope!

 

[danadak]

Take a look here :

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bga+repair

Regards, Dana.

 

[MrAl]

Hello everyone on board.

Back in 2010s , i was doing mostly switch mode electronics repair back when Pwm ics were mostly used along with 3 leg mosfets or igbts.

So now with most pcbs integrating BGA :

How things have turned out ?

For the good or the bad in terms of repairability.. ?

Is it worth keeping up with ?

Hi,

I find it's kind of hit or miss. Some products you can still repair, some you can't. Many are using priority programmed parts though too which makes it hard to fix without the new parts.

One of the main issues is cost of the product as new as compared to cost of repair. The cost of many products is so low compared to the cost to repair most people just chuck the old one and buy a new one.
In the old days, you'd get your TV repaired, now you just buy a new one.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi,

I find it's kind of hit or miss. Some products you can still repair, some you can't. Many are using priority programmed parts though too which makes it hard to fix without the new parts.

One of the main issues is cost of the product as new as compared to cost of repair. The cost of many products is so low compared to the cost to repair most people just chuck the old one and buy a new one.
In the old days, you'd get your TV repaired, now you just buy a new one.

Basically the cost of new equipment has fallen, but the cost of spares and labour hasn't - made even worse by the manufacturers greatly reducing spares and service provision, in order to support the lower retail prices.

Domestic electronics servicing is effectively dead, there's no money in it - you need to be involved in industrial equipment if you want to make a living. Even selling domestic electronics isn't worth it any more, the profit margins are far too low.

 

[EEstyleZ90]

you need to be involved in industrial equipment if you want to make a living.

I am afraid industrial is also following the same .

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I am afraid industrial is also following the same .

Perhaps in the use of BGA's etc. (in more complicated units), but the profit margins are much healthier

We do small scale design and production, and repairs, for the Water Industry - and profit margins are great!.

Repairs are an issue, as there's no data available on other companies products, and they also refuse to supply spare parts.

For example, we had a faulty Vu meter on a ground mike - nice simple repair, except the manufacturers wouldn't supply us with a new Vu meter - you have to send the entire unit back to them, and they charge a fixed £1500 repair fee!!!!!.

 

[EEstyleZ90]

Perhaps in the use of BGA's etc. (in more complicated units), but the profit margins are much healthier

We do small scale design and production, and repairs, for the Water Industry - and profit margins are great!.

Repairs are an issue, as there's no data available on other companies products, and they also refuse to supply spare parts.

For example, we had a faulty Vu meter on a ground mike - nice simple repair, except the manufacturers wouldn't supply us with a new Vu meter - you have to send the entire unit back to them, and they charge a fixed £1500 repair fee!!!!!.

I see , but best thing I did was quitting this field in 2015. There is no futur ahead

 

[schmitt trigger]

I have an acquaintance that repaired stuff for a living for over 30 years. In the last 5 years the repairs consisted of mostly replacing whole boards or assemblies.
But last year he quit for good.
He was so disappointed with his experience that he gave away all his test equipment.
I even got a CRT Tektronix scope.

 

[EEstyleZ90]

I have an acquaintance that repaired stuff for a living for over 30 years. In the last 5 years the repairs consisted of mostly replacing whole boards or assemblies.
But last year he quit for good.
He was so disappointed with his experience that he gave away all his test equipment.
I even got a CRT Tektronix scope.

Yes i also got one in 2014 , hung chang 20 mhz Korean. But now it is just sitting there useless.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Yes i also got one in 2014 , hung chang 20 mhz Korean. But now it is just sitting there useless.

Don't you build stuff?.

 

[EEstyleZ90]

Don't you build stuff?.

No I used to do repairs , I am clueless now

Some suff I still have :

 

[Doug]

I quit consumer repair business 2000.
Work for a research for 23 yrs. Work on laboratory eqmuch as I could. The work proprietary was very fluent work from companies.i also did wire bonding and wafer dicing.
Look for research labs or switch over to tube Amp repairs,especially tube guitar amps

 

[rjenkinsgb]

How things have turned out ?

For the good or the bad in terms of repairability.. ?

Is it worth keeping up with ?

Look at the industrial side - CNC controls & machine tool electrical systems, especially in heavy engineering where the machines are too big and rare to be replaced so get endlessly repaired and upgraded.

I often have work queued up for weeks at a time.

 

[MrAl]

I used to fix consumer stuff for people in my area years ago. I put an ad on the bulletin board at a large local grocery store to drum up more business. I got quite a few hits.
The problem was, many of the devices they brought to me were complicated enough where you really needed a schematic, so a lot of times I was forced to buy a Sams Photofact folder for that one product, which drove the repair cost up. I was able to get away without that but it took longer to repair then.

The last thing I fixed using a Sams Photofact folder was a CRT TV, which had the high voltage transistor blown out and a diode in the input rectifier section. Everything else after that I fixed by mostly observations, such as computer power supplies (bad electrolytics) and LCD TV sets (bad electrolytics), and they were rather easy to fix because you can see what was wrong just by looking at the PC board and noting the failure mode.
I also repaired some high power DC power supplies for myself as the pots went bad, and one had a blown reverse protection diode.

Lately I 'fixed' two cell phones that needed replacement batteries. They did not have to be pried apart with too much force because the internal batteries were swelled up enough that they pushed the back partly off already.
Then there was some smaller stuff that had to be fixed but nothing too big.

I did find that a lot of purchases were products that needed some alterations before I was even able to use them. That seems to be happening more and more.