Now adding neighbor-to-neighbor always there community-based repair in the Big Apple: Mondays from 7-10pm are Open Nights + Fixit Clinic at USA-NY-Brooklyn Spark Makerspace. Bring things to ponder, meet other creatives, learn about memberships, check out work in progress, and tour the amazing space.
More good news coverage of San Diego Fixit Clinics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwyHVVVb38c
Within the span of three weeks we’ll have held three Fixit Clinic University-based Repair Workshops: at MIT (Jan 23), San Jose State University (Jan 25), and now Harvard University (Feb 13).
Fixit Clinic Repair Workshops at Colleges and Universities inform up and coming Design for Manufacturing (DFM) practitioners – engineers and designers – how DFM is currently implemented so that they can introduce Design for Durability (DFD) going forward, i.e. incorporate durability, maintainability, serviceability, repairability.
https://sustainable.harvard.edu/event/fixit-clinic-is-back/
Laura Anthony of San Diego Fixit Clinics featured on Fox 5 San Diego:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhBJiUzNrP0
Here’s a summary of Fixit Clinic’s February 2024 press: it's been a busy month!
CBS Evening News: https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/_qw5Z5kMBjOzXN_rGJc_0Udb2XUJvH5f/
KPIX (CBS Bay Area Affiliate: longer version of above):
NPR Marketplace (repurposing of KQED piece): https://www.marketplace.org/2024/02/09/california-beyond-right-to-repair-movement-picks-up-speed/
KQED’s Bay Curious podcast interview with Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman about Fixit Clinic and California’s new Right to Repair law:
https://www.kqed.org/news/11976969/a-growing-right-to-repair-culture-in-california
KALW: https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-29/fixit-clinics-turn-consumers-into-fixers
Fixit Clinic was featured on NPR's Marketplace on Friday Feb 8 2024: https://www.marketplace.org/2024/02/09/california-beyond-right-to-repair-movement-picks-up-speed/
Now there’s a dedicated “Repair Information Station” on the San Mateo County Library system’s new Makermobile. Coupled with the repair tools resident on the Makermobile, everywhere the Makermobile is deployed people can work on repair using the Makermobile’s tools while getting expert help from community repairers around the world through Discord: Global Fixers.
Discord: Global Fixers is thrilled and honored to be hosting the online component of Cherwell Collective's combination in-person and online International Repair Day Gather-in this Saturday.
“Our vision for this event is for [individuals repairing from home and those gathering at] existing hubs across the UK at places like repair cafes, parish councils, community centres, libraries, and similar to support repair on site at some point on 21 October 2023 from 11am-2pm GMT.”
So it’s scheduled for mid-day in the U.K. but regardless of what time it is for you anyone in the world is welcome to join Discord: Global Fixers and work alongside other repairers world-wide to work on items presented from in-person locations across the U.K.
Join Discord: Global Fixers now to be ready for Saturday: follow the instructions in this Google Doc: https://bit.ly/joinglobalfixers
See you there!
Fixit Clinic featured in today's Boston Globe: ..."The more I’ve thought about it since, the more I think that confidence is what unites people who fix things. They have faith that there is a way that doesn’t involve the garbage heap."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/27/opinion/diy-repair-boston-fixit-clinic/
Does this Macbook Air need a new battery? Well, yes: especially when you see swollen Li-Po (Lithium Polymer) pouches like the ones to the right in the photo. Another symptom of a swelling Macbook battery is that the trackpad no longer clicks: the battery is swelling up against the trackpad from underneath.
When I installed the new battery and tightened down the screws on the underside once the new battery fully charged it swelled slightly and the trackpad wouldn't click. I had to loosen the screws slightly to get it to work. I ended up returning that replacement battery as defective, the new, new battery doesn't seem to have the same issue.
We hold Fixit Clinics in partnership with Colleges and Universities so future practitioners -- engineers and designers -- see how Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is currently practiced and to encourage “Design for Durability” (DFD), i.e. incorporate durability, maintainability, serviceability for the future sustainable circular economy; repair is a cornerstone of our environmental and economic future.
Fixit Clinic is mentioned in today’s Washington Post: TECH IN YOUR LIFE How to find trustworthy repair help for your busted iPhone or TV set: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/23/electronics-repair-help/
Fixit Clinic founder Peter Mui is this week’s interviewee on Pat Benincasa’s Fill To Capacity! podcast:
https://www.patbenincasa-art.com/fill-to-capacity-podcast
It’s on all the major podcast streaming services or listen online at
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-uwxvv-13c6fb5
Chromebooks have become popular computing devices with school systems and libraries: school system adoption and purchase of Chromebooks rapidly accelerated during the pandemic as school systems needed to support distance learning. However: all Chromebooks have an “Automatic Update Expiry” (AUE) date after which they no longer receive Chrome OS updates. For individual consumers this means that their Chromebook gets less and less useful and less secure over time. However: for organizations with lots of Chromebooks enrolled in Google’s Enterprise Enrollment (e.g. schools and school systems) they have to stop using them immediately.
Message that appears on Chromebooks when they reach their AUE date
Even though they are recent computer hardware (typically under three to five years old) and mechanically and electronically functional they are of little value to computer refurbishers because they have no domestic resale value. My understanding of what is happening at the moment is that computer refurbishers sell Chromebooks to recyclers that send them on to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam where they are being harvested for the one or two computer chips with residual value: the rest is e-wasted locally. So, sadly, we are exporting our e-waste overseas again from the U.S. Doubly sadly: we are creating e-waste out of items that potentially have lots of useful life remaining.
A school system’s Chromebooks waiting to be e-wasted at a computer refurbisher
It is possible to convert Chromebooks that have reached their AUE date into general purpose computers: usually by removing a “write protect” screw, sometimes simply by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. However, that requires some physical disassembly and modification that computer refurbishers are unwilling to undertake: they can’t justify the labor cost.
Fixit Clinic will assist schools, libraries, and other agencies in keeping Chromebooks in service in our communities – to keep in our schools, to give to students, to give to the local Library, to give to the economically disadvantaged in our communities. We will do this by teaching students, youth, and residents how to convert Chromebooks into general purpose computers, ideally for use by themselves.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScctDHrbBq1yOsGm8CkICMjBV4iQafv_Tl-9p-FTFxVAugDbw/viewform
Our team will reach out to you with further information and next steps.
Zero Waste Youth USA is having their annual Convergence March 18: Peter Mui is speaking in Track 2 “Upstream Solutions to Downstream Pollution” at 10:55AM PDT; anyone anywhere in the world can register to attend via Zoom at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zero-waste-youth-usa-10th-annual-virtual-convergence-tickets-512193914787
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Fixit Clinic is honored to participate in a very special world-wide hybrid in-person/online Community Repair event Oct. 23/24:
**An in-person Five Cities Repair Café from iFixit World HQ in San Luis Obispo, California USA https://www.repaircafe5cities.org/
Fixit Clinic Founder Peter Mui presented on Fixit Clinic's efforts towards circular, sustainable consumption at WIRED's RE:WIRED Green Climate Action Conference Wednesday Sept. 28: https://www.wired.com/story/rewired-green-2022-climate-conference/
Here's the recording of his presentation: https://www.wired.com/video/watch/re-wired-green-2022-peter-mui-on-the-right-to-repair-movement
Fixit Clinic was featured on two (US) national media outlets this week:
-Voice of America News (2 minute video): https://www.voanews.com/a/busted-technology-repair-coaches-help-you-fix-your-gadget/6237236.html
-The Pulse (podcast): The stories of the people and places at the heart of health and science from WHYY (PBS affiliate in Philadelphia PA USA)
https://whyy.org/episodes/handmade-tales/
18:17 Segment start
30:54 Segment end
At today's Zoom Fixit Clinic we saw Kim from USA-CA-Oakland: "Battery Operated Pencil Sharpener Panasonic KP-2a I had left batteries in it a few years ago, and it no longer works, even with new batteries I have looked for youtube videos. I managed to take it apart AND I think I have it put back together correctly. I tried cleaning the battery contacts but not sure what else to try. It is a fabulous pencil sharpener when it's working. I've returned 2 new ones in the last 2 weeks, junk."
Kim's repair was not complete by the end of the Zoom but later in the day she emailed the photo below: "Well, after 2 hours in the breakout room and another hour after, the battery pencil sharpener is fixed. After we figured out that the motor worked, I finally realized that one of the copper strips in a switch that connected when the pencil was inserted was out of place and needed to go into a little hole, which helped the other strips connect. My thanks to the fixers in the breakout room who were so patient and offered many suggestions even as I wrestled with my funky webcam. Not sure I got everyone, but D [P?] Ramoutar, Olivia in Berkeley, Tony, and Des, you rock! Connecting via phone cam might have made it easier for me to show a closeup. I'd show the strips and how they fit but now that all is together and working, I'll leave it be!"
We believe that older items that are fixed (or well maintained) are more and more often of higher quality and durability than items that you can purchase new that perform the same function: Do you agree?
Sunday afternoon's project was a Lasko box fan: not working at all. It was easy enough to disassemble. The problem turned out to be a blown thermal fuse which was nestled deep in the motor near the motor windings.
