Tell that to the back to office zealots that expect 8 hr/day 5 day/week attendance.

The process of board FAB is now mostly automated. I honestly think much of the difference is that thChinese companies don't have to tithe to the toddlers of Wall Street (The yachts for tots program) so they can do it MUCH cheaper.

I would also help friends with such a thing. None of them are on /.

Others might decide to make it into a business or at least a side hustle. They could easily make some spare bux while saving their customers some money.

The OEMs wouldn't like that, but the laws are supposed to be what's good for the society as a whole and it's economy, not just what makes manufacturers the most money.

Agreed, having the CAD files is best, but since that pre-supposes having the same CAD program available, STEP should be included as well. STL can work in a pinch, but if you have STEP, you can convert to STL easily, but not the other way around.

Often, even re-producing the part will prefer a STEP file at least. Odds are, the original was designed for injection molding and will do better as a 3D print with some modifications that don't affect function but help printability.

I use FreeCAD as the base here both because I use it regularly and like it and because anybody can obviously afford FreeCAD. Solidworks, not so much.

Because the Apple Genuses are mostly trained to tell you you need a new one and help transfer the data over after you buy it. Rossman's videos are full of repairs done for vastly less tn Apple wanted and corresponding customers that chose that option. As a bonus, no lost data. The phone repair places obviously do enough business to keep the employees paid and the lights on, so while YOU may not want that option, obviously plenty of people do.

The formal labor fraud would be that there aren't enough hours in the day to be a full time employee of 4 employers at the same time. If he was doing contract work or part time, there wouldn't be much case for fraud though.

Of course, as a matter of practicality, the only real recourse U.S. companies have is firing him.

Yet somehow, FreeCAD does a decent job with the STEP files on McMaster-Carr. I've seen it import STEP files from F360 and Solidworks. Perhaps the problem is Solidworks.

It actually seems to be getting less rare now that so many companies (mostly Chinese) will happily make you a custom PCB for under $10 if you populate it yourself. The needed tools are sold on Amazon now. There are a number of instructional Youtube vids.

There are 5 places in my local area who will happily replace a screen, battery, or USB connector on my Android should I need it. The USB connector is surface mount. Apparently they are able to find people who can do it. They could probably do a lot more if they had schematics and access to firmware and test points.

Part of why it's niche is because of the difficulty in getting replacement parts and schematics. Look at Rossmann's videos. In spite of having to salvage parts and use bootleg schematics, he was often ably to repair for under $100 when Apple said replace was the only option. A nice side benefit is he could do it without data loss.

Which is my point.

Actually, it's mine. Apple should be prevented from having such a grip on replacement parts.

Given an under 70 inch TV (such as mine), I would certainly pursue repair to the backlight if those parts were widely available at a fair retail price. (Naturally, assuming I diagnosed that as the failure). I would willingly do the same for a friend who asked. It would cost less than $50 to do that.

I would be especially inclined to do repair rather than replacement on my TV because it took some shopping to find one lacking the "smart" features that are specifically un-desired. It's even harder to find that on offer now.

I did once have to replace a dishwasher because a cheap to make part was unavailable. Simple replacement would have been less of a PITA than replacement, but wasn't an option. It also would have been several hundred dollars cheaper.

As for washing machine, it's good that I was able to get a bootleg service manual for it, because the idiot the company sent to do the warranty repair didn't even know how to put it in diagnostic mode. Actually, he was the second repair person. I turned the first away because his van was un-marked, he had no ID, and he looked and smelled exactly like someone more interested in casing the joint than repair. He also mumbled so badly that I'm not sure he was even speaking English. Finally, the second guy went with my diagnosis based on error codes and replaced the part I wanted replaced. It's been fine for years since.

Look up phone repair. You'll probably find at least a handful of local shops that will do it if you live in a metro area. They apparently get enough customers to remain in business. Now imagine if those places could readily get any replacement part they needed and had the schematics.

Many people would probably do the same for dishwashers, washer and dryer, etc if there were repair people who could easily get the replacement parts at a fair price. Back in the before time when TVs were less proprietary and locked down, it was quite common to have a TV repaired. Some repairmen would even make house calls so you didn't have to lug the TV to a shop (not as big of a problem now, of course). There are/were also techs that would come out to fix your stove.

Right idea but they should provide STEP files and preferably also provide the CAD files themselves. Pretty much any CAD should be able to export STEP.

STEP to STL is an inevitably losy process. STEP is much easier to modify in CAD later while STL makes that difficult to impossible short of using the STL as a template to re-build the CAD.

I don't know about the other slicers, but Prusaslicer can use STEP files for input and do the STL conversion internally.

You know there are any number of DIYers who are quite competent to rework surface mount boards, right? Any one of them might also repair a friend's board as well. There are also professionals who could do it for a lot less than the OEM would charge for a new board.

Look up Louis Rossmann. He shows board repair on Apple hardware after the "Geniuses" told the customer replacement was the only option. He does it for a small fraction of what that replacement would cost. Unfortunately, due to Apple's ever tightening grip on replacement parts, it gets harder every day.

Dude, my claim isn't over some unknowable information lost to time; you can look at old game catalogues and gaming magazines and they have the prices right there.

Here's SSI's 1984 catalogue:
https://archive.org/details/Re...

Look at the price list for EA and all its companies from 1987:
https://archive.org/details/Re...

ICE must spare no expense capturing this illegal alien and sending it to El Salvador!

I've been gaming since the early 80's and games are so much cheaper now than they used to be. I remember spending $39.95-59.95 in the late 80's/early 90's, which would be over $100 now adjusted for inflation. And these weren't huge releases, just run-of-the-mill games.