[baroffoos]

I got some open source hardware recently and I wanted to upgrade it. For the first time I felt the joy of reading a schematic to work out which configuration the board is wired in so I can get the correct part.

I think right to repair, open source hardware and 3d printers are going to be critical if we hope to turn around our throwaway society. It makes me so sad to see average people throwing out perfectly fine electronics because the OEM stopped supporting them or the battery got old.

A few of the people in this thread are suggesting that you should simply not buy these bad devices but the fact is unless everyone stops there is no hope for the environment.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

I repair and modify computers and game consoles from the 1970s - 1990s and it's great how easy it is to get hold of schematics. I have an Amstrad 8086 PC for example which had full schematics for the PC itself and the monitor in the manual that came with the machine. This was the case with a lot of hifi equipment from this era as well.

A whole device can be brought down by something simple like a dead capacitor which can be replaced in minutes. Without being able to debug that they'd just end up in landfill.