I hate how unrepairable everything is

[Exterous]

Can't say I know how you felt as the last time I checked in a piece of luggage was....at least 20 years ago, all my belongings usually fit under the seat and I have a packable duffle bag in case I bought things.

We can do a week in a cold climate plus a week in a tropical in a carry on each but sometimes you run up against the rules where certain items can only go in a checked bag regardless of whether they would have fit in your carryon

There's an engineering principle that says "The easier a product is to use, the more complicated the engineering behind it." Things are unrepairable because we have to have 18000 features packed into a small space, so every nanometer of free real estate is used. This means a lot of layers and interconectivity takes place.

And...well...that makes things difficult to repair.

I mean sure but this is a molded wheel, pin and axel. No reason it shouldn't be replaceable as it's already a solved problem for luggage. Well I know the reason: it was infinitesimally cheaper this way and might lead to a new purchase. Who cares if it adds to the giant piles of trash in our landfills we made ever so slightly more profit!

 

[evident]

Looked that up - my wallet said eff off. If I did travel allot, that would be a different story. We had an old Samsonite that we kept for, IDK, 20 years. I was on the plane once and saw the baggage truck coming in too fast toward the plane. I could see our luggage, that was on the top of the pile, go flying off as he stopped. A dent that didn't affect functionality was all that happened. We finally got rid of it because it was so damn heavy.

I travel enough to justify good quality luggage. B&R definitely fits the bill. I had a bunch of Tumi sets that lasted a while but seriously got beat up, but these B&R ones seem way better built. I am also a fan of repairing stuff. I'm driving cars from 07. a bunch of little stuff breaking is happening more often though.

 

[Fritzo]

We can do a week in a cold climate plus a week in a tropical in a carry on each but sometimes you run up against the rules where certain items can only go in a checked bag regardless of whether they would have fit in your carryon


I mean sure but this is a molded wheel, pin and axel. No reason it shouldn't be replaceable as it's already a solved problem for luggage. Well I know the reason: it was infinitesimally cheaper this way and might lead to a new purchase. Who cares if it adds to the giant piles of trash in our landfills we made ever so slightly more profit!

That's the molding industry- Parts like that are often formed in one piece with a specialized machine. I have a client that does plastic molding and see a lot of that- they'll literally melt plastic beads to form a part around a nickel pin or a bearing.

 

[dullard]

I just had an earbud fail on me. https://www.jlab.com/products/jbuds-air-sport-true-wireless-earbuds-gen-3?variant=39531129831496 . It was only 6 months old with moderate use. But the battery wouldn't charge and it wouldn't communicate or reset or anything. I asked to have it repaired and this was their procedure:

Valid Proof of Disposal:

For Headphones: You can simply send us a video of the broken or inoperable product. (either break or submerge in water)
For Earbuds/True Wireless products: Please send us a video of cutting the cord on your charging case and submerging the earbuds in water.

*Any other proof of disposal than the instructed above will result in the warranty claim being denied or the unit needing to be shipped in at your expense *

So, I did that and they are sending a replacement set of earbuds and charging case. What a waste of sending 3 things when only one was broken and such a waste to destroy two perfectly good things.

But, I may have cut the cord in a way that I can solder it back on. And I may have used ultrapure water that doesn't short out any electronics so the good earbud still functions. Now to open up the bad earbud and see if I can repair that.

 

[dullard]

Travel luggage is pretty bad. Not small electronics bad but up there. Wheels get beaten up all the time and those should be easily repairable or replaceable.

I travel a lot and damn I hate most new wheeled luggage. Especially after the airlines reduced the carry on size a few years back. And even more so with the trend in the last decade for 4 external spinner wheels, like this monstrosity:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91g9s0UqTBL._AC_SY879_.jpg

That means in your reduced size luggage, you are using 20% of your reduced size for useless wheels that break in an instant because they are exposed to everything.

The only wheeled luggage that I'll accept have two wheels buried deep in the suitcase. Not exposed to anything for damage and take almost none of your usable luggage space.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

The bud thing goes back to something I said on another thread somewhere about companies being required to reclaim their junk. In this case a prepaid return label for you to mail them.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

One of my favorite gizmos is a home automation that doesn't require a web supplied supporting app: KASA taps, turn on/off, schedule A/C, the app works, shouldn't need updating. I have two versions and several of both kinds. The fancier one has energy monitoring. They should continue to work as long as 2.4mhz wifi is supported by routers. From any of my smartphones I can control any of these.

I have a bunch of those - the API of the devices is insecure. Which sounds scary if you don't have a firewall, but means that if TP-Link ever pulls shenanigans it should be trivial to write a new controller app.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I still have some of the old X-10 stuff that works. But the company died and a few die hard fans took over 'support'. One of them managed to hack and modify a tool to make the desktop software continue to work well past when it should have died.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I still have some of the old X-10 stuff that works. But the company died and a few die hard fans took over 'support'. One of them managed to hack and modify a tool to make the desktop software continue to work well past when it should have died.

Yeah, true. That stuff was the bomb back in the day.

My low-tech solution is to get specific switches for for specific things I want to do. Motion detector switch for the light over the kitchen sink and the bathroom fan. Mechanical egg timer switch for the backyard floodlights so I don't forget to turn them off. That sort of thing. My "smart home" is the epitome of 1970s tech.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I use a mechanical rotary countdown timer for my air compressor. Twist the knob to 30 minutes or so and let er rip. No concerns of forgetting it, leaving it on and having it air up for days at a time risking a hose burst.

 

[Muse]

I have a bunch of those - the API of the devices is insecure. Which sounds scary if you don't have a firewall, but means that if TP-Link ever pulls shenanigans it should be trivial to write a new controller app.

Write it yourself or you figure someone will write a secure version should it ever be needed?

These are hell of useful.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Write it yourself or you figure someone will write a secure version should it ever be needed?

These are hell of useful.

I'll just write it myself if I have to. No real need to worry about security - again, they're just open on the local network, you can firewall off the cloud stuff; not let them out onto the public internet. Just need a little python app to hit the APi with on/off commands, etc.

 

[Exterous]

Well - fortunately the only wheel kit I found anywhere that was close to the right size ended up working

I travel a lot and damn I hate most new wheeled luggage. Especially after the airlines reduced the carry on size a few years back. And even more so with the trend in the last decade for 4 external spinner wheels, like this monstrosity:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91g9s0UqTBL._AC_SY879_.jpg

That means in your reduced size luggage, you are using 20% of your reduced size for useless wheels that brake in an instant because they are exposed to everything.

The only wheeled luggage that I'll accept have two wheels buried deep in the suitcase. Not exposed to anything for damage and take almost none of your usable luggage space.

My wife loves her spinner but I very much prefer my 2 wheeled version. We harass the other a fair amount if we ever get stuck with 'the wrong' suitcase for anything longer than 5 seconds

 

[Muse]

One of my most successful DIY projects

This is one of my favorite DIY projects. This was an old table someone had slapped together out of this and that. It found its way into my back yard, undoubtedly put there by one of my housemates. It seemed like every year or two I had to renovate it, put on new plywood, paint it, etc. or it...

forums.anandtech.com

That describes how I fixed a table that somebody put in our backyard some years ago. It was clearly a DIY project to start with, not bought in a store, etc. I fixed it several times, it was never made or fixed to withstand the elements, but I got an idea how I could repair it in such a way that it wouldn't break down in the foreseeable future. So far so good. It's been almost 20 years and I have done nothing more than clean the surface on it, generally by wiping it down after squeegeeing off surface water from dew. This is where I fold my laundry and do any number of projects that require a surface and space.