IMO it would be nice to have better circumstances for more Dr. Frankensteins putting more working machines together from scrap. That means big-name equipment and semiconductor manufacturers need to be more open with their tech specs and datasheets and obsolete firmware sources and so on, especially for parts and protocols that aren't even used in "current" machines-- instead of trade secrets in black boxes being the only reason working electronic bits are no longer usable.
Then we can give more "weak" frankenputers to more poor kids and more 3rd world countries, in theory.
edit: Last year I replaced an entire SMPS & CCFL backlight driver PCB from a TV that stopped turning on. I'm not terribly good at diagnosing SMPSs but I found a chip that was getting power and not giving power, so I looked around for a replacement-- and it's not available. Its design was found to be infringing on some other semiconductor giant's patent, so places like DigiKey and Mouser were not legally allowed to sell it any longer. But hey, I can get the whole board on eBay for <$50, so who cares? I care that there's this whole 99.5% perfectly functional board with a dozen now-useless FETs and some nice HV transformers-- and the final 0.5% was strictly a legal matter, an artificial obstacle. Well, presumably. I can't even find out for sure that I was correct to even want to replace it-- I can't even prove that replacing it doesn't help (OK, I could have borrowed the good one from the working board, which I should not even have needed to buy, but I'd rather have it just keep working). All together, that is annoying.
Did you try TaoBao or AliExpress? Sometimes you can get ICs there which major western resellers don't carry for one reason or another, although it can be a bit closer to eBay than Digikey.
No, it never occurred to me, so I'll have to check. It'd be nice to resell a refurbished board to someone, someday... at least the connectors are all labeled, so testing it is still possible without the TV. Thanks for the tip.
This reminds me of one I saw quite some time ago: The Toxic E-Waste Trade Killing Pakistan's Poorest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axYKPbr9_MA)
IMO it would be nice to have better circumstances for more Dr. Frankensteins putting more working machines together from scrap. That means big-name equipment and semiconductor manufacturers need to be more open with their tech specs and datasheets and obsolete firmware sources and so on, especially for parts and protocols that aren't even used in "current" machines-- instead of trade secrets in black boxes being the only reason working electronic bits are no longer usable.
Then we can give more "weak" frankenputers to more poor kids and more 3rd world countries, in theory.
edit: Last year I replaced an entire SMPS & CCFL backlight driver PCB from a TV that stopped turning on. I'm not terribly good at diagnosing SMPSs but I found a chip that was getting power and not giving power, so I looked around for a replacement-- and it's not available. Its design was found to be infringing on some other semiconductor giant's patent, so places like DigiKey and Mouser were not legally allowed to sell it any longer. But hey, I can get the whole board on eBay for <$50, so who cares? I care that there's this whole 99.5% perfectly functional board with a dozen now-useless FETs and some nice HV transformers-- and the final 0.5% was strictly a legal matter, an artificial obstacle. Well, presumably. I can't even find out for sure that I was correct to even want to replace it-- I can't even prove that replacing it doesn't help (OK, I could have borrowed the good one from the working board, which I should not even have needed to buy, but I'd rather have it just keep working). All together, that is annoying.