Electrical Engineering & Electronics Design

Yes, I believe it is. Not necessarily from any one contributing factor but in many cases nowadays, it is more expensive to repair than it is to replace. Not always the case based on what type of electronics you're talking about but there is a societal dependence on instant gratification. Smart phones especially made us as a people impatient.

Example: If the motherboard in your computer stops working and you personally do not have the knowledge, tools, or patience to fix it yourself you have to take it somewhere to have a professional do the work. And I use that term lightly because most likely the big box store you bought the computer from and the many others like it have tech support departments made up of "parts replacers" not trained technicians. So you have to take the computer in, wait for an estimate that clearly says what parts they will replace, wait for them to complete the job and then pay them a boat load money in labor and... wait for it... parts.

Or you could buy a new computer off the shelf and having it working the same day for a small increase in price over the repair estimate. Besides, the technology inside computers evolves so rapidly that till a brand new design makes it to market, it has maybe a 6 month shelf life before it is old technology.

Hello Steve,

In my opinion the repair industry is certainly taking a beating.

Most of the people I know who do circuit board diagnostics and repair in my book I would call engineers because of their skill level.

Manufacturers now file off all of the part numbers and don't release schematics or service manuals. This is a growing trend since China entered the market with no copyright laws and was given special privileges and global free postage. Western company's have to play by a large list of regulations while china has none with a global free postage agreements. The UK now appears to be nothing more than financial and essential services left. UK manufacturing industries have been decimated and virtually eradicated since globalisation and one way trade agreements.

Absolutely, I wasn’t trying to diminish the work of people who actually do diagnose and repair circuit board faults. I know people that have taken up that work as their chosen profession and they are some of the highest skilled engineers I’ve ever met. The way I intended for my previous post to come across was that for mass produced electronics (in many cases) it is not worth it to employ these individuals skills for the tedious work necessary to fix a component versus replacing a sub-assembly such as the whole pcb. For higher end electronics and more specialized (and expensive) equipment I believe there will always be a place for the field of electronics repair just not on the scale that it used to be.

Your message did not come across that way Steven I was simply just stating my own personal opinion. I hold many diagnostic and repair personnel in high regard. You are correct most repairs now are board replacement and in most cases it is cheaper to replace the item.

Yes, I would agree since the manufacturers are not designing for repairs, they don't want to (or have) repair manuals, individual components are not available only assemblies, manufacturers don't stock or want to stock repair parts, and product obsolescence is faster than repair cycles.

Plus on top of all of these reasons, there are fewer and fewer competitors in the industry and consolidation occurs, brands die or are merged, and technology shifts make manufacturers leery of holding onto stock repair parts that may never be sold.

How many things do you really repair older than 10 years ? - Chances are that you will just buy new and dispose of the older thing. So unless you are repairing something within 1 ~ 3 years of when it came out, it will not likely be supported any longer.

Add to the fact that electronics are the WORST for obsolescence, it is little wonder.

If you do want to repair something, chances are that if it is really expensive (>$10K), then it will want to be repaired; otherwise it will likely be replaced.