Question: Is Consumer Electronic Repair A Good Profession?
Question: Is Consumer Electronic Repair A Good Profession?
I was wondering in one of your videos you told a college student that as a part time job computer repair is an OK idea. You also said that electronic repair like swapping out capacitors and things like that is a good job at the moment. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this? What kinds of electronics and such, looking around my home I don’t really see anything that would need much electronic repair unless my flat screen TV counts or my microwave or such.
-Chris S.
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I think there is money installing electronics. Car stereos, marine electronics, home theaters (maybe). But that’s about it.
Maybe I don’t know enough, but I thought that for multi-layer boards you have plated holes with metal "barrels" that you put the lead through and fill up with solder. That barrel makes the electrical connection with all the tracks in the relevant layers.
Is there any other method of doing through hole multi-layer boards because what I described is the only standard I know and your description kind of confused me. I’d just like some clarification on the topic if anyone doesn’t mind.
6:40
There are several viable markets in electronics repair. Design and engineering isnt the only profitable profession. There is medical, defense, security, and many others. I do agree with steering away from consumer electronics though.
Few things: 1. 5:50 There is no solder point between the layers. The solder pads are on both outer sides of the laminated board. The only thing that’s between the layers are copper traces interconnected through vias. And if you can reverse-engineer a trace using an oscilloscope or even better get hold of the schematic then you can create jumper links to bypass a broken trace(which are very rare by the way). 2. By internet of things, single board computers, sensors, motors, actuators, etc. you aren’t talking just about electronics, you are talking about mechatronics. 3. You can still do electronics repairs at a professional level but you have to be more…general purpose. There are repair companies that are very successful but in order to do that they repair a wide range of products:mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, servers, TVs, etc.
this is real funny to watch
I sent an email like 5 days ago and still nothing on your youtube haha. Just lurkin’
Is your email inbox massive?
He really shoots down your ideas for a decent career path huh
This guy should have more views.last 5 minutes are crucial.
I liked your presentation. It was pretty much what I was thinking anyhow oh, but you did a good job of explaining why the Internet of things is really the next wave. But we don’t know, and we will never know, is if that will someday be superseded with something else. But we’re not living in the future we’re living in the now, so I really like what you had to say
Thanks
Cheers for the Video clip! Forgive me for chiming in, I would love your opinion. Have you ever tried – Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (google it)? It is a great one of a kind guide for learning how to repair electronic items like a wizard without the hard work. Ive heard some extraordinary things about it and my work colleague finally got great success with it.
Electronics repair sounds like a cool job to do as a retired person.
I repaired TVs for over twelve years beginning in the 1990s. Based on what I experienced, the way things fell apart, I would not recommend anyone pursue a career in consumer electronics. I didn’t even know there was such a thing anymore.
The best technicians when I started were making 40 to 60k per year. But your average big screen TV then cost $3,000 to $5,000. VCRs were still $400. By the time I quit, VCRs were going out, DVD players were throw away items and the average big screen was less than half the price of what it used to be. When I started, companies like RCA for example used basically the same TV chassis for most of their tvs for over ten years. Most of us developed a strong familiarity with them. I could stock parts in my van for the most common failures. By the time I quit, it was a time of radical change. CRTs were phasing out and there was all kinds of new technologies on the market competing to replace it. There were LCD bigscreens, plasma TVs, DLP projectors, LCD projectors. Almost every week, I was encountering new models I had never seen before, and of course, when you are making home calls, you had to be an expert on it all anyway.
I started seeing more and more multi layered circuit boards, to the point where I was doing less and less component level repairing and just swapping out entire circuit boards. It used to be so much more simple and stable when in the 1990s, where I was much more likely to repair a tv the first time, because I was familiar with the TV and because I stocked all the common parts. By the time I quit, there was an apparent shortage of technicians. Most of them were old and unwilling to make house calls. There were almost no younger technicians entering the field. So I had a rather large backlog of open tickets. Over 100 at any given time. The manufacturers also went away from lead solder circuit boards, because they were banned in Europe, and it seemed to me that intermittent problems became more common place after that switch.
So at the end of my career, when I made a service call, if it wasn’t intermittent, and if I didn’t stock the part, more often than not I was ordering circuit boards. This would drive the customer crazy. When their TV broke, they would call their big box retailer who carried their extended warranty. Eventually the retailer would contact our shop, and because I had such a backlog it would take me over a week to get there. Then, after I figured out what to do I would often tell them I had to order a part and would be back in one to two weeks. For most people, TV watching is like being addicted to drugs. They were already suffering withdrawal pains waiting for me to show up, and they would quite often flip out when I told them they would have to wait another two weeks.
It seemed like every day, I would get at least a couple of different customers give me the same lecture about how unacceptable it all was, and that was even just after I knocked on their door and met them for the first time in my life. Complete strangers telling me how mad they were at me. And the warranty companies were wanting to pay less and less all the time, because the products were getting cheaper. So a technician had to work harder and harder just to tread water. The stress was literally killing me. I could see the handwriting on the wall and I got out and I never looked back.
I didn’t even own a TV for ten years after that, I was so sick of it. In 2015 I finally broke down and bought a Sony 42" TV at Walmart for $300.00. It has worked great for four years and the picture is unlike any of those old $5000.00 dinosaurs I once worked on. Am I going to call a repairman when it breaks? I am going to throw it away and go spend another $300.00 at Walmart.
Maybe I am out of touch, but I don’t see any positives to consumer electronics. If you want to be a repair technician, go fix something expensive that really counts like gas pumps, airplanes or airports. Don’t waste your life away on junk. Even if it seems to be making a comeback now, you still have little idea how things will be in five or ten years.
I’m not sure but ,if anyone else needs to find out about
how do i repair my computer
try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some interesting things about it and my buddy got cool success with it.
can you invent or create your own consumer product? like can you create your own camera? tv ? cell phone?
lol quality video, informative and entertaining. Thank you Eli.
TV repair i would think would be a good business.
The vegan is fine with Bambi-bot.
It depend on what you are repairing… I repair legacy controllers for the oil and gas industry
On multilayer PCBs, often the defect is on the outer layers you can see. The fact that most do not know how to deal with smaller components or figure out what’s going on makes it a great market niche. The more people who think it’s not worth it, the more $2000 products go in the trash, the more stuff for me to take out of the trash to fix and sell. 😀
LCD TVs cost $300, so that is a terrible market. Find something worthwhile to fix that is $1k+ and get good enough at it to do in 20 minutes.
It is something you have to love doing to be good at, and therefore successful at.
hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about
electronic keyboard repair
try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some super things about it and my work buddy got excellent results with it.
Butter Brickle or Caramel Swirl?
If someone was looking to get into electronics and make some good money at it, and get your hands dirty with electronics and at the same time get your geek on, you should look into finding a company that repairs CNC electronics and controllers or is retro fitting older CNC machinery with update electronics.
Good stuff!
supper stuff from E …he can be found on his website now…
I love electronic repair, I just put a axe through a $60,000 DELL server!! Check it out on my channel its worth the watch!
@1:55 Am I the only one who hears the character Bubble Baths from Spongebob? lol
I used to work for a company that did industrial electronics repair. We weren’t getting rich, but the company does pretty good. The industrial side of things is a little different. Companies need to keep legacy equipment going until their migration projects are approved. Plus, companies like Exxon can pay like 3k a board to get a repair. It all depends on how expensive it is to get obsolete parts. The newer technology boards are more surface mount components and harder to repair so profits for component level repair are eroding.
I repair computers but I want to fix electronics like sotering
One of the thing, I just had a job as a flight simulator technician, and we had to work on pretty old systems. they still cause you know like a million dollars a piece, and we’re very complicated but there was a great need to maintain this because pilots of 727 737s still needed to be certified in the newer systems are extremely expensive. So you also had that dimension as well.
You look and sound like a offbrand, more manly version of markiplier….. very nice, I like
hi sir pls recommend best online course on electronics maintenance
I learned 99% more the second time I listened to it. I never kanew the difference between repair and assembly. wso, when I install a new power supply…it’s called assembling. Can open a pc desktop power supply with getting zapped?
LOL subbed for the bit @ 1:50
Not certain about the points made but ,if anyone else trying to find out
electronic repair jobs
try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (do a search on google ) ? Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my mate got amazing results with it.
interesting points ,if anyone else needs to find out about
how to repair car
try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (do a search on google ) ? Ive heard some amazing things about it and my cousin got great results with it.
For someone who has done 900 hours of army training I am surprised how many mistakes are here……
Multi layer boards are no less repairable than single layer boards in 99% of cases…….the components are generally surface mount and are on the outside of the board same side as the component itself………any through hole stuff is the same as single layer….component one side, solder the other……..the only real difference is most hobbyists don’t have the rework gear to deal with micro sized components……….even surface mount potted circuits are repairable….its more a case if its economical or not, but for rare stuff its always is worth a try at least……..I am finding there is great reward in repairing high end gear that is no longer factory supported and difficult or expensive to replace.
Everyone has an opinion ! A real Tech has more knowledge than most doctor’s ! Yes it is a great profession and always will be. Electronics is an ever changing field, And one must adapt to it.
I been working in electronics for more than 40 years.
Now I fix High End audio and treadmill motor controllers, I earn US$3500 to US$4000 per month without leave my house.
In my country US$3500 is a lot of money.
I Work maybe 4 or 5 hours per day only.
Cheers.
ELI is so good! A computer guy who understands electronics OMG. I would argue that understanding electronics really helps your understanding of computer tech.
Excellent video content! Forgive me for chiming in, I would love your opinion. Have you ever tried – Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (search on google)? It is a great one of a kind product for learning how to repair electronic items like a wizard without the hard work. Ive heard some amazing things about it and my work colleague at very last got cool success with it.
eli is the $#!+ nuff said
invest in a reflow oven/heat gun
(goodwill – 10$)
if its broken and you cant figure it out and no can figure it out for some reason??
REFLOW
WORKS
So many incorrect things mentioned in this video…
There is still a lot of electronics repair being done on expensive Industrial & medical equipment. The key here is that on the industrial side the electronic gear is way too expensive to throw away. For example $5,000 to $100,000 and more. Hence component level electronics debug technician work is by no means an outmoded skill set. It has simply become more specialized. Quite honestly by virtue of the nature of this line of work, electronics technicians have to know exponentially more than IT professionals. Not to mention be able to grasp more complicated subject matters, as it relates to electronic/ RF theory etc.. The pay is pretty good, and many earn well above the national average. Moreover, it is not about the pay, because electronics tech work is something that you pursue, because you simply have a love or fondness for electronics. Think hobbyist, but you are getting paid for doing something that you enjoy.
IOT. Aaarrggghhh. The parts will be 99c from China and the applications often stupid. Door locks connected to the internet so you can unlock them from work. Nope stupid idea. IOT socks (they exist) that send an sms when they need cleaning. Also stupid. I know ‘stupid is the new black’ but honestly almost no IOT idea is anything other than drop dead ridiculous.