With microprocessor-driven systems, the solutions seems to be to replace the entire PCB, which is often completely custom to the manufacturer or even the specific model of machine. Trying to source a reasonably priced replacement is often difficult, and there's no easy way to diagnose and repair a broken PCB.
* For a device like washing machine, parts should be supplied for a time of about 10 years.
* Every part should be available to purchase either on its own or as part of a replacement kit like a PCB.
* The sum of the cost of all replacement parts shouldn't be above x% of the initial item price.
* If an OEM physically can not get you a replacement part (Chip discontinued, etc) and your product breaks, the OEM pays you for the remaining expected lifetime. (If it was 5 years old they pay you 50% of the initial cost)
So in theory you should be able to build an entirely new product from parts and it would only cost you x% more than a pre built one which stops OEMs setting insane prices on replacements. The end result would likely be that OEMs would have to slim down on their product variations and sell the same designs for longer rather than releasing a new model of printer every year since this would make it much easier to stock parts. Some companies already do this, I have noticed Brevile has sold the same kettle and coffee machine models for almost 10 years now.
PCB's? Forget it. E-waste central.
My point is that simple systems like coffee cookers don't benefit much from having microcontrollers and you introduce alot of complexity.
My 3yo Mocca Master just have a timing relay and a switch for the aux. heater.
If they added a IC to have eg. a 'smart heater' or what ever the complexity and risk for making design errors would explode. With two switches you can enumerate the states of the system. With code you can't just look at the coffee machine and figure out exactly how it works while reviewing the design for production.
No code, no bugs.
A more classic style of toaster can be as simple as a heating element that's triggered by some kind of mechanical timer you set contained within some kind of container. There's much less that can possibly break down with age and burn out. There's no internal sensors, multiple buttons and electronics that can burn out, maybe some sort of WiFi component that might mess up, and more that can go wrong.
Additionally with fewer parts, the manufacturing quality can hypothetically (but not always) be better. It seems easier to get the manufacturing right on a machine with 10 separate components versus say 60.
Fully automatic brownness selection, and hands-free insertion and pop-up -- all without any electronic chips at all.
That's why I am telling people that a global chip shortage, if something happens to Taiwan, would bring the industry not back into fifties, but into the iron age.
The further the tech ladder you go, the harder you fall if somebody takes out your engineering bay.
I mean, I agree it wouldn’t be good. But back to the 50s? Or even the “Iron Age”? That seems awfully pessimistic.
Like, I get that Intel is not doing great, but it’s only like a handful of years bad, not decades bad
It's likely that no fab in the West past the I-line era will be able to resume, and continue production with local supplies, even with immediate nation-state level effort to recreate the supply chain.
TSMC is building a megafactory in Phoenix AZ which should help distribute that risk. It will take several years to complete however.
Nobody in Beijing really cares for an armed to the teeth mountainous island.
A threat of Taiwan invasion is not a threat they project to Taiwan itself, but to the world.
- "Do this, and that or we are sending the world, and all your business interests back to iron age"
That pretty much sums it.
For this purpose, even just a missile exchange across the straight will suffice to kill world trade in a way you haven't seen even during CoVID.