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Open Repair Data Standard

openrepair.org

162 pointscassepipe13 comments

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Wasn't sure what was best to post the actual spec lives there: https://standard.openrepair.org/standard.html

Why?

The things everyone wants:

1. A service manual or other doc showing all the parts and their specs.

2. The full repair process, including how to do teardown and reassembly.

3. All the tools required to do the job correctly.

The data seems quite useless to both owner and repairman. You would have much better data by mining it from comments in YouTube repair videos.

The data is collected from and reports on the activities of community repair events - Repair Cafes. It does not comprise any sort of guide to repairing devices. That is in the domain of iFixit. This dataset provides data points that feed into the European Right To Repair campaign. https://metabase.openrepair.org/dashboard/97-ora-data-overvi...

The product related info feels a bit anemic. Surprised things like "model" aren't in there.

It used to publish the `model` values but found that so few repair events collected `model` values and the scant values that did turn up were not very useful. The data is compiled and published on a shoestring budget, so resources are very limited.

The purpose of the data has evolved over years as a response to and a source for various investigations and campaigns that feed into the European Right To Repair campaign. It is also used by individual repair groups and networks to demonstrate their work and achievements - both environmental and social - in order to garner support and funding. The main use of the dataset is as an overview of a glimpse of community repair activity worldwide.

https://metabase.openrepair.org/dashboard/97-ora-data-overvi...

They specifically mention that:

    Removal of model field due to problems with data collection and quality

Is this abandoned? No major change since 2024 or so.

what would you improve?

The standard doesn't change often but the data is published annually.

https://github.com/openrepair/data

Is there already a website to explore the dataset? I am starting out repairing old film cameras and there is documentation and tutorials, but it is very spread out between forums/reddit, how-tos in Flickr albums and a few websites who managed to grab a copy of official maintenance manuals

The data is not really helpful as a repair guide, it doesn't have any sort of "how-to", just small notes made during repair attempts, plus it only includes electrical/electronic devices.

>plus it only includes electrical/electronic devices.

It would still be very valuable. Fully mechanical cameras are, apart from some very specific components (e.g. titanium shutter blades in some high-end cameras), repairable. Electronic cameras with hand-soldered capacitors and big, individual electronic components are harder to work on (flexible circuit boards) but still possible. Fully electronic cameras... Let's just say in the coming decades, there is going to be a huge gap in camera history. A century-old Kodak or Agfa with bellows is still usable; the electronics in a polaroid SX-70 is so simple there is now aftermarket circuit boards to replace and extend them, adding Bluetooth controls; whereas a current top-of-the-line Canon/Nikon is going to be an unfixable paperweight within one human generation.

Aside from enthusiasts, I have worked a few months with (museum) conservators and this is very worrying to them. Same with cars.

The more that changes are absent for loger periods of time, the better the documentation works as a standard.

That's why it's called a standard, and nothing less.

Otherwise it's always not quite ready for adoption.

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