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this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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I suppose you're asking rhetorically, but I'm gonna blunder though this rant anyway. I applaud your frugality and self reliance though.
Avoiding the hassle of disassembling delicate plastics parts, reassembling a potentially complicated and finicky device, and soldering (and resoldering) a small switch on a small PCB or wire correctly and safely is worth at least $34 to 99% of the market. Hell, I'm confident I could do it (badly) and have (admittedly the cheapest version of) the necessary tools, but finding the correct replacement switch still isn't worth the hassle (to me) if mine were to break.
Love my M570, btw. I abuse it on a daily basis with excessive clicks, but so far the worst I've had to do was clean some lint out of it. If it were a $70 device instead of a $35 device, I might feel differently. But at that, price point I'd probably expect better and replace it with a different brand.
I've got 4 or 5 M570s, and most of them have had a switch replacement. I'm several kinds of mechanic and several kinds of electronics hobbyist, so I have the tools and skills, soldering a microswitch is child's play to me.
I fix a lot of stuff, rescued my father's old coffee pit from tue dumpster. Why chuck a perfectly good machine over a clogged bubble pump? Fixed a random orbital sander by pulling it apart and giving it a good scrub. Hurts my head thinking of all the peefectly goos things people throw away over easy fixes.
I agree, I just factor the cost of my time into the balance of the cost of a fix vs. a replacement. Cleaning doesn't really count in my opinion, that's something any device will require. For a $35 thing that lasts a decade and is made of plastic that will have eroded or fatigued significantly over that time anyway, the cost/benefit doesn't really work it favor of repair, unless like you I enjoy the repair. For most people, the economics of the repair make even less sense.
Well here's the thing: I can do that repair in the time it would take me to drive to the store, buy a new one, and drive back. People forget that costs time and labor too. And what's the value of keeping these three mice out of the landfill for a few more years?