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Is this what you would expect?

Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?
 
S

Sam Goldwasser

Jan 1, 1970
0
Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

Because they don't want anyone reverse engineering the thing.
Because they want to be the sole repair source.
Because they're jerks.
Because they don't want any future business. :)
etc.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
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| Mirror Sites: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

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J

Jamie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?
to keep you from repairing it. most likely using common
components.
also it helps to keep others from duplicating the
product.
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jamie said:
to keep you from repairing it. most likely using common
components.
also it helps to keep others from duplicating the
product.

The thing is, it's fairly trivial for an engineer to identify the components
in most cases, particularly for IC's, it just makes it a lot harder to
service.
 
F

Franc Zabkar

Jan 1, 1970
0
Have a Discovery 420 treadmill. On the upper PC board,
8 of the 9 ICs have the identification info removed; it
appears that the area which previously contained the ID
on each chip, had been irregularly abraded with a small
tool (such as a Dremel).

My treadmill (different brand) has been similarly defaced.
Seems time consuming for the board manufacturer to do
this on each board.

Why would a manufacturer do this?

<beginning of rant>

Because governments allow them to. These despicable practices are just
one reason why some equipment is uneconomical to repair and is
consigned to landfill. If the useless, whale watching, tree hugging
Greenies had any testicular fortitude, they would lobby for
legislation to make *complete* service information compulsorily
available in paperless format from manufacturers' websites or from CDs
included with the product.

<end of rant>


- Franc Zabkar
 
J

JW

Jan 1, 1970
0
My treadmill (different brand) has been similarly defaced.


<beginning of rant>

Because governments allow them to. These despicable practices are just
one reason why some equipment is uneconomical to repair and is
consigned to landfill. If the useless, whale watching, tree hugging
Greenies had any testicular fortitude, they would lobby for
legislation to make *complete* service information compulsorily
available in paperless format from manufacturers' websites or from CDs
included with the product.

<end of rant>

C'mon, now. Don't hold back on us :)
 
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