r/CalPolyPomona • u/DrJoeVelten Faculty • Aug 22 '24
Free Electronics Repair this semester Clubs / Campus Life
For those of you who are new students or new to this subreddit, most Tuesdays I set up in the Makerspace for to offer free electronics repair of your personal devices, which has been usually laptops, phones, e-scooters and so on, but this semester I have a full teaching load and do not have the physical time to be at the Makerspace on the usual Tuesday from 12-4.
Looks like I have zero free time on Tuesdays this semester to run the repair cafe. I'm seeing about setting something up with the students who have come to help out before, but we'll see. I'll be around, and may possibly be able to help some Fridays by appointment, but it might be an off semester for the ol' repair cafe unless something can be organized.
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u/tinypoo1395 Aug 23 '24
Where is the makerspace? Im looking for a nice place to do some soldering too and id imagine thatd be good
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u/Cactus-Cruncher Aug 23 '24
If you want to learn more about the makerspace and other places where you can use equipment for free, here's the website: https://www.cpp.edu/siil/index.shtml
The makerspace is a great resource (or place to hang out). It's open 12-5 pm and everyone there is really helpful and welcoming!
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u/PaulNissenson ME - Faculty Aug 23 '24
How many laptops do you estimate you've helped fix since you started doing this?
(and happy cake day)
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u/DrJoeVelten Faculty Aug 23 '24
North of 50 at CPP. Probably ballpark 300-500 since I started this a decade ago.
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u/PaulNissenson ME - Faculty Aug 23 '24
I wonder if there is some internal CPP grant that can support these efforts.
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u/DrJoeVelten Faculty Aug 23 '24
It'd be nice, but I have zero clue how to go about doing that. Would it be okay if I could still advocate 'right to repair' stuff if the uni supports this. I know that it's technically a political stance, if not exactly an issue that garners much passionate speech.
That, and I'm a part time lecturer. As I understand things, grants and part time lecturers have a wall between them.
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u/PaulNissenson ME - Faculty Aug 23 '24
Since this is related to sustainability and benefits students directly, I would be surprised if there isn't some internal grant that could be applied for (such as a SPICE grant or a mini-grant). However, you are correct that part-time lecturers may not be eligible -- if that's the case, it might be possible to partner with a full-time faculty member. You'd have to see the details of the grant.
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u/DrJoeVelten Faculty Aug 26 '24
Good deal, i'll have a talk with the guy who took over the makerspace administration from Kenneth.
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u/lilac_city Applied Math - 2027 Aug 24 '24
do you also do or know someone who can repair flashdrives with viruses? or other types of electronics like dashcams? i would really like to see if thats an option before i buy new ones
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u/DrJoeVelten Faculty Aug 24 '24
Depends greatly on what's wrong. with flashdrives, unless you need some data of of that flashdrive I'd just format it a few times.
Dashcam, it depends on what's wrong. Usually if something non-obvious is fried on the board it's hard, but sometimes we get luck and see that we have a bad EDLC or something relatively easy to fix.
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u/Strong_Eggplant8666 manufacturing engineering - 2026 Aug 23 '24
We will miss you here man