A bi-weekly talk show by The Restart Project, plus a monthly documentary series produced by brilliant podcaster Dave Pickering, based on fixing triumphs, heartbreaks and wisdom shared at our community repair events – called Restart Parties – here in London. We go into real depth about good and bad design, obstacles to repair of electronics, emotional aspects of ownership, environmentally irresponsible business models, and the “end of life” of our gadgets. This podcast is for you if you'd like to fix your relationship with electronics. Let’s rethink, restart.
https://therestartproject.org/podcast/
Restart Radio: Getting hands-on with solar
We invited our friend Max, from Demand Energy Equality, to talk about their inspiring solar workshops. In these day-long events, beginners with very little technical background learn about how photovoltaic cells work. They get a refresher in circuits and electricity, then they make a functional personal solar charger out of PV off-cuts.
It’s a way of bringing renewable energy closer to people, raising important questions and promoting energy literacy. How can we be more involved in meeting energy needs locally? How do we use electricity, can we use it more wisely?
Before we chatted with Max, Ugo shared a tip about giving away unused electronics leads and cables. Then Janet talked about an Android mobile we saw at a Restart Party, meant to “include” older customers. We questioned how inclusive Android can be.
And to close, we discussed reports of a material in development called “Mesoglue” that could replace hot soldering, both in repair and manufacture.
For reference, in order of our discussion:
- Donate cables and leads to Emmaus
- Demand Energy Equality
- Will This Metallic Glue Kill Soldering? (Motherboard)
- Article by Northeastern University about Mesoglue research
[Feature images courtesy of Demand Energy Equality]
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