Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

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Shaund
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Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Shaund »

I got an email the other day saying that my old focus is no longer supported by Faro from the end of the year. Does anyone know if the right to repair comes into play now and service manuals (for example) be made available?

My scanner works fine as a backup for my others for now and looking around ebay etc there do seem to be a lot of these in bits up for sale around the world so spare parts would appear to be about if you can source them - I would have no idea what I was looking for in terms of a part though to swap it out if i got a particular error.

Does anyone have any info on this subject cos it does seem a huge waste to bin these devices just cos they're old as they still produce useable scans.

Shaun
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Leandre Robitaille »

Is that for the X series? I didnt get an email for that :/
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Scott »

Shaund wrote: Fri Nov 12, 2021 5:16 pm I got an email the other day saying that my old focus is no longer supported by Faro from the end of the year. Does anyone know if the right to repair comes into play now and service manuals (for example) be made available?

My scanner works fine as a backup for my others for now and looking around ebay etc there do seem to be a lot of these in bits up for sale around the world so spare parts would appear to be about if you can source them - I would have no idea what I was looking for in terms of a part though to swap it out if i got a particular error.

Does anyone have any info on this subject cos it does seem a huge waste to bin these devices just cos they're old as they still produce useable scans.

Shaun
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Last edited by Scott on Mon Nov 15, 2021 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by LPaulCook »

Which scanner won't they service?

I have a X330 that needs service now.
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Shaund »

Email states that the 7 year service period expires at the end of the year and makes specific reference to the Focus3D 20, 120 and Trimble TX5.

My first reaction was that this was about the x-series too as they cant be far that age now..?
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Leandre Robitaille »

Faro X series was released in 2014 ... that would make it about 7year old as well. But when the X series was release thats when the other scanners production stopped. So it make sense its only for those scanners it applies.

That being said the S series was released in 2016, so I would assume that's the end of when the X series was produced, hence when that 7year clock starts assuming you would get that full 7 year coverage on an X series bought in 2016. Making the X series serviceable until somewhere in 2023
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by TommyMaddox »

I'm actually genuinely interested in the right to repair conversation here.

Scanners are very complex systems that are going to require a lot of very expensive niche equipment to calibrate properly, even if FARO releases internal service documents, procedures, manuals, software, etc...

I mean nobody stopped me from opening or working on my older units, but there is only so much you can realistically do with them. And it's not like cell phones where there are thousands of repair shops out there. FARO isn't selling internal parts for these units and never was, nobody else is either. And then even if you get everything working internally there are enough component version coding changes needing to be programmed into the PC to where you'd still be out of luck even if you had a fleet of junk units for parts, or were able to get parts custom machined (like the tensioning bearing cup for the pan axis drive for example).

I'm just not really seeing any scenario where it's feasible for older scanners to be serviced if the manufacturer decides they're done servicing them.

So while yeah while you may absolutely have a 'right to repair', repair and calibration is practically impossible in a meaningful and sustainable way for any of these units if a vendor stops doing so.

The best course of action remains in my eyes to ensure you are making a well researched business decision at the point of purchase, and you have a detailed plan to achieve ROI on your system(s) within 1 year of signing the check, such that you see a realistic 5 year operational lifespan of profitability at which point you either sell second hand or do trade in.
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by Shaund »

I absolutely get that Faro dont have any interest commercial or otherwise in keeping any of these older units going indefinately and like you say there becomes a point where even the most determined of tinkerer calls enough enough but thats not what I'm getting at.

Things like the SD card fail issues that seem to plague these units are, from what I understand, fairly fixable if you know what you're doing but the information to do this is basically locked in with the vendor and will in effectively 1 or 2 months be lost forever. I dont see why service or repair documentation couldnt be released to the public domain so that we can keep them going whilst we (who lets face facts gave Faro a fairly substantial bounty to purchase the devices in the first place) still feel that there's value in doing so - these units havent just been superceeded once but 2 or 3 times now and there are component parts in them that are not Faro proprietory technology that could probably be replaced should the need arise if you had the information to hand to know that in say, scenario X, the issue is going to be related to part y and its remedied by procedure z - its then up to me to make an informed decison as to what to do - I know there will be scenarios where specialist equipment/parts will be needed, that may not be able to be repaired and thats where you walk away but thats a decision that I want to make - not just bin it by default cos Faro have lost interest in them

Even in the scenario where you factor in the 5 year ROI then sell on or trade in, a unit that may cost £5-600 to repair by replacing some bearings (for example) and keep running has more useful value to me as an emergency backup than commercial value as a trade in or ebay giveaway that no one will touch cos its only got a years life on it. If you could fix a part rather than replace a near impossible to find part then thats gotta be a good thing?

In much the same way that there are people who specialise in keeping old cars on the road and keeping parts available, there must be some legs in something like that here with support of Faro even if they dont provide it themselves anymore..?
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by TommyMaddox »

I don't think they'll come after you if you manage to get your sd card reformatted or duplicated or reverse engineered on an 8 year old product that they are no longer repairing due to lack of commercial viability, or parts availability.

Where there's a will there is a way, they just are unlikely to be forced to make the task easy for you by selling parts, releasing confidential information or software/design drawings etc...

It's not that much different than working on rare cars, where you might be lucky to find new old stock dampers or parts for eye watering 6 fig prices.

In the consumer product space via Apple: "Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago." "Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or Apple TV products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers, including Apple Retail Stores and Independent Repair Providers, for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale.

Service and parts may be obtained for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability. "

If you bought a new Iphone at the same time that FARO released the X330, you'd have bought an Iphone 5. It is now effectively out of service from that manufacturer, which is a pretty reasonable precedent for other electronic device manufacturers to be taking.

I have 5 or 6 X330 units sitting in a conference room as art installations basically. They can't be cost effectively run in our industry any more. They are more difficult to verify accuracy, and even if I could fix and service them for as little as 5-6k each including calibration, that's about half of their overall second hand value if they're sold as fully operational. It's just not worth it. We ran them hard, and put ~20k scans on each of them inside of 4 years. They paid their dues in full and now they sit and look pretty on the shelf without their plastic covers. Some of them were able to have parts swapped around to keep others going at the time but that's a short term solution at best that only lasts as long as you have decent condition spare parts to use.
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Re: Right to Repair on the Focus Scanners now out of support?

Post by ProCro »

I don't know if it's voted in EU Parliament that all stuff sold in EU must have at least 10 yrs of support.
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