As consumer electronic products reach the end of their lifespan, either through obsolescence or disrepair, their benefits, as products, start to become a burden, as waste. For many electronic products, this label as e-waste has them improperly disposed of. Often, they are burned for valuable raw materials, harming the environment.

To make matters worse, major corporations make it difficult for users to prolong the lifespan of their products by incorporating elements of planned obsolescence, such as in using proprietary hardware and software, with the hopes that users will be forced to purchase the newest iteration of their product. This practice has turned into a power struggle between the producer and user. Many of these major companies, including John Deere and Apple, have been fighting against Right to Repair legislation that would prevent them from incorporating planned obsolescence into their future products.

This work explores the process of extending the lifespan of obsolete technology by incorporating modern functionality using rapid prototyping and hacking using open-source hardware.

The designer, Erik Contreras, hopes the lessons from this work will be part of a greater product design approach where the user can extend the lifespan of their product through modification based around future functionality. By helping the user to make these modifications, Erik hopes this would also shift the power dynamic between the producer and user.

Each of the prototypes in this collection have been built using salvaged consumer products from local dump sites around Davis, CA.

While the focus of this exhibition is directed towards consumer electronics; the design principles of hacking to extend a product’s lifespan can be applied in other products, such as furniture.

Steelcase Desk: A mid-century metal desk that was restored for the exhibition. The 3D printed drawer pulls were inspired by the electronic schematic symbol for an inductor.

Norwegian HÅG Office Chair: A 1980’s office chair that was reupholstered for the exhibition.

Red Office Lamp: Originally found, without a base, at a dump site. A new base was made using 5-pound weights and a 3D printed connector shaft.

Arduino AutoType: An early 1990’s Smith Corona Mark VI daisy-wheel typewriter that has been hacked to print out text documents from a contemporary computer (Windows 10 or macOS Big Sur). Inspiration for this project came from mid-century teletype machines.

A controller module was used to facilitate communication between the computer input and the typewriter output. The module contains: 1) an Arduino Uno, 2) two shift registers, and 3) an array of relays. The Arduino Uno and shift registers would translate user-inputted text into a 16-bit binary code, which the relay array uses to electronically control the typewriter.

Echo Answering Machine: An Amazon Echo Dot that has been housed inside an early 1980’s Panasonic answering machine.

The components from the answering machine were removed to make room for Echo Dot’s electronics. 3D-printed parts were used to mount the electronics to the answering machine’s case. Once assembled, the Echo Dot retained normal functionality.

This prototype was an exploration of product identity: “does obsolete tech still maintain its identity when the original electronics are removed, and its functionality has been changed?” Future work, with user feedback, will be needed to answer this question.

Webcam(corder): A Sony Hi8 Handycam camcorder that functions as a webcam using off-the-shelf adapters; an Elgato 4k Camlink, and an HDMI-to-RCA adapter.

This was an exercise in using consumer products to hack obsolete tech. While fully functional, this hack was expensive and used proprietary hardware; two design aspects that should be avoided. Future work on this project will involve finding a cheaper, open-source solution.