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I don't understand this space very well, but I wonder if an iFixit-esque solution would work there: publish DIY guides on identifying and fixing common faults, and have a network of sellers for replacement parts and tools.


I’m confused by everything tbh.

I maintain a 20 year old Corolla, which is incredibly common throughout Africa (exported 2nd/3rd/4th hand).

But users from there rarely pop up in the forums or anywhere else I’ve found.

I dunno how they diagnose obscure condition XYZ without the like 9 retired mechanics on the forum.

Do they all use closed WhatsApp groups? Do they just consume tech info but not produce?

I appreciate they don’t all speak English, nor a language that Google Translate is good at.

They’ve gotta be dealing with the same problems we do fixing these, if not more.


Solar Aid who wrote this report have an app called SunnyMoney which has repair guides.

Don’t know about uptake:

https://solar-aid.org/news/repair-app/


Absolutely a possibility. Solar systems, especially when not connected to a grid, are fairly simple beasts at the end of the day. Simple enough that I've seen more than a few youtube videos where guys build out their own custom solar system on a van.

There's only a few parts that go bad (it's probably a capacitor somewhere).




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