Guide Builder Project FAQ

• You are making the world a better place.

• You are getting real-world experience that can go on your résumé. Students often tell us that having the project on their résumé helped them land a great job.

• Your guides will be used by real people all throughout the world. Past student guides have received well over 100,000 views.

• You are contributing to an open-source repair manual that people can use for free.

• E-waste is not a joke; it's a real problem.

• You get to take stuff apart.

• You get to build your photography skills.

• It beats writing a huge paper that will eventually end up in a recycle bin.

• If you do well, we'll send you a recommendation letter, and your guide will serve as a role model for future students by being placed on the Featured Student Guides page.

We want this project to be a fun, meaningful learning experience. We want you to get a taste of industry and have a good time getting your feet wet in technical writing. If you feel that this project isn't your cup of tea, send us an email or talk to your instructor—we're always interested in feedback so we can make the program better!

We can explain all of the ins and outs of this project a hundred times, but nothing will benefit you and your group as much as seeing firsthand what makes a great student project. Here are a few of our staff favorites from past terms:

• Protocol Galileo Stealth Motor Replacement

• Google Home Sound Driver Replacement

• HTC Vive Controller Motherboard Replacement

All of the projects above received "A" grades because they are clear, thorough, and comprehensive. If you are interested in looking at more projects, check out our Featured Student Guides page. Who knows—if your group has got the right stuff, maybe your project will make its way onto this list!

Want to learn more about what makes a good student project? Head on over to the Putting It Together: Building A Successful Project infographic, as it's chock-full of helpful tips on how to create a great project.

All of the work you do on your project is hosted on our main website, www.ifixit.com. This website, edu.ifixit.com, is a separate place for us to keep all of the documentation pertaining to the iFixit Technical Writing Project.

We've compiled a list of safety tips for some of the most common devices. Almost any device can become dangerous if mishandled, but some devices pose more hazards than others. Some devices, like CRT televisions, are so inherently hazardous that we ask you not to work on them at all in connection with your student project. Others, like cell phones, only become dangerous if you do something specific, like rupture the battery. Ultimately, it's up to you and your team members to select a device that you feel comfortable working with.

For most student guides, soldering (or desoldering) is not necessary. However, there are some devices that do require soldering, and this can be quite a hassle for folks who have never soldered before or are uncertain of their soldering skills.

If the opportunity presents itself, we encourage you to practice your soldering skills during this project. The device that you are working on is often already broken, so this is a great opportunity to practice real-world soldering with little inherent risk. For tips on soldering, check out our How to Solder and Desolder Connections guide.

However, if you choose not to do any soldering work, there is still an opportunity to complete your guides. Often, soldered parts are "top of the food chain" components, meaning that they are one of the last parts to be removed, and their removal isn't a prerequisite for other components. In this case, we suggest that you do the guide as you normally would and simply leave the last step with instructions on where to solder or desolder. Here is an example of a student guide that requires soldering, but the students decided to not desolder the connections.

In this case, you may shoot your photos as "mock-soldering," rather than actually soldering in your photos. If you don't feel comfortable soldering, feel free to clip the wires after shooting your "mock-soldering" photos.

Sometimes there is a substantial amount of soldering required for the repair guide. In that case, we encourage you to do the soldering. After all, these guides are meant to be used, so leaving out large parts of the repair guides would be very frustrating for someone trying to do the repair! Here is an example of a device that requires a fair amount of soldering.

Absolutely! While it might seem like most people trade in their smartphones every time the latest model is released, that simply isn't the reality. Many people can’t—or prefer not to—spend money on a brand-new device. Not only is repair typically cheaper, sometimes it’s the only option.

Often, people in lower-income communities—and even in areas outside of the United States—repair older or budget-friendly devices as an affordable way to keep technology in their community.

When a device reaches the end of its life, electronics recyclers use iFixit guides to disassemble devices into their constituent parts before recycling. For example, many devices with batteries pose safety hazards if recycled improperly.

By creating guides for all devices, old and new, you’re helping people save money—and save their stuff.

Click through the Student Resources. This FAQ, and other resources, may have the answer you need. No luck? Send us an email at techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com. To answer your question quickly, without a lot of back and forth, you’ll want to do the following:

Be specific. Let us know exactly what you need. If you have an issue, be as descriptive as possible. What symptoms are you experiencing? How have you attempted to solve the problem? The more detailed the question, the easier it will be for us to help you!

Provide context. What part of the project are you working on? What were you doing when the issue arose? What specific pages are you on? What specific guide or part are you working with? Any relevant context will help us troubleshoot the issue quickly.

Provide visuals. Photos and screenshots of the issues are helpful.

Keep in mind that iFixit staff may take up to two business days to respond to your email, so it’s best if you ask us specific questions from the get-go to meet your project deadlines.

Luckily for you, we created an easy-to-follow guide creation walkthrough video.

In short, often. We have full-time staff dedicated to working with students in the iFixit Technical Writing Project, and we’re here to help. You should email us whenever you’re ready for our input on a portion of your project. At a minimum, you should email when you’ve written your proposal, after you've completed each unit, and when you've finished your project.

If you used "Sign up with Google/Facebook" when setting up your iFixit account, then you will need to dissociate your iFixit account from within your Google or Facebook account. Further instructions can be found on this help page: How do I edit my iFixit account information?

No worries—leaving a team is easy. Go to iFixit.com/student, click “Leave my team” at the bottom of the page, and try again. Make sure to use the information from your correct team tag when selecting from the drop-down menus.

We've set up an email alias just for you. Please send an email to techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com, and one of us will respond (we have multiple people manning the email alias). Keep in mind that we have weekends off, and it can take up to two business days for us to respond.

The iFixit Technical Writing Project does not offer phone support, so we ask that you avoid calling iFixit’s Customer Support line.

We welcome and admire your skepticism! Here at iFixit, we have a big goal: to teach everyone to fix every thing. Repairing the world requires lots of know-how, repair documentation, and advocacy on why repair is so important. Our mission is to use repair to save resources and end the e-waste crisis, not to be a slimebucket company going for the bottom line. Teaching people how to fix all the things they own is a monumental task to accomplish—which is why we are a community‚ not just a tech company.

We don’t host third party ads, so we don't make money by hosting your guides. We do sell parts and tools to help users complete their repairs, and these resources are linked through the guides—but they're a recommendation, not a requirement. People don't have to buy anything to use the guides. The guides you create as part of this project are protected by this Creative Commons license forever, and people all around the world will also be able to edit them, like Wikipedia. Your guides become part of a growing database of repair knowledge.

Our education staff and programs function outside of our operations and were created for the benefit of students and our repair community. Not only will you have the opportunity to take apart a device and learn some repair skills, but you’ll also gain professional and technical communication skills as well as project management experience with a real company. Many of our former students have told us this project helped them to get hired by some awesome companies. In fact, we’ll be more than happy to write you a letter of recommendation if your content is featured on the site.

Ultimately, we hope you find that, by participating in this project, you’ll not only be gaining valuable skills but also impacting the world by helping real people repair their devices. If you still don’t think this project is for you, reach out to your instructor as soon as possible to discuss an alternative project. If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to email our program director at education[at]ifixit[dot]com. We look forward to working with you!