By Timothée L'Angevin Published on News Rennes See my news
Camcorders, old consoles with wired controllers, televisions with cathode ray tubes and stereo systems with cassettes. At Nicolas Maumy, we jump back 30 to 40 years. This 28-year-old young man from Rennes repairs everything. But essentially these devices that punctuated our daily lives in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, before the all-digital era.
In his apartment, he collects dozens and dozens of them, neatly arranged in cupboards, stacked on top of each other behind an old pinball machine, and wherever there is room. "But it's not all here," he explains. In a garage, I have more than a hundred computers! »
For some time now, he has been worshiping video recorders. “I collect them on the internet, in garage sales, and I spend hours repairing them. »
Once refurbished, he offers them through groups on Facebook and tries to exchange them for broken devices. A circular economy that makes happy among the many individuals looking to digitize old VHS tapes.
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A screwdriver in the hands at two years old
Ever since he was little, Nicolas has been putting his hands into machines. “At two years old, I already had a screwdriver between my fingers and I took my toys apart. My parents didn't have a lot of money, so we had to learn to make do with what we had. In the footsteps of his handyman father, “a carpenter”, Nicolas sets out to repair the irreparable. All objects then pass through his fingers.
At just 4 years old, he discovered the world of computing with an old computer that he took apart. A real passion for circuits and components was born. “To be honest, I can't even figure out how I learned,” admits Nicolas. In my memories, I was testing. If it didn't work, I tried again. »
“New objects are not made to be repaired”
At the end of the 2000s, internet access enabled him to find answers on the hundreds of forums he consulted. As a teenager, rather shy and withdrawn, he spent hours in his room transformed into a studio.
Nicolas passes an electronic baccalaureate, then a DUT systems and networks. In the 2010s, as ever smaller and more powerful smartphones flooded the market, he became fascinated by old devices.
Green fiber
Nicolas knows that this market is taken by storm by hundreds of repairers, who in less than 15 minutes change the screens and batteries of our latest generation smartphones.
“But there are hardly any for old objects. And the young man from Rennes, driven by an ecological conscience, does not like to throw them away. Especially when they are victims of any small breakdown, which he solves with a simple change of part and a blow of a soldering iron.
No failure scares him. Moreover, he only buys “only broken down stuff”, which he finds on Facebook, Le Bon Coin and garage sales.
Relics
The problem is not so much the breakdown, but rather the lack of spare parts. Especially for 40-year-old objects, whose components have not been produced for years. On eBay, Nicolas sometimes manages to find them. “Sometimes I had to buy the same product 10 times to be able to fix just one! »
But the result is there. In his workshop, he revives relics. It is with a touch of nostalgia that we rediscover the purring mechanism of a VCR and the typical grain of VHS.
He cannot say how many objects have passed through his expert hands, "but at least several hundred: recently, I repaired 30 to 40 video recorders and about twenty camcorders..."
Museum
Today system and network administrator at Supélec (higher school of electricity) on the Beaulieu campus, he would like to live entirely from his passion. He has also launched a Youtube channel in which he explains step by step how he repairs his objects.
But his dream would be to exhibit all his devices, “like in a museum”. In order to ensure that they do not fall into oblivion.
If you have broken devices, do not hesitate to contact Nicolas Maumy on Facebook.Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Rennes in the My Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.
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