My wife is real happy, she works home with a brand new Samsung 24" curved wide and the 22" repaired, plugged on a laptop Lenovo i7 through 1*Hdmi and a thunderbolt 4 to Hdmi adapter; Now I can keep building my Pass UGS and F7 mono... and others... 😎
To extend the life of capacitors from CFL inverters and SMPS sources in general, I additionally solder a few more ceramic capacitors (4.7µF-22µF) directly between the pins of the electrolytic capacitors. Sometimes, especially if I see signs of overheating in the area, I also add some improvised heat-sink from the pieces (usually from Cu) soldered at the inverter transistors (around them), or even in their drain.
However, care must be taken because the ceramic capacitors placed at the output of the power supply can lead to instability.
However, care must be taken because the ceramic capacitors placed at the output of the power supply can lead to instability.
Kind of... Just buy decent bulbs...
I bought 4$ LED bulbs from a local Chinese mall 8 years ago. All of them still work.
I bought GU10 LED bulbs from a Chinese store on Ebay 7 years ago - All still work.
I bought a few Chinese RGB LED "smart" light bulbs from Amazon... All still work.
I've only bought 3 LED bulbs that failed... 2 were corn cob lights, the other was a PAR38 replacement. The drivers went...
I have 3 Philips PAR38 LED bulbs (50$ each FFS) that all work perfectly almost 10 years later.
I even have an F40 LED replacement from Home Despot in my washroom that's been working longer than any fluorescent I ever had.
Even dollar store LED bulbs outlast the incandescents now. CFL was always trash IMHO. I'd use candles before CFL 😀
I bought 4$ LED bulbs from a local Chinese mall 8 years ago. All of them still work.
I bought GU10 LED bulbs from a Chinese store on Ebay 7 years ago - All still work.
I bought a few Chinese RGB LED "smart" light bulbs from Amazon... All still work.
I've only bought 3 LED bulbs that failed... 2 were corn cob lights, the other was a PAR38 replacement. The drivers went...
I have 3 Philips PAR38 LED bulbs (50$ each FFS) that all work perfectly almost 10 years later.
I even have an F40 LED replacement from Home Despot in my washroom that's been working longer than any fluorescent I ever had.
Even dollar store LED bulbs outlast the incandescents now. CFL was always trash IMHO. I'd use candles before CFL 😀
Same for the bulbs I've had. Though my early Crees seem to have lost a little brightness with use.
I watch a lot of youtube pc/audio etc fixes.
They usually find shorted cap or blown mosfets.
So the other day, I dad's amp stopped working...
The description? It made a loud pop and then the sound faded away but the tubes were all still lit up.
Long story short, a set of 2 100k 3W resistors set up as bleeders on the 600V line packed it in, arced over, and took the PCB trace with it. Replaced the board instead of doing a wire repair of the trace, replaced it with 1 200k 5W and all is well again.
That's the first time I've had a MO power resistor arc, too. First time for everything I guess.
Then today I was wondering why I was getting a popping sound on the right channel on volume changes... I find 10.8V on the right channel... The problem was an error in the 6E2 driver board where the 12AU7 cathode and grid were reversed. The thing still worked but the input level pot was controlling the cathode current instead of the level. Did a quick cross of the pins and now it works as expected.
I also measured the gain of my sinple gain board with a 6N1. 1.2V in makes 22V out 😀
The description? It made a loud pop and then the sound faded away but the tubes were all still lit up.
Long story short, a set of 2 100k 3W resistors set up as bleeders on the 600V line packed it in, arced over, and took the PCB trace with it. Replaced the board instead of doing a wire repair of the trace, replaced it with 1 200k 5W and all is well again.
That's the first time I've had a MO power resistor arc, too. First time for everything I guess.
Then today I was wondering why I was getting a popping sound on the right channel on volume changes... I find 10.8V on the right channel... The problem was an error in the 6E2 driver board where the 12AU7 cathode and grid were reversed. The thing still worked but the input level pot was controlling the cathode current instead of the level. Did a quick cross of the pins and now it works as expected.
I also measured the gain of my sinple gain board with a 6N1. 1.2V in makes 22V out 😀
Not so much a repair but an upgrade?
I swapped a PSU board with 4x330µF in parallel for one with CRC of 2000µF-5R-2000µF in my 6P45S amp because I had it and it fit. It would only fit in a 3 inch chassis unless it was bolted to a side anyway. Better transient response now...
I love having a hum free amplifier using only 10R in the PSU (120V into Delon using 2x470µF-5R-2470-5R-2000µF for ~320V out @ 400mA with 2 ampere peaks)
I swapped a PSU board with 4x330µF in parallel for one with CRC of 2000µF-5R-2000µF in my 6P45S amp because I had it and it fit. It would only fit in a 3 inch chassis unless it was bolted to a side anyway. Better transient response now...
I love having a hum free amplifier using only 10R in the PSU (120V into Delon using 2x470µF-5R-2470-5R-2000µF for ~320V out @ 400mA with 2 ampere peaks)
I repaired a NAD Integrated Amplifier C 320BEE. There was distortion in both channels. I found that a small bypass cap had shorted causing a fusable resistor in the 18vdc supply to open. I replaced the resistor and discarded the cap which played a non-critical. Now the amp is as good as new.
Fixed a JVC rs65u projector that wouldn’t turn on.
replaced a M5199 control chip on the ballast along with a LNK363dn chip on the back side of the board
also. I resoldered it under a stereo scope
And now it came out of the grave and works ! I can tell by the light dust on the fans that the hours counter
at 702 hours hasn’t been reset.
hard to believe this sold for 12k when new
Now to fix a rs540 and 4910 that will be considerably more difficult
replaced a M5199 control chip on the ballast along with a LNK363dn chip on the back side of the board
also. I resoldered it under a stereo scope
And now it came out of the grave and works ! I can tell by the light dust on the fans that the hours counter
at 702 hours hasn’t been reset.
hard to believe this sold for 12k when new
Now to fix a rs540 and 4910 that will be considerably more difficult
Attachments
Actually, it's easy to believe the outrageous price with any new "trendy" products.
Look at what flat screen tv's cost when they first came out.
And these days, the "4K" sets.
And the "connoisseur" audiophile brands like MacIntosh, etc...
Justifiable sky-high prices due to hype, reputation, touting special "innovations" to keep up with corporate bloat and inflation.. let's not forget "greed".
Oh, and add in the famous "Reference Series" label, just like "Monitor" or "Studio" or "Pro" - it helps to pad the sale price too.
Not trying to be negative here, in fact just the opposite...
So that projector lasted a decade, only a measily 702 hours run-time, then crapped out?
Goes against the "you get what you paid for" law, huh?
And here I am, a poor old retired tech, 45 years of professional servicing experience - I've seen it all, done it all, and got the T-shirt too.
And quite happy and satisfied with my "welfare budget" home entertainment products, which actually last decades without issues or needing "upgrading".
Heck, I paid a measily $300 back in 2014 for my Panasonic Viera tv, a "non-smart" set with fantastic picture, not a problem all these years.
The very 'best' bit of kit I have owned (still own) has to be my Sony Digital TV Recorder from 2008. I time shift pretty much everything and I'd guess on average that it is running for 5 to 6 hours a day. You can play and record at the same time. It must have 25 to 30 thousand hours on the clock now and still perfect.
I did (ho-hum) recap the PSU about 4 years ago and to be honest when tested I found all the caps to be as good as the new ones that went in. Used a Tan ϴ meter. The only other significant change was fitting a 1Tb drive in place of the original 160Gb. Easy swap but you need a service remote to format the new drive and set the file system.
A Philips 17" FST (one of the portable so called flat screens back in the day) from 1984 ish is still going strong. Has to be used with a modulator now of course as no analogue TV these days. For nostalgic purposes I still have the original four AAA batteries (Maxell brand) that came with it. Leak free and they still operate the remote. Use by date, September 1986.
I tend to keep stuff for a long long time 🙂
Mooly, I've got a Panasonic DVD/HDD DVR - DMR-E85H, similar to your Sony.
It was a customer's set that he left abandoned in the shop years ago.
I brought it home.
Needed a new SMPS drive chip and some caps.
I put a Samsung 160G hard drive in it too, and have a remote that operates it.
It's been reliable so far, 7 years in my care.
Those things were not cheap eaither!
My dad has a similar one. It went out 7 days after his 4 year extended warranty expired. He paid like 500$ for it plus taxes and warranty.
Bad cap in the PSU. 5$ and it was fixed. He still has it but it hasn't seen electric for years since he has a PVR from the "cable company" now...
Bad cap in the PSU. 5$ and it was fixed. He still has it but it hasn't seen electric for years since he has a PVR from the "cable company" now...
Hint: Put a small heatsink on the driver chip to make it run cooler. - they're hard to find replacements now.
A small piece of thin aluminum bent in a "U" shape, like - |_| <- wide as the chip.
Put a drop of heatsink grease in the middle of the chip, and each at each corner a dab of glue to hold it in place.
Works like a charm.
Replaced all the electrolytic caps, leaking SMD electrolytics, had to replace some SMD resistors and hard wire some connections, the board traces were eaten, in a Tektronix 2445 Oscilloscope. It is working perfectly now, much crisper display.
You get thermal glue too, combination of heat sink compound and glue, used to bond LEDs to heat sinks.
You have to use it up within a month after opening, it cures like silicon on air exposure.
If you need to stick a heat sink to a chip, try that.
And the small heat sinks used for LM1875 type chips may work too, if you have one lying around, more area.
You have to use it up within a month after opening, it cures like silicon on air exposure.
If you need to stick a heat sink to a chip, try that.
And the small heat sinks used for LM1875 type chips may work too, if you have one lying around, more area.
Interesting, that's one I've not seen before. I must admit to having a Panasonic as well, A DMREX-97B which is quite a recent acquisition and I got this because it can record the HD transmissions.
Compared to the Sony it feels and is very lightweight. Much smaller physical outline as well with just a small main PCB and small PSU and a 2.5" drive vs the 3.5" of the Sony. Apparently these record the data stream in native form with no decoding or demodulation and so haven't all the processing of older machines like the Sony.
What marks the Panasonic out is that as far as I know all the 'operating system' for the machine is loaded from the HDD each time it is powered up which takes around 50 seconds although it does have a fast start mode that keeps the thing running 24/7. I don't use that though.
How much longer we will have terrestrial TV via an aerial remains to be seen...