I am deserving of a medal (maybe)

On the drive home from Wales earlier in the year with the caravan in tow, the TV bounced out of its cupboard and fell a couple of feet. After which the picture kept breaking up. Pulled it apart to take a peek inside for problems, reseated ribbon cables - nothing at all found and it worked fine when rebuilt - for a while. Repeated the process several times, with it working when rebuilt.

Took off yesterday for a week with the van miles from home and the TV's picture had real problems and no equipment to do much. Pulled the LCD driver board out for the n-th time, decided to give it gentle wipe over with an old toothbrush and a surface mount crystal fell off in the wash basin. Stripped the drain down to recover it, then began wandering how to solder it back with no equipment. Thought shall I do a dash home with board, but then thought there might be a TV repairer or a mobile phone repairer nearer who might take pity. I tracked down a TV repairer who was also a radio amatuer just a couple of miles down the road, who was prepared to do the soldering repair at 8 in the evening. All back together and fully working again. Crystal had been an obvious dry joints on its legs, surprised it worked as long as it had.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield
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Well done. TV repairers seem to be getting thin on the ground these days!

Reply to
John Rumm

Yes they are. The problem for them is getting the parts. Most of the time its a chuck the main board in the bin and fit a new one which is probably going to cost more than a new tv.

I have a driy joint on a computer motherboard somewhere in the 12 v circuitry, and it only seemed to affect things like sound cards that used that supply, so I just fitted a usb sound card instead. No crackles as it uses the 5 v supply instead. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

It's all these d-i-y nuts doing them out of a job.

Reply to
polygonum

The Tcon board went faulty on our 2 year old Samsung TV during Wimbledon tennis resulting in a very unhappy wife. Went on Ebay, found the same set with a broken screen, bought it and fetched it. Replaced the Tcon board, TV working again in about 3 hours. Result impressed and happy wife. (lots of brownie points) Then removed all the remaining boards and sold them on Ebay for a small profit. The broken screen went down the tip. We now have a second remote which causes a problem sometimes when the TV changes to something I want to watch!

Reply to
Chud

tennis resulting in a very unhappy wife.

How did you know which board went faulty ?

what do you mean by fetched it. The P&P on such things would make it not worth the risk for me.

3 hours ~£30 an hour for repairers roughly.

So it;s got to be close to £100 for teh fix.

Result impressed and happy wife. (lots of brownie points)

rofit. The broken screen went down the tip.

I assume you're retired.

changes to something I want to watch!

Reply to
whisky-dave

n tennis resulting in a very unhappy wife.

profit. The broken screen went down the tip.

V changes to something I want to watch!

Reply to
Chud

n tennis resulting in a very unhappy wife.

profit. The broken screen went down the tip.

V changes to something I want to watch!

50 years experience as an electronics engineer plus help from the internet. Fortunately the seller was only 10 miles away. You're right I am retired and my time left is priceless!
Reply to
Chud

don tennis resulting in a very unhappy wife.

ll profit. The broken screen went down the tip.

TV changes to something I want to watch!

Yep, haven't got much left ;-), well I wouldn't spend my last time repairin g TVs but if you enjoy it.....

Reply to
whisky-dave

Good fix, there's a lot of satisfaction in saving stuff from the tip. I have a similar dilemma with a dead 5yo Pany. Identified the dead board but not economic to repair so bought a Samsung. I feel I ought to put it on eBay for spares or repair, buyer collects, but it may just end up in the tip next time I make a trip.

Reply to
newshound

Quite. But in this throw away age, fixing things seems to be just penny pinching. I've just spent half an hour fixing a dimmer where a PCB track burnt out after a bulb blew. When I could have bought a new one for under a tenner.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

You could easily spend a similar amount of time buying a new set and disposing of the old one, not to mention it being a far more costly way of doing it.

Reply to
John Rumm

Dave Plowman (News) used his keyboard to write :

I am a firm beleiver in fixing what ever I can fix. The dimmer failed on a less used wall light a couple of years ago. I knew I had some triacs stashed away somewhere, but they appeared on my garage bench a couple of weeks ago. I set to it the dimmer wasn't dimming, almost certain the triac was dead short. Now fixed and took minutes.

I weight up the cost + time spent sourcing + plus maybe cost of fuel.

The TV I just repaired would have been not easy or cheap to find a replacement for, it was mains 12/24v DC and a neat fit for my caravan. Besides, we were away from home and SWMBO needed her TV :-?

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

John Rumm used his keyboard to write :

Exactly, even buying new has a large time penalty if you need someting a bit unusual.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Me too but that does not include a TV repair man.

I wouldn't bother with the expense of putting a dimmer on a little used light.

I built my own dimmer weel it was a kit about 20 years ago.

So OK for you, how many peole do you think i they had the same dimmer would also have the correct triac laying about on the bench and be able to replace that triac and have evertything working again without killing themselves ? See exactly

How many of them would phone around for a repair man or an electrician.

Reply to
whisky-dave

No actually I'd spend longer on deciding what TV I wanted I did early this year spend a few weeks thinking about it.

My previous TV a 32 inch LG I've had for 4 years my dad had it about 1 year beofre that. Now it was and is still working I wanted to wait until it died to justify getting a new TV.

So can yuo tell me what parts I can souce fand replace to turn my old TV into a 43" smart TV with optical i/o I'l order it from ebay tonight and have it installed by sunday.

Reply to
whisky-dave

Then stick to what you are comfortable with. That's advice given here to everyone as regards DIY.

Lighting is one of those things you either want for 'mood' or just to avoid tripping over the cat as cheaply as possible. The latter seemingly more important to many on here. ;-)

For those with the skills, sourcing a suitable triac/diac and replacing them is a trivial job. But it does sound like anything electrical is something you'd be best to avoid.

Not much point in this group, then. How much do you think a repair man would charge to come and change a dimmer? 50 quid? 100? And it will be broken while waiting on his convenience.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

On Tuesday, 27 September 2016 20:48:41 UTC+1, Harry Bloomfield snipped:

But it's OK, they are old bone suckers. It has been a while since any of the dogs on here had teeth.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

While you have a working TV.

You'd spend ages choosing a new set when the old had broken?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Hopefully most people would think in a simialr way. And most people shouldn't think they can repair a TV. Didn't you get rid of a DPTV recently and that was working !

So you need to think about what you want. The cheapest option would be no l ight. A dimmer is an inefficient and expeensive option.

For thos ehaving the skills they can fix the hubble telescope not everyone can though that's the point and the item to be fixed needs to be of suffici ent value to make it worht fixing and for most an old TV of 5 years old is hardly worth fixing.

Yeah sure. Can you tell me what triac it was ? I have some with 6ft of me. I've got £14k worth of componts I keep in stock in my lab. If I had a dimmer that died I'd most likely take it apart to see what was wrong but most dimmers I;'ve seem have surface mount device s with the number scrtched off and tyou have to buy them in packs of 10, re sistors packs of 100 I buy them for the students, I;ve refused some as they are discountinued products or are specail order only the last chip was onl y a fiver but you have to buy them in quantities of 100, would hardly worth buying for one TV is it. Might be better to spend £50 on a working board wouldn;t it ?

But I wouldn't bother fixing a 5+ year old TV unless it was for someone els e. In 5 years time I'll consider a 4K HDR maybe even a curved one. I have a lens for a DPTV somewhere downstairs I wouldn't waste my time repa iring one of those.

Most of the world isn't in this group.

I'd say £50 would be resonable but I'd ask how much for a repair too. I'd be suprised if he offered to repair it cheaper than replacing it.

How much would yuo charge to repair a dimmer.

Reply to
whisky-dave

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