Diy Electronics

[maboblivion]

Hi guyz!

Just wanted to know how many of you , here on the forum, are ready to crack open
tv's and monitors to fix em?

I'm only asking as i will embark soon on a journey to repair some of my stuff.

I got a samsung 226bw monitor with the broken caps that make the screen flicker
Also a toshiba dlp with a failing ballast as the resistor on it is likely bellow peak efficiency.
(Gonna have to get the material to fix it thats why i m on here )

So how many of you routinely fix their broken down electronics ?

 

[Acer_Sheep]

I personally fixed hundreds of computers, phones, monitors, laptops and many other electrical devices. I like to work with electronics and such a stuff it's fun .

 

[maboblivion]

Remember when electronics used to last more than 3 years or the warranty ?

My parent's still had an old technicolor tv they got from my grandmother was like 20 years old + and still going when we got rid of it

 

[CYKOTIKTEK]

I fix a ton of blown caps here at work i have fixed at least 100 acer monitors alone plus dell sff pc's compaq sff pc's pretty much anything that takes power i have fixed around here.

 

[Monkey34]

Obvious bad components like damaged toroids/resistors/caps, loose connectors and such are worth doing.......I'll do them anytime I find them.

The lack of proper schematics keep me from most other circuit repair and troubleshooting. I've found some, but not many.

Just get a quality soldering gun. If you buy a cheap one, you'll regret it. Especially after you find "low" is too low, and "high" just burned through three layers of circuitry on the motherboard.

 

[dr.stevil]

absolutely.

I just fixed the power jack on my laptop. The jack was starting to flake out so tore it apart, removed the old jack, did a little dremmeling to fit the beefier jack, re-soldered it back in place and it's good as new

I <3 solder

 

[nakedhand]

Yes, simple repairs, such as swapping out components, rewiring, building basic circuits. It´s nice to be able to repair your own electronics or create simple solutions.

And apparently soldering is good for you if you ventilate your room.

 

[800XL]

I've never had the time to really learn to troubleshoot electronics REALLY well at the component level but I've repaired a lot of things by replacing the obviously broken parts, bad caps and such. A few monitors in the CRT days I adjusted back to usable (flyback adjustment, etc) and a couple LCDs repaired by swapping out bad caps. I've got a TV remote that has been destroyed many times, it only looks a little rough on the outside, but has a fist full of jumper wires inside bridging over broken traces and cracked circuit board. Biggest fix has been a 50 inch Plasma TV that needed some parts resoldered to fix cold joint problems.

My most recent repair was an Ibanez Tubescreamer distortion pedal for the teen garage band that annoys my neighbors. A diode had gotten cooked by the prior owner likely from plugging in a reversed power brick. I found a suitable replacement diode in a dead PC power supply and swapped it in.

Anyone know a good short tutorial on circuit troubleshooting? I'd love to pick up some tips on how to track down the actual right dead parts instead of shotgunning at the problem.

 

[Monkey34]

First 3 hits have some stuff

 

[800XL]

Thanks. Google doesn't come with much in the way of endorsements though, "good" and google search ranking are often unrelated.

I dug further down through results and found http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tshoot.htm to be interesting, though it is anything but short.

 

[Monkey34]

There's no real "short" guide. Start with ohm's law and simple components and circuits.

The thing is, it just grows in complexity as you start adding things like transistors, diodes, resistors, etc. It builds on itself as it goes.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tshoot.htm ..........not bad. A lot of good points.

 

[engiNURD]

I assess the overall cost vs benefit of the repair, and depending on how interested I am, I'll decide whether to fix it myself or not.

e.g....

• Sister's guitar hero guitar: quick google search, found guide, $2 replacement part + 30min of labor. New one would have cost $30.
• CRT Rear Projection HDTV: found service manual for free, replacement part was $100, labor was about an hour. Overall cost was less than the price of a new TV, so I fixed it.
• A mobo was given to me (free). PCB damage - lack of skills to repair, a used version was only $30, so I gave it away and bought a used one.
• I've repaired many laptops, too... hinges, bezels, power jacks, etc. If I can find the replacement parts and the total cost is less than half the price of an equivalent, new laptop, I'll fix it.
• iPod needs new battery: apple charges $80. eBay sells battery for $5 and comes with tools. Took 2 painful hours to complete the replacement, but saved quite a bit of cash -- and new battery works great. Same thing for my old iPhone, but it was much easier labor since the screen isn't glued down and the battery isn't soldered.

advice: google like crazy for your specific repair and read/watch it all the way through a couple times before attempting the repair. If you have any questions, get them answered BEFORE you try it.

 

[800XL]

There's no real "short" guide. Start with ohm's law and simple components and circuits.

The thing is, it just grows in complexity as you start adding things like transistors, diodes, resistors, etc. It builds on itself as it goes.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tshoot.htm ..........not bad. A lot of good points.

Yeah, I was hoping for a lazy way out I guess. I know enough to know that there are a lot of common faults and similarities in almost all circuits. Once you get familiar with those then any new piece of hardware will have at least some familiar elements you can trace and test. That link I found does give sort of a brain dump from a pro, a lot of good tips and places to start.

For the OP: dive in, but be safe. I have opened up old CRT monitors to find prior "repairs" that could have easily given someone a fatal shock without opening up the case. And I agree with eginurd, google like crazy. A lot of times I've found easy fixes that would have required complicated troubleshooting by googling the model of the gadget and the symptoms it has, or just "repair"

 

[maboblivion]

I always work with the things unplugged no use in taking risks lol.

I got a samsung 226bw (gamer edition) 22inch lcd with cheap caps made to last 3 years
Got the info from badcaps forum. Considering the amount of use i had with it ,5years , i must've gotten
1 where a production run ran out of badcaps and had to use some good one from a higher model.... lol!
Got the flashing screen that took 1 to5 min warm up then 30 min then 1 hour. Thats when i stoped using it and got another lcd.
Considering it would take less than 3$ of caps to get a second monitor working , i think its a worth while investment.


The other one is a toshiba dlp ballast board (to fire up the lamp and keep it lit). R3 resistor tends to become infinite causing the lamp to blow out or not light properly. Replacement ballasts boards 200-250$.
Could wait till it fries and takes the new lamp igot or replace the resistor and maybe a few caps.
Under 5$ of caps and 1 x1k ohm resistor (that i have).

Worse comes to shove i, got an uncle that does this sort of work,I'd jsut need to get the parts..... but i do like challenges lol.