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Transferable skills

domlouis

domlouis

Registered
10 Years
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
1,681
Location
Derby
Quite pleased with myself. I managed yesterday to fix my 50 inch plasma screen. It just wouldn't turn on anymore. A bit of google bingo and figured out a common fault with these are capacitors blowing. Opened the back of the tele and surely enough there were 7 blown capacitors on the power board. Bought new ones. Desolder the old ones, resolder the new ones. Board back in and job done. TV is working again.
Simple story but my point is: I would never even have dreamt about doing something like this before I started tinkering with pinball machines. Learning about fixing pinballs has given me new skills I didn't have before. And i am 48. Never too late.
 
The madness in all this is our throw away mentality. My mate works at the local council tip and a daily occurrence is some bloke dropping off a big screen LCD TV and the guys throwing them away saying they work but we have bought a bigger newer one. more than one has said the remote stopped working OMG Utter madness.
non electronic related I put two bikes on eBay for free a 8 speed mountain bike (10-12yr old) and a smaller kids Raleigh 4-6 both quite tide fully working apart from a puncture on the larger one. No one wanted them until I openly shared the post with the wife’s running club and they eventually went a week later. Hopefully this lockdown has brought us to our senses.
now let me get back to my new pin acquisition and see what pin I’m chucking out :rofl:
 
Maybe another point I should have made in my opening message is that the advice provided by people on this forum has been the vector to acquiring these skills.
 
stevebm1 said:
the trouble is as you no longer have tv repair shops as such and the price of tv's have come down so much,it's a throw away society sadly
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Price of TV's have dropped..... or is it that people are too lazy and just go and buy another??
My parents constantly remind me that things are what you make them - Why throw away a pair of jeans when you can use them for painting... why throw away a clothes horse as the clips have broken (mum used elastic bands toi hoild it together untill i 3d printed some new clips.

I'm an engineer by trade - i enjoy fixing stuff - i get the buzz when it didnt worked and does now...for some though its just too much like hard work...
 
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I can remember fixing a crt tv when I was a kid, luckily b/w. Still a decent shock⚡️
I can’t believe how cheap some tv’s are these days, crazy.
 
Paul said:
I'm an engineer by trade - i enjoy fixing stuff - i get the buzz when it didnt worked and does now...for some though its just too much like hard work...
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Bingo.

It's more an addiction than a practical decision at this point though, for me, lol
 
The TV thing is amazing these days. It is always worth a look for those bulging capacitors.....

I trained in the mid 80s as a TV repair engineer, but instead went into the music trade as a stage technician on many a big tours.

Having electronic know how has saved me a lot of cash over the years and earnt me a living since 1985. Well truthfully - I used to do electronic repairs from the age of 11....

Have a go yourself if you think you are up to it - what do you have to loose?
 
For completeness this is a picture of the board before the repair. The bulged up capacitors are easy to spot.
 

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domlouis said:
For completeness this is a picture of the board before the repair. The bulged up capacitors are easy to spot.
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LG 50PC55?
Released right at the back end of the common 'risk' period for capacitor-plague parts... and LG was a known victim of them.

Good example right there!!
 
Yes that's right LG 50PC55. Manufactured in 2007. How did you guess?
 
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Just managed to fix my sons faulty PS4 controller. Replaced the internal circuit film. Not something I would ever have thought about trying before owning pinball machines. Saved myself £48 :)
 
It my experience pinball has taught me to think logically- to quote Spock, now when I see a fault I think ov all the ways this could have occurred and go to the most logical first
 
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