Working smart

Mr. Pickett has a catch phrase that he consistently uses, called, "working smart."

It actually used to irritate me...but I think he's got something here.

As you glance around the shop you will see TVs upon TVs sitting one atop another and you start to think to yourself, "If Mr. Pickett is the only one that was here this afternoon, how in the heck did that 60" DLP get on top of that other DLP?"

I know for sure I could not lift that thing. It would come crashing down right on top of my head. No questions asked. One time I came in and found a similar situation, only he had put a TV on top of one of our work tables by himself.

Now let me tell you a little bit about Mr. Pickett. He might be 180 pounds soaking wet. He's not a body builder. Sure, he's got muscle but if you look at these TVs and you see his tall, medium build, you would agree that to lift these TVs seems like a small miracle.

So as I sit here today, he is once again moving TVs around to find sets to toss to the TV gods in the sky. Then he says to me, in his quirky little way that he does, "Now see what I mean about 'working smart'?"

I turn around and he's got a 60" DLP and carefully sliding it from atop one TV set to the next moving it across the room.

That is one of the pitfalls of this business. There is extreme heavy lifting. You have to find ways to maneuver large, awkward objects in a way that gets them where they need to be without hurting yourself or damaging the product.

What it comes down to is simple mechanics. In third grade science we learn about levers, pulleys and inclined planes. We use these simple mechanics everyday to keep from injuring ourselves.

For example, we have push-carts, a dolly, bath towels, boards and other maneuvering devices around the shop that help us to work with TV sets and other large appliances.

When I first met Mr. Pickett, I would have to say within the first week I was tired of the catch phrase "working smart" but inside this shop, it is starting to make sense.

The issue of schematics

Mitsubishi. Toshiba. Sony. Hitachi. Deawoo. Syntax. Samsung. Vizio. Panasonic. RCA. LG. Magnavox. Phillips. We could go on for days.

Then you have different types of televisions: flatscreens, big screens, digital light processing, plasma, liquid crystal display, projection, old-school tube televisions, color, black and white...

Each company breaks it down to a model number and serial number. Every television has a unique design based on the technology available, the economics driving the company along with supply and demand.Thus, establishing a need for a schematics data-base the size of a small factory.

Sometimes fixing a television comes down to simple electronics. Other times you spend hours and hours checking capacitors,diodes, resistors, fuses, etc, trouble-shooting to save your life.

Occasionally, we are lucky enough to find the schematics we need to fix a television online. Once in a while we find a diagram close enough to the original due to the time and model of the set. However, when we do have to order a schematic, it often comes with a hefty price.

On Www.PartStore.com one Panasonic manual was listed at selling for $145.65, another for $6.52. When you tell a client a price on your labor and then have to call them with the bad news that the schematics are going to cost them just about as much, it creates problems. So we have been spending time researching sites that offer free or inexpensive schematics to help solve this issue.

One site we discovered was http://www.service-manual.eu/index.php . This site features several different types of electronics and even vehicle manuals to download for free. The problem, we of course ran into, was that not all of our schematics were listed. However, they do reference other schematic websites and the odds of finding a schematic similar to your model are somewhat good due to the amount of them available on this site.

Even if we never solve the issue of the schematics, we would like our clients to know the process of trouble-shooting that we go through and that their best interest is in mind. We welcome any suggestions as to where we can find legit manuals.

Sony technology at its worst

This is a Sony light engine. It showcases the liquid crystal display panels discussed here.



This a traditional color wheel.

A warped lcd panel.







Most light engines use a color wheel but Sony developed colored liquid crystal display panels that did not aim to please. Here is why.

Digital Light Processing technology was invented in 1987 by Dr. Hornbeck of Texas Instruments, Inc. He invented the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), which is a semiconductor that can accurately direct photons like nothing known to man.

The DMD is used in DLP televisions in congruence with a lamp, a prism, a projection lense, a light funnel and initially, a color wheel to project a picture on a screen.  Here is where the problem lies. 

Sony replaced the color wheel with six colored lcd panels. Sony chose to be different.

Sometimes different isn't a good thing. Not in this particular case.

"Sony is always ahead," said Mr. Pickett.



However, by leaving out the "wheel" part, it left out the option of having a fan. The idea behind the color "wheel" was to have a cooling device to deter the amount of heat produced by the ultra violet rays and polarized blue light. Without the fan, the light engine overheats.

Once the light engine has overheated the lcd panels become warped and this is reflected across the television screen as large multi-colored blobs.

Due to the defects caused by Sony, there was a class-action lawsuit. It was eventually settled  October 23, 2007 but we are still seeing the effects of their poor technology to this day.



Today if one of these light engines fail the extended warranty has expired but we are still able to order the lcd panels from different distributors.

For information regarding the lawsuit, visit http://sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/sonyrearprojectionlcdtv-opticalblock

Problem Child: Sony DLP 60 inch, Model KDF-60xs955

Since July 2011 we have experienced an influx of what we would like to call our "problem child," the Sony 60" DLP, model number KDF-60xs955.

Fifteen of these sets have been repaired or are in the process of being repaired.

The most common problem?

According to Mr. Pickett, "a faded picture with specks all over it."

The only way to fix it is to replace the light engine. The light engine basically provides the light, color and projection of the image onto the screen.

There have been some very simple solutions to the various problems that consumers have encountered. Often times simply adjusting the convergence or the red, green and blue tints is all that is necessary.

For more information regarding this product visit http://www.sony.com/.

Sony DLP TV, KDF 50E2000

This television came to us after a voltage surge and initially the lamp, a 480 micro farad capacitor and a power supply board needed to be replaced. That was done, it was turned on and it worked. The very next day we turned on the television and viola! Nothing...so we took another look and found that the heat from the surge had warped the inside of the door panel where the switch to the lamp is. Now we have to fix that.

Toshiba, 1080p with Built-in Surround-Sound

To buy this t.v. brand new,  you would require a whopping $3,999. At our shop? $599.95, out-the-door. If you think that is a good deal, you should see some of the other items we have sold.

We will be posting photos of the t.v.s we have in the shop periodically. Feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or if you're looking for anything specific.