Akai PT5492 and Samsung HLS4666

An Akai PT5492 was recently brought in with some convergence problems.

Convergence is how the colors that are reflected onto the television screen appear to the viewer. In these televisions there are three tubes, red, blue and green. Sometimes you can fix the convergence with the remote and the manual.This one in particular needed the television fluid replaced and a new blue tube.

Generally speaking, these sets have issues with convergence because they are older projection televisions and will need the ethylene glycol (television fluid) that cools the tubes within, changed. Often times, they may need their convergence chips changed as well. 

In electronics, it's important to understand that designers are constantly trying to find ways to make their products lighter, with better quality and with the ability to minimize heat exposure to the parts inside of the product. Heat warps things, causing the product to stop working.   Heat can be caused by lamps, capacitors, outside components such as heat vents, shorted circuits or general functioning.

Consequently, we also have a Samsung HLS4666 in the shop that needs a color wheel and a lamp replaced. In my previous article about the Sony DLP's I explained how the color wheel is a superior design to the Sony light engine because the color "wheel" acts not only as a color device but also as a cooling element.

This was another attempt to reduce heat and improve product quality. It is cheaper to fix than the tube-style designs and clearly a better design than the Sony light engine because it acts as a built-in cooling element.

The interesting part of this article is that they both have distributors in Australia. The Anyware Corporation has offices located in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as Australasian PC Distributors, Brightpoint Australia and Synnex Australia.

Further research into these companies is necessary for a broad spectrum report on how the laws about production operate in Australia. For more info regarding these companies, visit http://www.arnnet.com.au/.

  

http://tv.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/akai/5492s.html

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.

Refurbished Samsung

This Samsung needs two resistors changed on the power supply board shown below.

Recently, a local motel requested us to fix several televisions. This was one that they saw while they were at the shop and decided to purchase it once we finished working on it.

Part of our job is to not only fix televisions for our clients but to take in other televisions and appliances to refurbish them for resale. Often times it is more affordable for clients to purchase a refurbished television than a brand new one of the same quality.