Electronics Repair Gurus?

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  • femurphy77

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    I have an old receiver that I'd like to have repaired, the tuner was fading out after a few minutes and now nothing at all from it. I'm guessing that it is probably a bad cap. Anybody do electronic repairs, can handle this and willing to do it? I'll pay of course.

    Thanks!
     

    Karl-just-Karl

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    If you're willing to take the lid off (unplug it first of course) you might look around for a loose wire (cable connector) or circuit card socket.

    I don't know how old your receiver is, but I have ran into this in the past. Sometimes a disconnect and re-seat remediates some problems.

    I'm not saying it is the problem, just a cheap suggestion to start with.

    Good Luck!
     

    eldirector

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    That looks like a good solid lead, thanks! They have a website also; getchellampco.com for future reference.
    HA! Yeah. Didn't think to google up his website. Grabbed that off my book of faces. We are friends with his parents. He has carved out a nice little niche for himself with the vintage and tube-based stuff.
     

    Mark-DuCo

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    I've repaired several tvs for people, normally if a capacitor goes bad the top of it will be bulged out or even busted and have black stuff coming out. Replacing one on a circuit board is pretty easy if you know how to use a soldering iron.
     

    edporch

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    I've repaired several tvs for people, normally if a capacitor goes bad the top of it will be bulged out or even busted and have black stuff coming out. Replacing one on a circuit board is pretty easy if you know how to use a soldering iron.

    ^^^^^^ THIS
    Just be sure to get the polarity right if you replace a capacitor.
    You'll be in for a big surprise if you don't. ;)

    Also be sure the specs on the replacement capacitor are as good or better than the bad one.
    I usually go a little better.
     

    Dead Duck

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    ^^^^^^ THIS
    Just be sure to get the polarity right if you replace a capacitor.
    You'll be in for a big surprise if you don't. ;)

    Also be sure the specs on the replacement capacitor are as good or better than the bad one.
    I usually go a little better.


    You mean like "Tool Time" better?...... MORE POWER!!
    ggq9GcR.gif
     

    eldirector

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    For the few electronics repairs I have done, I may go with better QUALITY, but the exact same specs. They are called "specifications" for a reason. I'm not an electrical engineer (funny: my dad is/was), so I'm gonna assume the original engineers knew a thing or two. I'll just replace with the same, and move on.

    Funny story with my dad (the professional electrical engineer):
    We had an old electric range when I was a kid. It stopped working one day. Dad being, well, dad, he decided I should help him fix it. He read the schematic, while I tested voltage here, maybe resistance there, etc... We eventually found what we thought was the problem and fixed it. Sure enough, when plugged back it, it still didn't work. I crawled back behind it again to keep testing. Dad asked me to jumper across two connections with the screwdriver, to see if that triggered a relay. I asked if he was sure, because those were some pretty big terminals and wires. He checked the diagram, confirmed that was the low-voltage control circuit, and go ahead. BAMMMMM! 220 volts arced across my screwdriver, cutting it in half. I (as a young teen) cursed like a sailor, and was blinded for about 5 minutes. My mother was freaking out, my dad was trying to tell me I was "grounded" for cursing, which just set me off again. I locked myself in my room for a few hours, and dad ended up jury-rigging something in that stove to make it work.

    30 years later, I was wiring up a 220V electric heater in my shop. Dad asked if I needed help. I reminded him of the above, and said "nah, I'm good! You tried to cook me the last time."
     

    edporch

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    For the few electronics repairs I have done, I may go with better QUALITY, but the exact same specs. They are called "specifications" for a reason. I'm not an electrical engineer (funny: my dad is/was), so I'm gonna assume the original engineers knew a thing or two. I'll just replace with the same, and move on.
    -snip-

    Yes, I would ordinarily agree with this.
    But to assume the manufacturer is always right on specs is sometimes taking too much for granted.

    Case in point.
    I bought a Samsung 46 inch TV in 2008.
    Within 2 years it began to fail.
    First by going through the power on cycle over and over, and then eventually not powering up at all.

    I found several bulged and leaking capacitors.

    I went on a forum about this particular model and found that the failure mine had was common.

    Other's who had repaired several of this model TV advised replacing the bad caps with ones that had a higher temperature rating.
    They said the original spec would often fail in time and have to be replaced again.

    So I took their advice and bought replacement caps with a higher temperature rating, and here in 2020, that TV is still working fine.

    So the manufacturer isn't ALWAYS right.
     
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    Mr. Habib

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    The manufacturer is right if you consider that they are building to meet a certain price point. Things like higher temp / higher voltage caps, lower tolerance resistors cost money. Money that their
    target customer base usually isn't willing to pay.
     

    edporch

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    The manufacturer is right if you consider that they are building to meet a certain price point. Things like higher temp / higher voltage caps, lower tolerance resistors cost money. Money that their
    target customer base usually isn't willing to pay.

    Manufacturers make mistakes.
    Look at all the recalls on vehicles.
    $2275 (almost $2800 in today's dollars) TV's aren't exempt from design mistakes.

    Samsung made a mistake when they used the caps they used.
    No top of the line TV company is going to sell top of the line TV's that commonly fail in less than 2 years.
     

    jkaetz

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    The manufacturer is right if you consider that they are building to meet a certain price point. Things like higher temp / higher voltage caps, lower tolerance resistors cost money. Money that their
    target customer base usually isn't willing to pay.
    This, components are frequently cheapened to make budget. Sure they'll work for a while but they will usually fail prematurely. I've heard at least one engineer say that they design something then give it to someone else who removes components until the thing doesn't work, they then put back the minimum to make it work.

    Someone with more knowledge than me can answer this but I thought a capacitor's voltage & capacitance were linked. For example two capacitors could have different ratings, one being a high voltage and low capacity and the other being a low voltage but high capacity even though physically they were the same. Granted there are other specs like temperature and ISR
     
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