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Nashou66
Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:39 am Post subject: |
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I found the tube numbers in the service manual and googled it. One of the first results was a page on VDC's site. A new tube for mine is listed at $165, but that doesn't include the discount for sending in your old tube. They'll swap the hardwear from the old tube to the new one. Not a bad price at all, IMO.
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Nashou66
Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:00 am Post subject: |
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Just 7's on mine. I hear the nines are really nice, but they seem to be a fairly rare find these days.
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Nashou66
Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY
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macgyver655
Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508
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Link Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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Ridebreck wrote: | Given that right now I only have about $115 invested in this unit, I'm not going to shed any tears over twenty or thirty more bucks for some IC's. The way that I'm looking at things, if either the caps or the IC's get this unit up and running, I could still order new B & G tubes from VDC and have a fairly minty fresh 55" RPTV for less than $500. No way am I going to thumb my nose at that. |
Did you get the factory remote with it?
Do you want some links to buy those convergence chips or do you have a place to get them from?
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, I do indeed have the remote.
And sure, go ahead and give me the links. Hopefully I won't need them right away, but I'll probably need them at some point.
With any luck, I'll be re-assembling this thing and moving on to tweaking the image on Saturday night (S..A..TUR..DAY....NIGHT!!). <Sorry. that just popped into my head>
As I understand it, there's a pretty good Mits tweak forum on H.T.Spot in the members section. I'm giving serious thought to joining and checking that sucker out.
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macgyver655
Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508
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macgyver655
Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508
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Link Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, and verify that your set has the STK392-110 chips before you order these. These do not replace every STK convergence chip, only certain ones........
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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Will do, and thanks for the link. I was just handed a box from Digikey with my caps. Ordered & paid for 10, got 11.
Land a big one this weekend.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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So I swung by Draganm's place today to check out his Marquee and let him replace the caps. Turns out the ones that I ordered from Digikey were just too large of a diameter for them all to fit in such tight quarters, but luckily, he happened to have some in his parts kit that fit.
Draganm, it was great meeting you after all this time. You've got a great little family there. Too bad we scared your little one. I felt for you on that one, man.
So on to the question of the day....did it work? I'll put it this way....IT'S ALIVE!!!! I popped the board back in, reconnected the cables, took a deep breath, and plugged her in. The light was flashing same as before, so I gave it a few minutes while I found something to watch on the other TV and fired up the computer. After about two minutes, I walked over to the front of the unit and no blinking light. Pushed the power button, and booya!!
So now I get to put it back together and get to tweaking. I hope to have her up and running by bedtime.
Many, many thanks to Draganm and Mac.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 3:08 am Post subject: |
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Well, she's converged and bluray looks quite nice. Once I get more familiar with the controls and feel more up to it, I'll play with the geometry more. The edges are pretty wacky, but it doesn't show up in the content. However I've got a more immediate issue. There is definitely a bad soldier joint in the menu system.
At first I couldn't get it to come up at all, but I could hit MENU + 0159 and the convergence grid would come up, so I knew the commands were working. So I started converging it. After a while, I would get a quick flash of the menu. This became more and more persistent until finally the convergence menu popped up and stayed. Sure enough, when I exited the convergence and hit menu, there it was. Now I just need to find out what boards to start inspecting. The good news is that I can use the HD component input just fine without the menu.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 6:04 am Post subject: |
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I typed too soon. I've evidently now got a blown pico fuse on the convergence board. I went in to the OTA Antenna section of the menu to see if it would find a QAM signal, and the screen flickered like mad and then I heard a click and the unit powered off. It now will only turn on for a few seconds and then shut off. I get an error code of 22 on the front. My internet searches reveal that this is most likely a blown pico fuse. sh*t.
The back panel is off yet again and now I get to dive in to search for blown fuses. Lovely. I should have just left it alone and been happy with the component input, but no...I had to go playing around with it.
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draganm
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado
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Link Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 6:32 am Post subject: |
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Ridebreck wrote: | Too bad we scared your little one. I felt for you on that one, man. | yeah that was awful, I always forget that movies that aren't scary to adults terrify little kids.
sorry to hear you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory , If you need any more help just let me know, it's pretty easy to swap out a few parts.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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After a few hours of research on HT Spot and some Q&A on the forums there, I now have a new covergence IC and some pico fuses on the way. I also went ahead and geared up with a 40W iron from Rat Shack and some practice boards. Depending on how my DIY training sessions go, I may attempt this swap. Draganm gave me a great tutorial at his place and I feel like I could definitely knock this out on my own, especially now that I've seen how freakin' big that IC is. I was expecting this little bity thing, but this sucker is big.
I should have an update later this week.
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12024 Location: Fort Collins, CO
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Link Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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Just remember that you can fry an IC even with a little 40W iron. Don't hold the iron on it longer than necessary to get a good clean bead. It's a good idea to clip something metal onto the IC lead to act as a heat sink -- it helps to draw heat away from the lead so it doesn't go into the IC and cook it.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the IC swap is complete. I was sick as a dog earlier in the week and finally got vertical again. Friday I bit the bullet and went to a local Mom & Pop electronics store and bought a Weller 25W iron. The 40W iron went back to Rat Shack. The amount of flux in that old solder was unreal. It looked like someone spilled caramel where the old IC was. A little TLC with some dentured alcohol knocked it right out. I made sure to practice with some resistors and a little practice board that I had bought before deciding whether to attempt soldering the new IC. I was laying (what I thought) were some nice, clean beads, so I decided to give it a go. I think it went pretty well. I made sure to take my time and keep the tip of my iron nice and clean. I also followed Gary's advice and attached an alligator clip to each lead before I soldered it. Hopefully that helped keep from frying anything. The longest I dared hold the iron to any lead was maybe 2 seconds, so I'm hoping that nothing bad happened.
I guess the truth will be know tomorrow when I finally get my pico fuses. I'm going to put in the new one and then undergo the oh-so-fun task of reconnecting the board. Hopefully I'll get good news.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 2:13 am Post subject: |
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Ok, on to the next issue. I've replaced the convergence IC and two pico fuses. The set turns on. However, I can't figure out how to change to the DTV component input. Right now it seems like it's set to the Antenna input (which is what I had switched it to before the IC and fuses died). Since I have the issue with the cold solder joint in the menu system, I can't get the menu to come up. After a minute or so, the unit powers down like I had hit the "system reset" button. I guess it's time to head over to the Spot to see what I can find out.
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 943 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Link Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 4:33 am Post subject: |
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Fixed!! Evidently, one of the cable connections was loose on one of the boards. I went ahead and popped the front and back covers and just started pushing in connectors to make sure. One of them did move a tiny bit, but I guess that was enough. I've now got menus, remote functionality, etc. What a rewarding feeling. Now I can look forward to really dialing this beast in.
Whew!!
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10273
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Link Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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Too funny.
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