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Jan 13, 2018 22:18:32 GMT
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In the last year I’ve done almost nothing to the car. In fact I’ve barely even driven it. To be fair there is a reason for that. A year ago last summer I took it on a long long loooong journey to see Grizz (almost 65 miles there and back) and it’s never been quite the same since. When I got back it sounded like a tractor. Big ends evidently. It’s also been a busy year. Lots of jobs and not enough time so the car has taken a back seat. A strange turn of phrase considering it hasn’t got any back seats. So I thought what we really need is a list of excuses. Just to prove that I’m not simply sitting on my bum watching the TV. (Which is exactly what I am doing at the moment.) The down side of this idea is that it’ll also prove that I’m a crazy person who can’t throw anything away. The sort of balmpot who’d rather spend days messing with things rather than spend a couple of quid buying a new one. Christmas lights for example. I used to spend ages splicing bulbs into our ‘unrepairable’ outside lights. Eventually we replaced them with LED sets because they don’t break. Yeah right. So I’ve just spent ages splicing LEDs into our ‘unrepairable’ LED outside lights. These, by way of a second example, are an old set of mains lights that Mrs Sweetpea uses in the East Wing of Sweetpea mansions.  One of the bulbs has blown and we all know that mains Christmas lights set fire to your curtains… Time to bin them. Sadly they have little icicles on them and Mrs Sweetpea is very fond of them.  I’m very fond of Mrs Sweetpea (nobody else would put up with me) so the lights need to be converted to LEDs. Here’s a set of very cheap LED lights.  Which are going to get spliced into the mains set to form some sort of FrankenChristmasLights. First job. The mains lights were a series string of 40 bulbs. The LEDs were 5 strings of 8 LEDs. So I needed to splice a new positive wire into the mains lights every 8 sockets. Like this.  And repeat another few times. Then I need to remove the filament bulbs from the holders and replace them with LEDs from the new string.  The LEDs need to sit up where the tips of the bulbs were.  So they got extended on some wires and fitted into the holders.  Only another 39 to do. There you go.  Pleased with that. It only took an entire weekend… What a complete waste of time. Anyway, Mrs Sweetpea is also very pleased so maybe I’ll be in for special privileges later tonight. I might be allowed to scoff extra chocolate buttons or something? Back on the car front I got this for Christmas.  It’s a tiny little audio player. Plays USB sticks, Bluetooth, SD cards, line in, and FM radio. All for less than £4. To be honest the Bluetooth is horribly noisy and I haven’t used the FM bit but the rest of it is great. It’s even got a remote control! Expect it to be replacing the ash tray in the MR2 very soon. By which I mean 2028. James |
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Last Edit: Nov 10, 2018 20:36:41 GMT by Sweetpea
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Jan 13, 2018 22:49:22 GMT
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James - I would have done the same up until a few years ago but has you get older the days wizz by and I learnt to time manage vs replacing something - so the rule now is that if it's going to take me a couple of hours to fix something that costs less than £50 to replace then it's heading to the skip / bin / recycling and a new replacement is ordered - Originating from Yorkshire it's been very difficult to accept such a practice and has led to sleepless nights with SWMBO threatening to send / drag me to therapy classes if I did not pull myself together - However, the upside has been that I am slowly finding time to get more important things done that I promised to do - like her kitchen - downside is the more I get done the more she expects - I might just have to go back to doing it your way!
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2018 22:50:38 GMT by Deleted
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As a Yorkshireman myself, i too get some kind of perverse satisfaction fixing something that most would have chucked in the bin. Last year I welded up seven large holes in the back box of my 205 GTI with bits cut out of a rotten Micra back box. New back box would cost sixty quid, but fixing it in an hour I felt a sense of achievement.
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James, do you watch big Clive (bigclivedotcom) on YouTube? He does a lot of electronics videos and did a couple on converting mains powered Christmases lights to LED in a similar way.
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Jan 14, 2018 17:41:01 GMT
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@grumpynorthener, I've seen your house thread. You seem to have bigger fish to shoot in the barrel than a few Christmas lights. (Mind you, so do I.) Lovely work by the way. I've not worked out how to moderate peoples expectations. Apart from being curse word and that's a skill I've not quite mastered. Plastering actually, I'm not allowed to do serious plastering 'cos I'm rubbish at it. I just need to build on this promising start. mercedeslimos, you think you've got problems. I was born in Glasgow to Yorkshire parents. I hate binning anything. I do enjoy fixing random stuff though. Wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun. Funny you should mention the exhaust. I have a cunning plan to experiment with a Vitara back box and a bed headstead. All will become clear one day... Or not. SamJ, no, I've not stumbled on that chap. I'll take a look, thanks. |
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Jan 14, 2018 18:12:06 GMT
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I will attempt to mend almost anything. I am maybe slightly better at chucking things away than I used to be - but not much. There's a flat screen telly been sat on the floor here that ought to go in the bin. It used to work fine. We bought a bigger new telly for the living room and this one was going to be used elsewhere. However, it seems to have been afflicted with jealousy and apart from one random occasion when we caught it napping it's refused to turn on since it was moved. Everything I've been able test checks out fine - it just won't turn on. Choice of remote control and touch panel - neither works. No doubt some tiny little component has failed and I'll never find it. Intensely irritating!
I have to say though, I wouldn't have mended those lights.....
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Jan 14, 2018 20:25:43 GMT
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Completely dead? Start up capacitor in the power supply (probably). I take it you left it plugged in and on standby?
They keep working so long as they are plugged in but as soon as you take the mains off the PSU can't start up again. Search the internet with the model number and you may be lucky. Or take the back off and look for caps that that have bulged the lid. Startup cap will be on the hot side of the PSU.
Or if it has some life, like an LED, then it'll be caps on one of the DC voltage rails that are failing. Caps either way.
Chances are if one cap has failed many will have. You may make it work again but for how long?
James
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Jan 14, 2018 23:28:34 GMT
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Yes, it was normally left plugged in and on standby so your basic diagnosis makes complete sense. However, caps look good and voltages check out...... though the data I'm working from (found online) was a bit sketchy. May have one more look before binning it.....
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Jan 15, 2018 14:17:18 GMT
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In that case it's most likely got too much ripple on one rail (due to failing caps). You'd need an oscilloscope to work out which rail. Or make a guess that its the 5v rail and its stopping the processor from booting.
If a cap is blown or leaking its definitely toast. But they can be toast and show no visible signs.
Your problem was probably that the caps were just ok when warm but went out of spec when they cooled down.
Or i could be totally wrong!
Years ago we were having bother with some big analogue sound mixing desks. There was no air flow in the top modules, the capacitors died and the desk wouldn't line up anymore. The frequency response went to pot too but that wasn't so noticeable.
So I came up with a plan to put slow turning fans under the top modules to keep them cool. Phil and I rocked up in one studio, did a quick line up check and realised that this desk would need a rebuild soon. Never mind. We turned it off and installed the fans. Two hours later we turned it back on.
Oh dear. It had gone cold and the caps had finally died. Two thirds of the channels had massive line-up errors. Spent the rest of the day replacing caps. Flippin' hundreds of them... Up to our knees in dead caps in the workshop. (Well not quite. But you get the idea.)
James
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If it's a samsung telly or monitor from about 2006ish, they were known for having bad caps. We replaced all of ours on our telly (I think it cost about $5 for all of them) and it kept going for a few years before dying late last year.
When I found a "dead" 24" samsung monitor here at work, I asked if I could have a crack at fixing it. They said "Take it home, we're binning it", so $25 worth of parts later (that's including postage from UK for a specific part) I had a working 24" monitor. It's been going well for the last 3 years.
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I've not worked out how to moderate peoples expectations. And therein lies the problem. The attitude of the old MrsB seemed to be, "Oh, he's just fitted a new clutch in a Land Rover, he must be good at glossing fiddly window frames." Or, "Hang on, he's just spent two days on his back fighting knackered CV joints on his Subaru, so just the fella for sorting out the leaky kitchen roof." No matter how often I explained that messing around with motors and being messed around by houses are two different things, not to mention mindsets, she remained ever optimistic and yet, therefore, was forever disappointed.  |
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Jan 17, 2018 14:05:43 GMT
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You do have a very good point......
Last night I "mended our hob". Actually I fitted a new isolator switch as the hob appears to have managed to melt its workings (though it is within rating). This was done almost before she'd noticed it was broken.
However, it was cheap (switch cost £ 7.49), easy (took 15mins and only mild swearing) and, critically, very significantly improves the chances of me being fed hot food.
On the flip side, the shed roof has been leaking for "a while" (measured in months to years), but will involve at least £ 100 and about two days effort, without providing much boost to my quality of life.
I did also change the cam belt on her TT (2 day swearathon, the designers should be flogged with barbed wire) and the clutch in no. 2 son's Kia Ceed so I'm hoping that my credit should be good for a while.......
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Jan 17, 2018 22:04:20 GMT
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If it's a samsung telly or monitor from about 2006ish, they were known for having bad caps. Samsung 244T PC monitors. I've fixed more of them than I care to think about. We even started making up rebuild kits so you could grab a bag of bits and knock off another monitor. ...she remained ever optimistic and yet, therefore, was forever disappointed. I feel sorry for the former Mrs B now. Mind you, this is what happens when a person has unrealistic expectations. Last night I "mended our hob". This was done almost before she'd noticed it was broken. Nick That's a dangerous game. If you start fixing things before the missus knows they're broken she'll think you spend your life in front of the TV or in the garage messing with the rust bucket. I make sure things really annoy Mrs Sweetpea before I fix them. And I do lots of "Ohh, that's going to be tricky", and "You need to understand the order of works..." before rambling off on a humungous tedious explanation. That way she's grateful for small mercies. Hope she's not reading this. I'll have given away all my secrets... |
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Jan 17, 2018 23:18:33 GMT
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Oh, she had noticed. And as I like to be fed the hob is classified as a flight-critical component of the household in my little monkey brain and thus qualifies for fast-track attention.
Oh, and when the saniflo pops it's outlet pipe right above your bedroom ceiling at bedtime.... that qualifies for immediate attention too. If I ever catch the "professional" plumber that lashed up that installation he's got a slap coming!
Stuff like hanging pictures.... meh.
It's an LG Flatron M2762DL telly btw - in case that means anything to anyone. The Samsung that replaced it is HUGE improvement in every way.
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,951
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Jan 20, 2018 11:41:28 GMT
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Oh, she had noticed. And as I like to be fed the hob is classified as a flight-critical component of the household in my little monkey brain and thus qualifies for fast-track attention. Oh, and when the saniflo pops it's outlet pipe right above your bedroom ceiling at bedtime.... that qualifies for immediate attention too. If I ever catch the "professional" plumber that lashed up that installation he's got a slap coming! Stuff like hanging pictures.... meh. It's an LG Flatron M2762DL telly btw - in case that means anything to anyone. The Samsung that replaced it is HUGE improvement in every way. Nick Don’t get me started on Saniflo... proof positive that teenage girls and makeup wipes were invented to try the patience of Job.... Grrrr..... P.  |
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Jan 21, 2018 12:21:21 GMT
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Saniflow. Never had one. My tame plumber once suggested a pump to drain an awkward shower. I refused sensing endless bother! It's an LG Flatron M2762DL telly btw - in case that means anything to anyone. Nick So I looked up your TV. Honest advice. Chuck it in the bin. But that's not the point. Sometimes it's nice to fix things for the fun of it. So if you want to give it a try and are prepared to fail this is what I'd do... The PSU looks quite simple. When I say simple I mean horrifically complex - but not that much to replace. Actually looks similar to the Samsung monitor PSUs. According to the interweb they have trouble with the blue ceramic capacitors around the backlight drives. Check this first. Randomly stolen from the web... PooTube video.And there seems to be 8ish electrolytic capacitors so I'd just swap them all. If it still doesn't work... Well pat yourself on the back for having a good go and stuff it in the bin. Not knowing how good you are with electronics I'll leave it at that. But if you want an annotated picture of what to swap I'd be happy to come up with one. Now the 'elf and safety bit for anybody thinking of messing with TVs or other 'switched mode' power supplies. 1, The PSU has a 'hot' side where the mains comes in. Close by will be one or two big capacitors. This part of the circuit will have 240V AC and something like 350V DC kicking around on it. It is quite capable of killing you. What's worse is that some designs don't discharge the capacitors after you unplug the mains. They can give you a very nasty shock many days after it was last plugged in. This is particularly true if the PSU is not starting up because that's what normally drains them. 2, Nick's PSU has the drive for the LCD backlights on it too. You can recognise this by a couple of rectangular transformers and the (usually) pink and blue silicone wires coming off that part of the board. This part of the board will run at around 1000V. You don't want to be anywhere near it. What I'm saying here is don't power it on with the case removed unless you have to. Don't assume it's safe just because it's been unplugged for a few days. And if it kills you, don't come running to me. 3, Many capacitors have a positive and negative lead. (Electrolytics included.) If you solder one in the wrong way round it will fail and sometimes explode. It's rare these days but I've seen capacitor fragments bounce off the workshop ceiling. After working on a PSU ALWAYS put it back together in the case BEFORE powering it up. At least this way the case should contain the bits if you did mess it up. Always turn it on from an easily accessible wall socket (so you can turn it off again) some distance from the device. Don't lean over it or touch it when you turn it on! You have been warned! There is no shame in knowing your limits. If in doubt get some other muffin to fix it. James |
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Jan 21, 2018 12:37:29 GMT
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1, The PSU has a 'hot' side where the mains comes in. Close by will be one or two big capacitors. This part of the circuit will have 240V AC and something like 350V DC kicking around on it. It is quite capable of killing you. What's worse is that some designs don't discharge the capacitors after you unplug the mains. They can give you a very nasty shock many days after it was last plugged in. This is particularly true if the PSU is not starting up because that's what normally drains them. James Glad that a) I don't watch TV, so don't care and b) I only mess around with railway voltages. |
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Jan 21, 2018 18:47:56 GMT
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Thank you James. I may have one more go following your advice, or I may just bin it. I am very wary of touching stuff and aware of the "delayed shock" potential of capacitors (been had by motor start capacitors in the past). Was a bit surprised to see how high the voltages are inside the flat screen tellys as I'd always thought them a bit more benign than CRT ones. All the more reason to be very wary! Presumably the really modern ones with LED backlighting will be lower voltage and nothing much above mains voltage in the hot zone?
I don't watch telly much either George, but others in the house do. And I wouldn't mind a 27" computer monitor.....
Good decision on the Saniflow James....... wasn't my idea - in the house already when we arrived!
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Jan 21, 2018 20:52:27 GMT
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georgeb , railway voltages? They kill you if you so much as sneeze in the wrong direction don't they? vitesseefi , the caps to worry about are the big ones. In your case the one or two on the hot side that are rated at about 400V. To make them safe just short the terminals with a screwdriver or something (holding the plastic handle). Short circuiting a cap won't do it any good (it may damage it) but if you are replacing them anyway it doesn't matter. If they are charged you'll get a crack and a big spark. That alone is enough to make me poo my trollies. Personally I've not had an LED TV apart so I can't say but, yes, I'd expect they won't have such high voltages. The 500V to 1000V is due to the the use of 'cold cathode' tubes which need a bit of voltage to light them up. Power supplies in plasma TVs are HUGE evil looking things. Old tube sets had 30 or 40,000 volts in them. No current though so they weren't directly dangerous. But, I was told, they were so painful that you'd pull your hand out of the set so quick that you tended to shred your skin on the other circuit boards. Or, worse still, the shock made you grip the back of the tube and smash it off. Nasty either way. Anyway, back to the excuses. We decided to strip the paint off the stair case and go for a stained wood finish with a runner carpet. Dumbest idea ever because the amount of work has been massive. Needless to say no professional people fancied the job of stripping for the missus so I've been doing it. (Do you think I should rephrase that?) The paint is stripped. This Saturday was spent sanding.  God it's a slow miserable job. All the paint has to go ready for stain. Probably another couple of days sanding before we start filling and sanding some more... This morning I woke with a stiff neck and sore head so decided to forget sanding and go get the MR2 back from Canterbury. That didn't work out either. Over on my other thread... James
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Last Edit: Nov 10, 2018 20:40:36 GMT by Sweetpea
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Jan 21, 2018 21:49:38 GMT
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Funnily enough, I've not really played with the big 25kv stuff. Most of my projects and lines have been 750 DC systems and the longer ones diesel. This new one is 1,500 DC and, from overhead line, the client has suddenly got the horn for third rail and our voltage is at the absolute upper limit of safety for this. We're trying to persuade him that all them volts and many, many squiggly amps are best kept up in the air, well away from curious folk! |
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