sci.electronics.repair@googlegroups.com

Google Groups

amdx <nojunk@knology.net>: Aug 29 03:40PM -0500 On 8/28/2015 3:51 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: > too far away, so I can't be more specific. Looks like the center pad > might have ripped off, so there will be some PCB trace work involved. > For cost, just ask for how much shop time costs.   Back in the olden days, I repaired many RF converters, when people ripped the F connectors out of VCR's. Usually super glued the pcb into normal position, then scraped the foils and laid a piece of fine wire across the breaks and soldered it in place. I often had to solder the F connector back into the RF converter, because once the original crimp was torn loose, a solid mechanical repair required it. From 1984 to 1994, I had 11,000 vcr repairs, The first 6 or 7 years were the boom time for VCR's, then the price started dropping by the time I quit, the price was had hit $200 and less. People started declining repair and buying new ones. I turned my position over to another tech and moved to Florida. I returned a year later for a visit, the tech said he only came in about twice a week to do repairs. The volume had dropped considerably. Mikek   --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

"dusty" <dusty@dot.com>: Aug 29 06:09PM -0500 > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus   Being able to buy a replacement board on eBay, for a low price, plug it in, makes it easy for anyone to fix their own. Someone more skilled could fix the old one.   I just wonder what to do with the old board? The eBay store doesn't say anything about wanting it for exchange. I'd hate to throw it away. Do you know of a place that would want it?   There isn't a recycling place anywhere nearby for electronics. There's probably one 100 miles away in Lubbock. I've got some other things to get rid of.   Back in the late 70's, I had a Zenith TV that blew a board every six months. They charged me $100 a couple of times to replace it. It was the board for a built in phone. When it worked, it worked good.   l probably would have liked working with electronics, if I could have gotten a start when I was young. We have oil fields around here, so I got started in that.   I've fixed a lot of simple things with solder. That board is beyond my skill level. Some people I used to work with thought I was a genius because I could solder a few things. They could have done those things if they'd tried. I'm getting too old and shaky to do fine work.

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>: Aug 29 07:05PM -0700 >place. I often had to solder the F connector back into the RF converter, >because once the original crimp was torn loose, a solid mechanical >repair required it.   I had problems getting a solid support for the F-connector with a cracked PCB. I used epoxy to hold the board together and did exactly as you describe to fix the wiring. For supporting the F connection, I added a brass washer and 3/8-32 nut. I then tack soldered the brass washer to the tin plated tuner can. For those devices where that wasn't possible, I installed a pigtail with an F-connector on the end. If I was lazy and the front end had a 300 ohm input, I would install a 300-75 ohm balun hanging off the back.   >From 1984 to 1994, I had 11,000 vcr repairs,   Nice. That's 10 years or 1,100 VCR's per year, or roughly 100 per month, or about 3 per day. One can make good money doing that kind of volume.   >were the boom time for VCR's, then the price started dropping by the >time I quit, the price was had hit $200 and less. People started >declining repair and buying new ones.   I'm seeing much the same thing in the computah repair biz. Between the release of Windoze 95 in 1995, and the end of the Y2K scare, business was booming. It was not unusual to bill customers 33% of the value of a new $3,000 machine for repairs and upgrades. However, for personal reasons, I was not able to work much and could not take advantage of the PC boom to enrich myself. After about 2002, everything collapsed because the Y2K scare had forced most users buy new machines, which they intended to amortize over a longer period. Windoze XP was a major improvement over pervious Windoze mutations, which resulted in a further reduction in work. Without my multiple businesses, I would have given up. Today, it is possible to buy a complete and functional desktop for about $700. Customers are usually not willing to pay more then 25% to 33% of the replacement cost of a machine on repairs. So, my maximum billing has dropped to about $200 per machine. At $75/yr, that's about 2.5 hrs, which doesn't leave me much time to do complicated and lengthy repairs that were previously both necessary and profitable.   >another tech and moved to Florida. I returned a year later for a visit, >the tech said he only came in about twice a week to do repairs. The >volume had dropped considerably.   Bummer. However, obsolescence and dropping prices is a way of life in the tech sector. I used to be in the digital watch and calculator repair business when they were profitable and was fortunate enough to bail out before the prices crashed.   >This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. >https://www.avast.com/antivirus   Suggestion: Go into: Avast -> Settings -> Active Protection -> Mail Shield -> Customize -> Main Settings and uncheck the box "Scan Outbound Mail SMTP". That will make the above advertisement disappear. You don't really need to scan outgoing email as anything that turns your machine into a spam bot will be fairly obvious. However, if you want to scan outgoing email, you can get rid of the message with: Avast -> Settings -> Active Protection -> Mail Shield -> Customize -> Behavior and unchecking "Insert Note into clean message (outgoing)".       -- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com>: Aug 30 08:49AM -0400 In sci.electronics.repair, on Sat, 29 Aug 2015 19:05:29 -0700, Jeff >>volume had dropped considerably.   >Bummer. However, obsolescence and dropping prices is a way of life in >the tech sector   I have trouble reconciling myself with the idea that something is broken beyond repair, when I know it can be repaired.   But I taught myself to think about a cheap dinner plate that has falled and broken into 20 pieces. Is it really worth fixing, just because I can?

amdx <nojunk@knology.net>: Aug 30 08:56AM -0500 On 8/29/2015 9:05 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: > as you describe to fix the wiring. For supporting the F connection, I > added a brass washer and 3/8-32 nut. I then tack soldered the brass > washer to the tin plated tuner can.   The RF converters had a framework and then snap on covers. I would file the bottom ring on the connector and tin it and the frame, The I could usually lay a nice bead around it. Always with the freeze mist handy to keep the internal plastic of the F connector from melting.       >>From 1984 to 1994, I had 11,000 vcr repairs,   > Nice. That's 10 years or 1,100 VCR's per year, or roughly 100 per > month, or about 3 per day.     Ya, maybe a little better than that, I didn't work 7 days a week!     > One can make good money doing that kind of volume.   Ya, for a poor boy I did real well in 86, 87, 88, and 89. The VCR craze built several retail chains during those years. In 87 and 88 my share was $60k each year. Have never earned as much again, even in inflated dollars. The service center owner had a good setup. He tried to get warranty service for any company he could. We had manuals, because we did warranty repairs. In the early years the VCR companies paid very well for warranty service. We had 3 big box retailers we did, warranty and contract repairs for. Remember those service contracts sold by the stores? Did great for the stores and me! All techs were independent contractors, we could come and go on our schedule, working any hours we wanted. I often had an afternoon nap! The owner had a front counter that did a pretty good job of shielding us from the---public---. We worked for a percentage of the labor and the percentage increased after a certain amount. Great incentive to get more work done. The independent contractor status probably would not have passed an IRS test, but I would not have changed it. We had a non refundable $39 troubleshooting fee, it would be subtracted from the total bill. That pushed many people to part with another $40 or $60 just because they already had $39 into it. Because I worked on the same models over and over, I was paid for my experience more than my time.     > the tech sector. I used to be in the digital watch and calculator > repair business when they were profitable and was fortunate enough to > bail out before the prices crashed.   DVD player sales were coming on at the time VCR's prices were dropping, I thought about jumping into those, I'm glad I didn't, the prices for those dropped quick.   > Avast -> Settings -> Active Protection -> Mail Shield > -> Customize -> Behavior > and unchecking "Insert Note into clean message (outgoing)".   Ok, I did the latter, do I owe you a consultation fee, or do you owe me a psychiatric fee for easing your angst? :-)   Thanks, Mikek

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>: Aug 30 09:31AM -0700 >file the bottom ring on the connector and tin it and the frame, The I >could usually lay a nice bead around it. Always with the freeze mist >handy to keep the internal plastic of the F connector from melting.   I wanted to avoid soldering to the F-connector. It was easier to tack solder to the brass washer than to the connector. It was especially handy for zinc and cadmium plated connectors, which would not solder without grinding off the plating. Sometimes, the base metal was some kind of aluminum copper mix, that also wouldn't solder. It became a fairly common repair so I pre-tinned a box of brass washers and used them as needed. I still have the box, somewhere. For where I had to solder to the connector, I had a male F-connector with a heat sink attached to conduct and then radiate as much heat as possible. The center pin was the key because if the dielectric melted, it would reform in the same position when cooled, held in place by the center pin. All my few TV F-connector repairs included a push on adapter, mostly because I didn't want to see the TV again after the owner tripped over the cable again.     >> Nice. That's 10 years or 1,100 VCR's per year, or roughly 100 per >> month, or about 3 per day.   > Ya, maybe a little better than that, I didn't work 7 days a week!   Ok. 20 working days per month makes 5 VCR's per day, which is even more impressive.   >for warranty service. We had 3 big box retailers we did, warranty and >contract repairs for. Remember those service contracts sold by the >stores? Did great for the stores and me!   When I was going to college in the late 1960's, one of my assorted part time jobs was working at the local electronics repair shop. Officially, it was a camera repair shop. However, the owner negotiated a deal to handle warranty service for Concord Electronics, which imported Japanese cheap tape recorders. A shipment of maybe 2,000 recorders would arrive and the first think the factory did was open the boxes and test them. It seems that there was zero testing at the factory. We would get to fix and rework the failures. Since they were mostly hand assembled at that point, the problems were easy to spot consisting mostly of the usual parts in backwards, missing parts, loose parts, and wrong parts. It was easy work and the margin was great.   So, the owners negotiated similar warranty contracts with other electronic importers. At various times, we had Sony (Superscope), Akai, Roberts, Concord, Panasonic, and some others I can't recall. Each company had its collection of problems. However, the work was made more difficult by miserable packaging design and worthless documentation. Each shipment was somewhat different from the previous shipment as the factory made "improvements". Profits from the warranty works was minimal, but necessary in order to get the much more lucrative out of warranty repair work. Nobody sold service contracts at the time.   Roll forward a few years and I'm now in the 2way radio biz billing by time and materials. I go to the bank for a loan and they say that I don't have a continuous income stream, which means I have to sell service contracts in order to get a loan. So, I negotiate contracts with my largest customers, only to find them now complaining about literally everything possible. Instead of light erratic work and an erratic income, I now had terminal over-work, but a steady income. Oops. I eventually charged monthly for the contract and some amount by the visit and by the radio. That worked.   Such service contracts are still with us today. One of my friends destroyed her iPhone. She was paying Verizon for phone insurance. When it came time to collect, she discovered that the deductible was almost exactly the same as what it would cost to buy a "refurbished" phone on eBay. Any semblance to a rip-off is not coincidental.   >percentage increased after a certain amount. Great incentive to get more >work done. The independent contractor status probably would not have >passed an IRS test, but I would not have changed it.   The shop where I worked was much the same way except we were all students and therefore part time employees. My pay was set by a rather complex formula that I never understood. Sometimes it was more than I expected, other times less. At the time, I don't believe there was such a thing as independent contractor. At least, I don't recall it ever being mentioned. That came later, in the 1980's. As I recall, I was getting about $0.50/hr after taxes.   >another $40 or $60 just because they already had $39 into it. > Because I worked on the same models over and over, I was paid for my >experience more than my time.   You were lucky that the factory didn't make drastic changed with every shipment. I had to learn the machine over again with every shipment, roughly once per month. Not knowing that this was not exactly normal or optimum, I just accepted it and plodded forward.   > DVD player sales were coming on at the time VCR's prices were >dropping, I thought about jumping into those, I'm glad I didn't, the >prices for those dropped quick.   Good move. By this time, the manufacturers had cut the importers out of the picture and were contracting with independent shops to see if there was a market for after sales service. They would require the shops to work for minimal profit, which was to be compensated by the factory sending them all the out of warranty work. Between 1980 and about 1995, that worked, because people genuinely expected products to last 10+ years and were willing to pay for repair work. The introduction of Chinese products wrecked that plan, where everything is a throw away and the only need for repair service is to pretend to deliver on their warranty obligations.   >> and unchecking "Insert Note into clean message (outgoing)".   > Ok, I did the latter, do I owe you a consultation fee, or do you >owe me a psychiatric fee for easing your angst? :-)   More like an excavation and cleaning fee. Finding the proper setting under 7 layers of menus was the difficult part. Sorry, but I won't be paying a fee. Personal policy does not allow me to pay for either physical or mental exercise. However, I would like to thank you for improving the aesthetic quality of your postings by removing the advertisement.   -- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

ceg <curt.guldenschuh@gmail.com>: Aug 30 03:59AM A THIN stylus for the iPad seems to cost over $75: http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/stylus/intuos-creative-stylus-2 http://www.adonit.net   Since a stylus should be pretty simple sans moving parts, how does it work and, more importantly, can we craft one out of readily available materials that has a thin (pen-like) point?

MJC <gravity@mjcoon.plus.com>: Aug 30 11:57AM +0100 In article <mrtv37$srq$3@news.mixmin.net>, curt.guldenschuh@gmail.com says...   > Since a stylus should be pretty simple sans moving parts, how does it > work and, more importantly, can we craft one out of readily available > materials that has a thin (pen-like) point?   Surely Apple users are not meant to be concerned about cost?   Mike.

N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk>: Aug 30 12:28PM +0100 On 30/08/2015 04:59, ceg wrote:   > Since a stylus should be pretty simple sans moving parts, how does it > work and, more importantly, can we craft one out of readily available > materials that has a thin (pen-like) point?   Cactus thorns were used for gramophone pickup needls at one time, probably tough enough, but not so hard to score boro-silicate glass perhaps. So for a really "green" eco-product line , go for a cactus thorn glued with pine resin into a swan quill. 80 dollars anyone? that'll do nicely

amdx <nojunk@knology.net>: Aug 30 09:03AM -0500 On 8/30/2015 5:57 AM, MJC wrote: >> materials that has a thin (pen-like) point?   > Surely Apple users are not meant to be concerned about cost?   > Mike.   I don't think scorn of Apple users is acceptable in these PC times. Wait a few years, maybe we can rid of some of the BullS%^t Political Correctness. Can't even have Taco night at the frat house without being called racist. Paraphrase of a Greg Gutfeld line.   Mikek

MJC <gravity@mjcoon.plus.com>: Aug 30 03:50PM +0100 In article <mrv2c1$510$1@dont-email.me>, nojunk@knology.net says...   > > Surely Apple users are not meant to be concerned about cost?   > > Mike.   > I don't think scorn of Apple users is acceptable in these PC times.   Since my thrust was that Apple users (purchasers) are well off, it is more a matter of envy than scorn...   Mike.

ceg <curt.guldenschuh@gmail.com>: Aug 30 03:35PM On Sun, 30 Aug 2015 12:28:05 +0100, N_Cook wrote:   > perhaps. So for a really "green" eco-product line , go for a cactus > thorn glued with pine resin into a swan quill. 80 dollars anyone? > that'll do nicely   Does cactus thorn have the capacitive effect that is required?

ceg <curt.guldenschuh@gmail.com>: Aug 30 03:36PM On Sun, 30 Aug 2015 15:50:12 +0100, MJC wrote:   > Since my thrust was that Apple users (purchasers) are well off, it is > more a matter of envy than scorn...   Mostly I'm asking how the stylus works.   Like, why doesn't a pencil work? Why doesn't a q-tip work?   What's a stylus do that a finger does but that a paperclip doesn't do?

Tim Schwartz <tim@bristolnj.com>: Aug 30 08:08AM -0400 On 8/28/2015 1:53 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > scam?   > Thanks, > Bill Sudbrink   Bill,   Have you tried www.Newark.com? I believe that Newark Electronics is a full line Bud distributor.   Regards, Tim

N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk>: Aug 30 10:57AM +0100 no bad ESR'd electros found. 2 bad spade cons on the A channel. All TO3 bolts needed tightening, 2 on different TO3 about 1/2 turn loose. Perhaps that and cleaning/reseating opamps will have trapped the problem. Reassemble and powerup again and see.

micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com>: Aug 29 07:28PM -0400 In sci.electronics.repair, on Thu, 27 Aug 2015 13:29:15 -0700, Jeff >2. The two antennas are for different frequency bands, such as VHF >and UHF. You'll need a diplexer to do that, not a combiner. ><https://www.google.com/search?q=vhf+uhf+tv+diplexer&tbm=isch>   I've been thinking about this. Don't the inputs for a diplexer have to be in different frequency bands? Since I have two TV antennas, they'll be the same frequencies.   And if the "satellite" input filters out some frequencies, what expectation do I have that they will be the frequencies from Baltimore (nearby)? Instead it might be filtering out the very DC stations I wanted the big attic antenna to get?   Also, after some frequencies are filtered out and some are left, will my DVDR, which expects input from an antenna, not a satellite, be able to interpret what does pass through the "satellite" half of the diplexer?     >I suggest you get rid of the two antenna scheme and combiner for now >and see if one antenna works better. Also, you can make it work with >an RF switch between antennas, which admitttedly isn't convenient.   Right. It won't work because I watch mostly that which I record, so there's no one at home to flip the switch from one antenna to another.

You received this digest because you're subscribed to updates for this group. You can change your settings on the group membership page. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it send an email to sci.electronics.repair+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.