Can somebody give a lecture "the idiots guide to vintage tv repair"?

not sure how to adderss that question, are saying you know nothing at all about tv or any electronic repair ?

because if you have no background in electronics you need to start with learning how to read a schematic, and each component how they work and most of all how to test each type of component. reading about basic circuits and experimenting with bread boards help,and more reading.

not sure how to adderss that question, are saying you know nothing at all about tv or any electronic repair ?

bingo!

http://books.google.com/books/about/Basic_Electronics.html?id=o6pn1Pdas1UC

Not a step by step hot to repair tvs for dummies but rather a study of basic electronics. From this you can begin to understand how different circuits work.

After that you can learn how to diagnose a problem and fix the broken part rather than just a shot gun recap and keep your fingers crossed.

While you may get lucky and fix a lot with that approach, you are only getting a fraction of the fun, the real fun is solving a tough dog.

bingo!

The AA5 tube radios would be a good start also before taking (and understanding) the plunge on tv's. Develop your soldering skills and basic electronics theory. The right "aptitude", comfortable with tools and mechanical take-apart knowhow will help too.

As for books, get you an RCA Tube Manual. It's great for tube descriptions and element principles and circuit understanding, etc.

Another thing that you might want to read would be a basic book on TV repair from the appropriate era. One that is pretty good is "The Practical Handbook of TV Repairs" by Art Margolis (1969). Written for the average set owner with reasonable handyman skills, it covers most typical problems with B/W and color sets. Available (used, obviously) for a few bucks through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-practical-handbook-TV-repairs/dp/B00005WOVS

Bear in mind that these sets are all 40 some years older now, and age-related issues like bad capacitors will be much more common now than they were back in the day.

To me, the actual theory behind operation, etc, came last. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to go back to Ohm's Law and study circuit design to be able to repair a television, in most cases. Most often times, the repair of a set involves a simple flow chart that you can develop yourself in your mind, and the tenacity to get beyond the one most popular statement you'll say to yourself over and over and over, every time you start to fix one.

Replace this statement:

"Oh, #$@&. I REALLY don't want to do this part. I wish I could leave this part up to someone else who can do this a lot easier than I will. I'll probably screw it up royally"

With this one:

"Well, I guess ain't nobody gonna do this, so if I want it done,, I'm gonna have to try.....I'll just be as cautious and careful as I can doing it. I'll learn about it step by step as I go through it, and ask questions if I have any."

Repair books are great for diagnosing and repairing certain conditions, but they don't anticipate multiple system failures all at once....and you will most certainly be facing exactly that. I have one book that is titled "Television Repair in 15 Minutes". Yeah, B....S.....! :D

Remember, we're dealing with electronics that are over 40 years old. Repair books were made for sets that were relatively new, or newer than what they are now anyway....rendering them useless unless you've already done a considerable amount of component replacement to begin with.

any repair manual by homer davidson is good reading too.

As for books, get you an RCA Tube Manual. It's great for tube descriptions and element principles and circuit understanding, etc.

When I took my Novice code test, the examiner both sent and had me send from (does that tell you how many decades ago that was?) from that classic book!

Well I guess your question about a lecture on tv repair kinda got turned into a do it yourself learning experience.

There are books on ebay, good ones come along now and then. I learned from my dad's old army books, one radio, one tv, and an rca tube manual as mentioned above. These were good starting points, learning the block diagram gives you a good working knowledge of what stages are dependent on the stage before that working properly. Ohm's law for basic circuit operation, current flow, it will give you an idea of why you may find a voltage level too high, or too low at some point in the set.

Don't go trying to get it all done at once. If you get a set try to get it working before you go and replace all the caps... You'll also need to pick up some solder skills along the way, you'll need more than a 27 watt pencil iron to work on these older sets and not get frustrated.

I was lucky, now that I think back on it, I started around age 10, and got to take tv repair at my high school's BOCES trade school, there we learned radios first. We learned stage by stage, by the end of our first year we each could draw en entire 5 tube radio circuit. I think it was our final exam. We knew what each stage did, the correct voltages, and why....

TV was next year, it went faster because there was so much circuit and tube stuff we already knew, and it was easy to apply to the tv. We used Sam's basic tv, and color tv books, I've seen them on ebay now and then.

You should expect it to be a long and exciting thing to learn, especially learning technology that has been surpassed in time by transistors, IC's, LSIC's and then specialty tv on a chip, and several different types of power supply designs. You will be learning transformer and full or half wave basic power supplies, and the capacitor diode doubler circuits used when the sets first began eliminating the power transformer.

It's a lot of learning to think about fitting into "an idiots guide to fix'n the old tv"

Start with a few books on ebay, a few cheap been there too long no one interested Sams folders on ebay, and begin reading.

Good used bookstores used to be chock full of radio and TV fixit books from back in the day when they were expected to be fixed. (Note: I can't fix 'em.) What might be good to hear from those experienced folks would be which books (besides Sams) are known to be clear and safe in their instructional "path". Something like ICS (?) and Audel's, are good for tube sets, but stay away from "Cletus' Guide to Sparky Stuff"...

There's at least one good bookstore in Columbus that has this kind of stuff.

Chip

To me, the actual theory behind operation, etc, came last. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to go back to Ohm's Law and study circuit design to be able to repair a television, in most cases. Most often times, the repair of a set involves a simple flow chart that you can develop yourself in your mind, and the tenacity to get beyond the one most popular statement you'll say to yourself over and over and over, every time you start to fix one.

Replace this statement:

"Oh, #$@&. I REALLY don't want to do this part. I wish I could leave this part up to someone else who can do this a lot easier than I will. I'll probably screw it up royally"

With this one:

"Well, I guess ain't nobody gonna do this, so if I want it done,, I'm gonna have to try.....I'll just be as cautious and careful as I can doing it. I'll learn about it step by step as I go through it, and ask questions if I have any."

Repair books are great for diagnosing and repairing certain conditions, but they don't anticipate multiple system failures all at once....and you will most certainly be facing exactly that. I have one book that is titled "Television Repair in 15 Minutes". Yeah, B....S.....! :D

Remember, we're dealing with electronics that are over 40 years old. Repair books were made for sets that were relatively new, or newer than what they are now anyway....rendering them useless unless you've already done a considerable amount of component replacement to begin with.

This is the main way that I learned. If I wanted 'em working, I was the only doofus standing there so I had no choice. I also used many of the books and methods mentioned by the others. I think it would be really difficult to cram as much info that would be necessary to do restoration work into a 45 min presentation. Take your time and check your work carefully, ask questions ect and I think you'll be fine. One step at a time and it won't seem overwhelming at all.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fine folks already here - Bob Andersen and Phil Nelson. I caroused/worked in a TV shop as a kid, but still learn stuff from those two. Phil's website is top-notch, and he documents his stuff superbly. Bob's restorations (Early B/W sets, mostly) are an adventure, with tips, techniques and the occasional pitfall all out there for you.

With the multitude of talent in the other VK members, remember to always ask if you don't know - no questions are stoopid questions here - just friendly folks all wanting to help you succeed.

And if all else fails:

http://videokarma.org/showpost.php?p=2987794&postcount=1 :D

Cheers,

A little basic theory is necessary, but you don't really have to get too deep into it.

I started out working in a TV shop after school and on Saturdays when I was an early teen. The guy who owned the shop was a wonderful man who had been in the business over 30 years. When I told him of my plans to go to technical school, he advised me that I would learn much more working in his shop than I would in school.

After getting my diploma, I realized his advice was right. You see, all the knowledge and theory in the world aint worth a damn unless you have the troubleshooting skills necessary to track down a problem.

Going to school gives you the basics. I have disagree. I have been working on electronics for 20 years. I went to school and learned quite a bit that has helped. BTW I just graduated last year. A degree says you are trainable and you have a foundation.