Texas Recycles Day 2005 - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

captainmoody · #16 11-14-2005, 10:58 AM

We still have a bulk pickup week in several areas of the county, sometimes I find some goodies such as newer big screen sets and appliances. Last year I even found two newer model riding lawnmowers! Also, to be sure nothing falls through the cracks, I am the designated electronics recycler for Macomb county here in Michigan. When the county gets a call by a company, school or individual that has computers, televisions or video equipment that they no longer need, they send them to me. I repair and donate almost all the items through churches and schools.
Almost everyone still throws out those items here anyway as they don't care about recycling. Basically, all I get is about 5-6 calls a year and it is usually from a big company or school with a truckload of computers or a/v equipment.

rca2000 · #17 11-14-2005, 10:33 PM

But with the left-wing environmentalist lawsuit-happy feel-good California government (Post-Gov. Reagan), it is now an arrestable crime to leave a TV in the trash (or car tires, paint, or most anything). So the way they do it now is that they hold recycle drives at designated locations a few times a year, and highly-paid men in white plastic suits come out to your car and "safely" remove the TV and send it to a very costly hazardous waste dump out someplace in the Mojave. It is also a crime to pick anything out of the dump, or trash cans/bins on public property if a "civil criminal" has put one there.

I'd go further but this isn't the politics forum...

Charles[/QUOTE]

Isn't it great, that crime is so LOW in Cali, that the pigs have so much time on their hands, that they have time to go after someone for taking an old tv/stereo/computer, out of the garbage? That, and rousting people for:: Smoking too close to a building, Smoking on their porch, having a barbecue, parking on the street, working on their cars in the driveway, pre-heating/cooling their cars in the driveway, watering their lawns,and using fuel oil, instead of diesel in their vehicles.. THOSE seem to be the focus of LEO's in this country, nowdays.... Guess REAL crime is non-existent nowdays... (SARCASM)

Sigh... Been there, done that. It seems that so many people today, just CANNOT keep out of other people's affairs. If somethig is in the garbage, why should ANYONE care, if someone gets it, and "turns it around", or puts it in their collection? Or, any of the other thnigs that I mentioned?

kx250rider · #18 11-15-2005, 01:20 AM

Jack,

Well, it isn't that we have low (real) crime... Wish that were the case. It's just that the police will be sued and charged with unlawful use of force if they arrest a rapist, an armed robber or a molestor. At least if they prosecute a regular citizen who threw a paint can or a CRT in the trash, they can fine him and steal his hard-earned assets. Then by means of criminalizing him, the state can gain control of his life & future.

Maybe a little exaggerated, but this is the way it is heading.

Earlier this year, a collector of vintage aircraft instruments was offered a below-market sum for his piece of property and his building in Burbank. He declined the offer, because he was retired and wanted to keep his warehouse to continue his hobby. Guess what happened next... A hazmat inspector said that his collection of aircraft instruments had radium dials and were dangerous. So they cited him, seized his warehouse and all the instruments. They sealed off the whole block for months while they had to "analyze and evaluate". After all that, they decided to steal his building and hire a special team to smash and bury every single instrument from his collection in the desert at a cost of (I recall) about $2,000,000. This story was in the LA Daily News for quite awhile. It was probably published so that any opportunistic neighbor could fake up a claim for damages to extort more money from the instrument collector. Now for the punchline: It seems that the developer who originally wanted that property (whose offer was declined by the owner) JUST HAPPENED to be the winning bidder at the state auction of the land after the $2,000,000 cleanup. Ofcourse the cleanup took every penny the old man had and title to his building, plus plenty from the taxpayers. Nice, isn't it?

I'll say it again: Next move, it's Texas or Bust!

But in keeping with this thread, I forgot to mention that I did once find a '54 CBS-Columbia 360 19" color set in a flood control catch basin in northern Los Angeles... It was clean! That was worth getting busted for, but I got away with it

Charles

Chad Hauris · #19 11-15-2005, 06:48 PM

O.k. lets not let this turn into a political rant session please.

Telecolor 3007 · #20 11-17-2005, 09:44 AM

Good job, Chad! You saved a lot of beauties (I wonder how can people throu beautifoul sets like those?)
What brand manufactured small set, with 2 chanel selectors, with a V.C.R. near it?

Chad Hauris · #21 11-17-2005, 06:55 PM

That small color set is a Panasonic Quintrix...I got two silver ones and one woodgrain, all work great, just need the controls cleaned. I would say 80% of the TV's and radios I got power on and have some functionality and 50% or so will work with just minor repairs such as cleaning the controls. There are a few TV's with a "no power" symptom including the RCA Mural TV.

I really want to investigate the DVD players. I probably got about 8-10 DVD players and I want to find out what the failure mode on these are, if it's bad caps or what, as these can't be more than 2 or 3 years old. The first year I did the recycle days there was only one DVD player and now more are starting to be junked.

rca2000 · #22 11-17-2005, 07:50 PM

Many times, dvd AND cd players are NOT worth your time. True, sometimes they only need a belt, or gear, or have a motor driver chip bad, or power supply problem, etc. (case in point: I recently brought back to life a 1984 vintage Hitachi Cd player, with a load belt. It now works VERY well, and "finds" the cd faster than nearly ANY player I have seen. A yamaha, 1985 model, needed belts for the loading and sled motors. it too, works pretty well. The hitachi, in particular, has a LOT of "stuff" inside, like many vintage cd players, including, double-stacked boards, and another board, under the transport. The oldest player I have, is a Magnavox 1983 model, with top-loading, and a rotating arm pickup. it Worked "a little", the last time I tried it. )

HOWEVER.........

A LOT of Cd and DVD players seem to lose the laser, rather early. DVD palyers, in particular, seem to be doing this a lot. They will not read the disc, or will not read right, ans skip a lot. Cleaning does NOT seem to help. ALso, to me at least, DVD players were NEVER as "sexy" on the inside,as vintage CD players, that have heavy-built mechs, and a lot of parts. Most DVD players have cheaply-built mechs and not much ckty, aside from several SMD's.

SO, if you get one, that will not read the disc, CD or DVD, ESPECIALLY a newer one, and cleraning don't do it, it is most likely a WOT!!

andy · #23 11-17-2005, 08:20 PM

When a DVD, or CD won't read discs, or skips it seems to be a bad pickup about 80% of the time. If a new pickup doesn't fix it, you're left trying to fix a complicated board full of SMD devices. Typically it's not worth the time to even attempt to fix this type of problem.

A lot of DVD players do have simple problems like bad caps in the power supply and mechanical problems. I also see a lot of bad spindle motors. The brushes wear out quickly because DVDs spin at a much higher speed than a CD. Only a few DVD players use brushless spindle motors.

Chad Hauris · #24 11-17-2005, 09:46 PM

Well I don't "do" surface mount repairs...if an esr check doesn't reveal bad caps on those DVD's then I guess it will be a no go. We usually don't tackle these kind of devices in our business as it's just not economical and there is not a great success rate except for cases of bad caps but I'll just try these for fun and see what I can find.
I did get a really old Sony CD player, appears to be early 80's, and plays the disc fine, just has mechanical trouble loading the tray.

Telecolor 3007 · #25 11-18-2005, 04:25 AM

You are throing DVD players?!!

daro · #26 11-18-2005, 04:52 AM

I have a Digitrex GK-2700 (Same as Apex AD-2700) & it was showing all the signs of a bad laser & a few other stupid problems like the disc was still spinning when it was ejected & the unit somtimes not powering up from cold.

I did a check on the rails on the power supply & I found the 3.3V rail was down to 2.4V (All other rails were within spec) So I replaced all the electros in the power supply & a startup resistor as well & now all the problems it had are now gone.

The funny thing was the unit was just over a year old when the caps started to fail & all the probs started.

Nothing is made to last beyond the warranty duration these days & parts are designed to last a year if not 3 years as in the case of computer motherboards when all the caps start to fail.

I have an Zenith T/O 3000-1 & it still has all of it's original electros & the radio is 41 years old...

Telecolor 3007 · #27 11-18-2005, 06:10 AM

Chad: do you ever found an VCD or LaserDisc player dumped (that was still working?)?

bgadow · #28 11-18-2005, 02:25 PM

I have an RCA laserdisc player that the local tv shop owner sold me cheap when he retired. It never sold. But I don't have a disc to try in it.

andy · #29 11-18-2005, 04:36 PM

Are you sure that RCA isn't a CED player? I've never seen an RCA branded Laserdisk player.

Chad Hauris · #30 11-18-2005, 07:51 PM

I do have a Pioneer laser disc player but there is a mechanical problem as you can hear the disc hitting something when it tries to turn. Only have regular CD's though, though I think we might have a laserdisc at the shop somewhere come to think of it.. We have a new in box never used RCA CED player but I think its loading belt is bad as it won't load the disc out of the jacket.