Scored a JVC widescreen projection

[matt314159]

Originally Posted by andy

Since the red was working before, you need to check your work. It's probably something simple like an unplugged connector, or maybe one of the resistors is in the wrong place. I guess there's a slight chance one of the new ICs was bad.

Nope you were right, it was my work. I found a cold solder joint on one of the resistors and found that pin 15 of IC804 was also not soldered in as good as it should have been. Incidentally, Pins 15 and 18 of IC804 are the ones that control....drumroll please....Red Horizontal positioning. After hooking it up and running it like that, I also opened up one of the 2.2 ohm resistors, so after replacing that and correcting my work, we're golden.

I still think the picture on it sucks, though it is back to "original condition" now. I think it's just Rear Projection CRT TV's that I can't stand. Kind of has this hazey look to it, it's hard to describe.

I think I will sell it for what I can get (think $350 might move it fast? That would still double my money...or should I shoot for $400?) and put that money toward a nicer TV. I'm thinking a 42" LCD or plasma. It's for the bedroom so I don't want to go overboard. But my eyesight sucks, so my 32" 720P LCD in the bedroom is almost a bit small for me to read the guide from across the room. Even aside from the picture quality, this 48" RP behemoth really isn't bedroom material.

Many thanks to all who pitched in your comments and ideas, I appreciate it! You've been great to me despite my n00biness! I appreciate it!

[andy]

000

[edison64]

To be honest around this location, I ended up giving 1 away and got $50 for the other, no one wants them, everyone is parainoid about the DTV change and they all want flat screens that go any where and dont weigh a ton and dont take up half of the room, any more, I dont even bother with them even for free. Just my 2 cents worth.

[matt314159]

well, i've got a total of $170 in it, so I think I'll check out some comps on craigslist and go from there. I can't see giving away an HDTV for so cheap, I mean it has an ATSC tuner so it's ready for the digital transition and all that...no QAM but it does have ATSC, several component, and DVI inputs. No HDMI, but I don't even know if that was a standard back in '03 or thereabouts...at any rate I'm just glad it's working again. it was a learning experience that's for sure.

*edit....from looking at craigslist, it looks like my area gets about $300 to $400 for 46" to 48" CRT Rear Projection HDTV's. Although there is that random outlier where the seller just wants it out of his house for $200....I think I'll start at $350 and see if I get any bites. I calibrated it with Digital Video Essentials so that it looks pretty decent with the lights down.

I still can't get over this "hazyness" on this set. I notice it most when there are high areas of brght and dark that meet up, or, for instance the convergence screen, in the pictures above, around each white + there's kind of a foggy circle around it. I'm thinking it might be either a) the anti-glare screen on the front of this unit or b) that's just the way the optics are.

If I decide to go in and dust the mirror and CRT lenses, is there anything I need to be careful of? I mean, can I just use a swiffer duster (I would assume NO cleaning chemicals, just a dry dusting)?

[rcaman]

Originally Posted by matt314159

Well the new IC's got here, and had black writing on the back. I decided what the hell, and installed them anyway. I'm giving my eyes a break before I replace all the resistors, and then we'll pop her in and see if it works.

One thing I'm curious about, I guess maybe our tv sets aren't identical after all, mine is the 48WP30 model, but anyway I didn't have to open the back at all to get to the convergence board, all I had to do was take off the speaker grille and a wood panel, and it was right there in front.

I'm not a technician by any means, in all reality I probably shouldn't even be working on this, but I got the service manual and some good instructions, and i've been hitting up all the forums from here to timbuktu getting all the info I can on it.

The scariest part so far was reaching into the set to disconnect one of the cables from the riser card coming up out of the middle of the mainboard. I just tried not to touch anything. I'm aware that there are several places in the set that hold voltage enough to knock me on my keester even after the set has been unplugged for days or weeks, which is rather intimidating...

Anyway, on to go replace the resistors, and then install it and see what happens. I really should have practice soldering more before trying those IC's but I think I made out okay. got the hang of it after a few pins. nothings bridged and everything looks alright. Used plenty of thermal grease on the IC's as well...considering the last time they only used four dots on each corner of the chip.

Thanks for getting back to me. I really want a plasma or LCD tv, so I think I may just get this back to working condition and offload it onto craigslist for whatever the market will bear, and then put that toward a flat-panel.

and had black writing on back..... no original sanyos have ANY WRITING ON THE BACK damn your are wasting your time here. steve

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by matt314159

well, i've got a total of $170 in it, so I think I'll check out some comps on craigslist and go from there. I can't see giving away an HDTV for so cheap, I mean it has an ATSC tuner so it's ready for the digital transition and all that...no QAM but it does have ATSC, several component, and DVI inputs. No HDMI, but I don't even know if that was a standard back in '03 or thereabouts...at any rate I'm just glad it's working again. it was a learning experience that's for sure.

*edit....from looking at craigslist, it looks like my area gets about $300 to $400 for 46" to 48" CRT Rear Projection HDTV's. Although there is that random outlier where the seller just wants it out of his house for $200....I think I'll start at $350 and see if I get any bites. I calibrated it with Digital Video Essentials so that it looks pretty decent with the lights down.

I still can't get over this "hazyness" on this set. I notice it most when there are high areas of brght and dark that meet up, or, for instance the convergence screen, in the pictures above, around each white + there's kind of a foggy circle around it. I'm thinking it might be either a) the anti-glare screen on the front of this unit or b) that's just the way the optics are.

If I decide to go in and dust the mirror and CRT lenses, is there anything I need to be careful of? I mean, can I just use a swiffer duster (I would assume NO cleaning chemicals, just a dry dusting)?

I've never seen an RPTV that didn't look hazy. The newer ones seem to be better; but, not perfect. Now, the LCD and Plasma sets will be making these RP models obsolete. Like someone else pointed out, everyone wants big screen, light weight, and slim TV's now. People don't want big and bulky anymore. My advice would be to sell it while you still can; but, play it a few days to help insure nothing craps out. You can tell a buyer "as is no warranty" all day long; but, if it craps out in a week, you'll be hearing from them! And, some people can get very ugly if their newly acquired used TV craps out in two days, even if it was only $20. In fact, this is the main reason I stopped messing with big screens. They are big and take up room and the buyer thinks you're supposed to fix it from now on. It's just not worth the hassle!

[matt314159]

Originally Posted by rcaman

and had black writing on back..... no original sanyos have ANY WRITING ON THE BACK damn your are wasting your time here. steve

well considering 1) it's working and 2) I don't plan on keeping it long, I'd say it's debatable whether or not I wasted my time.

Despite searching the internet high and low for independent verification, you're the only one who has said that black writing on the back = counterfeit. I'm not saying you're wrong, I am by no means somebody in a position to challenge your authority on the subject, but I would have thought I could find corroborating evidence somewhere.

The seller provided me with spectacular support when I had questions. He was the one who told me where to start looking when I described my problems to him (After telling me to check plugs and connections he directed me to especially check on the soldering on pins 15&18 on IC804) and gave me the path of resistors, diodes, etcetera to check from there to make sure the red horizontal circuit was intact, he really knew what he was doing. When I asked him about the quality of these ICs he said they are the same as he uses in his shop and he has not seen any of them present premature failure. After the interactions I have had with him so far, I feel like trust his word. Maybe these are generics. I can only speculate that like other electronic items, there may be varying quality of generic IC's. By that I mean to say that maybe not all Non-Sanyo IC's = Trash...

[matt314159]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I've never seen an RPTV that didn't look hazy. The newer ones seem to be better; but, not perfect. Now, the LCD and Plasma sets will be making these RP models obsolete. Like someone else pointed out, everyone wants big screen, light weight, and slim TV's now. People don't want big and bulky anymore. My advice would be to sell it while you still can; but, play it a few days to help insure nothing craps out. You can tell a buyer "as is no warranty" all day long; but, if it craps out in a week, you'll be hearing from them! And, some people can get very ugly if their newly acquired used TV craps out in two days, even if it was only $20. In fact, this is the main reason I stopped messing with big screens. They are big and take up room and the buyer thinks you're supposed to fix it from now on. It's just not worth the hassle!

Thanks for verifying the haziness, I'm glad it's not something in particular about this set. After watching it for awhile you get used to it sort of. I am trying to record some content on my HD-DVR that realy makes the screen look good, then I can use that to showcase the set. I figured I will use this as my main tv (on 6-8 hours a day, even when we're not in the room) for a week to 10 days as a burn-in period, and then put it up on CL. I might even lower the price and just be totally up front with them about it: I got it with convergence problems, I replaced the IC's and have been using it for X days as my main set, and eveyrhting seems to be working fine, but no guarantees.

[rcaman]

i have been here 30 years fixing tv,s and you got counterfit stk,s

[edison64]

I look at it like this, if you learned something new, your time was not wasted! As for the parts: (PARTS IS PARTS) is not true when it comes to delicate electronics, all of the OEM ICs are printed with silver or white, never black. Ilearnd the hard way, ordered some koreasichideracrap brand ICs for a true sine dc to ac inverter I was building, it worked fine for the first 3 hrs, then it failed and took out my portable transmitter frequency mod boards. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU ORDER, if there is a big price differance, you can bet the parts are knock-offs

[andy]

000

[dr.ido]

Just how common are these counterfeit STK ICs?

I currently have a Samsung in which I just replaced the STK392-010s without success (after having done successful convergence IC jobs on several other sets). I had assumed that I missed something and put it aside. I never thought the replacement parts could be bad. These were bought from Bluestar online, but I don't recall them having geen or black writing on them.

I currently have a Philips RPTV that needs a STK392-110. I have a STK392-120 ordered for a job that fell through, but it has black writing on it.

Today I looked at an LG RPTV that probably needs a STK392-570. The RPTVs have been coming out of the wookwork lately. I've been debated whether to even take them anymore as they are so awkward to deal with, the last thing I need is for them
to come back if I do repair them.

[rcaman]

how common are they. how common is a new tv made in china... very common. buy your stk,s from tritronics and you will get the sanyo originals. we have a philips 60" in the shop now someone replaced the stk,s with cheap knockoffs and they destroyed the vonvergence dcu digital convergence module. the philips was a piece if crap to start with but now it just garbage. steve

[matt314159]

Originally Posted by andy

I would definitely dust off the lenses since you haven't. The lenses normally point directly up, so they collect a lot of dust. Imagine how dusty a table gets after 5 years. While all projection TVs do look a little hazy, it shouldn't be as bad as you're describing.

HUGE difference, and so easy to do, too! I wonder how many people sit at home wondering why their tv isn't as clear as it used to be? There was a good amount of dust on them. I used a soft cloth to wipe off the dust, and then used the same lens cleaning wipes that I use on my Canon L series camera lenses to finish the job and really polish them up. I'd say the picture is at least 30%-50% clearer than it was...but better yet, I'd say it improved the black levels incredibly. I guess the dust was diffusing the light and ruining the black levels. It made a world of difference and only took 5 minutes. I'm now thinking of keeping this TV instead of selling it.

[andy]

000