Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

[tibimakai]

I'm new in this field, but I'm willing to learn and buy the necessary tools of the trade.
I'm open to suggestions on what should I have in my possession to successfully repair these TVs.
I'm thinking about an oscilloscope, but I never used one, so I wouldn't know which one to buy.
I have a 30V/5A adjustable power supply. Now I have realized that a dual one would have been better, maybe in the future.
Soldering station, do I need to have a lead free station? I have two which are not lead free and I'm having difficulty unsoldering bigger capacitors.
I still have to use a cheap Radioshack $12 bigger iron to unsolder these joints.
One of the stations is a dual station, hot air and soldering iron.
I have just purchased, did not get it yet, a mini portable USB microscope.
My eyes are not what they used to be.

[cashkennedy]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Lead free solder requires about 50c higher temps. You probably will have noticed most boards are harder to get the solder to flow then when you are removing a part you soldered on using leaded solder (assuming you own some leaded). Other then possibly requiring higher temps i think a "lead free soldering station" would just be a gimick.

If your soldering station can get to 450c its able to get more then hot enough, but the more exspensive stations are able to hold their temperature better when your soldering a larger part. Hopefully yours are adjustable and have a temperature display.

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

I have purchased a Kendal 889D from Amazon and it's adjustable to 480C but it still won't melt the solder fast enough. I have to use the RS $12 iron.
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Rework-S...2906280&sr=8-5
What kind of oscilloscope is needed for TV repair.
I'm looking at portable DSO Nano V2, do you guys think that it would work?
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/dso-nano-v2-p-681.html
It seems that it has a custom firmware which it makes it much better then with the original firmware.
This is the microscope that I have purchased:
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-Delu...d_sbs_indust_2

[cashkennedy]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

How long does it take your soldering station to reach 350?

And wow that oscilloscope looks awesome, Im interested in getting one too, but i didnt think I could get a new small (read not crt based) oscilloscope for that little.

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

There is a quad one too, but it's much more expensive.
It reaches every temperature very fast, air or iron is the same.

[budm]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Main thing about soldering iron, you need 40~60 watts capacity, low wattage will not hold up the heat well when the tip make contact with what you are trying to solder, especially when you try to solder the board with large copper area, it will suck the heat from the iron and you will end up lifting the trace because you will be waiting for the temperature of the tip to recover. I use good old 60Watts WELLER WTCPT. Metcal soldering (I use that at work) will be the one I really want to have but it is real expensive.
DMM, I use Fluke 87. Sencore LC-75 CAP/INDUCTOR tester.
You should also build Isolation transformer, GFI outlet.
These are my tools:
http://s807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/budm/Tools/

[retiredcaps]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

I have two which are not lead free and I'm having difficulty unsoldering bigger capacitors.

If you have a conical tip, the I suggest you get a chisel tip. Something like 1.6mm or 2.4mm for better heat transfer.

[tom66]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

A decent 20 MHz dual channel analog scope cost me £60, which is about the same price as the DSO Nano. I use that one (as well as "Big Bertha", the 100 MHz HP 54501A) to repair TVs, but they're also useful for understanding electronics a lot. Having an analog only scope is very helpful, because it trains you to understand how to use the controls properly, instead of pressing "Auto Scale" each time.

I do like the Nano, but it is a toy. I wouldn't consider it a serious oscilloscope. It has a single channel, with a bandwidth of 200kHz.

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Anybody would recommend this meter? Or there is a better alternative which is not much more expensive?
http://www.prc68.com/I/ESRmicro.shtml
I have seen somebody(forgot who) that was using this meter.
I have contacted the original owner(Russian) of these meters and he quoted me $75 shipped to the US and I can pay through PayPal.

[multimeter]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Main thing about soldering iron, you need 40~60 watts capacity, low wattage will not hold up the heat well when the tip make contact with what you are trying to solder, especially when you try to solder the board with large copper area, it will suck the heat from the iron and you will end up lifting the trace because you will be waiting for the temperature of the tip to recover. I use good old 60Watts WELLER WTCPT. Metcal soldering (I use that at work) will be the one I really want to have but it is real expensive.
DMM, I use Fluke 87. Sencore LC-75 CAP/INDUCTOR tester.
You should also build Isolation transformer, GFI outlet.
These are my tools:
http://s807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/budm/Tools/

budm..... how many fume extractors do you really need?? huh huh??

[ahickman]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive oscilloscope that performs reasonably well, take a look at the following:

http://www.saelig.com/PSBEB100/PSSA002.htm

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

The scope looks very good for me, who doesn't know nothing about these instruments.
Could somebody more experienced let me know if a scope like this would be sufficient to repair TVs?

[tom66]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

The scope looks very good for me, who doesn't know nothing about these instruments.
Could somebody more experienced let me know if a scope like this would be sufficient to repair TVs?

It's a good entry level oscilloscope and fine for TV repair.

You may want to look at an analog scope for less as you will not always need the digital features, but they can come in useful for analysing certain signals like LVDS found on T-cons.

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

so these signals that I would see on the display how would I know if they a correct or not? They are in the SM?(I confess I haven't paid attention until now)
What is the difference between an analog and a digital scope?

[cashkennedy]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

An analog scope generally has a CRT screen, which means that there is very little logic necessary, adjusting the knobs just changes the resistance / capacitance and what not of circuit inbetween the probes and the crt's electron gun.

If you remember how a crt works its really simple voltage basically is fed to 2 magnets that aim the beam, so the oscilloscope basically receives voltages and then scales the signal and sends it to the magnets to alter the beam path (thus it draws the path of the incomming voltage)...

A digital scope analyses the incomming signals and then creates a picture to represent them and then sends it to a lcd (or ocassionally a crt) using a tcon to draw it line by line (vs just moving a beam around like a cry).

[cashkennedy]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

In regards to using / interpreting signals, they are often pretty generic.

Like AC signals should be sine waves if they are natural, or a square wave if they are fake. If you notice huge spikes at the begging of a square wave that might be bad, or if you have chunks missing from a sine wave then your not having enough power vs demand / or bad filtering or something.

DC signals i dont know as much about, but i think they appear as straight lines, and if you have bad caps you will see ripple (voltage changing rapidly for short periods of time).

I think you can also test ic's based on the scope readings show in the data sheets. As well as often your expecting a pulsed signal out of IC's?

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Thank you cash.
Can somebody explain to me where it would help me this scope and how often I will have to use it?
I'm just trying to justify the purchase. I wanted to buy something for my birthday which it would be a chip tunning for my VW Rabbit, but now I'm thinking if a scope would be a better buy.
I'm kind of inclining to a Rigol DS1052E scope which I think I can get for around $315 from the manufacturer and there is a hack that can transform it to a 100Mhz scope.

[budm]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

You may want to read more about digital scope and find out about the pro and the con of the digital scope since it take a slice of the waveform not all the points of the waveform, so if it does not have real high sampling rate, it will not be able to catch all the fast signal.
It is like digital audio and analog audio. So I would say read up on that. Low price digital scope will not likely to have high sampling rate.

[tibimakai]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Here are the specs:
Most likely it will be as a DS1102E(100MHz) after the hack:
http://www.rigolna.com/products/digi...copes/ds1000e/
To you these numbers will tell you more then to me.
First, I need to know if I need it and if you guys are saying that I need it, then I will learn as much as possible about them. I may and up eventually using it at my work place to eventually( I'm working for a spacecraft/robotics company as a mechanical technician, but sometimes I'm putting together PCBs also)

[budm]

Re: Instruments/tools needed for TV repair

Well, you are already at a good place where you work, they must have both digital and anlog scopes that they use during prototype and troubleshooting. If you ask the tech at lunch time to show how they are being used and how to operate them, that will be the best thing to do since you will have real hands on to learn, you cannot beat that!