6th Dec 2019, 8:02 pm | #121 |
Heptode
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, UK.
Posts: 705
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Not so much a nightmare but more a show of incompetence from a previous engineer (allegedly fully qualified). A 90’s Technics hi-fi seperates system that all lit up but no sound. The person who had looked at it previously had it for a few weeks apparently and had given up so I volunteered to take a quick look. The “repair” didn’t even involve opening any of the units up. The system in question has a loop in/out for provision of adding a graphic equaliser and they are usually fitted with linking bars on the phono sockets. Said links were missing....!
Kev |
6th Dec 2019, 8:20 pm | #122 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Repair nightmares.
I was once asked to investigate a house being rewired by friends (you know about these things!). Switching the lights on caused the fuse box to trip. The wiring was checked and rechecked. More by luck I decoded the birds nest and found that the neutral wire had been terminated on the wrong half of the split neutral rail.
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6th Dec 2019, 9:21 pm | #123 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Manchester, UK.
Posts: 1,875
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Re: Repair nightmares.
A long time ago I knew 3 brothers who rode Honda 50s and lived in...errr...basic circumstances in a large council block in Hulme. Kids kept trying to break into the garage under the flat to nick the mopeds, and they decided to add power to the garage, for lights and maybe a PIR and 'burglar light'. The one with most cop on wired it, and when he switched the light on there was a big bang. Well, the cable had 3 cores, and light switch had 3 screw connectors, how hard could it be?
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7th Dec 2019, 12:05 am | #124 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,724
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
It was sometimes "0" but more often than not it was "8" and you were wise to use the one recommended by the TV manufacturer as selecting it would switch the flywheel sync to a lighter wheel (!) Meaning a shorter CR time-constant. That gave us a problem in some of the hotels I covered that had multiple VHS derived programming, not to beat about the bush, we are talking about soft porn here. The solution was to use one or more time-base correctors, on the non-standard channels I have one here. I can sort of follow what you were saying about channel order in the days of turret tuners, but I would say as soon as there were more than one programme on UHF (1971) and single standard sets became viable the pattern: BBC1 BBC2 ITV became pretty much universal, in fact the only place where I remember this was not so was at Granada Studios where I believe the MD, David Plowright had mandated Granada should always take the No1 position. If you thought that was odd, the Chairman, Sidney Bernstein, insisted that every studio, department, and office was equipped with a portrait of P. T. Barnum, and that included every Granada TV Rentals workshop and showroom, and I don't even think the motorway services were immune.
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7th Dec 2019, 12:35 am | #125 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,004
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Re: Repair nightmares.
I've seen 1 or 2 sets with the channel switches labelled: BBC1 ITV1 BBC2 ITV2.
When my family got it's first home computer for some reason my Dad tuned it into 9, (5-8 were used for the Welsh channels we could pick up) & we used 0 when we got a VCR a few years later.
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7th Dec 2019, 12:09 pm | #126 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Newcastle, Australia
Posts: 321
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Greetings all.
Mongrel jobs? Ha I can look back on it now and laugh but at the time I was not happy! Working on a transmitter in the radio room of a large commercial cargo ship in Sydney Harbour many years ago. It was a major upgrade to the TX and I had bits and pieces spread all over a work bench in the radio room. Had a visit from the master of the ship, a nice affable gentleman, who enquired as to how the job was going. I told him that it would take a while yet as he could see it was still in pieces and would need to be aligned after I had fully assembled it. He stood there quietly for a short time fondling his beard in contemplation then asked me if I could have it completed in about 20 minutes. My reply was “no chance.” “Did I have a clean tooth brush in my kit” was his next question. I thought it a weird question! He said “no worry as he had one I could use.” The Captain then beckoned me outside to look over the hand rail to show me that they were preparing to cast off and had in fact already cast off the springer lines and there was only the bow and stern lines holding the ship to the dock. Sudden light bulb went on that I was going for a little journey. I often wondered why my employer wanted us to have a current passport and to have it in our toolbox with us. Now I knew! The Captain had already talked to my contract manager and it had been approved by him. Without any consultation with me I might add! Three weeks later and one typhoon later I arrived in Yokohama, Japan. All told it ended up being quite a good trip and I kept myself busy doing jobs for the crew and the Captain fixing and improving some of their personal radios and stuff. Typhoon was scary though! Big time! Cheers, Robert. |
7th Dec 2019, 12:38 pm | #127 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 875
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Wow! That 'saga' makes the rest of us sound like moaning minnies!!!
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7th Dec 2019, 2:05 pm | #128 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Derby, UK.
Posts: 7,735
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Re: Repair nightmares.
If it wasn't for the modern radio equipment, that story could have come straight out of ancient mythology!
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If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments. |
7th Dec 2019, 6:19 pm | #129 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
Slot 1 - BBC1 Slot 2 - ATV Slot 3 - Granada since they lived within range of both Lichfield (ATV) and Winter Hill (Granada). This was handy when different episodes of a series such as "The Prisoner" were being shown in the 2 different regions. This was of course before there *was* such a thing as BBC2, but such preset-preferences certainly persisted through the dual-standard area and well into the times of 625/colour-only. |
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7th Dec 2019, 6:49 pm | #130 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,834
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
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A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
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7th Dec 2019, 6:58 pm | #131 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
Sometimes the Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield antennas were a combined Antex "X"-and-BIII array with something better for Granada. Chimneys in the Wales/Shropshire border area needed to be strong! |
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7th Dec 2019, 7:30 pm | #132 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,724
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Re: Repair nightmares.
I remember listening to channel 8 and hearing some unknown serial called Crossroads!
Oh, and the Tingha and Tucker club, a strange Australian themed kids programme from Birmingham. It might as well have been radio though, because I couldn't get the picture, with Granada on the next channel up.
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7th Dec 2019, 7:52 pm | #133 | |||
Dekatron
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Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
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7th Dec 2019, 8:50 pm | #134 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Nottingham, UK.
Posts: 649
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Going back a while a remember a real odd fault on the Bush A774 chassis B/W valve hybrid. When the set was tuned in to a broadcast it would 'radiate' a vertical white line on all the other sets in the workshop. Remove the signal and it would disappear. After been told by the 'sages' that this was due to some breakdown at high voltage in line stage, it turned out to be something very different. In the end it was due to someone changing the sync-sep transistor for the wrong type. They'd fitted a top-hat type BC107 instead of what I can't now remember... Fitting the original type cleared it.
I ended up running the tuner/IF on a separate DC power unit, along with a second supply to replace the gated AGC system. To my surprise on switch-on the set still radiated. The line field stages were all dead. It was by chance I noticed the fresh solder around the recently replaced sync separator transistor. It felt good at the time to tell the senior engineers they'd got it wrong! |
7th Dec 2019, 8:55 pm | #135 | ||
Moderator
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
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Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron. |
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7th Dec 2019, 9:19 pm | #136 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Surbiton, SW London, UK.
Posts: 2,801
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Well one of the tuner buttons was dedicated to VCR and this also switched the flywheel
sync to follow variations in line frequency more quickly (reduction in time constant) Although I have made a few gaffes in 40 years, most problems in consumer gear was caused by customer intervention, e.g. Philips N2400 cassette deck oiled "to make it run better" by a young lad, muffled sound on N3302 as customer had cleaned the head with a pen knife, and no video on Amstrad VCR4600 as customer had cleaned the rotating head with emery paper. Drum easily replaced, but hard to polish out the scratched stationary part ! |
7th Dec 2019, 9:48 pm | #137 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
Posts: 8,935
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Totally correct Graham and normally the bottom button ,number 6 or 8.
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7th Dec 2019, 11:17 pm | #138 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Derby, UK.
Posts: 7,735
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
My nan and grandad used to have a portable TV in their static caravan in Barmouth (just on the edge of Snowdonia National Park), that picked up BBC1 on channel 3 and ITV on channel 1 when used at their home in Cannock (or my parents' in Derby). Both the transmitter serving the campsite and Sutton Coldfield must have been using channels 40, 43 and 46 (and later, 50 for C4 and S4C) but allocated in a different order.
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If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments. |
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8th Dec 2019, 12:11 pm | #139 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Aberaeron, Ceredigion, Wales, UK.
Posts: 2,887
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Re: Repair nightmares.
In post #131 G6Tanuki says “Chimneys in Wales need to be strong...”
That brought back a memory when as a lad I had to install tv aerials. On this occasion it required a triple extension ladder. After putting the two wires around this huge chimney I gave the wire a tug before doing up the bolts, and to my horror the whole chimney rocked, for a moment I thought it was going to fall, but luckily it didn’t, thank goodness they were strong!? John Ps I did inform the homeowner it needed attention! |
8th Dec 2019, 1:31 pm | #140 | ||
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,834
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Re: Repair nightmares.
Quote:
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A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
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