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Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here) If you have any useful general hints and tips for vintage technology repair and restoration, please share them here. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE! |
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31st May 2006, 10:23 pm | #21 |
Octode
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 1,898
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Ah.... laccy band bodges! surely the best I do remember on field service going to a huge hybrid Telefunken (an old set then) it was owed by a very stroppy difficult customer and during my investigation of the fault , (No Blue) I pulled off the tube base and one of the pins of the tube came out with it I soldered a nice point on the pin and put the base back on ,I could only get Blue if I held the tube base PCB so three elastic bands from the static convergence coils to the corners of the tube PCB and result! Hasty retreat made!But I kid you not the bodge lasted years, untill one day, clapped out ,we part exchanged it!
other laccy band bodges included the decoder on the Finlux "Peacock" (anyone remember them!) and I seem to remember a laccy band and matcbox bodge for the early Bush transistor colour chassis as on the front cover of "Television " mag it was to move the boards apart to prevent interaction, bush modified later sets by turning the Timbase panel upside down I forget the chassis number was it the A823? |
31st May 2006, 10:39 pm | #22 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Western Lake District, Cumbria (CA20) - UK
Posts: 2,136
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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And who remembers the mod for the LOPT on the very early Bush colour sets? They were prone to catching fire so Bush issued a mod kit consisting of a wire mesh cage to fit aroung the offending item. Didn' stop it catching fire but stopped it from burning holes in the customer's carpet! Those were the days. regards,
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Brian |
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4th Jun 2006, 9:53 pm | #23 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 3,310
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
I have just remembered an example of CE related to me some years ago by one of my college lecturers who spent some time as Tech on board ships.
One particular vessel he was serving on had a problem with the navigation system. The "auto pilot" would slowly drift to the port about 3 degrees per day. A service engineer was dispatched, and declared "Oh , one of THOSE!. He then removed the printed circuit boards, shuffled them like a TV newsreader and whacked them edge on on a firm surface, before replacing the boards. " That thing souldn't give you any more trouble" And it didn't!! I believe the vessel in question was an oil tanker............
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4th Jun 2006, 10:00 pm | #24 | |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Newbury, Berkshire, UK.
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Quote:
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Chris |
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8th Jul 2006, 3:57 pm | #25 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Malaga, Spain.
Posts: 235
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
On the subject of daughters, all the guys in Marconi radar in the late sixties had daughters, and there were around 20 that worked there. The Secondary radars were often tested indoors, 8MW pk power on L band 30KW average power. Sometimes birds fell from the roof. It was also fairly normal to play with light bulbs and neons with the low power (10KW pk) airborne X band radars. 10 years after leaving there We had a son!
Boiss. |
8th Jul 2006, 7:03 pm | #26 | |
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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Only last month I was party to a group of engineers who have spent a lot of their life (so it was claimed, but quite believable) working with, in and around VHF Txs up to 20kW+ And the same observations were made. Nine engineers, 14 children and only one boy among them. Is there something significant here Al / G8DLH |
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8th Jul 2006, 7:19 pm | #27 | |
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Quote:
Fred's TV was intermittently mis-behaving. Fred called out his local TV engineer, who when he arrived, took one slow, careful look at the set, muttered something about "Oh, it's a *****" (make of set). Went to the side of the set and, aiming carefully, gave it a meaningful THWACK! Fault cleared instantaneously - much to the delight of Fred. However, when Fred got the bill, he was puzzled. "Eight pounds and seven pence - so what's the seven pence for" asked Fred. "For thumping the set" came the reply. "And the eight pounds?" "For knowing where to thump it!" Al / G8DLH Last edited by Paul Stenning; 8th Jul 2006 at 11:33 pm. |
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8th Jul 2006, 8:34 pm | #28 | |
Dekatron
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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9th Jul 2006, 8:01 am | #29 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Near Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Posts: 4,609
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
There is the famous one, probably just an urban myth.
Customer: Picture is not right (we have all had one of these!) Engineer: What is wrong with it? C: It is just not right. E: OK, I see (he adjusts vertical hold to make it roll slowly). Tell me which one you want. C: That one looks better! E: Right (locks vertical hold) C: Much better. Anyone in the trade always seems to know someone who knows someone that did this!
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Mike. |
9th Jul 2006, 8:59 pm | #30 | |
Octode
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Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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These custs we refered to as "FTW"s Ill let you work it out! |
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10th Jul 2006, 12:08 am | #31 | |
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Quote:
Engineer: "That pics. not right, you know" (said as diplomatically as possible). Customer: "Eh? Nowt wrong with it mate!" I can't be the only one who, when visting some people's homes, look at their telly, and think "how on Earth can they watch THAT?" You know - the colour balance / grey scale is DREADFUL! Sometimes, if the conversation drifts round to the general subject of "you're the whizz kid with electronics" ( more like! ), I might casually make some appropriate, carefully phrased comment, hoping that they'll let me adjust the user controls: contrast, colour, etc. Often, though, the response is something like "Oh, no thanks, that's just fine as it is" / "We like it that way!" / Post - adjustment: "Nah, don't like it! Can you put it back as it was?" Now I know that as a consequence of having spent a lot of my Life adjusting / repairing TVs and PC monitors, by now I have "calibrated eyesight", but are some people almost colour blind? I don't know about the rest of you, but having to sit in front of a TV when it is so obviously out of adjustment this way drives me CRAZY!! Al / G8DLH |
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10th Jul 2006, 8:38 am | #32 | |
Dekatron
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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I also had a customer with a G8 and A56-120 CRT that insisted (and the entire family did as well) that the "staggering" of the rows of pixels around the edge of the shadowmask was never like that before - we had to take an identical set out before it would shut them up.
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Mike. |
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10th Jul 2006, 9:43 am | #33 |
Dekatron
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Me too. I once visited a TV with a 1 inch high picture - but THAT wasn't the problem as far as the user was concerned!
My concern now is that it is people like that who think that digital TV is a good idea. Only yesterday I was being shown a very cheap digi-box by a neighbour - I asked if the picture broke up when you turned on the lights etc. because I had heard that sometimes happened. "Oh no" he said, "it never does that". Then someone turned on a light and the picture disappeared into digital mess. "Like that!" I exclaimed - he hadn't noticed it before. |
10th Jul 2006, 10:00 am | #34 | |
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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WHAT! You have just gotta be kidding! No, seriously - I just COULDN'T let that go by without some comment! I've seen some unbeleivable TV "set-ups" in my time, but that really takes the cheese biscuit! The range of what the (read: some) human minds will "accept" sometimes completely amazes me . . . . Al / G8DLH |
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10th Jul 2006, 11:05 am | #35 | |
Dekatron
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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10th Jul 2006, 12:09 pm | #36 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Croydon, Surrey, UK.
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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Me included Mike...but I actually witnessed it during my early days when an awkward customer came to collect a repaired set . I called up to the engineer who then came and 'adjusted' the frame hold and just said 'tell me when to stop'.....and the customer did, paid the bill and went away with a smile on his face ! We laughed about it for days after and I've never forgotton it. Rich.
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10th Jul 2006, 1:26 pm | #37 |
Nonode
Join Date: May 2006
Location: St Albans, Herts, UK.
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Hello Al.
The thing that most makes me cringe are 4:3 pictures stretched to fill a 16:9 screen. I have now come across so many people that just cannot tell that it's completely wrong Even worse, when you set up the digibox or whatever to display the correct aspect ratio for the set they say that people seem to be too thin! Having lived with a techno freak for so many years you'd think that my wife could tell the difference between the aspect ratios but NO!! Tas |
10th Jul 2006, 4:26 pm | #38 | |
Dekatron
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Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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The first time I watched it was while she was in hospital and I was staying in her flat while visiting her. Needless to say, I changed it to letterbox (or whatever the vertical equivalent is) format to watch it - remembering, of course, to put it back how I found it when I left, otherwise she would have thought something was wrong with the set I don't bother trying to argue, it's not worth the effort. |
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10th Jul 2006, 6:05 pm | #39 | |
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
Quote:
The trouble is that we are our own worse enemy: we don't keep our interests secret! A Technician's Lot is not a happy one! Al / G8DLH |
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10th Jul 2006, 6:18 pm | #40 | |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: North London, UK.
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Re: The art of coarse engineering
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All together now, with apologies to W S Gilbert: When engineering duty's to be done, to be done, a technician's lot is not a happy one, happy one. Maybe some budding lyricist in the forum will do a few verses of the coarse engineering song. Haven't listened to it but this link includes a karaoke file for the song http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/pirat...pirates24.html |
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