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Old 12th Jul 2019, 12:55 pm   #1
Welsh Anorak
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Default The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

The Ferguson/Thomson ICC5 has come in for a bit of stick lately, and they certainly had their problems but there were worse chassis!

My nomination for the worst set was the Sharp CS series. In case you're in blissful ignorance of this TV, let me fill you in. Sharp had a good reputation, and their sets, whenever they came in, were fairly predictable in their faults, and had great spares backup from Willow Vale. They were mainly smaller screen models, and had a strong line in portables. Then, in the mid-Nineties, the rep came in and told us of the exciting new set from Sharp. He looked pityingly at the service bench. "You won't be needing that" he said. "If they should ever go wrong, you just unplug the one panel and send it back, and you get a new one straight away, ready to plug back in". He showed us the circuit board, which was smaller than a mono portable's. We were a bit dubious, but ordered a couple to try.
They were available in 20, 25" and 28" 4:3 versions, with text and Nicam as standard. They used the excellent 45AX tube. and looked the part in light grey. Good sound and picture, and we had no problems selling the few we had. Luckily for us, the wholesaler went out of business soon after and we then reverted to sets we knew.
Then, out of guarantee, they went wrong. Very wrong. In the quest for the smallest chassis, extensive use was made of SMD parts on a double sided PCB. Although we were used to these in VCRs and in TVs to some extent, we were unprepared for the problems. But hey - just bundle the board up and send it back, right? Ah, but they're out of warranty by now, and Sharp were overwhelmed with the panels being returned, so turnround was slow. Also the cost was around £90. But crucially the replacement panels were 'refurbished' with a 30-day warranty. They soon failed again, and that was another £90, please, and another limited warranty. Customers weren't happy, snd the few I sold soon were replaced with Philips or Hitachi sets, heavily subsidised by us.
Since many repairers wouldn't touch them, they formed a steady stream of repairs. Surely thay couldn't be that hard to fix? It appeared a fault occurred which distorted the line drive waveform. This caused excessive EHT which lost no time in arcing around, taking care of the line oscillator jungle IC, the text and Nicam chips too, if you were unlucky. Then the line output transistor failed and took the transformerless driver stage with it. By this time, it was likely the LOPT had broken down, and it wasn't worth finding out the hard way if it had!
The main problem was the cost of the jungle IC, never mind the difficulty fitting it - this was when we only had rudimentary SMD rework tools. Sharp supplied a service kit to deal with the original cause of the fault - some diodes, capacitors and transistors in the driver and PSU, just leaving all the expensive damaged components to replace.
Several sets later, because of the repair cost and dubious future reliability we refused to do them and ended up with a pile of around twenty TVs, some working, that we sold on for a few pounds each.
Some time later I was chatting to a technician who worked for a large retailer. They had offered a free five year warranty on this wonder chassis against the advice of the service department, and it ended up costing them dearly. Apparently when the last set's extended warranty expired, they had a big party, and reception staff were told not to accept any more for service.

Sharp's next chassis was the DS, which oddly enough had a large, single sided PCB, daughter boards and no SMDs. Wonder why?
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Old 12th Jul 2019, 3:43 pm   #2
phut bang
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

ha ha i remember these very well the new replacement chassis had dry joints already sometimes used to fail after a couple of months i actually met the person who designd the chassis a spanish guy if i remenber he had to design it out of a budget of £25 hardly surprised they didnt last with everything on a a4 sized pcb.i came to the conclusion eventually there was a serious production propblem,they left the crusher out of the end of production line
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Old 12th Jul 2019, 5:05 pm   #3
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I got wind of the problems they were having with the CS chassis so avoided purchasing any for rental or sale. However, a few came in for repair and I soon realised I did made the right decision not to buy any CS sets.

Evidently, the design of the CS was said to be a production planner's masterpiece but it was certainly not considered in the same vein by those who had to repair the things.

TVs fitted with the DS chassis were good, sold and rented out a few and didn't have any problems, same goes for the ES

DFWB.
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Old 12th Jul 2019, 9:06 pm   #4
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Oh dear. I feel a Stephen King novel coming on. I thought these tellies had been erased from my memory for always and forever. Not so.

These were the sets that used a class D output chip (supposedly runs cool!) in the sound stage and went BANG with severe consequences.

These were the sets that failed big time around the line stage. Dry joints and S Correction caps bulging against the line output transformers' outer casing.

You would spend hours rebuilding and ALWAYS ended up with a bowed picture until loads more bits were changed.

I remember that the company I worked for at the time fell out with Sharp over these TV's. We had a particularly cutting and abrasive service manager at the time who took no muck from anyone.

One day, the Sharp rep, a bloke with a foreign sounding name, ( Eric Von Winklehausen? or something remotely similar ) came round to tell us all how wonderful things were. He was greeted by "Roger" our service manager. The conversation went something like...

"Your big screen TV's are costing us more in parts than any other set. You can make portables but that's it. Anything over and above 14 inch is c**p. Cheerio"!

We never saw Mr Winklehausen again. But the damned CS kept coming in, day after day after day after....

Gonna go play my Mary Poppins LP now and try to forget this hiatus of a reminder of how things used to be.... thanks so much for bringing it up, Glyn..!
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 7:58 pm   #5
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I remember going to the dump around the time these chassis were just coming out of guarantee.
The manager could not understand why so many of these good looking receivers were being scrapped and believe me there was a lot!
I had to explain the situation. A real let down from an excellent company.

OK AVS1600/2000, all is forgiven. John.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 8:24 pm   #6
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Sharp DS, CS, DH and FW, Not even looked at previous posts. Done em' all, at Newton Heath. Manchester. We had the Sharp crew round to TRY and train us. The optocouplers, the strange line transistor. Their people came and fitted the opto back to front and blew the psu while they were giving courses in our workshops. The canteen was ok, years on someone got shot (WITH A GUN, DEAD) there. We ran rings around our Korean guys, sorry to bleat on, Class D frame and audio and transformerless driver line stages. We wrote new f\w for their sets using ponyprog. 16k chips. The FW were flat screens that always had e\w issues. Can't remember their website, was it tradenet? Account holders only, We sat in fear of their techies, but then again their audio products were slightly better. Their videos better still. I still use a triple speed one. Happy days, and they were so predictable and stock faults. I went to LG after after and did 10 years there. Prior to Sharp did nearly 30 years at Sony, to be fair Sharp was the best place to be at. Almost out of the trade now, as an end Sharp was very new with Class D output stages, now common in audio stages. MEMORIES!!!
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 8:37 pm   #7
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I've just read Mcmichaels post, it reinforces my feelings re Sharp. They thought it was the bees knees in TV's, We bought palette loads from them, reboxed and put a 12 month warranty on them and fed them out to Comet, Dixons and the like. 500 units a week, at least. That's was why Sharp sent their techies to us, to show us how to mend them, we told them about their pitfalls. In fact the FW wired one 3.15 mains fuse in the neutral wire, guess who found that one, working on a dead set, no rectified mains, set was dead but the primary was live, fuse visibly blown but set still live, guess who found that one. I told Sharp but none were recalled. The circuit board was correctly marked and they fused the neutral. Happy days.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 8:50 pm   #8
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Don't know if I remember this chassis. Which was the awful chassis where everything was processed digitally? I think there were a few chassis in the 90's.

I never liked Sharp. More recently their LCD sets were awful, in fact the Vestel based ones were an improvement on their own products.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 9:02 pm   #9
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Quote Clydeuk: "I never liked Sharp. More recently their LCD sets were awful, in fact the Vestel based ones were an improvement on their own products."
And yet wasn't Sharp a pioneer in LCD technology?

The large screen sets made by Sharp made before the CS series were very good. I remember fixing one of the pre CS models which defied all logical servicing methods. In the end the fault was caused by a faulty electrolytic capacitor in a different part of the circuit. Does the model type C2588H come to mind?

DFWB.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 9:15 pm   #10
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I'm still in the trade, just. Sharp in their wisdom was not happy with red green and blue, but they fitted yellow pixels in their sets. And yes, they went down the Vestel route. Saying that Vestel? Odd Schottky diode in the psu, firmware and backlight leds. Vestel are not that bad. No worse than Sony or LG. I held LG dealership for 10 years, attended and ran courses at Milton Keynes, glad Iv'e only two years left in the trade. Remember the GCS's in the 1810 Sony's. Nightmare sets
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 9:21 pm   #11
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

To retain sanity please do not any more posts from me on Sharp gear. I'm currently only on valium and dont want to go back on anything stronger, I'm sweating buckets just going back 20 years.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 9:38 pm   #12
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

C2588H, it's a bit vague for me now after all this time but I wonder if that's the one I was thinking of. I remember struggling to replace one of the i.c's using only a soldering iron and wick before discovering they did an exchange service on the board for a reasonable cost. They wouldn't have accepted the board I repaired for exchange, though it did work (for how long I don't know)

Was the CS the one that came afterwards? I remember quite smart looking 21 inch sets in a grey cabinet, all digital signal processing.
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Old 13th Jul 2019, 11:53 pm   #13
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Quote:
Originally Posted by FERNSEH View Post
Quote Clydeuk: "I never liked Sharp. More recently their LCD sets were awful, in fact the Vestel based ones were an improvement on their own products."
And yet wasn't Sharp a pioneer in LCD technology?

The large screen sets made by Sharp made before the CS series were very good. I remember fixing one of the pre CS models which defied all logical servicing methods. In the end the fault was caused by a faulty electrolytic capacitor in a different part of the circuit. Does the model type C2588H come to mind?

DFWB.
This one?

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/70...Bk.html#manual
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 12:30 am   #14
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I am trying to picture it. I recall the CA10 chassis, I had a 28" set that would act up intermittently: no startup, cutting out, working only from cold etc. and I think I never found out why, was this a predecessor or variant of the CS? I recall it being a very small pcb.

Also worked on some 14" grey-silver sets with the Squad chassis, early 2000s, these certainly sound like the description given earlier, one massive IC and very little else. I seem to recall the last one I fixed had a burnup in the audio stage, that was entirely SMD I think. Again, no idea if I 'm barking up the wrong tree.
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 12:42 am   #15
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

yesnaby wrote: "This one?"

That's it, the SV2588H.

Hi Ben,
Failing to start up was the fault I encountered with these sets. I remember it was a 2200microfarad capacitor. Must be twenty years ago.
I think it was the CA10 chassis. Full size chassis, nothing like the CS.

DFWB.
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 12:13 pm   #16
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

I think I had a near miss here! Just after we stopped dealing with Ferguson over the Dixon's Logic episode We started dealing with Sharp I don't know if it was these sets as we didn't deal with them very long so I didn't get to know the various chassis.
The first batch we had was the last. A couple blew up in the shop before they were even sold one went off with a bang that blew the end off the PCB near the LOPT. Sharp wanted to send us a "repair kit" but we objected to this as the panel was damaged we wanted the set replaced.

They sent us what looked like a second hand panel at this point we returned the set for credit and closed the account. I seem to remember having a bit of bother with the ones we did sell as one ended up as a loan set while it was still fairly new. Our loan sets were usually older ex rental sets as they had a hard life and inevitably got knocked around a bit.

We went from Sharp to Toshiba. The sets were excellent and sold well the only downside was that Toshiba pushed and pushed for you to sell more.. the more you sold the more orders they wanted, Maybe it was just our rep..?

I remember there was some budget portables around that time they were very good value but had a habit of going splat! We would replace two capacitors in the power supply when they were new before they went out and had no further trouble. I cannot remember the make possibly Bush? Available in various bright colours ISTR..


Rich.
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 12:39 pm   #17
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Sharp didn't help themselves with any of their CRT tv's. The mono 12 inch and above were far better (whoever made them) We automatically changed all the optos on a Sharp set, no matter what the complaint was. No feedback, BANG
OK, it only took out the fuse, transistor, and the current limiting resistor. They weren't bad pictures though. Certainly had the edge on the Vestel range of the day. In fact I remember Sony were not too good with their purity errors on their flat screen sets. We criticise LED tv's for short life leds, but in those days our tills were always full. The tv trade has been good for me, having worked for Sharp, Sony, and LG. Only 2 years to go and I'm hanging up my soldering iron.
50 years in the trade, and two tv stations. People don't know they are born.
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 1:03 pm   #18
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Quote:
Originally Posted by slidertogrid View Post
I remember there was some budget portables around that time they were very good value but had a habit of going splat! We would replace two capacitors in the power supply when they were new before they went out and had no further trouble. I cannot remember the make possibly Bush? Available in various bright colours ISTR..
The infamous Onwa, sold as JVC, Bush, Goodmans and numerous others (14 to 20"). The HT would rise, if the caps weren't changed promptly then the frame chip, line output transistor and a handful of resistors and zeners would die!
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 1:07 pm   #19
toshiba tony
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Yes Ben, Good earners for me, up to £70.00 depending how poor they looked. I don't consider it a rip off. We were providing a service, that brings me round to the fake web sites telling people how to mend their tv's. Makes me cringe.
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Old 14th Jul 2019, 1:18 pm   #20
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Default Re: The Sharp CS chassis- our least favourite TV

Quote slidertogrid: "We went from Sharp to Toshiba. The sets were excellent and sold well the only downside was that Toshiba pushed and pushed for you to sell more.. the more you sold the more orders they wanted, Maybe it was just our rep..?"

It's likely the rep received a commission for every sale. I know in 1976 I had to slam the brakes on all purchasing and trying to tell those pushy reps there would no purchasing for a while was difficult.

Sharp were good at issuing service bulletins, one wishes it is just so nowadays with the LCD TVs.

DFWB.
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