Three steps:
1. If you repair these things for others, raise your rates.
2. When anyone asks for a recommendation about a new set find another
brand to recommend, almost any will do.
3. Sell the remaining parts to the hapless others who have purchased
these nightmares.
I don't mean to sound salty but we have considered simply refusing to
service these RCAs. Used RCAs still carry a good recommendation, up to
and including the CTC195. Actually we won't refuse, but rates and
policies will reflect the disadvantages of that design.
Mmmm, My hands is tied. I work for shop and boss and I relationship
are very good and we have same opinions about things and yet they
still make money when they break.
Jurb, that 60" proj is on contract with that local store so we must
fix or tell them butt off and get customer a another set. PROBLEM IS:
1. That set is a dog and we had to visit several times, and this is
very far drives. Two. That d*mned set is not that new, it is about 3
years old and no longer produced so hard to tell them to replace it
with another unit of same model. DTV307 is not exactly common. I
usually see about 1 to 3 per year. That's few.
enhance reliability nor servicability. HDTV does not impress me, it's
somewhat like the CTC111. Had SVM, one of the first digital COMB
filters and wide "I" demodulation, fucker had three delay lines that I
can remember. Then they hooked this state of the art chassis to an
absolute shit CRT. Colorimetry sucked and the screen pitch was coarse
enough to see the slots from three feet away. Ugh.
Hehehe. what is the wide "I" demodulation? CTC111 is waaaay before
my time! Our CTC schematics goes far back as 120.
Then you have the cheap versions of the CTC169, tubes are holding up
and every so often you have to do the standard power supply or
horizontal repair. Of course even with those, don't get an audio
problem. The audio circuit really isn't bad, well about 400 of them are
OK. For some reason they seemed to redesign the audio circuit every few
days.
CTC169'ers here are doing well thank you very much and good money
maker and good reputation once fixed.
I still love 195/197, 203 and ATC113 (based on 203). ITC008 is not
too bad to deal with as well.
I drive a 1987 GM car, and my TV is even older than that. I work on
cars and I work on TVs and that is why my devices are so old. When you
FINALLY get something good keep it. Take all the money you save and put
it into property, weapons and staples. (speaking of houses, mine is
about 100 years old, and I happen to like seeing wood when I tear out a
wall or something)
Nice you have. I also have 1987 caravan with 2.2L. I recently rebuilt
part of engine: carb, replace manifold gasket and plane manifolds
(both) and replace other hacks and did vaccum hoses, swapped vacuum
tranductor on spark control computer. Runs very well now. But
eventually will convert van to 2.5L or 2.4L for more grunts. Saving
up for finishing driving school and pass exam for G2 license then get
van on road and finish rest of G2 in a year to get G license. This is
graduated license system in ontario, canada.
The only way we can get manufacturers to build anything good is to stop
buying junk. CRTs should NOT drop necks like that. When the blinker
goes out, you should have to replace a lightbulb, not a circuit board.
When a TV turns all red you should have to troubleshoot the video
output circuit NOT adjust the fu___ vertical centering !
Hehehe. Have you ever seen CRTs drop it's necks eh? I'm curious,
that's my first.
Samsung is surprisingly nice to work on especially the later ones:
Lot of them has G2 calibration guide that turns green when screen is
correctly set on direct views, even newer ones now have test screens
programmed in!!! Setting up convergence is snap on projectors. In
customer convergence, straighten out then finish rest of it in service
mode convergnce, and save the new settings. Saved time by large
factor from 2+ hours down to half a hour. On some newer RCA units 2
to 3+ hours is a given due to how bad the newer remote design is.
Oh, if samsung authorized, you can google the hard to get parts and
get samsung part and order it. This is how I sent you that odd IC.
And samsung sends parts very quickly. 2 days usually, but many times
next day.
So, while you can, take a weapon and shoot that RCA and put it on the
tree lawn with a camcorder rolling. Put the video on the internet for
all to see, learn to register with search engines and use meta tags so
it gets found. Then have a beer (ONE thing still made in the USA along
with paper clips) and go buy a new Sony. The first, very first time it
fails even if it's only one day old, get the gun and the camcorder and
do the same thing. Make it public.
I know this much, if something I am forced to buy new breaks I want it
replaced, not repaired. This is not because of the techs repairing it,
it is because of the design. Ever smash a fairly new car and notice
that after it's fixed it doesn't ride as good ? Hint : It's not the
mechanic's fault.
Perfectly knew. The front drive unibodies are usually like that since
early 80's even I'm not that old. Born Sept 1972.
I really, REALLY regret not being able to offer much in the positive,
but it is simply not out there.
I hope I didn't wreck your day, just relax a minute. Plan of action ? I
dunno. And don't go accusing me of putting down that set, your own
experience did quite the prep job.
You makes me smile even you have no answer. I like to talk.
Now when you get a customer that really has to have a new TV what are
you going to tell him to buy, or more specifically, what are you going
to tell him NOT to buy ?
I know you paid good money for that set, so did others. Just how do we
fight back ?
Exactly, we have no choice and we can't alienate the customers and
makers. They give us the means to live, fixing but we know as a
techs. We can modify and choose our own stuff that's best of all to
do it better.
I don't know what else to say except that something needs to be done.
Exactly Jurb, we have no choice. Customers follows many different
directions that makers likes them to do and is grossly duped. Also
customers are that not that kind of techanical knowledge, they want a
TV that does it's stuff and one button remote. DUH, that one button
remote thing is coined by my boss in response to my wondering why
about no menu button for universal remotes. If we have one button
remote, customers will buy them becaues they like to use TVs easily
without a diploma. Eeeeeh!
Cheers, Wizard
