Repair

Soligor AR-20 Ring Light
Hi, I have a Soligor Auto Ringlight AR-20 with one of the "standby" lamps dead. These look to be just wheat germ bulbs. But, they are located *behind* the flash tube. Any pointers as to what to be careful of while disassembling this? Or, is it just not worth the effort/risk (destroying the flash itself)? ... 14 Dec 2009 17:44

Panasonic VP-5720A oscilloscope freezed
Hi, I have a old Panasonic VP-5720A DSO that power up but keys is locked and CRT display nothing. I have try to disconnect deflections (plus removed "SCOPE" board) and CRT display one big center dot, therefore HV supply is working. I suspect that digital control section is defective, considering inactivity of f... 14 Dec 2009 17:44

Concertone ZX75 car audio system
A friend of mine has just bought himself, and imported here to the UK an American RV. It is fitted with a Concertone ZX75 car audio system. There's one problem with the FM radio tuner, it only tunes in 200kHz steps, 88.1, 88.3, 88.5 etc. In the UK we have stations every 100 kHz, for instance one station in ... 15 Dec 2009 14:29

Benq FP737S LCD monitor backlight - won't go off (longish).
Received a Benq Q7T3-FP737S for repair, symptom no backlight. These are notorious for inverter failures. Schematics at http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4183056161_7b5b74f0f4_b.jpg Found PF751 open, FETs Q743/751 OK, D751 OK, Q739/740 OK, and one of Q759/760 (2SC5707) shot. All four inverter transformers sho... 14 Dec 2009 21:03

Tabbed battery replacements
Hi, Replacing rechargeable battery packs in consumer kit is a bane I suspect most of us share. You can't "solder" to individual cells. And, you usually can't slip a battery holder in place to make the connections for you. Sure, you can buy premade packs in a wide variety of configurations. But, these ofte... 27 Dec 2009 02:18

Voltage Regulator 041M03
Can't find any info on this device. I need to know what the output voltage should be. I'm assuming 3 volts, but would like to know for sure. It is getting red hot on the circuit board and is outputting around 7 volts. ... 14 Dec 2009 16:36

B&D FireStorm 24VDC Batteries - DIE QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a great Black & Decker 24VDC FireStorm Hammer Drill that works GREAT. The problem I am having is within the first few months, one battery wouldn't hold a charge. So I got a spare but now I have a second one not holding charge. Looked online and since this isn't the latest and greatest thing now, the batte... 13 Dec 2009 19:49

Projection TV dies if plugged in and OFF for a while...HUH?????
I have an 61" RCA projection TV model P61939 that woke up dead one day, just made a popping sound from the speakers when I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Couldn't get power to come on ir anything. Left it in another room for a week unplugged, and when I plugged it in just out of curiosity, it worked fine. L... 21 Dec 2009 14:43

LCD inverter
Hi everyone. I recently got a 22" LCD monitor which has a bad backlight inverter.. It is a Phillips LC200WX1 which is part of an all in one PC. This monitor has 5 CCFL tubes in it. The inverter itself doesn't have a blown fuse and it was making the backlight flash enough to read the screen.. But now it is only... 12 Dec 2009 03:48

Ma, I Broke The Plate!
The other day I noticed that our microwave was sparking a bit. Then a few minutes after making some pop corn there was a loud thump sound that came from the microwave, but I didn't think about it until I went to heat up something: when I opened the microwave door, I saw the glass rotating plate had spilt into two--... 15 Dec 2009 14:29