Ripped out antenna input plug

32 inch Insignia flat screen TV.

My big feet tripped over the antenna cable, ripping out the input where the cable screws on.

I took off the back hoping it would be a simple solder job, no luck. The little circuit board is broken.

How much trouble would it be to fix?

Appx, how much would it cost to fix?

How long would it take to fix?

I attached a link to some pictures.

formatting link

Thanks for any information.

Reply to
dusty
Loading thread data ...

Assuming the video jacks are still okay, and the tv set still works as a monitor, a DTV converter with video out would get the thing working again.

There are even DTV converters that have HDMI outputs, they even allow recording if you attach a USB flash drive to them.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

That's a great suggestion. Thank you

Reply to
dusty

I guess it doesn't have a model number. Could you be a little less vague?

Next time, use a push on F connector or adapter. It's a common problem. Power cords and phono jacks are protected by easily disconnecting.

I think anyone that knows which end of the soldering iron to grap can probably put Humpty Dumpty back together again. It's mostly a matter of your carrying the TV to the repair person or shop, removing the shield can, doing whatever it takes to resolder the connector, putting it back together, and check for other common problems (i.e. bulging caps). I would guess about 30-45 mins work and testing, assuming you don't need any other repairs. All your photos are out of focus and too far away, so I can't be more specific. Looks like the center pad might have ripped off, so there will be some PCB trace work involved. For cost, just ask for how much shop time costs.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

model # NS-L32Q-10A

Inside the shiny square box, where the connector is ripped out, the small circuit board is broken in several places. Sorry the pictures weren't better. I'll call around and see if someone can fix it. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to drive 100 miles to find someone who can fix it.

Those slip on connectors are a good idea.

--
Usenet Reader for Android 
http://android.newsgroupstats.hk
Reply to
dusty

You can buy the tuner can and just drop (or solder) it in place. Search eBay and other sources for the number on the tuner.

Or, just replace the entire board: or others for more money.

If the board is cracked, it might be possible to epoxy it back together, and solder the traces back together. However, if the traces and cracks extend under components, there may be othe damage. Since this might easily be a waste of time, it's probably best to replace the tuner can, or the entire board.

Have the replacement main board shipped to you via UPS, USPS, Fedex, etc. Much easier than driving 100 miles. I don't think there will be any soldering if your replace the entire main board. Just connector juggling. Be sure to take a photo of what it looks like before you start as mixing up connectors, shields, brackets, and hardware is not a good idea.

Yep. I wish they made something similar for RJ45 (ethernet) connectors. Good luck with the repair.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

wow, eBay has everything. I'll order a board after I check the exact part number I need. I ordered some slip connectors. You've helped me a lot, I appreciate it very much.

Thank you Dusty

Reply to
dusty

Back in the olden days, I repaired many RF converters, when people ripped the F connectors out of VCR's. Usually super glued the pcb into normal position, then scraped the foils and laid a piece of fine wire across the breaks and soldered it in place. I often had to solder the F connector back into the RF converter, because once the original crimp was torn loose, a solid mechanical repair required it. From 1984 to 1994, I had 11,000 vcr repairs, The first 6 or 7 years were the boom time for VCR's, then the price started dropping by the time I quit, the price was had hit $200 and less. People started declining repair and buying new ones. I turned my position over to another tech and moved to Florida. I returned a year later for a visit, the tech said he only came in about twice a week to do repairs. The volume had dropped considerably. Mikek

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Reply to
amdx

Being able to buy a replacement board on eBay, for a low price, plug it in, makes it easy for anyone to fix their own. Someone more skilled could fix the old one.

I just wonder what to do with the old board? The eBay store doesn't say anything about wanting it for exchange. I'd hate to throw it away. Do you know of a place that would want it?

There isn't a recycling place anywhere nearby for electronics. There's probably one 100 miles away in Lubbock. I've got some other things to get rid of.

Back in the late 70's, I had a Zenith TV that blew a board every six months. They charged me $100 a couple of times to replace it. It was the board for a built in phone. When it worked, it worked good.

l probably would have liked working with electronics, if I could have gotten a start when I was young. We have oil fields around here, so I got started in that.

I've fixed a lot of simple things with solder. That board is beyond my skill level. Some people I used to work with thought I was a genius because I could solder a few things. They could have done those things if they'd tried. I'm getting too old and shaky to do fine work.

Reply to
dusty

I had problems getting a solid support for the F-connector with a cracked PCB. I used epoxy to hold the board together and did exactly as you describe to fix the wiring. For supporting the F connection, I added a brass washer and 3/8-32 nut. I then tack soldered the brass washer to the tin plated tuner can. For those devices where that wasn't possible, I installed a pigtail with an F-connector on the end. If I was lazy and the front end had a 300 ohm input, I would install a

300-75 ohm balun hanging off the back.

Nice. That's 10 years or 1,100 VCR's per year, or roughly 100 per month, or about 3 per day. One can make good money doing that kind of volume.

I'm seeing much the same thing in the computah repair biz. Between the release of Windoze 95 in 1995, and the end of the Y2K scare, business was booming. It was not unusual to bill customers 33% of the value of a new $3,000 machine for repairs and upgrades. However, for personal reasons, I was not able to work much and could not take advantage of the PC boom to enrich myself. After about 2002, everything collapsed because the Y2K scare had forced most users buy new machines, which they intended to amortize over a longer period. Windoze XP was a major improvement over pervious Windoze mutations, which resulted in a further reduction in work. Without my multiple businesses, I would have given up. Today, it is possible to buy a complete and functional desktop for about $700. Customers are usually not willing to pay more then 25% to 33% of the replacement cost of a machine on repairs. So, my maximum billing has dropped to about $200 per machine. At $75/yr, that's about 2.5 hrs, which doesn't leave me much time to do complicated and lengthy repairs that were previously both necessary and profitable.

Bummer. However, obsolescence and dropping prices is a way of life in the tech sector. I used to be in the digital watch and calculator repair business when they were profitable and was fortunate enough to bail out before the prices crashed.

Suggestion: Go into: Avast -> Settings -> Active Protection -> Mail Shield -> Customize -> Main Settings and uncheck the box "Scan Outbound Mail SMTP". That will make the above advertisement disappear. You don't really need to scan outgoing email as anything that turns your machine into a spam bot will be fairly obvious. However, if you want to scan outgoing email, you can get rid of the message with: Avast -> Settings -> Active Protection -> Mail Shield -> Customize -> Behavior and unchecking "Insert Note into clean message (outgoing)".

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I have trouble reconciling myself with the idea that something is broken beyond repair, when I know it can be repaired.

But I taught myself to think about a cheap dinner plate that has falled and broken into 20 pieces. Is it really worth fixing, just because I can?

Reply to
micky

The RF converters had a framework and then snap on covers. I would file the bottom ring on the connector and tin it and the frame, The I could usually lay a nice bead around it. Always with the freeze mist handy to keep the internal plastic of the F connector from melting.

Ya, maybe a little better than that, I didn't work 7 days a week!

Ya, for a poor boy I did real well in 86, 87, 88, and 89. The VCR craze built several retail chains during those years. In 87 and 88 my share was $60k each year. Have never earned as much again, even in inflated dollars. The service center owner had a good setup. He tried to get warranty service for any company he could. We had manuals, because we did warranty repairs. In the early years the VCR companies paid very well for warranty service. We had 3 big box retailers we did, warranty and contract repairs for. Remember those service contracts sold by the stores? Did great for the stores and me! All techs were independent contractors, we could come and go on our schedule, working any hours we wanted. I often had an afternoon nap! The owner had a front counter that did a pretty good job of shielding us from the---public---. We worked for a percentage of the labor and the percentage increased after a certain amount. Great incentive to get more work done. The independent contractor status probably would not have passed an IRS test, but I would not have changed it. We had a non refundable $39 troubleshooting fee, it would be subtracted from the total bill. That pushed many people to part with another $40 or $60 just because they already had $39 into it. Because I worked on the same models over and over, I was paid for my experience more than my time.

DVD player sales were coming on at the time VCR's prices were dropping, I thought about jumping into those, I'm glad I didn't, the prices for those dropped quick.

Ok, I did the latter, do I owe you a consultation fee, or do you owe me a psychiatric fee for easing your angst? :-)

Thanks, Mikek

Reply to
amdx

I wanted to avoid soldering to the F-connector. It was easier to tack solder to the brass washer than to the connector. It was especially handy for zinc and cadmium plated connectors, which would not solder without grinding off the plating. Sometimes, the base metal was some kind of aluminum copper mix, that also wouldn't solder. It became a fairly common repair so I pre-tinned a box of brass washers and used them as needed. I still have the box, somewhere. For where I had to solder to the connector, I had a male F-connector with a heat sink attached to conduct and then radiate as much heat as possible. The center pin was the key because if the dielectric melted, it would reform in the same position when cooled, held in place by the center pin. All my few TV F-connector repairs included a push on adapter, mostly because I didn't want to see the TV again after the owner tripped over the cable again.

Ok. 20 working days per month makes 5 VCR's per day, which is even more impressive.

When I was going to college in the late 1960's, one of my assorted part time jobs was working at the local electronics repair shop. Officially, it was a camera repair shop. However, the owner negotiated a deal to handle warranty service for Concord Electronics, which imported Japanese cheap tape recorders. A shipment of maybe

2,000 recorders would arrive and the first think the factory did was open the boxes and test them. It seems that there was zero testing at the factory. We would get to fix and rework the failures. Since they were mostly hand assembled at that point, the problems were easy to spot consisting mostly of the usual parts in backwards, missing parts, loose parts, and wrong parts. It was easy work and the margin was great.

So, the owners negotiated similar warranty contracts with other electronic importers. At various times, we had Sony (Superscope), Akai, Roberts, Concord, Panasonic, and some others I can't recall. Each company had its collection of problems. However, the work was made more difficult by miserable packaging design and worthless documentation. Each shipment was somewhat different from the previous shipment as the factory made "improvements". Profits from the warranty works was minimal, but necessary in order to get the much more lucrative out of warranty repair work. Nobody sold service contracts at the time.

Roll forward a few years and I'm now in the 2way radio biz billing by time and materials. I go to the bank for a loan and they say that I don't have a continuous income stream, which means I have to sell service contracts in order to get a loan. So, I negotiate contracts with my largest customers, only to find them now complaining about literally everything possible. Instead of light erratic work and an erratic income, I now had terminal over-work, but a steady income. Oops. I eventually charged monthly for the contract and some amount by the visit and by the radio. That worked.

Such service contracts are still with us today. One of my friends destroyed her iPhone. She was paying Verizon for phone insurance. When it came time to collect, she discovered that the deductible was almost exactly the same as what it would cost to buy a "refurbished" phone on eBay. Any semblance to a rip-off is not coincidental.

The shop where I worked was much the same way except we were all students and therefore part time employees. My pay was set by a rather complex formula that I never understood. Sometimes it was more than I expected, other times less. At the time, I don't believe there was such a thing as independent contractor. At least, I don't recall it ever being mentioned. That came later, in the 1980's. As I recall, I was getting about $0.50/hr after taxes.

You were lucky that the factory didn't make drastic changed with every shipment. I had to learn the machine over again with every shipment, roughly once per month. Not knowing that this was not exactly normal or optimum, I just accepted it and plodded forward.

Good move. By this time, the manufacturers had cut the importers out of the picture and were contracting with independent shops to see if there was a market for after sales service. They would require the shops to work for minimal profit, which was to be compensated by the factory sending them all the out of warranty work. Between 1980 and about 1995, that worked, because people genuinely expected products to last 10+ years and were willing to pay for repair work. The introduction of Chinese products wrecked that plan, where everything is a throw away and the only need for repair service is to pretend to deliver on their warranty obligations.

More like an excavation and cleaning fee. Finding the proper setting under 7 layers of menus was the difficult part. Sorry, but I won't be paying a fee. Personal policy does not allow me to pay for either physical or mental exercise. However, I would like to thank you for improving the aesthetic quality of your postings by removing the advertisement.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

That can be easily calculated. However, I need a number from you. What percentage of the replacement cost of a specific item would you consider spending (per year) on its repair? Obviously, that varies with what is being repaired and any emotional attachment to it.

Let's see how it might work. The OP was asking about his 32 inch Insignia NS-L32Q-10A LCD TV which just sold on eBay for $75 plus something for shipping: That sets the replacement cost of the TV. For used, my personal maximum would be about 40% of the replacement cost. That would be about $30 maximum for the repair. Assuming my time to be worthless, buying a replacement board for $30 is marginal.

If he brought the TV to my shop where I charge $75/hr, my guess is $50 minimum charge for the repair, or about $100 if I replace the main board (mostly consumed by testing to insure there are no additional problems).

I might go for a higher percentage for something more expensive. Home repair can sometime exceed the value of the structure. At the low extreme, shipping can be more than the value of the product.

I've ranted and discussed the cost of repair issue several times in the past. It's important to me because it sets the prices and rates at which I can charge for my repair services. I can dig out the old articles if you're interested.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Believe it or not you might be able to sell it to someone who needs on but doesn't care about off the air TV. Alot of people have cable or dish that requires a box anyway and most of them have video output, if not HDMI etc.

Reply to
jurb6006

It's not bragging if you did it right? Ok, one week during the Christmas return season, I repaired 84 vcrs. Most came from the 3 Big box retailers, in boxes. I billed a little over $6,000 and got a $3,000 paycheck. Yes, I worked 7 days and more than 8 hrs a day. Many of the repairs were Fisher and Sanyo VCR's with the same problems over and over. Any repairs that looked like they might take real troubleshooting were moved to next week. If I needed a part that I didn't have in stock, I usually had a VCR on the shelf that had the part.

I needed to move them out, the 120 VCR's stacked up, was only the start, the tv tech had his pile and the audio guy too. The shop got crowded. The boss also had guy that went to the stores picked up the repairs and delivered them when completed. Another advantage to having lots of the same model, if I had a tough dog, I could do the besideja method. Putting a working model beside me and see what was different.

When doing repairs, I hate the learning curve, especially when you know you'll never see one of these again. The biggest pleasure was, as the repair business started to wear on you, a service class would come up, you go to the class and learn just how cool all these parts put together as a circuit and combined with other circuits and WOW, this thing is amazing.

Ya, that's when I sold my home my rentals and moved to Florida.

It was my pleasure. As Maya Angelo said, "When you know better, you do better".

Mikek

Reply to
amdx

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.