Shoryukev wrote:Well......it is with great sadness that I inform you I've modded my 32" sony CRT TV into one that doesn't work. I just don't have the skills required to work on things that have small surface mounted components. Time to admit defeat and just get another TV that has component YPbPr input and use a SCART converter instead.
Dang....
A little off topic but I hope this doesn't discourage you (or anyone else) from further modding. Don't throw that TV out yet, though. You may get there soon enough. First surface mount mods I did looked like balls. Literally; solder balls all over the place. So bad even Drakkon would've sneered at it. Surface mount stuff can be tricky, but a little practice gets acceptable results. The caveat being you need 5 other things:
1) a temp controlled soldering iron. There are good-enough Hakko knockoffs like the $24 YiHUA 936
2) small (0.8-1.2mm) wedge/screwdriver tips. Forget those bullshit cones.
3) fine and ultra fine solder. Having 0.015" diameter really helps with small stuff
4) magnification. Not to inspect, but to use
while you work. I use a stereo microscope, but one of those big magnifying lenses on a flexible arm, or those glasses with the jeweller's loupe things should do. My vision is like the one thing that hasn't started going to shit, I really didn't think I
needed magnification but I always wanted a microscope and got a good deal on eBay. I quickly realized having one that everything blownup like that made my movements significantly finer somehow. And I'm rather clumsy working with my hands.
5) *copious* amounts of flux paste. Smear that shit. Plain rosin flux is cheap, works good though it can be a little annoying to clean
With those, it really just takes a handfull of times practicing on junk PCBs to get you there. That said, though I can lay down a hundred picture perfect joints on surface mount ICs, caps and resistors still give me headaches and often end up slightly askew. So it goes.
Dave Jones of the EEVBlog on youtube has some good, detailed videos for this. Some people can't stand his voice but it never bothered me lol.
berq wrote:That was a good read. Thanks. Unfortunately, even with the MVS signal divided down to the right voltage, the image is still too dark.
I'd get into more detail, but this thread is getting kinda schizophrenic with all the different projects converging on it. Which is cool. I like that so many people are pumping new life into CRTs. But I'd already started chronicling my progress over on the neo-geo.com boards. If you're ever over that way, I'd be honored if you'd stop by.
Hmm, shame about that. I'm thinking about making a CMVS myself, leaning towards using an 1C.