Made two double batches of Christmas cookies today.  Will put in the freezer for the family to arrive.  Later Saturday afternoon, one granddaughter has a diving meet and her twin sister a choir concert.  Luckily, they are in the same school and rooms about 50 feet apart.

pfft, combine events:  singing in the pool.... like water ballet with lyrics.

4 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Danged blasted TV quit working, has sound no picture. 

When I first learned to do TV repair (old tube tv's), a lady brought in her TV with the same complaint. Immediately started testing the usual suspect tubes but everything tested OK. Voltage and signal waveforms were good. After about 6 hours of troubleshooting, I reached around to the front of the TV and turned up the brightness control. Seems she accidently turned it down while dusting...

 

If it's an LED/LCD screen, turn out the lights and shine a flashlite on the screen. If you see a faint picture, the screen backlite is bad. They can be replaced pretty easily.

Worked on a small project today (actually all my projects are small). 

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to my granddaughter's dance recital. 

Today was our last show for the season. Sales were within 10% of last year so we rate it as another successful show. We now have 5 weeks before our next show which is a combo garden show and healthy living expo. this should give us plenty of time to clean up the shop and begin building inventory to help us through next year. but what will we actually do??? Some time will be spent relaxing, and I'll hopefully find out what it's like to actually get a full nights sleep, the rest we'll wait until the last minute and then panic build right before our next show.  

6 hours ago, John Hechel said:

Today was our last show for the season. Sales were within 10% of last year so we rate it as another successful show.

Good to have you posting again John. Glad to hear you had a successful season and both of you are doing OK.

 

Maybe the "elves" will take over while you rest up a bit.

Edited December 15, 20241 yr by Grandpadave52

12 hours ago, lew said:

When I first learned to do TV repair (old tube tv's), a lady brought in her TV with the same complaint. Immediately started testing the usual suspect tubes but everything tested OK. Voltage and signal waveforms were good. After about 6 hours of troubleshooting, I reached around to the front of the TV and turned up the brightness control. Seems she accidently turned it down while dusting...

 

If it's an LED/LCD screen, turn out the lights and shine a flashlite on the screen. If you see a faint picture, the screen backlite is bad. They can be replaced pretty easily.

 

It's a Vizio 32" Stupid TV.

I pulled the back cover off looking for anything obvious and discovered two electrolytic capacitors that had let the "Magic Smoke" escape on the power board.

One blew its top open the other is bulged to the point of being ready to do so. I'll be replacing them with one voltage rating higher because I suspect they were running them close to their voltage rating. Found that quite often when I was doing TV's etc. years ago.

Only local place to get them won't be open until Monday. Need I say I miss Radio Shack?

 

4 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Need I say I miss Radio Shack?

Need I say you can fix the weirdest things Larry! Who does this anymore? Who takes apart a television and finds the danged fluxed capacitator thingys and notices they blew a top and are bulging and find the parts to replace? What's next?

19 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Need I say you can fix the weirdest things Larry! Who does this anymore? Who takes apart a television and finds the danged fluxed capacitator thingys and notices they blew a top and are bulging and find the parts to replace? What's next?

More of a matter of necessity than anything else, I can't afford to pay todays labor costs to fix most things. 

 

Of course, SWMBO said I'm not going without a TV until Monday, so you probably know what came next. 

Trip to WorstBuy to get a cheap TV. Picked up a 32" Insignia 1080P for just under a Franklin, got it home and had to take it back. 

One of the legs was missing from the sealed carton. 

 

At least it happened before the upcoming "Tariff" price increases. 

Edited December 15, 20241 yr by Larry Buskirk

2 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Only local place to get them won't be open until Monday. Need I say I miss Radio Shack?

 

WOW! You have a local source for electronic parts!! And, I too, miss Radio Shack.

6 minutes ago, lew said:

 

WOW! You have a local source for electronic parts!! And, I too, miss Radio Shack.

 

Surprisingly yes, besides Radio Shack we used to have three other places within 15-20 miles to get parts. We're now down to the one.

2 hours ago, John Morris said:

Who does this anymore?

 

Someone that believes...

43 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

 

Someone that believes...

 

I was so lucky to have grown up in a poor family and with a grandfather who lived through the depression. Some how I inherited "can fix anything" gene, too. It has served me well.

6 hours ago, John Morris said:

What's next?

 

Figured I might as well take a look at that Crosley 5 in 1 that my brother gave us a while back. Got everything but the dial light working.

Only thing that worked was the radio, but now the turntable, and cd/cassette players also work. 

Listening to the Powerglide album by NRPS now!  

Edited December 15, 20241 yr by Larry Buskirk

@John Morris

 

What do you think about a couple of   Hippies doing "The Hand Jive"? 

19 hours ago, lew said:

When I first learned to do TV repair (old tube tv's),

 

6 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Only local place to get them won't be open until Monday. Need I say I miss Radio Shack?

Remember back in the day you could load your tubes up and go to the local Rexall Drugstore to use their universal tube tester then buy whatever replacement tube(s) you found bad? My electronics gene faltered after those days. Never could get excited about printed circuit boards, learning all the color codes on resisters and diodes. Pretty much the same with my automotive skills with all the new electronics stuff especially without access to wiring diagrams.

Geez, I do remember that (the drugstore tube tester). Gawd, I'm old......

2 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Geez, I do remember that (the drugstore tube tester). Gawd, I'm old......

Nah, just well seasoned.

6 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Remember back in the day you could load your tubes up and go to the local Rexall Drugstore

 

The Rexall was gone by the time I came around, but the last remaining electronics parts place here still has one.

My dad was big into CB radio and picked up one somewhere so I'd test the tubes and tell him which tube he needed. 

 

Time for a little Iron Butterfly, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" Baby!