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Message 29431 in TV.WW

From: G8MNY
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 26 09:29:00 Z
Newsgroups: TV.WW
Subject: Odd projection TV fault
Message-ID: <4227_GB7CIP>
Path: N2MH4|VE3KPG|GB7CIP

R:260905/0931Z 36694@N2MH4.#SENC.NC.USA.NOAM LinBPQ6.0.24
R:260905/0931Z 192@VE3KPG.#ECON.ON.CAN.NOAM BPQ6.0.25
R:260905/0929Z @:GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO #:4227 [Caterham Surrey GBR] $:4227_GB7CIP

From: G8MNY@GB7CIP.#32.GBR.EURO
To  : TV@WW

By G8MNY                                      (New May 07)
(8 Bit ASCII graphics use code page 437 or 850, Terminal Font)

I was asked by friendly TV dealer if I wanted a free non working 52" diagonal
Sony widescreen rear projection LCD TV, that he had just replaced. These were
5k UKP retail only 4 years ago. The expensive Xenon arc lamps are the main
cause for failure. Having worked on a smaller one before, I picked up the huge
beast. (quite light actually & only 12" deep).

    Prismatic   Fresnel
      Screen    / Lens
            \  /






Wide Angle Lens-_
                 ~
       Mirror \ ()Projector

          <--- 12"--->

TESTING
I made a brief look at the lamp and it had not exploded or changed colour, so I
tested the electronics, the lamp inverter ran OK (scope nearby to see the 5kV
AC) for a few seconds but no light. So I re examined the lamp and spotted a
broken wire inside the lamp sealed reflector, inside the lamp carrier system...

  Screw Connection_

              .-~  x | < Broken wire


            ~\       |Front
     Parabolic'-_    |Glass
       Reflector ~'-.|

This hot steel wire goes through the glass reflector with a rivet to stop any
the heat cracking.

LAMP REPAIR
To repair it I used a steel PAPER CLIP that had been shaped by spiralling it
around another piece of thin wire. This was carefully wound through the rivet
hole to pick up the broken wire inside, then attached to the screw connector.
To my surprise this all worked & I saved the 200 UKP cost of a new lamp.

OTHER FAULTS  
Unfortunately the picture was not perfect, there was a yellowish centre. So I
stripped the optics down to find the cause.

OPTICS
Below is a simplified sketch of the optics (much the same for LCD projectors),
there are further colour correction filters though.


the internal surfaces to reflect & superimpose the 3 colour light paths into
the single projector lens.
                                  Proj
                                  Lens _Optical block
             __             L pol  ___/ pol L



                                   LCD  
Columnating ----                Pol|||
    Lens 1  ----                  Lens
                       RED        GREEN       BLUE
            \    |        /          /          /
       Mirror\   |       /  YELLOW  /   BLUE   /Mirror
              \  |      /          /          /
            Colummating    Dichromate
               Lens 2       Mirrors

UV BURN
Unfortunately I found the Polariser (glued on the rotatable lens) in front of
the blue LCD tile has been UV damaged and has a dark centre. SONY obviously
knew there was a design problem here as the cooling air flow is much bigger for
the blue optics!

Nothing could be done for this problem, but most pictures (e.g. Faces, Football
Cricket) do not have a lot of blue in the picture centre, so the colour fault
is not as noticeable as U may think. The TV still does some blue, so blue skies
are OK, it is just white and greys that show up the problem. Other than that,
it is actually a brighter picture than my 1 year old 42" plasma!

SOLD
Anyway I after all that time and effort, I sold the set OK, for more than a few
paper clips, as new one that size would still be 2-3k UKP!


Why Don't U send an interesting bul?

73 de John G8MNY @ GB7CIP




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