Hi a little while back I Scored this 50-inch LG plasma TV down in the dumpster and if you haven't seen that video, I'll link it in down below. That video was only on my Eevblog 2 channel where I upload miscellaneous stuff like that. If you haven't already subscribed, go subscribe to it just in case. I upload Something interesting that you know, real short that's not really not worthy of going on my main eevblog channel.

Anyway, we did a teardown of this thing last time and it had. It's a 2008 vintage Lg 50-inch plasma and it had a really bad flicker on. Absolutely terrible. Here's some footage of it and it's not just the camera it was, it's really bad visual flicker.

It had some vertical lines on it and other issues and well, we actually found some faulty caps in here. Surprise surprise. So I thought I'd do a quick video just changing those out and see if it fixes the problem. Let's go.

So this is the culprit here. This is the main digital power supply board. It really is quite a nice layout. Then lo it's like split it in half.

They've got the isolation. They've got these massive spark gaps down here which I've done a video on I'll have to link that in here if you haven't seen it. Very cool actually going into and producing sparks across these spark apps. That's a massive gap in there.

see how? they've removed the solder mask there and it's very nicely laid out. They've got the extra solder coating on the traces just to increase the current handling and dissipation of those things. And today we've got some faulty caps on here. Let's take a closer look and it actually provides a ton of different voltages here.

6.3 volts, 12 volts, Six point, three point four, All sorts of stuff. There's five volts in there, there's five point four. there's men, all sorts of things, so lots of different supply rails, and you can see one look at all the oozing out of the top of these caps. Oops.

And of course, this is one of the most common failure modes in power suppliers. in particular, these electrolytic capacitors. Of course, they contain a liquid electrolyte inside, and due to age, internal heating due to the internal WA es are the equivalent series resistance in there. They actually heat up internally, and if they're close to a heatsink.

Also, then they can heat up and eventually dries out. And when that dries out, it's like a snowball effect. They heat up inside, the electrolyte, dries out, builds up pressure, and oozes through this vent. That's why they've actually got these cross marks on the top.

They're designed to vent out and all the magic smoke is escaped. You can actually see that there's a bulge on top of there as well, and that's quite common. Sometimes they won't actually vent, You'll actually see the failure starting to happen due to like a bulge. And if you see like your capacitors starting to bulge like that, well you know you want to replace them anyway.

No wonder they're failing. They're a sin. Hwa Brand Well, they're not that bad, but they're certainly not one of the top quality brands. They are 105 degrees C rated, but this is a 2008 vintage model.

There you go, you can see some more bulging on the rest of them. There's actually two, four, six, at least seven there that have failed. You can see this one at the back here is started to bulge up, but yeah, it hasn't actually vented out yet. But yeah, it'd definitely replace that one.

So we've actually got seven identical caps here. one two, three, four, five, six seven. and yet they're all bulged and leaking. The other larger ones in here haven't Actually, there's no sign of any issues.

So at those at this stage, I'm not going to change those. That's the high voltage cap on the primary side and there's a lower voltage cap on the secondary side here. But because there's no sign of that anyway. I Have actually got some of these the exact same replacement value, so let's check those out.

Okay, so what I've got is these quality Panasonic brand Panasonic are one of the best electrolytic capacitor manufacturers in the world. Made in Japan Of course this is the F R series and other quality are brain she'd want to replace them with. Nippon Chemi-con Nietzsche Con Rubicon Uh companies like that Cornell DubLi Uh ones like that they're like the quality Ones that. you want to actually replace.

So we've got a Panasonic one here. Same rating: thirty-three hundred microfarads, ten volts and 105 degrees C rated. Um, Seriously, these Panasonic ones actually don't have any Panasonic branding on these, so if you saw those in your product you wouldn't you like, you might immediately suspect them. You wouldn't know that their Panasonic you'd have to look at the F R and you know actually know that Panasonic manufacturer and F R series and people ask all the time.

Can I use a larger capacitance value? The answer is generally yes, you shouldn't In, you know, really use a lower value, although you can often get away with it. Can you use a higher voltage rating? Yes, you can certainly a bit. Of course, the size and equivalent series resistance of the capacitor is determined by the physical size, the voltage rating, and the capacitance. So it's all like one big complex trade off with these things.

So yes, you can use higher voltage. Yes, you can use larger capacitance, but it you might not get the same a ripple and performance of the thing. And you've got to make sure you get the right pin pitch. There we go.

Those two pins down there. This is a standard five millimeter pin pitch, but you can get different ones so just be careful when you're buying replacement caps that they are the right pin pitch. You can kind of ruin your day. You can like bend the leads to put them in there, but it's much better if you can match it.

And by the way, this Panasonic F R Series cap. They're rated for between 5,000 and 10,000 hours operation at 105 degrees. C So Pierre Really pretty good quality caps. and you want the low ESR capacitors as well the Lo equivalent series resistance.

So you want to get a series that, at least you know, nominally says that. Ideally, you'd want to go in and match up, look at the data sheet for what capacity you had, and then match it up with the equivalent series resistance of your placement capacitor. But and generally it's just you know, near enough to get low SR caps in quote marks, and there's a couple of ways you can suck these out. Of course, you can use one of these crappy solder suckers.

you could use your solder wick if you're that keen, or you can just get your finger under there and put pressure on it and just bend one lead out, bend the other lead out. That's a time-honored tradition. Or you can use a dedicated solder sucker. and any way you do it with these boards that have been wave soldered.

What they do. after all, if they order, insert the parts, they actually bend the leads over and it can be just really annoying to actually get the suckit tip in there at an angle and get it. So yeah, just a little bit frustrating. And of course there are those out there who are screaming at me.

Odd if you're holding the ball of the wrongs wrong way up. Yeah, well, you can flip it over like that and do it from under and let gravity help with. the solder bit at this thing works a treat. just vertically.

Alright, Well, we might as well do some. yes, our measurements here I Got my Bob Parker trusty Bob Parker ESR Mark Two meter. It's got a chart of various values like very sort of like Ballpark II type stuff. Got one of the brand new Panasonic's here.

Zero it out. I've already done that and we hook it up measures at 100 kilohertz of course and that this can do in Circuit ESR testing as well. A valuable bit of gear for measuring those ones that we haven't taken out yet. We can actually measure those and see if they're still good in circuit generally.

and it's Zero. like a junior 3300 Mike It's not quite on the chart, but it's going to be down around 0 and it is 0 so that's absolutely perfect for a brand new one. But if we get one of these blowing dodgy brothers ones, let's have a squiz at that. Hwa Point 9 Ohms.

Shocking. As you can see, it should be like you know point oh you know 6 something at most you know. 10 volts 3300 Mike Like point 1 or something and we're talking point 9 Ohms. So that's an absolute shocker.

So that's why these ones are host and maybe we can measure that one that hasn't leaked. Oh, look that 1.07 but it's already late, right? So it's ESR Value is still good. That's actually rather rather surprising so we can get this one. It's kind of sort of a little bit of crud on top, but there we go.

Yeah. Point 87 Gonski Even though it hasn't really leaked as well as the other ones, but it's certainly bulged all right, Let's measure this primary side cap here. It's a 450 volts 68 mic and well, we don't have a high voltage scale, but you know it's going to be in the ballpark. you know, 68.

it's going to be like a couple of Ohms. So let's get let's get that right here. Once again, if you got capacitors in parallel, that can kind of ruin your day. Anyway, half an Ohm look at that.

No worries are there's a decimal point in there. By the way, if you can't see that there we go. half an iron, so that's no problems at all. And that other one on the secondary side is a 470 Mike 63 volts.

So expect and being on like a point six ohms or there abouts that one's actually measuring zero. So I don't know whether or not that's a really good couple. There's something else in something else in parallel on there anyway. Yep, it's good and is one of those smaller ones on the outside there.

50 Mike I'm sorry. 50 volt hundred Mike Yeah, Balls on it in and job done. Seven caps replace polarity checked. Let's whack it in.

Dave Here we go. Come on, let's go say hi. He doesn't talk folks. Charge your tongue angle David No I'm sorry, there's not enough penetration there.

Young whippersnappers I Just have no clue about tongue angle I Like this boy, there's only one place each header goes yeah, yeah, they haven't reused duplicate no which is not very cheap. but like whatever I'm alive. Some people have asked, haven't they? um I'm not sure they have and you've goofed it. You've goofed this board.

Oh yeah, but see this arrow. the television subside on. see it's this has gotta this side up arrow and let's have a look. Yeah, it's got this sewed up and yeah, it's got a Camaro that's not actually this side up arrow of course.

but they go well. We got it up this side up arrow and that's clearly not that this is up but the whole TV's sideways. oh you think that's a mound in there I Would have like assumed that that was a wave. Yeah I thought I'm out of here Yeah, but it appears that this board has that.

This board has that and the circles kind of finished each other circle right? Yeah, makes sense. Okay, yeah I think it's I think I was up to do. Yep, and this and the head is why not better. So why not better there? I Thought they wouldn't line up at all.

Well, they kind of worked, but not very well. Yeah, fans lined up better like this. I Guess it doesn't matter as long as the hitters are in right? No, not really. I'm gonna say design thoroughly.

like for airflow, but ever it doesn't matter I'm sure you'd make it non-compliant in like in that a change in see? yeah, they were there. Yeah, certainly. And what have you been working on lately? David Two people will be glad to know the micro suppliers making progress. It is.

Yeah, we're using Circuitmaker Ally Yeah, it's It's a bit odd. Um, and it's as odd as Ltn is if we put a unique circuit making quirks. Yeah, but without any shortcut. so you have to click on everything and you lost a day's work.

Yeah, looks because it didn't say right? Well no no no I went to save it and then it said this file is read-only this is a cloud only storage thing. Yeah and yes it it said read-only which is a pen? Yes and I lost the work I tried to cover it. There's no real recovery file so yep, go on. Oops.

and what's this? Wearing socks in the lab? rubbish. Supposed to be bare feet I thought the Thought there was a bare feet policy here. Yeah, yeah. the paranoia of a silicon chip, a die on the floor, penetrating my feet and socks are gonna help.

how? I Have no idea this, right? No, my own folks. I'm an odd man. Yeah, okay, yeah, this looks good. Okay, odds of it working now.

what do you think? Getting rid of cuz we had horrible flicker last time didn't we? As horrendous? You remember that? Yeah, it's pretty bad. Um, probably 0% I don't feel plugged everything in yet? Yeah, all right. All right. All right.

come on, What odds do you give it? Yeah, let me plug two loops. Um I don't know. Yeah, twenty percent, twenty percent. All right.

let's do not pessimistic. Now we're just having an argument folks. and maybe someone out there knows that we'll just joke in. he's double checking the caps to see that we've put them in the right way because it might sit like.

you know, if we blow a cap or something. It could set off the smoke alarm. And in these commercial buildings, the fire brigade don't come out for free. It actually costs a couple of thousand dollars.

So even if it's a false alarm, if my sensor goes off because they're all individually wired back, they know which unit the fire went off in then I get a bill for a couple of grand if it goes off. hasn't happened yet. But yeah, um, we're just wondering. yeah.

so when the cap blows, What? what is blowing Is it? Is it the acetic compound? Yeah, what's what's burning? Is it there? or is it even burning? Or is it just vapor? Well this smoke I mean smoke comes out of caps. but what is? Yes, smoke or vapor? Are you young and then would it cut? Would it trigger all fire alarms? So if it was like a carbon monoxide detector? hmm is it. and these are paper wound caps? Are you actually burning the paper? If they're not paper, they're a mini olive oil with oil? Mylar. My life.

So so I Is it? Is it creating carbon-monoxide because to cover monoxide detector right reading I Don't know. Does anyone know? let us know what did they detect? What's the standard detection I Don't know I've got this. Here's my. can anyone identify my smoke alarm I Don't know.

Sorry about the bright lights, but yeah there it is I don't know. They come along with a detection stick every six months and they check it all. There we go, just flashed to tell you that it's going. but anyway, if anyone knows, please let us know we're going to pair it up.

Fingers crossed. Now we're just getting totally ultra paranoid that we we disconnected something. It's been so long since we actually did the teardown on this thing. We're just paranoid that we or that there's like you know, a chunk of metal here inside inside it.

because we've had all sorts of it's just been laying over there for like months and months and exposed like this. So yeah, it's been obfuscating. Miworkspace screws just fly around the place here like there's no tomorrow. So yeah, maybe we should just hold it upside down and shake it.

Anything falling out like way careful. Got a glass panel? Alright, Are you no rattling? All right? That's good. Let's pair it up All right. Plug it in.

That was good. Boom. The bar noise. welcome welcome.

It's same down the bottom man. all the stuff so red lit up. I Send it off. Yep, well done.

It's working for me. This time it didn't work last time, did it? Hello I'm a fly. Oh yeah, there we go. and can we do? Menu: It's got hello world down the bottom.

oh yeah, hey, is that better that looks? Dad? that is better. hey hey. and the buttons? hey hey hey, does that add? Albert Just go a different put you go. There's no pink lines.

hey that there's some did. um, not yet. Is that we had some vertical lines here before? Yeah, it's way better. That's way.

And this night and all that horrible flicker are right. Yeah. Grayson Did you have a different thing altogether? Oh, that's not part of the menu? Yeah, yeah, you're right. There's a vertical line there.

This isn't it. That's doesn't look like the same type even. Category A problem. Well, no, we did have some vertical lines here before.

I'm sure of it. And I can see a couple of lines here there. so oh look, yeah, you can see there. Yeah, yeah there.

So that's so exciting. You look. Pixels? Hmm, it's like a single line of pixels and there's no like spreading of it. Yeah, so that's got to be the dream.

Whoa. Drivers: The driver. This menu is really kind of frustrating. Hey Look, oh no, no, they've gone.

Yeah, don't know if you see you know. teaming? Yeah, we're getting nice. So we got some weird-ass lines. so it's yet.

It's fixed the flicker problem. so there was that issue there. but it from back here it doesn't look too bad. Let me zoom right in and show you you can see the lines.

You can see those vertical lines in there. We'd have to put like a color. Yeah and over here we'd have to put in like a color bar. All right working a full white screen - to see the color patterns.

But anyway, so it fixed a problem. But not all the problems because that vertical stuff. I Knew the vertical stuff would be caused by the as I mentioned in the previous video. I Believe by the either the vertical chipset or the connectors go into them or you know sometimes you can reheat those things in it.

Yeah, so you can see that line as that things moving can see those red stripes. Yeah, so this thing is. unfortunately. Gonski Yeah, you can like try and reheat the BGA's on the verdict of the vertical chips.

vertical driver chips aren't BGA packages the horizontal ones are at. Ah, Anyway, so yeah, that was kind of sort of a fix. If you didn't care about the like those lines too much then you could actually still use this thing because it kind of sort of works. Okay, but yeah, yeah, these bloody plasmas.

They're hopeless. No wonder there's a place called the Plasma Graveyard where these things end up because they just run so hot. There's so many production issues with them and they just all have a pretty short life. Anyway, this is a 2008 model.

probably wasn't even worth trying to get it because we knew there was vertical lines on there so it probably wasn't even worth trying to fix from that aspect. Um, not really surprising that the caps fixed the flicker though because that was horrible flicker. We couldn't even watch it before it was. ah it had like it make your eyes water.

It was pretty awful. but yeah anyway. I don't know I just whack it on Gumtree or something. maybe get get rid of it.

By the way, Gum Tree is our local like free eBay thing. So anyway there you go. fixed it but not fixed it man. catch you next time you.