Karaoke Forums

Earl, I never said "formal", nor did I say "essential"- just helpful and certainly economical for the business of making and saving money, not for the hosting ...

Moon, if a source of information is the problem, believe it or not, you local library and the internet will provide enough for at least minor repairs and troubleshooting.

Mrmarog, my two distribution companies used to handle your products (Mallory) along with Roederstein ( now, like Sprague, a part of Vishay), FB, Nemco/Kemet/Avx, Panasonic, and several others. Of course, that was back when most weren't made in the same Chinese factory on different floors (I've toured it...) as they are now.

Bazza, although SMD is the major part of the electronics industry as a whole these days, you may be surprised that the majority of power / amplifier circuits still use through hole- even in a brand new HD TV.

Speaking of which, if your TV (as described above) runs into a problem where the power comes on for a second or two, then craps out, be aware that this is an ongoing problem under many labels (since so many are actually made by one or two companies), and is a very simple "at home" fix. There is a group of 4 or 5 same value radial electrolytic capacitors in the power circuit. Though technically they are rated correctly for the job at hand, they are usually standard 85 degree crap caps, and have a tendency to fail with time. Replace with HT ( 105 degree) Hi-Rel caps and your problem will be solved. Even if you don't know much about electronics, just run your finger over the tops of them. You will find at least one with the very slightest of bulge instead of flat- that'll be it- though I recommend replacing all of them.

Same kind of problem popped up back in the days of black and white 13" "portables"- especially under the Sharp label. They included a diode in the power circuit that was under-rated for the job. People would throw them out, and I would do a 10 minute repair and sell them.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Only a handful and diminishing with every new model. I stand by my statement. The last time I had a TV repaired under warranty (and even this was several years ago) the tech came to my house, popped it open, removed the ONE small motherboard and replaced it with a new one. Fixed. That was the extent of "Modern TV repair".



Highly specialized gear for the layman. Do you work in the electronics biz by day?

I stand by my statement that the majority of power/amplifier circuits (NOT circuitry as a whole, which, as you state is mostly SMD) still use through-hole. However, I completely agree with you regarding the state of modern electronic repair, TV or otherwise. Most of the current "repair" personnel couldn't troubleshoot to component level if their life depended on it.

This was one of the points of my post. When one doesn't do their own repair work ( which may cost a freakin' quarter in parts) one then ends up paying for an entire new board ( for big bucks), along with a wait while it is being ordered, when it is completely unneccesary, simply because the shop repairmen don't have the knowledge to solve the problem, and do a pull and replace.

Kind of like asking a Radio Shack clerk for technical info...

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

These tools are readily available, but the knowledge is not so easy..

http://www.amazon.com/Updated-Aoyue-Dig ... rid_pt_0_0

I have neither the basic manual dexterity nor patience for such repairs. I have permanant scars on my hands from burning myself repeatedly with a soldering iron. The electronics teacher from the course I took back in high school strongly suggested I drop out.


-James

I interviewed for an engineering job with both Sprague and Kemet in 1985. I took the job with Mallory because it was the closest product match to my manufacturing expertise which was in "wet slug tantalum". Wet slugs have a super high capacitence to volume (CV) ratio. Then very shortly after 1986 most of these capacitors lost their business to...............JAPAN..........not CHINA. China was not even a minor threat then.

I was the national field sales manager from 1981 to 1983 for Hilton Industries, Inc. As I traveled the US it was very obvious that we were quickly loosing the price war. The markets that we continued to excel in were only the ones that required high capacitence in a small package

Capacitors were designed and tested to be able to reliably withstand 130% of their operating specification. That was the standard in the late 80's, and probably the basis for "they don't make them like they used to" statement.

I cannot look at a schematic and say i know what i am looking at.
My soldering skills are basic.
However a love of technology and having learn t everything I.T related by trial, error and experience, i can more often then not fix the broken apparatus.

If something breaks within my ability like a LCD screen replacement or faulty laptop i can quite easily do that.
A blown cap(solid capacitors), or faulty circuit board can many a time, not be easily repaired with the advancements of technology, however i always manage to source parts either second hand through Ebay or elsewhere, then determine if the repair is within my skill set to repair properly.
Otherwise i take it to a electronics shop or my friends Security alarm company's repair technician for proper soldering.

In the end i still save a fortune without the need to for specialized audio repair technicians.
Its always worked for me.

I would say, basic knowledge of what is broken by diagnosis and what needs replacing is a great skill to have, without actually doing any advance repairs yourself, and no risk of damage to your equipment, especially if its out of warranty.

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LOVE YOU LOOOOONG TIME KARAOKE.

I have no knowledge but find that most of what goes wrong at a show can be fixed by actually plugging in the piece of equipment.

A lot of good points in the thread. Having the knowledge and using it are two different things. I've built circuit boards and could break one down and diagnose just about any problem back in the day before micro components. Truth be told, most of the time I could look at or smell the board and figure out a part that went bad without putting a metering device to it. It's an unplug and replace world today, although I did replace some caps in two older speaker crossovers a few years ago. It is still handy being able to trouble shoot power supply issues, but at the end of the day it its either replace the fuse, install a replacement power supply module, replace the entire board or replace the device.

Other skills mentioned here are probably much more valuable to the average host.

Or turning a knob or pushing a button...

Thanks for that, I just about passed out from laughing so hard. the sad part is this has actually happened to me

-James

It's like fixing the ends of a mic cable. I can do it and fixed them regularly for several years, then got tired of it - replaced the cords with lifetime warranty cords & anytime one goes bad - I bring back to Guitar Center & replace with a new one. Haven't paid for cords since around 2000.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

My degree paid off for me today. Well, it didn't pay for the whole thing or the like.. I have a top end Carvin mic that died on me a year or two ago. It went in the box with the rest of the dead bar mics and I was going through the box today. I started to throw it in to the electronics recycling bin but decided to spend some time with it. I couldn't even remember what was wrong with it.. Plugged in the receiver and put fresh batteries in the transmitter. everything powered up... "test, 1, 2, 3" nothing on the mics meter. tapped the mic on my hand, and I had meter movement.. Hummm. so we are transmitting and receiving!

To make a long story not so long, I found a break in the circuit board that transitions from the mic head wires to the transmitter. Soldering over it didn't help so I soldered a small piece of solid wire between the contact points. It was only an eight of and inch or so.. So now the mic works and I have a wire "brace\splint" for the hairline brake. And I have a $360 mic back in action. It has always been my fav (aside from the TC-Helicon I am used to now).

I don't change my oil either. Sometimes it's cheaper to have a professional to do it. By the time I get the oil and filter, put my car on a ramp, drain the oil, change the filter, bring it down, and the fun of getting rid of the old oil, it would have been done by a professional in the time I bought the oil and filter and got it home and in a lot less time and no mess in the driveway.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

i do!
i repair full size video arcade component level repair..... (video games, jukeboxes, and computers) and anything people bring to me to repair.

but i am starting to get picky on what i repair, if i don't think i can get parts i'll skip it.

i do a lot of karaoke repair - machines and amps....

getting old (44) and needing to get bi-focals and looking forward to getting cataracts like the rest of the family....

tell then i'm gonna offer my skills until i can't do it anymore....

i like buying broken equipment cheap and repairing it and re-selling it....

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It's all good!

That's what I'm talking about! You have a $360 mic back because you stopped and took a look, and threw in a little common sense. No big electronic operation, no cost.

That's what it's all about. In my experience the majority of problems with karaoke equipment are simple fixes. Cable or land (as you had) breaks/shorts, and power problems, which are the easiest to locate/sectionalize/ isolate.

It's not a requirement for hosting, but when running a business, any money you don't spend adds to the profit margin, just like more income.

Of course, if one becomes more advanced, one can save/make more money upgrading current equipment rather than throwing it out and buying new, or buying less expensive equipment and upgrading it's specs to those of it's more expensive competitors'.

I'm betting Mightywiz has done this sort of thing...

You know what was fun? Back in the very early'70s- while still mostly self-taught, I used to upgrade and ....um....tweak?...CB radios for friends and profit. I LOVED doing that....

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I am thinking in this case, I came out way ahead. 45 minutes on the bench versus spending 350-400 (or much more if you want this level of quality from anyone else) on a new mic is a no brainer. I say it's a no brainer but I can't figure out why I didn't at least look at it closer before now. I spent more time trying to figure out how to get into it than anything and the cost was 1/4 inch of solder\wire, some electricity. Skills required were knowing how to use a multi meter for shorts\opens and basic soldering skills. So I guess I didn't help pay for the degree after all..

As a side note, I used the mic last night and I really had forgotten how wonderful this thing is. The response and warmth rivals anything I've ever used from Shure and beats many of the quality wired stage mics I've used. You have to almost beat the thing in your hand to create any handling noise. The down side is you can't get parts or get anyone else to repair it... Unless you DIY...

Joe, Boo has a degree. That a whole different can of worms. Given what you said how much did it cost Boo to fix a $360 mic? In today's prices for tuition etc, at least $40,000?

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Well, my degree affords me a position earning very close to six digits a year (could go over that before the year's out). The $360 mic is just a bonus...

That really wasn't my point. I understand your degree as given you the opportunity for a good job. The point is not everybody is going to spend a lot of money to learn something they will seldom use. It wouldn't be economically viable.

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You can be strange but not a stranger