Good morning, Mick, as promised I am responding on your repair to the intercom unit I sent you from the USA. It works great. Clearly you have more patience than I do and the track lines I installed were not small enough to support the jack. Thank you again. I now have a very happy customer, and you have a new subscriber.
Aww cheers Vince! I have to give you credit though as it was you that inspired me to start the channel! Hope you are doing well mate. I loved the G7000 video you did btw.
Thanks for taking the extra step with the creative idea to use the 'fridge pump; and then the extra extra step to confirm the problem by testing with another display. I admire your determination to not quit- you don't give up. This was another interesting and informative video.
There's no problem that Mick (as i've seen some people calling) can't find out. Even tho this one was a no fix, u found the problem and could fix it if u really wanted. There's no broken electronic that can't hide away from you. As always, a great video
I learnt a bit about these displays a while back when I had a very dim display on a cd player (almost unreadable). After some research I dicovered that over time the elements can become oxidised and not work efficiently. Injectng around 9v - 12v to make the wires glow bright (not white bright) for 20 seconds and repeat a few times can burn off the oxide coating and rejuvinate the display. It worked pretty well in my case. Doesn't help in this case, but is some worthwhile knowledge for future repairs maybe :)
Thanks👍 Yes I did see that too on the internet when I was trying to trouble shoot it. I was really hoping it was just something I over looked but guess not 😢
Legendary patience on display again! Unfortunately not this display account it is toast😉 When the main part of a device is faulty, the entire exercise comes down to the end. I certainly praise your expertise in fault finding, using all the tools in the arsenal and then proving the deduction. Great job once again bro, too bad no fix but look at all those components for the spare parts bin....👍👍 See ya soon.
A no fix but a great video as always. The reverse engineering at a glance is very impressive, but the info on the VFD tubes was brilliant. This might help me maintain/repair my classic VFD games collections. Thank you!
Well, that is a shame, but glad we now know what went wrong. Thanks for another entertaining, educational and fascinating video! Hope you have a pleasant and peaceful Sunday, with warmest greetings from chilly Germany.
Can't always fix them all, can only try. Still you managed to get to the cause of the problem and that is all that could be done in this case. Nice work and tracking it down.
You and me both 🙂 That's the thing, even if you don't manage to repair something for whatever reason, at least if you've learned something new, it's still a win 👍
Excellent work Mick. You could try pulling a vacuum on the old tube using a food vacuum sealer, or a handheld vacuum pump, like the ones used to bleed car brakes, as they are purpose built to pull a vacuum. As the name suggests a refrigerant compressor is not really built to pull a vacuum, so it never really going to pull a full vacuum.
Thanks mate, I actually got a large vacuum pump off someone which has a nice vacuum chamber too. I did try that in the shed after the refrigerator one, but it didn't do any different. I didn't bother recording that bit as there didn't seem much point.
Nice job working through it Mick. I hope someday to be as experienced as you and be able to just identify parts of the circuit and their purpose at a glance. I have a degree in electrical and computer engineering, but take much longer than you working through the circuits lol. You're a master technician for sure
Souch type of tube displays was installed in old vcr and music devices (90"). Yes, it use 36V AC for heating. Visual inspection is most important for diagnostic.
Though it sounds crazy; I develop a bit of an accent for several hours following my viewing of your videos. I am hoping my IQ is increasing as well. Your modest demeanor is so becoming. No other YT channel holds my interest as does yours. B.I.F.I. Channel deserves many more subs.
😂😂It's from an old wine fridge that I won on eBay for 99p years ago. I made an internet connected incubator out of it, that automatically tilted the eggs with a servo motor, and added humidity with one of those ultrasonic mist maker modules, and had some big resistors on a heatsink as the heater, and measured the temperature and humidity. I used an esp8266 and a 4x20 LCD screen and it logged the stats to the internet on thingsverse 🙂
Hi! Never a "no fix", knowing cause, tho not have part, leads to attaching another display seeing it Work ... is one *Win, i'd say.* Bonus stashed Feast may feed next patient's hunger. *Cheers*
Ya wins sum ya lose sum, but we can all sleep easy now thanks to your efforts ! at the risk of sounding like a cocky git the first Getter was enough for me, I've seen a lot !! great video as per !
Cheers Andymouse 👍I didn't know about getters or about the AC on VFDs, so I learned some new stuff too, so even though it wasn't a fix it was still a good learning experience 🙂👍
Stays soft for ages, unlike the message in the ad which preceded your skilled analyses. As well as the air ingress (some of the wires may be oxidised) the 38V on the 35V caps looked odd, though it depends what that was referenced to.
@@ralphj4012 😂😂😂Yeah I've seen those ads appear a few times lately There's a few things that looked a bit odd like the 5v to 7v? And as you mentioned the voltage on the caps. Probably why I thought it might not be the display but something else.
You could solder a large led array together, forget the high voltage part and just connect the column and row drivers the recreate the spectrum analyzer. You would need quit a lot of LEDs though and some series resistors.
Pretty entertaining and useful video for learning about vacuum tube displays. A bummer that the display failed cause they look so nice (a look not even a lcd can emulate) and its pretty neat technology (using those indicators to see when the display is 'spoilt' or has air leaking into it) and the fact its a vacuum tube which i find pretty neat, just that they are ofcourse not as efficient as LCD displays and draw a lot more power just for the heater
Brilliant as always! I'm guessing it got hit hard during shipping or was dropped and the connection though glass got cracked. Such a shame because it's a nice display.
Those displays works like triode tube quick way to troubleshotting is visually getting air, In the old tube days they use the same technology calleded getter as the silvery deposit Getter typically barium) that resides inside vacuum tubes for the purpose of helping to maintain the vacuum and to absorb pesky random molecules and the second test is mesure the resistance of the filament and with a low voltage power supply slowly feed the filament and see if that light up or use an infrared camera to see if the filament glow
@@Madmacman4296 The resistance was around 6 ohms. I did try yesterday for fun putting some voltage across the heater filament (without a vacuum) just to see if the heater wires would glow at all. I started at 5v and a few ma, but ended up at over 30v and 3A and still no glow...
I did swap the diode, but I'm not sure if that footage ended up in the video. I might have forgot to put it in. I swapped it for another one of the same type and it made no difference. I've just been messing with the tube to see if I could get the filaments to glow, started 5v and a few mA, ended up at 30V at 3A! and they still didn't do anything apart from the whole assembly got quite warm, and the filaments are still intact. Perhaps there was an internal short in the display?
A handful - well, maybe a bucket full - of dot-matrix LEDs might substitute for the vacuum display. But with more hassle than it's really worth. Shame. VFDs still have their place and do look good when they work properly.
Scopes are awesome test tools. Great diagnostic work. Pity the display isn’t available. I would think it was faulty from factory. Made in a factory where quality control is not that good.
I love your channel. How many thing have you failed to fix. I have tried to repair many thing with no luck I would say 9 out of 10 time it's just not fixable. Do you have any advice on what you do to succeed in your repairs?
Thanks 👍There are some things that you just can't fix these days, that would be due to not being able to get parts, or parts having firmware inside of them that you can't get. Perhaps choosing items that you think you've a good chance at being able to fix might increase your success rate? A lot is down to experience. The more things you try to fix and succeed you'll remember when you come across that issue or a similar issue again. I'm not too sure on what else I can advise? Just sticking at it, and trying different things when it doesn't work.
23:18 😵💫😭😵💫😵💫 finally someone is using the oscilloscope. Nobody seems to be able to handle it except you. Everyone used the stupid DMM. Use what you have learned, use the force. Then you can save yourself. 🖖🖖🖖🛸 Hey nice 51,00111% repair, lovely retro audio Analyser 🥰👍
I once had one like these displays functioning again with around 70Volts... so just another doubling. Maybe worth the try? Probably not optimal but might give it doing something for a short while?
Thanks for the suggestion. I did hook it up to the bench PSU yesterday just for curiosity to see if I could get the heaters to glow.. started off at 5V and a few mA, but ended up at 30V drawing 3A and it still wouldn't glow. The display just got hot at the back so I think there may be a short somewhere too.
@@BuyitFixit it won’t work if the tubes are not in a vacuum and what ever gas they had in there for the color. They do make a fluorescent tube “AKA shop light” tester that energizes the tube externally.
@@xzytqweo3538 There is some plastic perspex bits that attach to the front and back. They appeared unused and had the protective film on them too. I think it was faulty from the factory.
I'm not sure about oled as they usually have a driver chip onboard. It should be possible to use some of those 8x8 dot matrix LED displays though. I think I worked out 6 would give 24x16 and the original display is 25x15
Yeah I thought that was odd too, along with the boosting of 5V to 7V? But the heater circuit seemed to work fine when connected to the other display although I didn't measure the voltages on the caps etc. One interesting thing I did yesterday was hook the faulty display up to the bench PSU to see if I could get the filaments to glow at all with higher voltage / amps. I started at 5V and a few mA, and ended up at 30V and 3A! and it still didn't glow (although the back of the display was quite warm).
Indeed it does! Thank you for that 👍The only problem is the price $13.43 + $36.49 shipping fee, far exceeds the purchase price of the whole unit on AliExpress.
@@chrissavage5966 I thought of that, I think 6 8x8 led display matrix panels would work as it would be 24x16 where the original display is 25x15 so I might have a go.
I've just been messing with the tube, I thought I'd try and see if I could make the filaments glow... Started at 5V at a few mA, Got up to 30V at 3A! and they still didn't glow and are still intact. I'm wondering if there's an internal short, which would also explain why the diode was getting hot too. Either way, it's the display that was at fault.
Your thought that the display has failed doesn't respond to the HOT diode. Possibly the display is ok and the diode in question is badly leaking. A diode can test completely normal and still be leaking bad enough to completely fail. The random hookup of the trash display actually proved nothing as you can scatter those odd display wires around almost any circuit and get some ghost flickers like you did.
I did try swapping the diode with one of the others of the same type, but it just heated up the same. I'm not sure if I put that bit in the video or not. I seemed to be the heater wires that were causing the issue, perhaps it was because there was air in the display and they weren't able to get hot enough (as the resistance should increase the hotter they get).
Good morning, Mick, as promised I am responding on your repair to the intercom unit I sent you from the USA. It works great. Clearly you have more patience than I do and the track lines I installed were not small enough to support the jack. Thank you again. I now have a very happy customer, and you have a new subscriber.
Cheers Fred 👍
I love the way you fault find Mick and the inventive solutions you come up with. You truly are the best fixer on here!
Aww cheers Vince! I have to give you credit though as it was you that inspired me to start the channel! Hope you are doing well mate. I loved the G7000 video you did btw.
Thanks for taking the extra step with the creative idea to use the 'fridge pump; and then the extra extra step to confirm the problem by testing with another display. I admire your determination to not quit- you don't give up. This was another interesting and informative video.
Thank you 👍
Your detective work always astounds me, Mick, no fix, but you found the cause of the problem. Well done 👏
Cheers mate 👍
I love these older style displays. So under-rated for what it was, and the capabilities however limited, I still love these things!
Yes, there's a certain "glow" about them 😂 I like nixie tubes too, I was going to build a nixie clock years ago but never got round to it.
Scope, Thermal cam......yea...it's gonna be another great video from Mick!
😂😂👍
There's no problem that Mick (as i've seen some people calling) can't find out. Even tho this one was a no fix, u found the problem and could fix it if u really wanted. There's no broken electronic that can't hide away from you. As always, a great video
Cheers mate 👍
the skill is in the diagnosis 👍
Thanks 👍🙂
Don’t worry, Mick, we still love you.
😂😂😂Cheers mate 👍
I learnt a bit about these displays a while back when I had a very dim display on a cd player (almost unreadable). After some research I dicovered that over time the elements can become oxidised and not work efficiently. Injectng around 9v - 12v to make the wires glow bright (not white bright) for 20 seconds and repeat a few times can burn off the oxide coating and rejuvinate the display. It worked pretty well in my case.
Doesn't help in this case, but is some worthwhile knowledge for future repairs maybe :)
Thanks👍 Yes I did see that too on the internet when I was trying to trouble shoot it. I was really hoping it was just something I over looked but guess not 😢
Unlucky Mick you can’t win them all, at least you tried mate great explanation of how the displays work too thank you 😊
Thanks Gary👍
May I call you Mick? 😄 Your approach to relaying what you are doing is so clear to me. Thank You!
Sure 👍
Legendary patience on display again! Unfortunately not this display account it is toast😉 When the main part of a device is faulty, the entire exercise comes down to the end. I certainly praise your expertise in fault finding, using all the tools in the arsenal and then proving the deduction. Great job once again bro, too bad no fix but look at all those components for the spare parts bin....👍👍 See ya soon.
Cheers Terry 👍
A no fix but a great video as always. The reverse engineering at a glance is very impressive, but the info on the VFD tubes was brilliant. This might help me maintain/repair my classic VFD games collections. Thank you!
Cheers 👍Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Nice cuppa tea and a video from Mick. Saturday is taken care of.
Perfect!👍👍🙂
Well, that is a shame, but glad we now know what went wrong. Thanks for another entertaining, educational and fascinating video! Hope you have a pleasant and peaceful Sunday, with warmest greetings from chilly Germany.
Yes its very nice idea for the faults tracking
Thanks 👍
Can't always fix them all, can only try. Still you managed to get to the cause of the problem and that is all that could be done in this case. Nice work and tracking it down.
Thanks mate 👍
Well that was extremely interesting Mick. Thanks for posting this. Cheers!
Learnt a lot today about this kind of display. Thank you
You and me both 🙂 That's the thing, even if you don't manage to repair something for whatever reason, at least if you've learned something new, it's still a win 👍
Excellent work Mick.
You could try pulling a vacuum on the old tube using a food vacuum sealer, or a handheld vacuum pump, like the ones used to bleed car brakes, as they are purpose built to pull a vacuum. As the name suggests a refrigerant compressor is not really built to pull a vacuum, so it never really going to pull a full vacuum.
Thanks mate, I actually got a large vacuum pump off someone which has a nice vacuum chamber too. I did try that in the shed after the refrigerator one, but it didn't do any different. I didn't bother recording that bit as there didn't seem much point.
Nice job working through it Mick. I hope someday to be as experienced as you and be able to just identify parts of the circuit and their purpose at a glance. I have a degree in electrical and computer engineering, but take much longer than you working through the circuits lol. You're a master technician for sure
Thanks mate, I guess it's just the way my brains wired 🤷♂️
Interesting experiments with the fridge compressor and another vfd display :)
Nice work. Non fix but lots learned (here!). Thanks.
Souch type of tube displays was installed in old vcr and music devices (90"). Yes, it use 36V AC for heating. Visual inspection is most important for diagnostic.
For a moment, and I thought
Mick: where can I get a vacuum? Space
Let’s send it up into space and see if that lights up the display
😂
We'd need to install a lightning conductor also to get extra electrons 😂😂😂
@@BuyitFixit this week you’ve become a version of Ming the merciless, deploying, he’s electron accumulator
Though it sounds crazy; I develop a bit of an accent for several hours following my viewing of your videos. I am hoping my IQ is increasing as well. Your modest demeanor is so becoming. No other YT channel holds my interest as does yours. B.I.F.I. Channel deserves many more subs.
Thank you kindly sir, very nice of you 👍
Bet the wife isn't happy that you removed the fridge compressor.🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂😂It's from an old wine fridge that I won on eBay for 99p years ago. I made an internet connected incubator out of it, that automatically tilted the eggs with a servo motor, and added humidity with one of those ultrasonic mist maker modules, and had some big resistors on a heatsink as the heater, and measured the temperature and humidity. I used an esp8266 and a 4x20 LCD screen and it logged the stats to the internet on thingsverse 🙂
@@BuyitFixitYou should make a video about that if you still have it. Would love to see that!
Hi! Never a "no fix", knowing cause, tho not have part, leads to attaching another display seeing it Work ... is one *Win, i'd say.*
Bonus stashed Feast may feed next patient's hunger. *Cheers*
Cheers 👍
Ya wins sum ya lose sum, but we can all sleep easy now thanks to your efforts ! at the risk of sounding like a cocky git the first Getter was enough for me, I've seen a lot !! great video as per !
Cheers Andymouse 👍I didn't know about getters or about the AC on VFDs, so I learned some new stuff too, so even though it wasn't a fix it was still a good learning experience 🙂👍
Thanks Mick. a great effort 😀
Cheers Mike 👍
Stays soft for ages, unlike the message in the ad which preceded your skilled analyses. As well as the air ingress (some of the wires may be oxidised) the 38V on the 35V caps looked odd, though it depends what that was referenced to.
@@ralphj4012 😂😂😂Yeah I've seen those ads appear a few times lately There's a few things that looked a bit odd like the 5v to 7v? And as you mentioned the voltage on the caps. Probably why I thought it might not be the display but something else.
Heya, to bad you can't get them sepreatly wel you tryed and proofed what is broken well done
Thanks mate 👍
You could solder a large led array together, forget the high voltage part and just connect the column and row drivers the recreate the spectrum analyzer.
You would need quit a lot of LEDs though and some series resistors.
I had thought of that, there's some 8x8 matrix displays you can get, so I might still have a go in the future 👍 Cheers for suggesting it though 🙂
Pretty entertaining and useful video for learning about vacuum tube displays. A bummer that the display failed cause they look so nice (a look not even a lcd can emulate) and its pretty neat technology (using those indicators to see when the display is 'spoilt' or has air leaking into it) and the fact its a vacuum tube which i find pretty neat, just that they are ofcourse not as efficient as LCD displays and draw a lot more power just for the heater
Thanks 👍Yes a lot more hungry than LCD, but I've got a bit of a soft spot for them, and nixie tubes 🙂
Brilliant as always! I'm guessing it got hit hard during shipping or was dropped and the connection though glass got cracked. Such a shame because it's a nice display.
Thanks 👍Yes, I was really hoping it wasn't which is why I tried to rule everything else out 😢
Thank you, another great video.
Thank you 👍
Thanks for your video
Thanks for commenting 👍
Those displays works like triode tube quick way to troubleshotting is visually getting air, In the old tube days they use the same technology calleded getter as the silvery deposit Getter typically barium) that resides inside vacuum tubes for the purpose of helping to maintain the vacuum and to absorb pesky random molecules and the second test is mesure the resistance of the filament and with a low voltage power supply slowly feed the filament and see if that light up or use an infrared camera to see if the filament glow
@@Madmacman4296 The resistance was around 6 ohms. I did try yesterday for fun putting some voltage across the heater filament (without a vacuum) just to see if the heater wires would glow at all. I started at 5v and a few ma, but ended up at over 30v and 3A and still no glow...
Ya can't save em all ! Great try!
Cheers mate 👍
I have had Diodes that read ok in circuit but once removed short through. Was becaose of another diode junction nearby.
I did swap the diode, but I'm not sure if that footage ended up in the video. I might have forgot to put it in. I swapped it for another one of the same type and it made no difference. I've just been messing with the tube to see if I could get the filaments to glow, started 5v and a few mA, ended up at 30V at 3A! and they still didn't do anything apart from the whole assembly got quite warm, and the filaments are still intact. Perhaps there was an internal short in the display?
Top fault finding..
Cheers Jonny 👍
A T-Shirt for Buy it Fix it. "Pokin' 'n Scopin' ". 🤣😂🥰
😂😂😂👍
A handful - well, maybe a bucket full - of dot-matrix LEDs might substitute for the vacuum display. But with more hassle than it's really worth. Shame. VFDs still have their place and do look good when they work properly.
I had thought of that, and it should work, but it's a fair amount of work. I still might have a go in the future as it seems a waste to junk it.
Scopes are awesome test tools. Great diagnostic work. Pity the display isn’t available. I would think it was faulty from factory. Made in a factory where quality control is not that good.
Thanks 👍and agree to all of that 🙂
I love your channel. How many thing have you failed to fix.
I have tried to repair many thing with no luck I would say 9 out of 10 time it's just not fixable. Do you have any advice on what you do to succeed in your repairs?
Thanks 👍There are some things that you just can't fix these days, that would be due to not being able to get parts, or parts having firmware inside of them that you can't get. Perhaps choosing items that you think you've a good chance at being able to fix might increase your success rate? A lot is down to experience. The more things you try to fix and succeed you'll remember when you come across that issue or a similar issue again. I'm not too sure on what else I can advise? Just sticking at it, and trying different things when it doesn't work.
23:18 😵💫😭😵💫😵💫
finally someone is using the oscilloscope. Nobody seems to be able to handle it except you.
Everyone used the stupid DMM. Use what you have learned, use the force. Then you can save yourself. 🖖🖖🖖🛸
Hey nice 51,00111% repair, lovely retro audio Analyser 🥰👍
Cheers mate 👍
I once had one like these displays functioning again with around 70Volts... so just another doubling. Maybe worth the try? Probably not optimal but might give it doing something for a short while?
Thanks for the suggestion. I did hook it up to the bench PSU yesterday just for curiosity to see if I could get the heaters to glow.. started off at 5V and a few mA, but ended up at 30V drawing 3A and it still wouldn't glow. The display just got hot at the back so I think there may be a short somewhere too.
clever! I learned a lot, worth a no fix.
Cheers Tom 👍
@4:04/:05 Look at that humongous fingerprint! 🤣 That might be evidence! 😂😉
😂😂😂
I wonder if the display if good would light up and glow by injecting high voltage on the surface of the bulbs.
Possibly, might try giving it a zap 😂😂
@@BuyitFixit it won’t work if the tubes are not in a vacuum and what ever gas they had in there for the color. They do make a fluorescent tube “AKA shop light” tester that energizes the tube externally.
I wonder if the person who owned it before dropped the unit. I am surprised that it was not inside some kind of protective case.
@@xzytqweo3538 There is some plastic perspex bits that attach to the front and back. They appeared unused and had the protective film on them too. I think it was faulty from the factory.
I didn't like the 38 volts on the 35 v caps at the 6 minute mark
Yes I noticed that too..
Nice work! I trust your judgement more then you; seems so any way.🤣
Cheers 👍🙂
Is there a way to convert the display to oled ?
I'm not sure about oled as they usually have a driver chip onboard. It should be possible to use some of those 8x8 dot matrix LED displays though. I think I worked out 6 would give 24x16 and the original display is 25x15
👍👍
Cheers 👍
5:52 -38V on a 35V Cap ?
Yeah I thought that was odd too, along with the boosting of 5V to 7V? But the heater circuit seemed to work fine when connected to the other display although I didn't measure the voltages on the caps etc. One interesting thing I did yesterday was hook the faulty display up to the bench PSU to see if I could get the filaments to glow at all with higher voltage / amps. I started at 5V and a few mA, and ended up at 30V and 3A! and it still didn't glow (although the back of the display was quite warm).
Screen may be VFD40-2501F seam to be on alibaba
Indeed it does! Thank you for that 👍The only problem is the price $13.43 + $36.49 shipping fee, far exceeds the purchase price of the whole unit on AliExpress.
Win some, lose some, mate.😊😊
Indeed 👍
Shame it was the display in the end :(
Yeah 😢
Next episode...an LED array to replace the failed VFD.
@@chrissavage5966 I thought of that, I think 6 8x8 led display matrix panels would work as it would be 24x16 where the original display is 25x15 so I might have a go.
You should have the filamernt blown if bad vacuum occured.
I've just been messing with the tube, I thought I'd try and see if I could make the filaments glow... Started at 5V at a few mA, Got up to 30V at 3A! and they still didn't glow and are still intact. I'm wondering if there's an internal short, which would also explain why the diode was getting hot too. Either way, it's the display that was at fault.
@@BuyitFixit Strange. Do you have any continuity of the filament ?
sad it was devacuumed
Your thought that the display has failed doesn't respond to the HOT diode. Possibly the display is ok and the diode in question is badly leaking. A diode can test completely normal and still be leaking bad enough to completely fail. The random hookup of the trash display actually proved nothing as you can scatter those odd display wires around almost any circuit and get some ghost flickers like you did.
I did try swapping the diode with one of the others of the same type, but it just heated up the same. I'm not sure if I put that bit in the video or not. I seemed to be the heater wires that were causing the issue, perhaps it was because there was air in the display and they weren't able to get hot enough (as the resistance should increase the hotter they get).