Panasonic CT-1310M keeps blowing horizontal output transistor

[vol.2]

Originally Posted by luRaichu

Please, enlighten me to any other repair shops or techs in Maryland or Virginia. I cannot bring myself to work on this set anymore.

Honestly, no. I don't know of anyone I can fully recommend. Danco is a great tech, and he won't rip you off, but he is retired and doesn't care about taking jobs unless they are interesting to him, and he has told me on numerous occasions that he especially doesn't like taking in jobs that other people have been messing with.

There's no one I'm aware of in Maryland that will take in a CRT and can be trusted other than him (if he will do it), and I don't think he's too likely to touch yours, and if he did you would be paying out the nose for it because he charges hourly and his time is valuable.

There used to be a LOT of guys in the area who would do it, but they all retired and/or died like 20 years ago. Danco was a late arrival, and then he made most of his living handling all the audio/visual equipment for the National Zoo, and doing big important restoration jobs for museums and stuff like that, so he could afford to keep the small neighborhood shop running.

I think you're going to have to look in Northern VA, there's a much better chance of finding someone over there.

But seriously, this particular TV you are working on isn't worth what someone competent is going to charge you. You could easily be looking at over $100/hour for that kind of thing, and it's a basket case.

My advice is to keep cracking at it, or let it go. And that doesn't have to mean getting rid of it; you can mothball it and get back to it after you have more experience.

Also, you might want to give some thought to getting some better equipment if you want to mess with this stuff more. At the very minimum, an isolation transformer is really important as a safety precaution. Without one, your line leads are connected directly to the grid on the neutral