Two things: 1) In this video I show checking the fuse to be sure there is no voltage there. As several commentors have pointed out (Thank you!). This is NOT the correct way to check voltage on the large caps. You need to check on the capacitor legs themselves. 2) Just wanted to add that with items like these I either test them more extensively or I sell them as untested. Either way I always make sure potential buyers know what they're getting. I'll be posting on my community tab, Instagram an Facebook when I start selling stuff.
Glad you mention 'cause I was already wondering how one can call a projector "all fixed" when not even a stand-still image on a proper projection surface was tried. In case you decide to do the testing, I'd be interested in a video on testing procedures and outcomes for sure... Oh yeah, and testing the voltage drop on a fuse doesn't seem to make any sense.. I was wondering about that, too.
@TronicsFix Any way you can try to fix a few tvs? Seems like t-con boards and power boards are easy enough for you to test and possibly fix. It also seems like a large area where people just discard what they bought, rather try to repair them.
As a home theater projector owner since 2005, I can tell you that just having light output does NOT equate to being "fixed". You need to test with the image projected on a wall to make sure you can get it focused and that the colors and contrast are acceptable with moving images. You can have an older bulb that puts out light, but the image will lack any depth or looked washed out, so that's something that needed to be tested.
Maybe you're a first time viewer.. When TronicsFix says "It's fixed" it is definitely fixed.. I am sure that he tested them off-camera.. You should watch more of his videos to see what I mean..
@@bonnerikbarrogataday6289 I've been watching his videos for years, and he normally says he does more testing off camera, but I didn't hear him say that for these projectors...
@@shiftctrlhack 12:47 If you look closely, the projector is hooked up to a computer.. You can see the icons on the upper left corner and the taskbar at the bottom.. He's not just testing for light..
Test them like at least 1~2hours . When I worked on projectors cost over 10,000 dollar per each. They sometimes showed some sort of weird issues when I run them for few hours. They were expensive but not reliable at all. *Rumors and things I experienced, If you use "non-genuine" lamp for your projector, they might cause damage to a filter on lens which might give you fuzzy or darkened image even after putting a new lamp. (We ended up replacing several projectors due to darkened image Replacing a lamp was not a solution)
@@Tronicsfix You don't have time to turn on 6 projectors and come back in 2 hours? Also you didn't check the audio on any of these at least you didn't on camera.
One small notice, when checking if there is charge in capacitors, always measeure voltagr across storage caps. Measuring voltage at socket will always show 0V (if bridge rectifier is good) because bridge rectifier will block DC. Also if fuse is not blown there will not be any voltage across it. (There will be voltage drop across it when the projector is drawing current while its working) This time you get lucky that storage cap have bleeder resistor. If that is not the case (as it is for many chinese PSU) you could get high voltage for days at that capacitor and your methods will not detect it. So ALWAYS measure voltage at the big caps. If there is residual charge, use high wattage resistor, 1K or lower to discharge capacitor safetly.
I once got bitten by storage cap... And that was 470 uF 450V beast charged to 390VDC. I assumed cap is discharged... It was very painfull assumption...
Awesome man! One thing though, never, ever , ever clean a lens with alcohol. The alcohol can very quickly damage lens coatings, specifically the anti-reflective coating that is on them. Always try to use a lens specific cleaner or if you don't have that, then an alcohol free glass cleaner. This goes for any kind of eyeglasses also. Awesome job though man, love it!
@@dorfschmidt4833 I can understand why you may think that is wrong. A cursory search on Google gives you an answer to clean anti-reflective coatings with a 15% IPA 85% H2O mixture, directly from a coatings company. What that search fails to explain is that to REMOVE anti-reflective coatings you use a 85% IPA to 15% salt H2O mixture. The salt merely helps to oxidize the coating faster to remove it. Considering that we in the electronics repair community use 99% IPA most of the time, it is absolutely not recommended to use IPA, even 70% IPA on coated lenses. Sure, if there is no coating, use as much alcohol as you want. I have used all techniques to clean and/or remove coatings. Years ago I would ALWAYS use alcohol to clean lenses and I always hated when coating would start to degrade over time. My thought was that it was just wear and tear. then I learned about all this crap and low and behold, no more degraded coatings.
@@housinit If you don't want to use alcohol, use petroleum ether. I use different alcohols and also other solvents. I also have my own mixture for cleaning lenses, mirrors, low pass filter.
@@dorfschmidt4833 a lot of the projector manufacturers specifically recommend against using alcohol or any harsh chemicals. Sure you can use them but you are taking a chance and you are voiding the warranty.
@@dorfschmidt4833 from that projector manufacturer's manual.. "Do not use alkaline/acid detergents or volatile solvents such as alcohol for cleaning lens. If the lens is damaged due to the cleaning process, it is not covered by the warranty."
Wish you would've shown how each displayed images in dark and lighter rooms. Sometimes the bulbs need to be replaced eventhough they still give light. The bulbs Don't last for ever. Enjoyed the video.
@@absenteeatom but still would of hoped he would of shown the brightness of the lamps. Lamp hours are guidelines not the true physical shape of the bulb.
@@boomsharkboom And also lamp hours can often be reset so you may not get an accurate account of the number of hours if someone reset the device before selling.
It's hard to know what testing to include in these types of videos. Usually the more testing I do on camera the less of the video people watch so I usually minimize the testing I show. I agree that if I were to sell these as used and tested then I would need to test them much more extensively. Anytime I don't have time to test something fully I sell it as untested so the buyer knows what to expect.
@@Tronicsfix I bought a few for 60 euros and and repaired them. Most of them had dust in their optical part because the filter had crumbled because of bad material, some had thermal cutoff fuses blown and some sony ones had a faulty chip on power supply. Anyways, its important to check the image, that its not dull, because of something in optics, like dust or that the colors are not off, sometimes there is something wrong with the LCD-s.
You had one screw that fell out in the one projector that had never been opened. That sometimes happens when they are mounted to a drop ceiling that has airflow above it. It causes a vibration in the projector that you can actually see. After years of vibration the screws can loosen or fall out. I work in a school district and we deal with this sort of thing fairly often. Great video!
I have an upside down ceiling mounted projector (different make) that got this vertical bars fault with a repair that followed the same repair path, open up, exercise the connector, screw tight, close up, all good.
As many others mentioned I would have liked to see more testing on these. Output light is not equal to a good projector. Especially on those with loose zoom/focus rings, check if the image is sharp. If you think viewers find this part boring include a chapter to skip to for those kind of viewers
2:05 Even a lot of Epson and other brands of projectors replacing the lamp is just a matter of removing one screw on the cover and one screw on the lamp itself. I had an Epson projector that used a screw that could be turned by hand, didn't require any tools.
Random Tech Tip: When you have a batch of identical things to repair, always turn them all on and record each of their symptoms before even thinking of taking the first one apart. Then group the ones with similar faults together and work on the biggest group first. Also, always label every single part you remove so you can trace it back to the unit it came from.
I remember that one control panel we had onboard made this buzzing and the cause of this was the fan. So check it before you sell it. It may cause overheating after like one hour.
Yup. When lamps explode some glass shards get stuck in the fans, causing the projector to buzz and eventually shut down. Some compressed air and contact cleaner will work fantastic.
I'm suprised how easy easy this was since projectors aren't excatly known to be servicable with all the properitary parts. Also the lamp swap being this easy is cool.
The lamp has to be easy to replace as it is a serviceable part that wears out and even has a count down timer built into the projector that will warn you when it needs replacing based on hours of use.
you should check out the lamp hours before you sell. It’s usually 3000-4000 hrs before u have to replace. I replaced my benq lamp with an original for $170. knockoffs can go for $70. that buzzing and smoke can be because of that. buyers will want that info
@@MagikGimp reports on gui and keeps notifying u once hours are up. You can keep playing with some tricks but that’s dangerous for the unit. one friend had his bulb pop inside the unit
The “broken” ones with that ring coming off looked like user error to me. Seeing as it click on like that makes me think they turned it a bit too hard and thought it was ruined.
I found a projector in a dumpster, it still had a property tag on it.. Gave a call and yup it was trashed.. Still works but has some pixels problem on one side. Works for me. 😁
Hi there, great channel!! Wouldn't it be pertinent to compare how all these look like when projected onto a screen or even a wall? Some projectors show problem areas or differences even between the same model, or would that be more lens dependent, and so, not much you can do about it? I'm interested to see if any of these come back after selling them
I generally don't test everything on camera as that would be very boring to watch. In addition, if I don't have the time to fully test an item I will sell it as untested so the buyer knows what they are getting.
just ordered the "repairability" shirt in the blue denim. Good lookin shade of blue. Can't wait to get it! Thanks for making these videos and helping an old man that can build you a house if you've got enough lumber and nails, but knows nothing about electronics, and is just trying to learn enough to hold a conversation with his 10 year old son who is a computer/electronics innards whiz.
I'm curious about your test and how you determined 6-7min is sufficient to call it good. I'm no expert, but I have a couple old projectors I was trying to get working and they don't act up until 25-35 minutes of use. Maybe those are a bit different since they are older though.
Those speckles on the image are not from dust on the lens, that's the DLP chip that is starting to fail. The easy way to tell is to adjust the focus, if the speckles rotate then it's dust, if they are stationary it's the DLP chip. You will find pixels both stuck on and off, basically that projector is trash. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest also suffer from that issue as they are all DLP and Optoma brand are know to use the low grade chips.
I've skipped the buy the broken ones and went straight to the office upgrade auctions. Bought 6 projectors for $200 and they worked. Bought a dozen monitors for about $10 for each. Sold them locally on Craigslist, but kept the best monitor and projector for myself. Be sure to go into the projector menu and pull up the lamp hours. Helps to sell them if they have low hours on the bulb.
a faster diagnostic check once you had the known good supply installed would've been to pull the lamp door and see the behavior, if it matched the previous behavior you know it's probably that cable
I bought a refurbished projector, which worked for a while, then one day went 'pop' when I turned it on. On opening it I found broken glass from a previous failed bulb and plenty of dirt and dust. So much for refurbishing. however, I was able to replace just one $5 component in the power supply and it has been fine since. For a £400 projector, it was nearly junked over this cheap part. It really is worth trying to fix these things, but yes, I did get a couple of pretty good jolts off the caps. they are serious in these projectors!
After 14 years making a living repairing mainly audio amplifiers I bought a new £3,500 Dell S718QL UST laser projector for the college where I work in 2018. While soak-testing it I noticed a faint yellow staining on about 20% of the middle of the image on the white test mode (you can get it to project various single colour rectangles). Subtle but faulty and not a dirty lens. After a long phone call to one of Dell's engineers in Scotland they accepted it was faulty and replaced it. Most people wouldn't have noticed the problem in a college, although a home-cinema owner might have.
Someone probably already said it, if there is a Arc lamp in number six, I haven't found the spec sheet for it but high hour arc lamps produce a buzzing sound. (I have an Epson that does it. $150 lamp vs $300 tv... I no longer use the projector)
Those are pixel shift projectors it is a know side effect of the pixel shift technology as the DLP is being mechanically shifted 240 times a second. They often have a quiet or silent mode that turns it off but you go from 4K to 1080P as you disable the pixel shifting.
thanks for trying to fix thimgs with no expirence i admire you for that the beginning to obtain it specially with some of the viewers helping in everyway good or bad
I use to work in an IT department and these things would go belly up all the time (not these models but projectors in general). The problems would be so varied that sometimes we could fix them in like 2 mins. Other times, we’d have these bad boys back in our shop for a week and couldn’t diagnose the problem. I consider myself pretty handy but this type of item would stump me a lot.
I have a similar projector as at 12:50 (#3). I remember having lines show up on my screen because mine was a refurb unit, and so I noticed that they only showed up when I ceiling mounted it. So naturally, I squeezed it! This was to countact the tension of ceiling mounting it and it fixed it! Now I know it was probably a loose connection on that board with the missing screw you had.
In my experience the buzzing could either be coming from the fan (most common) or the colourwheel actuator (can be trouble). If it's really bad it's often worth sticking a finger on the fan casing to see if there's any severe vibration. If so, it's not too bad a job to replace it.
Those last two were 4k, they use e-shift Pixel shifting technology to generate 4k resolution from 1080 panel. i.e. the panel shifts over slightly to generate the other half of the pic, creating a full 3840x2160 picture. Only Sony and JVC (if I remember correctly) are the only native resolution 4k projectors that use full resolution LCD panels. With 4096x2160 on their panels. But they cost a ton more than these do.
have a look on the color wheel (only to find in DLP projectors) somtimes the ball-bearing dies and this could be the buzzing noise i had such a problem in my acer projector it sits right between the lamp and the very beginning of the light tunnel and for the lamps you cant really tell if a lamp is good or not by looking at it the lamp driver board has a complex voltage and current parameter program and it will monitoring voltage and current used by the lamp during start up this kind of lamps need low current at the beginning to warm up savely but the voltage and current is getting up after a while and then it gets brighter but after a while the lamp will have a constant current mode but the voltage can stil vary if the lamp is getting older the normal voltage rises and if its out of spec you will get a lamp error keep in mind the logic of this board can only measure it when the lamp is in full power mode (warmed up) that means if you have a bad lamp it will kick of at the very end of the warming phase or even after hours of being on due to rising voltage this is caused because the arc in the lamp needs more voltage to stay stable due to rising preasure inside the bulb by vaporising metal
We have bought 7 Optomas that look like the first 2. 3 are dead but all are damaged. They do not ship well. One had the lines and a partially unplugged connection like the 3rd one(fixed). One has a fan noise. 3 have broken light reflectors (fixed with bulbs from dead units). 2 have have the metal nubs on the buttons broken off (fixed with built up crazy glue on the plastic of the button). Some have broken case plastic. Our instructors wanted bright and high resolution so we got 4000lumen 1920x1200 units. We need a more rugged replacement.
What? I'm pretty sure any profit (if not a loss really) would be marginal. You must be kinda desperate to buy used projector like this, unknown condition. time use etc., considering "Optoma" means cheap and nasty stuff in general. Low-end sheit as seen in the video.
I've been watching your vids for about a year now and enjoy them all. You dropped the ball on this one. I know you do more testing but you can't call something fixed if you only fixed one part of it and not the main part of what it does, project an moving image not just light. You should have hooked up at least a console to them to see if they can receive and transmit a signal. I'm not talking about all the things that can be wrong like blurry image but just a image in general.
To explain the smoke, any projector (the light bulb specifically) runs incredibly hot and essentially you are seeing burned up dust. Something worth cleaning for sure, but definitely normal for any projector. I repair and maintain medical equipment which includes projectors for Optometrists.
Almost all beamers have these easy to change lamps because the lamps always have a certain life time. They also almost always have similar casings for the actual lamp and inside those cases there's almost always the same lamp which can be switched. At least that's what I'm able to fix at work without a professional like you :)
Great Job Sir. Zeiss makes an optical cleaner, for outdoor optics, binoculars, things like that. Nikon also makes something called a "lenspen" that cleans lenses on optics.... Zeiss & many others make Lens Wipe products also, which come in a little single use package, and when you tear it open, a very clean wet tissue is in there, safe for coated optics.... I would invest in all of those, if you are going to mess around with stuff like this. You'd hate to ruin the coatings on a lens, and basically torpedo any value the projector might have.... There is another product, looks like a fancy bigger q-tip... the ones I have are sold as "Extreme lashes Lint Free Applicators"... Looks like a fancy Q tip. I'm not sure what sort of black magic is involved with these, but they pull dust & offending dirt off of a lens like magic. Like weird magnetism. Really neat product that I found doing watch repair. Theoretically, those mirrors in the bulb area should be pristinely clean also.
I fixed a bunch of projectors from my school skip, about 10 in all, all had the same issue, light valve was broken, could be fixed with a screw adjustment. Also good to always replace the lamps when you do a fix. They were all NEC m230x if anyone was wondering, quite old now and not worth much
That's the problem with older projectors from just a few years ago, they may have some comon fix thats easy to do. But then the tech moves so fast, the value of them plumets because the current gen is so much better quality. I mean who wants a projector that has a native resolution of 1024x768 XGA resolution with 4:3 aspect ratio? You see a ton of used ones like that on eBay, sure they are bright 3200 lumens, but their contrast ratio is horrible.. What is awful on eBay are the cheap Chinese no name brand projectors claiming ridiculous specs for cheap. Stick with name brands like Optoma, Epson, BenQ, Sony, JVC etc. Avoid those Chinese knockoffs like the plague, I've opened them up, hot glue holding down wires, plastic lenses, single speed fan, (for a time, crazy hot quartz light) single LED bulb like those used in drop work lights for shop work.. same control input board used across every cheap Chinese projector thats 1/4 the size of control board you see here. That can accept up to 1080p resolution input that gets converted down to LCD panel resolution that is SD resolution (480) that has crappy contrast. And everything is plastic inside, all subject to that heat the LED high output light puts out. Its slightly better than the old quartz light they used to use, but still tons of heat. Nevermind the fan noise is so much more than on a name brand projector. They just pump these projectors out by the ton, and they end up in our landfills within a year or two because the LCD panel gets burned from the heat. All pure junk. Just buy a name brand projector thats used and it will last years and be far superior in picture quality for the same price. And those $100 projectors listed have almost no brightness to them. More than useless if there is any ambient light in the room.
Another thing that's so simple but has caught me out before - my InFocus In83 would work right way up (ie on a table) but would have issues when ceiling mounted (image issues and noticeable "hot" smell). They will auto flip when inverted or there will be a setting to change projection settings for testing.
One of the main complaints with projectors is buzzing or humming. You'll often find certain ones hum more than others and it can vary even within the same model. Typically, if you look up the model number you can see if there's a history of humming with the unit which will tell you if it's more or less normal for that unit.
I bought a high end 4k beamer once and had issues with it from the beginning. It just turned off after a while for no obvious reason. Leaving it on for 5min was not a good test to see if it actually works. I would test for several hours with video signal going in, as this is what it is supposed to do.
you can't determine weather the projector works without looking at the image quality, testing it on a close up piece of brown glossy paper won't give you a clear enough image to see any image errors, missing pixels
Did u teat these after repairs to see if the screen size is correct and do all the ports work correctly and do they work with other devices like games console or dvd player
I'll either test them more extensively or sell them as untested. Either way when I make the listing I'll be honest with the listing so the buyer knows what to expect.
@@Tronicsfix i was wondering if you can try to fix hard drives maybe or gaming mouses and keyboards or restaurations or your child hood tech documentery would be great for other content
smoke damage is most likely due to a burned out exploded lamp. The yellowing in the lamp section is a normal indicator. When people forget to let the lamp cool down after powering it off and powering it back on immediately, it runs the risk of exploding the lamp.
a broken lamp is considered a disposable item. They are designed to be replaced. So a projector wouldn't be any good if it wasn't easy to replace. They are all like that doesn't matter what the brand is. I used to do IT. I've seen a few brands.
I've worked with theater projectors for over 20 years, cleaning a lens with isopropyl alcohol is not recommended from my experience. It leaves many streaks and can be a pain to get completely streak free. My suggestion is a little distilled water with your cotton swabs.
I remember as an IT guys that buzzing sounds indeed can come from the fan where the bearing of the fan can be worn out. Then you need to replace the fan.
quick question cause i have been asking around i just replaced both my joysticks on my old xbox 360 remote and when i test it not in game it shows everything works fine but in game it thinks the trigger is being used and the left joystick thinks its being pushed down i have now tested everything from the schmatics like the traces those are good and the joystick movement is good i have no clue why its doing that and also no one online seems to know either
Idk maybe a bad part or something got hit or messed up while repairing them is all I can think of sadly but even then it’s hard to say not an expert though so sorry
@@chriseyes20 guess what after doing some research and thanks for responding i found out that some xbox controllers have paired joysticks so that means its a 50/50 chance the new joysticks will work with the board cause i rechecked everything and its all perfect conections
I would suggest as a good practice of troubleshooting is to test all same projectors before swapping parts out. You need a solid base before going forward.
this is crazy, this guy is famous making money from fixing stuff, recording it and making more money to buy more stuff to fix and sell for more. genius.
To solve the clicking noise on the UHD50X it would be worth it to replace the color wheel, especially if the project has seen heavy use. After I replaced the color wheel on my Optoma 141X the projector was super quite and the colors were a lot better.
Heat from the lamp can cause smoke damage from the plastic its made from I remember people alway thought Nintendo consoles went that colour because of cigarette smoke when it was the plastic it was made from.
Two things:
1) In this video I show checking the fuse to be sure there is no voltage there. As several commentors have pointed out (Thank you!). This is NOT the correct way to check voltage on the large caps. You need to check on the capacitor legs themselves.
2) Just wanted to add that with items like these I either test them more extensively or I sell them as untested. Either way I always make sure potential buyers know what they're getting. I'll be posting on my community tab, Instagram an Facebook when I start selling stuff.
Glad you mention 'cause I was already wondering how one can call a projector "all fixed" when not even a stand-still image on a proper projection surface was tried. In case you decide to do the testing, I'd be interested in a video on testing procedures and outcomes for sure...
Oh yeah, and testing the voltage drop on a fuse doesn't seem to make any sense.. I was wondering about that, too.
FYI, you have to pin the comment again if you edit it. Found this down near the bottom of the page.
@@mjc0961 Thanks for letting me know. I had no idea.
Hey @TronicsFix
Can i have a question?
@TronicsFix Any way you can try to fix a few tvs? Seems like t-con boards and power boards are easy enough for you to test and possibly fix. It also seems like a large area where people just discard what they bought, rather try to repair them.
As a home theater projector owner since 2005, I can tell you that just having light output does NOT equate to being "fixed". You need to test with the image projected on a wall to make sure you can get it focused and that the colors and contrast are acceptable with moving images. You can have an older bulb that puts out light, but the image will lack any depth or looked washed out, so that's something that needed to be tested.
I agree with terminator, half ass "fixes"
Maybe you're a first time viewer.. When TronicsFix says "It's fixed" it is definitely fixed.. I am sure that he tested them off-camera.. You should watch more of his videos to see what I mean..
@@bonnerikbarrogataday6289 I've been watching his videos for years, and he normally says he does more testing off camera, but I didn't hear him say that for these projectors...
@@bonnerikbarrogataday6289 ya your not correct there buddy. He only checked for light... really?
@@shiftctrlhack 12:47 If you look closely, the projector is hooked up to a computer.. You can see the icons on the upper left corner and the taskbar at the bottom.. He's not just testing for light..
Test them like at least 1~2hours . When I worked on projectors cost over 10,000 dollar per each. They sometimes showed some sort of weird issues when I run them for few hours. They were expensive but not reliable at all. *Rumors and things I experienced, If you use "non-genuine" lamp for your projector, they might cause damage to a filter on lens which might give you fuzzy or darkened image even after putting a new lamp. (We ended up replacing several projectors due to darkened image Replacing a lamp was not a solution)
Agreed. I'll likely sell them as untested since I don't have time to test them for that long.
@@Tronicsfix You don't have time to turn on 6 projectors and come back in 2 hours? Also you didn't check the audio on any of these at least you didn't on camera.
@@jarateman6427 I guess he's made his money from the sponsor spot and video, that's the important thing
Thats for the next customer to find out 🤣🤣🤣
@@Tronicsfix Use them for a movie when you are relaxing with the wife. If it acts up, swap to your normal screen. Idk, just an idea.
One small notice, when checking if there is charge in capacitors, always measeure voltagr across storage caps. Measuring voltage at socket will always show 0V (if bridge rectifier is good) because bridge rectifier will block DC. Also if fuse is not blown there will not be any voltage across it. (There will be voltage drop across it when the projector is drawing current while its working) This time you get lucky that storage cap have bleeder resistor. If that is not the case (as it is for many chinese PSU) you could get high voltage for days at that capacitor and your methods will not detect it. So ALWAYS measure voltage at the big caps. If there is residual charge, use high wattage resistor, 1K or lower to discharge capacitor safetly.
Spot on bro. you are correct!!
my thoughts exactly
Yes, you are correct. I did it totally wrong in that shot. I'm adding this to my pinned comment.
I once got bitten by storage cap... And that was 470 uF 450V beast charged to 390VDC. I assumed cap is discharged... It was very painfull assumption...
Would that be a “full bridge rectifier”?
Awesome man! One thing though, never, ever , ever clean a lens with alcohol. The alcohol can very quickly damage lens coatings, specifically the anti-reflective coating that is on them. Always try to use a lens specific cleaner or if you don't have that, then an alcohol free glass cleaner. This goes for any kind of eyeglasses also. Awesome job though man, love it!
Wrong.
@@dorfschmidt4833 I can understand why you may think that is wrong. A cursory search on Google gives you an answer to clean anti-reflective coatings with a 15% IPA 85% H2O mixture, directly from a coatings company. What that search fails to explain is that to REMOVE anti-reflective coatings you use a 85% IPA to 15% salt H2O mixture. The salt merely helps to oxidize the coating faster to remove it. Considering that we in the electronics repair community use 99% IPA most of the time, it is absolutely not recommended to use IPA, even 70% IPA on coated lenses. Sure, if there is no coating, use as much alcohol as you want. I have used all techniques to clean and/or remove coatings. Years ago I would ALWAYS use alcohol to clean lenses and I always hated when coating would start to degrade over time. My thought was that it was just wear and tear. then I learned about all this crap and low and behold, no more degraded coatings.
@@housinit If you don't want to use alcohol, use petroleum ether.
I use different alcohols and also other solvents. I also have my own mixture for cleaning lenses, mirrors, low pass filter.
@@dorfschmidt4833 a lot of the projector manufacturers specifically recommend against using alcohol or any harsh chemicals. Sure you can use them but you are taking a chance and you are voiding the warranty.
@@dorfschmidt4833 from that projector manufacturer's manual..
"Do not use alkaline/acid detergents or volatile solvents such as alcohol for cleaning lens. If the lens is damaged due to the cleaning process, it is not covered by the warranty."
Wish you would've shown how each displayed images in dark and lighter rooms. Sometimes the bulbs need to be replaced eventhough they still give light. The bulbs Don't last for ever. Enjoyed the video.
If you go into the menu, you can see the lamp hours
@@absenteeatom but still would of hoped he would of shown the brightness of the lamps. Lamp hours are guidelines not the true physical shape of the bulb.
@@boomsharkboom And also lamp hours can often be reset so you may not get an accurate account of the number of hours if someone reset the device before selling.
It's hard to know what testing to include in these types of videos. Usually the more testing I do on camera the less of the video people watch so I usually minimize the testing I show. I agree that if I were to sell these as used and tested then I would need to test them much more extensively. Anytime I don't have time to test something fully I sell it as untested so the buyer knows what to expect.
@@Tronicsfix I bought a few for 60 euros and and repaired them. Most of them had dust in their optical part because the filter had crumbled because of bad material, some had thermal cutoff fuses blown and some sony ones had a faulty chip on power supply. Anyways, its important to check the image, that its not dull, because of something in optics, like dust or that the colors are not off, sometimes there is something wrong with the LCD-s.
You had one screw that fell out in the one projector that had never been opened. That sometimes happens when they are mounted to a drop ceiling that has airflow above it. It causes a vibration in the projector that you can actually see. After years of vibration the screws can loosen or fall out. I work in a school district and we deal with this sort of thing fairly often. Great video!
Warning: falling projectors ahead
Wow, top tip there. Good to know!
I have an upside down ceiling mounted projector (different make) that got this vertical bars fault with a repair that followed the same repair path, open up, exercise the connector, screw tight, close up, all good.
Dude don't use locktite. Its gonna happen again.
As many others mentioned I would have liked to see more testing on these. Output light is not equal to a good projector.
Especially on those with loose zoom/focus rings, check if the image is sharp.
If you think viewers find this part boring include a chapter to skip to for those kind of viewers
literally watched this on an optoma projector. it's nice to see the bulb replacement process for when that day comes. love the videos!
Nice! They made lamp replacement easy.
I'm loving the variety on your channel at the moment. So interesting
Glad to hear it!
2:05 Even a lot of Epson and other brands of projectors replacing the lamp is just a matter of removing one screw on the cover and one screw on the lamp itself. I had an Epson projector that used a screw that could be turned by hand, didn't require any tools.
Random Tech Tip: When you have a batch of identical things to repair, always turn them all on and record each of their symptoms before even thinking of taking the first one apart. Then group the ones with similar faults together and work on the biggest group first.
Also, always label every single part you remove so you can trace it back to the unit it came from.
I remember that one control panel we had onboard made this buzzing and the cause of this was the fan. So check it before you sell it. It may cause overheating after like one hour.
Yup. When lamps explode some glass shards get stuck in the fans, causing the projector to buzz and eventually shut down. Some compressed air and contact cleaner will work fantastic.
The discolouration is from heat, very common with BenQ and Optoma projectors, as well as some Epson models. They tend to run hotter than I like.
Ooo, I like the added graphics showing the prices and the product names. Nice addition to an excellent channel.
Glad you like them! My editor added them.
@@Tronicsfix ok
I'm suprised how easy easy this was since projectors aren't excatly known to be servicable with all the properitary parts. Also the lamp swap being this easy is cool.
The lamp has to be easy to replace as it is a serviceable part that wears out and even has a count down timer built into the projector that will warn you when it needs replacing based on hours of use.
Love you channel and videos bro! Sometimes you're very lucky and sometimes your repair methods are mind blowing. Top content on this platform.
I appreciate that!
you should check out the lamp hours before you sell. It’s usually 3000-4000 hrs before u have to replace. I replaced my benq lamp with an original for $170. knockoffs can go for $70. that buzzing and smoke can be because of that. buyers will want that info
I was going to say. It usually reports it on the GUI. A lamp can be a lot of the cost so worth watching out for.
@@MagikGimp reports on gui and keeps notifying u once hours are up. You can keep playing with some tricks but that’s dangerous for the unit. one friend had his bulb pop inside the unit
@@meatwad74 my classroom's projector had a filter clean notfication. I think it was a NEC projector.
The “broken” ones with that ring coming off looked like user error to me. Seeing as it click on like that makes me think they turned it a bit too hard and thought it was ruined.
I found a projector in a dumpster, it still had a property tag on it.. Gave a call and yup it was trashed.. Still works but has some pixels problem on one side. Works for me. 😁
Hi there, great channel!! Wouldn't it be pertinent to compare how all these look like when projected onto a screen or even a wall? Some projectors show problem areas or differences even between the same model, or would that be more lens dependent, and so, not much you can do about it? I'm interested to see if any of these come back after selling them
I generally don't test everything on camera as that would be very boring to watch. In addition, if I don't have the time to fully test an item I will sell it as untested so the buyer knows what they are getting.
You really took a shot with your money. Gladly, you repair them. Entraining and encouraging for repair amateurs like me.
@TronicsFix Thanks for the shout out. Let me know if you ever have any questions!
Will do!
All fixed without any spare parts 👏👏👏
Thx for mentioning a small channel like FixitFrank. I already knew his channel. Needed some information on a projector back then. :)
He does good work
just ordered the "repairability" shirt in the blue denim. Good lookin shade of blue. Can't wait to get it!
Thanks for making these videos and helping an old man that can build you a house if you've got enough lumber and nails, but knows nothing about electronics, and is just trying to learn enough to hold a conversation with his 10 year old son who is a computer/electronics innards whiz.
I'm curious about your test and how you determined 6-7min is sufficient to call it good. I'm no expert, but I have a couple old projectors I was trying to get working and they don't act up until 25-35 minutes of use. Maybe those are a bit different since they are older though.
Those speckles on the image are not from dust on the lens, that's the DLP chip that is starting to fail. The easy way to tell is to adjust the focus, if the speckles rotate then it's dust, if they are stationary it's the DLP chip. You will find pixels both stuck on and off, basically that projector is trash. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest also suffer from that issue as they are all DLP and Optoma brand are know to use the low grade chips.
I've skipped the buy the broken ones and went straight to the office upgrade auctions. Bought 6 projectors for $200 and they worked. Bought a dozen monitors for about $10 for each. Sold them locally on Craigslist, but kept the best monitor and projector for myself. Be sure to go into the projector menu and pull up the lamp hours. Helps to sell them if they have low hours on the bulb.
a faster diagnostic check once you had the known good supply installed would've been to pull the lamp door and see the behavior, if it matched the previous behavior you know it's probably that cable
Bravo! You saved them all. Much easier to fix than the XBox Series X and PS5's for sure!
I bought a refurbished projector, which worked for a while, then one day went 'pop' when I turned it on. On opening it I found broken glass from a previous failed bulb and plenty of dirt and dust. So much for refurbishing. however, I was able to replace just one $5 component in the power supply and it has been fine since. For a £400 projector, it was nearly junked over this cheap part. It really is worth trying to fix these things, but yes, I did get a couple of pretty good jolts off the caps. they are serious in these projectors!
Finalllllllllllllllly a successful repair!!!! im very glad for you!, greatings from Argentina man, big fan here
Thank-you for broadening the scope of the channel; this is really interesting!
So glad you're enjoying that. I'll still be doing lots of game consoles.
You deserve a mil…oh wait…you do have a million subscribers! Rock on!
Lol!
After 14 years making a living repairing mainly audio amplifiers I bought a new £3,500 Dell S718QL UST laser projector for the college where I work in 2018. While soak-testing it I noticed a faint yellow staining on about 20% of the middle of the image on the white test mode (you can get it to project various single colour rectangles). Subtle but faulty and not a dirty lens. After a long phone call to one of Dell's engineers in Scotland they accepted it was faulty and replaced it. Most people wouldn't have noticed the problem in a college, although a home-cinema owner might have.
Wow! This is the earliest I have ever been to a video.
Thanks for watching!
@@Tronicsfix Your welcome sir.
Someone probably already said it, if there is a Arc lamp in number six, I haven't found the spec sheet for it but high hour arc lamps produce a buzzing sound. (I have an Epson that does it. $150 lamp vs $300 tv... I no longer use the projector)
Buzzing on any projector isn't good. The most common cause for a buzzing noise is a failing color or phosphor wheel.
I was going off what I know from personal experience, I would not have thought about that.
Those are pixel shift projectors it is a know side effect of the pixel shift technology as the DLP is being mechanically shifted 240 times a second. They often have a quiet or silent mode that turns it off but you go from 4K to 1080P as you disable the pixel shifting.
thanks for trying to fix thimgs with no expirence i admire you for that the beginning to obtain it specially with some of the viewers helping in everyway good or bad
You're the BEST! This is the most relaxing video, easy fixes, everything Works!
I use to work in an IT department and these things would go belly up all the time (not these models but projectors in general). The problems would be so varied that sometimes we could fix them in like 2 mins. Other times, we’d have these bad boys back in our shop for a week and couldn’t diagnose the problem. I consider myself pretty handy but this type of item would stump me a lot.
I have a similar projector as at 12:50 (#3). I remember having lines show up on my screen because mine was a refurb unit, and so I noticed that they only showed up when I ceiling mounted it. So naturally, I squeezed it! This was to countact the tension of ceiling mounting it and it fixed it! Now I know it was probably a loose connection on that board with the missing screw you had.
Fix it frank is awesome! He is a brain trust of projector repair, so neat to hear that name!
So many easy fixes. When my iPad Air has a screen or battery problem I’ll contact you lol.
Great work man!
In my experience the buzzing could either be coming from the fan (most common) or the colourwheel actuator (can be trouble). If it's really bad it's often worth sticking a finger on the fan casing to see if there's any severe vibration. If so, it's not too bad a job to replace it.
Could be coil whine from power supply too
Those last two were 4k, they use e-shift Pixel shifting technology to generate 4k resolution from 1080 panel. i.e. the panel shifts over slightly to generate the other half of the pic, creating a full 3840x2160 picture. Only Sony and JVC (if I remember correctly) are the only native resolution 4k projectors that use full resolution LCD panels. With 4096x2160 on their panels. But they cost a ton more than these do.
@@marcusdamberger yup and I believe these models do just under 240 shifts per second so hence the low buzz.
Amazing video Steve as always i really love the variety on the channel keep it up bro 👍👍
Thanks! Will do!
have a look on the color wheel (only to find in DLP projectors) somtimes the ball-bearing dies and this could be the buzzing noise i had such a problem in my acer projector it sits right between the lamp and the very beginning of the light tunnel
and for the lamps you cant really tell if a lamp is good or not by looking at it
the lamp driver board has a complex voltage and current parameter program and it will monitoring voltage and current used by the lamp during start up
this kind of lamps need low current at the beginning to warm up savely but the voltage and current is getting up after a while and then it gets brighter but after a while the lamp will have a constant current mode but the voltage can stil vary if the lamp is getting older the normal voltage rises and if its out of spec you will get a lamp error
keep in mind the logic of this board can only measure it when the lamp is in full power mode (warmed up) that means if you have a bad lamp it will kick of at the very end of the warming phase or even after hours of being on due to rising voltage this is caused because the arc in the lamp needs more voltage to stay stable due to rising preasure inside the bulb by vaporising metal
I saw an advertisement for the cleaner degreaser “KH-7”, it can be purchased at Walmart, it will remove baked on grease and grime
@ tronics when useing a projector pls let it cool down while its pluged in other wise it could burn the hot lamp
We have bought 7 Optomas that look like the first 2. 3 are dead but all are damaged. They do not ship well. One had the lines and a partially unplugged connection like the 3rd one(fixed). One has a fan noise. 3 have broken light reflectors (fixed with bulbs from dead units). 2 have have the metal nubs on the buttons broken off (fixed with built up crazy glue on the plastic of the button). Some have broken case plastic. Our instructors wanted bright and high resolution so we got 4000lumen 1920x1200 units. We need a more rugged replacement.
wow, these fixes were incredibly easy!!! so satisfying. you’re gonna get a lot of money for all these
What? I'm pretty sure any profit (if not a loss really) would be marginal. You must be kinda desperate to buy used projector like this, unknown condition. time use etc., considering "Optoma" means cheap and nasty stuff in general. Low-end sheit as seen in the video.
the only channell where im not fast forwarding ads
I've been watching your vids for about a year now and enjoy them all. You dropped the ball on this one. I know you do more testing but you can't call something fixed if you only fixed one part of it and not the main part of what it does, project an moving image not just light. You should have hooked up at least a console to them to see if they can receive and transmit a signal. I'm not talking about all the things that can be wrong like blurry image but just a image in general.
perfect Video to understand the function. i like to see the insides and how you always get behind the secret, how something works.
Glad you liked it! I enjoyed this one.
15:47: that is very loud buzzing!
Me: enjoying the background music *ahh yes buzzing*
To explain the smoke, any projector (the light bulb specifically) runs incredibly hot and essentially you are seeing burned up dust. Something worth cleaning for sure, but definitely normal for any projector. I repair and maintain medical equipment which includes projectors for Optometrists.
It's good to know that JLCPCB assigned Manuel to assemble those pcb's
Nice variety, the reason why I watch your channel!
Glad to hear it!
Almost all beamers have these easy to change lamps because the lamps always have a certain life time. They also almost always have similar casings for the actual lamp and inside those cases there's almost always the same lamp which can be switched. At least that's what I'm able to fix at work without a professional like you :)
You always inspired me to do repairs thank you for the inspiration
Glad to hear it
Great Job Sir.
Zeiss makes an optical cleaner, for outdoor optics, binoculars, things like that. Nikon also makes something called a "lenspen" that cleans lenses on optics.... Zeiss & many others make Lens Wipe products also, which come in a little single use package, and when you tear it open, a very clean wet tissue is in there, safe for coated optics....
I would invest in all of those, if you are going to mess around with stuff like this. You'd hate to ruin the coatings on a lens, and basically torpedo any value the projector might have....
There is another product, looks like a fancy bigger q-tip... the ones I have are sold as "Extreme lashes Lint Free Applicators"... Looks like a fancy Q tip. I'm not sure what sort of black magic is involved with these, but they pull dust & offending dirt off of a lens like magic. Like weird magnetism. Really neat product that I found doing watch repair.
Theoretically, those mirrors in the bulb area should be pristinely clean also.
I fixed a bunch of projectors from my school skip, about 10 in all, all had the same issue, light valve was broken, could be fixed with a screw adjustment. Also good to always replace the lamps when you do a fix. They were all NEC m230x if anyone was wondering, quite old now and not worth much
That's the problem with older projectors from just a few years ago, they may have some comon fix thats easy to do. But then the tech moves so fast, the value of them plumets because the current gen is so much better quality. I mean who wants a projector that has a native resolution of 1024x768 XGA resolution with 4:3 aspect ratio? You see a ton of used ones like that on eBay, sure they are bright 3200 lumens, but their contrast ratio is horrible.. What is awful on eBay are the cheap Chinese no name brand projectors claiming ridiculous specs for cheap. Stick with name brands like Optoma, Epson, BenQ, Sony, JVC etc. Avoid those Chinese knockoffs like the plague, I've opened them up, hot glue holding down wires, plastic lenses, single speed fan, (for a time, crazy hot quartz light) single LED bulb like those used in drop work lights for shop work.. same control input board used across every cheap Chinese projector thats 1/4 the size of control board you see here. That can accept up to 1080p resolution input that gets converted down to LCD panel resolution that is SD resolution (480) that has crappy contrast. And everything is plastic inside, all subject to that heat the LED high output light puts out. Its slightly better than the old quartz light they used to use, but still tons of heat. Nevermind the fan noise is so much more than on a name brand projector. They just pump these projectors out by the ton, and they end up in our landfills within a year or two because the LCD panel gets burned from the heat. All pure junk. Just buy a name brand projector thats used and it will last years and be far superior in picture quality for the same price. And those $100 projectors listed have almost no brightness to them. More than useless if there is any ambient light in the room.
I love these new contents! Keep them coming Steve!!
Thanks! So glad you're enjoying.
Another thing that's so simple but has caught me out before - my InFocus In83 would work right way up (ie on a table) but would have issues when ceiling mounted (image issues and noticeable "hot" smell).
They will auto flip when inverted or there will be a setting to change projection settings for testing.
Oh RIP, we got rid of a couple off these at work recently. Exact models too...
Great video Steve!
Thanks!
FYI #6 is the color wheel failing.
I like my projector. I bought an Acer refurbished on eBay for $300. New it is $500. Works great. I use it for an every day tv. 👍
What kind of bulbs did the projectors use? LED or Mercury vapor?
thanks for providing calming content, really helps
Nice new animations!!!
Glad you like them!
Yay! You found something you can profitably repair! You can now just specialize in projector repair!
One of the main complaints with projectors is buzzing or humming. You'll often find certain ones hum more than others and it can vary even within the same model. Typically, if you look up the model number you can see if there's a history of humming with the unit which will tell you if it's more or less normal for that unit.
Just wanted to point out that what you were calling zoom ring is actually a focus ring. Nice vid!
Can we get an update on the actual sales? Nice vid!
Very nicely done Steve!
I bought a high end 4k beamer once and had issues with it from the beginning. It just turned off after a while for no obvious reason. Leaving it on for 5min was not a good test to see if it actually works. I would test for several hours with video signal going in, as this is what it is supposed to do.
you can't determine weather the projector works without looking at the image quality, testing it on a close up piece of brown glossy paper won't give you a clear enough image to see any image errors, missing pixels
Did u teat these after repairs to see if the screen size is correct and do all the ports work correctly and do they work with other devices like games console or dvd player
I'll either test them more extensively or sell them as untested. Either way when I make the listing I'll be honest with the listing so the buyer knows what to expect.
I like how you’ve been branching out to other devices, rather than game consoles. I can’t wait to see what’s coming up next!
I love these videos! Do you know of any resources to get started in learning how to make the types of repairs you do?
I would love to see a video of all the unfixable elitems you got laying around the shop!
congragulations for fixing all of them!!!!!
Hey thanks!
@@Tronicsfix i was wondering if you can try to fix hard drives maybe or gaming mouses and keyboards or restaurations or your child hood tech documentery would be great for other content
Buzzing noise is usually Pixel Shifting
You did great. Easy fixes now you know.
Good job.
smoke damage is most likely due to a burned out exploded lamp. The yellowing in the lamp section is a normal indicator. When people forget to let the lamp cool down after powering it off and powering it back on immediately, it runs the risk of exploding the lamp.
Yes! Finally a big win for you!
a broken lamp is considered a disposable item. They are designed to be replaced. So a projector wouldn't be any good if it wasn't easy to replace. They are all like that doesn't matter what the brand is. I used to do IT. I've seen a few brands.
I've worked with theater projectors for over 20 years, cleaning a lens with isopropyl alcohol is not recommended from my experience. It leaves many streaks and can be a pain to get completely streak free. My suggestion is a little distilled water with your cotton swabs.
I love your vids but, How come you call these fixed if they aren't tested properly?
I remember as an IT guys that buzzing sounds indeed can come from the fan where the bearing of the fan can be worn out. Then you need to replace the fan.
Wow you editing it so good now I love to watch you more
dont forget to check the dmd chips that's the problem i have with a lot of projectors they come on but have dead pixels
i like the price tag animation in this 🙂
quick question cause i have been asking around i just replaced both my joysticks on my old xbox 360 remote and when i test it not in game it shows everything works fine but in game it thinks the trigger is being used and the left joystick thinks its being pushed down i have now tested everything from the schmatics like the traces those are good and the joystick movement is good i have no clue why its doing that and also no one online seems to know either
Idk maybe a bad part or something got hit or messed up while repairing them is all I can think of sadly but even then it’s hard to say not an expert though so sorry
@@chriseyes20 guess what after doing some research and thanks for responding i found out that some xbox controllers have paired joysticks so that means its a 50/50 chance the new joysticks will work with the board cause i rechecked everything and its all perfect conections
I would suggest as a good practice of troubleshooting is to test all same projectors before swapping parts out. You need a solid base before going forward.
that's done off camera before the video.
this is crazy, this guy is famous making money from fixing stuff, recording it and making more money to buy more stuff to fix and sell for more. genius.
I recently bought 3 projectors, 1 LED and 2 DLP for £15, they all work perfectly too which surprised me.
Where did you find them so cheap?
DLP is the name of the chip which creates images and LED is the name of the light.
@@JakeJoris I know, 1 has an LED light, the other 2 have halogen lamps.
@@Stripcherry3 Local flea market.
To solve the clicking noise on the UHD50X it would be worth it to replace the color wheel, especially if the project has seen heavy use. After I replaced the color wheel on my Optoma 141X the projector was super quite and the colors were a lot better.
Looking to do this on one of my projectors. Seems to happen to all projectors eventually.
The noise was the pixel shift technology not the colour wheel
It took me the whole video to realize you were talking about CIGARRETE smoke damages.
I thought something inside burned
Heat from the lamp can cause smoke damage from the plastic its made from I remember people alway thought Nintendo consoles went that colour because of cigarette smoke when it was the plastic it was made from.
@@castleladpaza76 - UV exposure I think?