Thursday, December 29, 2005

Electronic Troubleshooting Website

While checking the MSN search engine i came across an Electronic Troubleshooting website www.science-ebooks.com. Visit this website and click on the power supply troubleshooting link which provide some good info and tips on repairing power supply. Tomorrow morning, again i will be going for holidays with my family and friends to Summerset Resort Pahang. School will be opening next week and i'm taking this opportunity to make sure that my family enjoy this holiday season before getting back to the busy schedule next year. This would be my last post for this year and i will continue to blog next year. Wishing all of you Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Google's Greeting Card


When I reached home after spending few nights at my in-law's house in Muar, I saw a letter in my post box and it turned out to be Googles's greeting card for the New Year. Why google sent me the card? As you know that besides doing monitor repair and conduct electronic repair courses, I'm also heavily venture into the internet business. I'm using google search engine to advertise products. I spent quite a lot in the google advertising in order to make sales. If you want to find out more on how I market other's people products and make commission from it kindly check out this website . This year repair business is generally better than last year. December month usually was a slow month but somehow this year I got ton's of repair work- Even holiday season customers still keep on sending monitor and printers for us to repair-Thank God!

Last week a friend of mine sent a CNC monitor for me to repair. The complaint is dim and I told him that I don't repair cnc monitor due to can't test the monitor unless it is a simple problem such as no power. It uses different connector and the monitor is designed to work in the industrial machine and the price can be very expensive ranging from Us2000.00 and above. Most Cnc monitor that I came across mostly are made in Germany and United Kingdom. Anyhow I recommended him to my friend who is pro in repairing cnc machine. He told me he might have to swap samsung monitor pc tube to solve the cnc monitor dim problem. The cnc monitor is 'On' for 24 hours and no wonder the display gets dim faster than it should be. Pc tube are designed to run base on operating hour. Some last for less than 15,000 hours while some can go more than 20,000 hours. In lcd monitor backlight some manufacturer claimed that their lcd monitor back light can last more than 50,000 hours.
About my friend who repair the cnc monitor, he had a Ups repair background than venture into monitor business than into this cnc machine. He told me that monitor repair business is a little bit tough (competition). He added that he can charge higher to repair cnc machine and less competitor. As I mentioned before in my previous electronic repair articles, one must diversify or learn something new to cope up with the current changes. He had chosen the CNC machine repair and as for me I have chosen the internet business. Oh yes! One more thing even when I'm at my in -law's house the internet business is still running and making money (whether you are sleeping or going for holiday). That's the good thing about internet business-24/7/365!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Tomorrow morning i will be going to my in-law's house in Muar, Johor to celebrate Christmas and enjoy the long holiday break. It's a three hours journey from KL and i like the food there and you can see a lot of Singporean go there as well. I will bring my family to watch 'King Kong' and 'Chronicle of Narnia' and enjoy the scenery at the estuary. Most of the time we as electronic repairer need this kind of break to destress ourselves. When we come back we will have a fresh mind and be able to tackle the toughest problem-am i right dear fellow repairer? Wishing you and family a Blessed Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Peak Electronic Design

I've bought the atlas transistor tester few years ago and i can say that it worth the investment. Why? because the tester have helped me to identified what type and pin designation of a component especially transistor. I don't use it all the time but when i came across any transistor that have a missing part number or new part number in the market then only will i use it to identify what sort of transistor is it. It could be a fet, bipolar transistor and etc. Though it is not always can detect any component it still a great help for me. Check out the peak electronic design website here at www.peakelec.co.uk

Monday, December 19, 2005

PC Oscilloscope

The PC Oscilloscope have been around for quite a number of years in the market but i haven't got the chance to use it. Perhaps some readers would like to share your experience about this pc oscilloscope compare to the traditional test equipment (digital storage oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, meter and data logger)? Check out the website of Picotech for more information on this test instrument.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Electronic Parts Supplier for LCD, CRT and Laser jet

I have known lavinci luca (from italy) since in the anatek el-repair forum few years ago. He actively gave support to the members in term of supplying electronic spare parts and part number identification. He even sent me a list of all the electronic components that his company have. He is an honest guy and you can be sure of his sincerity in dealing with oversea customers. Below are some of the items listed for sale:

TRANSISTOR JAPANEISE
HYBRIDS and CUSTOMS ICS.
JAPANESE POWER MODULE IC
HARD TO FIND PARTS, to repair electronics and industrial boards.
IC COMPONENTS, to repair copier machine.
CRT and LCD PANEL replacement research.
LITTLE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT PRODUCTION.
TAIWANEISE and CHINESE ELECTRONIC OFFICE SUPPORT for IMPORTS.
CCFL backlight lamps and EL Foils per Lcd applications repairing and manufacturing.
FBT per monitor.
INVERTER per LCD and NOTEBOOK. (1,2,4, 8 CCFL Lamps control)
SMT Transformer Ic Power smd 8 pin to repair any kind of Inverters boards.
INFRARED and ULTRAVIOLET LAMPS per special electronic applications, cheque readers, special panels, security applications.
BATTERY and AC ADAPTORS per notebook and lcd display. (Special adjustment for little ac adaptors productions and batteries.)
FUSER, PICKUP ROLLER, SEPARATION PAD, MAINTENANCE KIT per LASER PRINTER, HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Epson.
FILM SLEEVE POLYMER to repair Fuser assy unit.
MEMBRANE KEYBOARDS PRODUCTIONS, also in little quantity and under special sample request.
SPECIAL MEMBRANE LAYOUT and BACKLIGHT MEMBRANE PANEL
FLAT CABLE fpr any kind of electronics boards
USB CONNECTORS, SPECIAL AUDIO and VIDEO PLUG per notebook repairing.
SPECIFIC CONSULTANT, REPAIRING CONSULTING SERVICE, SERVICE CENTRE DATABASE for WARRANTY SERVICE.
If you need any enquiries just visit his website- www.lavinci.it and email him for the list of electronic components that you want.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Final Day on Basic Electronic Troubleshooting Course

The last day i covered transistor which include bipolar transistor, field effect transistor, horizontal output transistor and Darlington transistor, how to read semiconductor replacement data book, build another project kit to make them familiarize with circuit and recognizing components (make perfect their skill in using meters, solder gun, desoldering tool, cutter, plier, and etc). After that i pass them a board containing good and spoilt components and want them to find out only the bad component for me. With this method, i can really test their knowledge and where their weakness is. They are very happy after completion of the course and looking forward for the basic monitor troubleshooting and repair course. Here are the pictures taken during the course:
Electronic repair photo 1:Testing transistors
Electronic repair photo 2:Learning how to read data book and find a good replacement
Electronic repair photo 3:Troubleshooting electronic board
Electronic repair photo 4:Participants awarded with certificate of attendance.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Second Day On the Electronic Repair Course

Today's topic i covered transformer, diode, bridge rectifier, zener diode, capacitor,
coil, ic, voltage regulator, and fixing power supply project kit. Till now i could see improvement in them especially the practical part. When i passes the power supply kit to them they already knew what to do such as checking all the components before fixing it-less dependant on me which is a good indicator to me. As i mentioned in yesterday's post that i emphasize on practical. I guide them on how to look at electronic the practical way. I don't teach them with overloaded of electronic formula-i lead them just the way on how a technician look at electronic equipment before he begin to troubleshoot. Tomorrow i will post the pictures of the students doing practical work.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

First Day on Basic Electronic Repair Course

The three tech's from Malaysian Airport Technologies that attending my basic electronic course today have little or no experience in electronic troubleshooting but have knowledge in IT support. Two of them have a diploma in computer science and the other one with diploma in engineering. The topic that i covered was safety, fixing fluorescent lamp, ohms law, series-parallel circuit, understanding analog-digital multimeter, ac-dc circuit, resistor, variable resistor, fuses and LED. I could see that they are happy of learning something new like be able to calculate the resistor code and using the right way to check a resistor. I still could remember when i was studying diploma course on the subject of resistance and ohms law- even after few weeks there's still no chance to 'hands on' on how to distinguish between a good and a bad resistor. Well, in order to complete the course you have no choice other than to calculate and memorizing the formula. In this basic electronic course i don't emphasize too much on calculation, i give them more practical and exposing them to the real world of troubleshooting and repair of electronic equipment-afterall troubleshooting electronic is fun!

Monday, December 12, 2005

Internal View Of Flyback Divider


While preparing the class for the basic electronic repair course i saw a 17" flyback divider among the other good and spoilt flyback's. From previous post i did show you some pictures on the inside of flyback transformer. Well, i guess this picture is more clearer compare to the last one. The top rectangular white board is the bleeder resistor while the biggest cap at the left side is the film capacitor that frequently spoilt. The two small capacitors is for the dynamic focus purposes. Hope you get to know the inside circuitry and will be able to measure if any suspected flyback comes along your repair bench.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Google Internet Marketing Workshop

Yesterday i was invited as a guest speaker by a friend to help out his internet marketing workshop. It was a one day workshop and concentrating how to make US dollars using google adwords and affiliate programs. There were 13 participants and came from all kind of profession. Some are contractors, insurance agents, engineers and even a dentist! Most of them want to try making money on the internet as a second income and they have shown their passions by attending this workshop. There's two participants even came from other states which is few hundreds kilometres away from KL. They open up their options and chosen this course eventhough they are already an expert in their field. Few years ago i opened up my option to take on this new challenge and now considered to be successful in internet business. Besides repairing monitor and teaching electronic repair courses to students, when i have free time i will do my internet business at the comfort of my home. Again if you want to venture into this business i highly recommend you to check out this website.
Below are the pictures taken during the internet marketing workshop.
Photo 1-Helping participants to set up their internet business
Photo 2-Explaining the big potential of doing business online and sharing some secrets tips on internet business.
Photo 3-The group photo of those who attended the internet marketing workshop.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Basic Electronic Course

Next week i'll be conducting basic electronic course for three technicians from Malaysian Airport . I will train them to be familiar with basic electronic and later to attend the basic and advance monitor course. The tech's job is to repair the combo monitor/tv screen equipment. Those are the screen that show the departure and arrival at the airport. Previously i had conducted 3 classes for them and now they are sending the fourth group. The screen are made in the UK and cost more than rm 25,000 each thus the tech need to repair it. There's more than 1000 unit and each month may be 10- 15 unit broke down. The equipment is 'on' for 24 hours a day. If they send the equipment to UK for repair, it will cost them a lot and of course time consuming. I've seen the mainboard and schematic of the equipment and the design are much the same as normal monitor except that it have some frequencies board similar to Tv. The board material and flyback look solid. In fact the course that i'm going to conduct is customize to their needs which mean i'm going to teach them base on their mainboard and the schematic. This way will make them become pro on that equipment in the shortest time.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Photo's of Bukit Tinggi Trip

It was a very nice trip and my family enjoyed very much. We were staying at the meranti suite and the air was very cool and i love the mountain scenery. I and my family will definitely go back again for second visit! Below are the pictures taken during the trip:
Photo 1-Outside of Colmar Tropicale, a French theme resort.
Photo 2 and Photo 3- Colmar Square, a cobblestone central courtyard where you can enjoy outdoor dining and street performances.
Photo 4- Mountain scenery viewed from my apartment.
Photo 5- My daughter Hannah holding a rabbit in rabbit park.
Photo 6 - My family photo

Friday, December 02, 2005

Going Holiday With My Family

Since now is a school holiday season, i'm going to Bukit Tinggi Resort nearby Genting Highland with my family for a short break. I'm bringing along my wife, son(Noah) and daughter(hannah) to this cool, refreshing countryside. There's also a rabbit farm which i think the children will truly enjoy. I'll show you some pictures when i'm back!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Service Engineers Forum

An impressive Electronic repair website dedicated to the needs of technicians and engineers containing detailed such as circuits, electronic repair tips, repair articles, industry news and more. Visit now to e-repair.co.uk
Check out site archives for more, or search in the Net:
Google