Tuesday, October 28, 2008

VE170 Monitor Repair with LED's

I have noticed that many people find my blog when looking for monitor repair ideas. So here is another one of my ideas for monitor repair. I have in the past fixed laptops by retrofitting them with LED's. The problem with this monitor is that the power supply for the vacuum tube back lighting dies.

The first step is to totally disassemble the monitor into little pieces, then carefully remove the gold colored trays that hold the vacuum tubes. Then carefully remove the tubes themselves without breaking them, like that can be done.



The LED's are spaced at about 1/2 inches apart by using the edge of a cardboard box as can be seen below. This was the test setup using a 9 volt battery, the LED's are spaced every three holes from each other. The LED's are wired in sets of 3 with a 12 ohm 1 watt resistor in series with all of the sets of three LED's. A 10 ohm to 15 ohm resistor would work just as well.



This is a schematic drawing of how it is all wired up. It shows 24 LED's but actually there needs to be 27 LED's in a 17 inch monitor.


This is what the LED's look like in the tray. They have to be angled at a 45 degree angle towards the back of the screen in order to fit and it is a very tight fit. I tried to use a flat front LED so it could aim directly up at the screen but did not see any increase in brightness.



This is what it looks like with the bottom tray full of LED's. There are a total of 27 LED's in the bottom light tray in this photo. There needs to be about 27 LED's in each of the trays. The dark areas are where the resistors are located. I no longer put any resistors in the tray for that reason.



As you might be able to guess the labor far exceeds the value of the fixed monitor. Also you can see in the photo above that unless you space the LED's so they are almost touching each other then there will be blank spaces between them. The ideal solution would be surface mount LED's on a circuit board to provide continuous lighting.

The picture below shows what it looks like compared to a laptop. As you can see it is not as bright and the picture has a purple color to it. Even thought the color looks white to the eye it is somewhat blue by comparison.


The LED's used were 3mm 16,000 MCD bright white LED's found on EBay. There are brighter LED's available that might work even better. I tried using the flat top LED's and they fit better because they are shorter and light the screen more evenly. Also the resistors can be external, wire all of the LED's up in parallel sets of 3 each, then use a 10 to 20 ohm resistor externally between it and the 12 volt power supply.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The current economic and political problems

One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 9:6 & 7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

That and Daniel chapter 2 carry a very clear message. The Kingdom of God has been growing for 2,000 years, and it will never stop growing. Around the world revival is taking place as people lay down their lives for the Gospel. If you are part of His kingdom you have NOTHING to fear! I personally have watched my retirement accounts dwindle. My bank accounts earn .85% interest. My money would be better off in my mattress then in the bank or stocks. But it would be even better off being used for the kingdom of God. I believe that the kingdom of God is going to rise up and take over. Not by force, but by being the only thing that does not collapse. Jesus' disciples expected that to happen and they were disappointed that they were only part of the initial 'stone' that was thrown to take down the kingdoms of this world. We are part of the mountain, but it will soon cover the whole earth.

Daniel2:31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."

Daniel 2:44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces."

So get ready! The revival in Florida showed that we are desperate for revival and we will accept it from almost anyone. There is real revival coming, the Kingdom of God is going to rise up like never before. I think we will soon see miracles like never before, like they were in the days that Jesus walked on this earth. God is raising up lots of people, not just one or two, but 12 or even 70 great evangelists, prophets, healers, etc. I am excited about what is happening and what God is doing!