I know it's a fun device to build, and even more fun to use... but does anyone think about the bigger picture here?
If we continually turn people's TVs off without them knowing what's happening the first thing they will assume is that their TV is faulty.
If it's an older TV they will likely just throw it away or maybe taken to the repair shop, and when no fault is found, probably throw it away if it keeps happening.
So really, the TV-B-Gone can potentially cause perfectly working TVs to go into landfills or otherwise get trashed, which I think isn't cool.
So perhaps if we are doing this, especially to neighbors or small shops with just one TV (big department stores don't count, taking out 20 TVs at once wouldn't make people think they are faulty, unless they are fools) maybe we should tell them after a while, to avoid this problem?
Just a thought....
Ethics of the TV-B-Gone?
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Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
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Re: Ethics of the TV-B-Gone?
there aren't any repair shops left ---Agent24 wrote:If it's an older TV they will likely just throw it away or maybe taken to the repair shop...
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Re: Ethics of the TV-B-Gone?
We're the repair shops now. Just make a list of all the capacitors in the TV and then go to Mouser and buy replacements. That usually fixes flat screen TV's.
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Re: Ethics of the TV-B-Gone?
A real repair shop can do much more than that.
Replacing capacitors only requires educated guesswork and basic soldering skills at best, but that's not to say I don't congratulate anyone who has done this, because it's certainly a worthwhile thing to do
The problem I often see (especially on Youtube videos) is that people replace junk capacitors with more junk capacitors. You must use high quality replacements, otherwise you'll just get the same problem another year or so down the line.
Replacing capacitors only requires educated guesswork and basic soldering skills at best, but that's not to say I don't congratulate anyone who has done this, because it's certainly a worthwhile thing to do
The problem I often see (especially on Youtube videos) is that people replace junk capacitors with more junk capacitors. You must use high quality replacements, otherwise you'll just get the same problem another year or so down the line.
- richms
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Re: Ethics of the TV-B-Gone?
But by that stage you have flicked the tv on to someone else on trademe and have replaced it with another dirt cheap piece of junk, so you wont have the same problem again with the same TV, someone else will
About all that next electronics would do for repairs is charge the minimum rate, tell you what boards need to be replaced and the price for them and that its not economical and give you the tv back with half the screws missing and all the internal connectors unplugged. Oh, and firmware updates on gear and try to charge you for it despite it being a warranty job.
About all that next electronics would do for repairs is charge the minimum rate, tell you what boards need to be replaced and the price for them and that its not economical and give you the tv back with half the screws missing and all the internal connectors unplugged. Oh, and firmware updates on gear and try to charge you for it despite it being a warranty job.
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.