Toshiba TV29C90 problem; Image fades to black...

[GMAN]

In article <ZcOdncKgyf3VnC3VnZ2dnUVZ_u2dnZ2d@giganews.com>, Blattus Slafaly <boobooililililil@roadrunner.com> wrote:

I've been shutting off all my vampire devices including my DVR. I only
need it between 7pm and llpm. The last time the menus and all the
channel info crap would not load up. Is it broken now?


One thing about DVR's is that they need to download guide data at all hours of

the day to keep the info current. You most likely interrupted a guide data
download.

 

[Dave Platt]

I have an actual electronics question! Can I convert a old ide notebook
drive to solid state?

You can't convert the drive itself to solid-state, but you can replace
it with a solid-state drive. A number of vendors including Samsung
make solid-state drives with an ATA ("IDE") interface.

Is there an adaptor that would let me just plug in a memory card in place
of one?

Most Compact Flash storage cards implement an I/O mode which is
electrically and register-compatible with the ATA standard.
You can buy an adaptor which has a 40-pin ATA socket on one side, and
a CF slot on the other. There are even some which accept two CF
cards, creating the equivalent of ATA "master" and "slave" drives on a
single cable. Addonics is one brand, and there seem to be plenty of
others... check on eBay to see what's available.

You'll want to use modern CF cards which support the Ultra DMA I/O
standard, for best performance.

Be aware that flash-memory storage varies significantly in speed and
write-cycle lifetime. Flash devices based on single-level cell
technology has a lower capacity, but (traditionally) has a fairly good
lifetime (many vendors quote 100,000 write cycles per sector on
average). High-capacity MLC-based flash devices may have much lower
write-cycle limits (some are as low as 5000 writes per sector) and may
not be good choices for applications which involve a lot of data
updating.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Stacey Chuffo]

"Ashleigh Cope" <kyfuncpl04@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:g8sb6r$urh$1@aioe.org...

"joevan" <joevan@joevanudity.com> wrote in message
news:jp51b41b70svno10cgq82045asn5ummq08@4ax.com...
I have given up on getting any help here and most of the web wants to
have you sign up for some crap help. Fuck it all.
What the hell happened to this great ng?

Nothing happened to this ng. Just just plonk all the meanies like kabitcha
man and stacey chucco and curtis brown and you for saying fuck in this
newsgroup.

And I plonked you because you're a little dicksucker.

 

[Stacey Chuffo]

"Curtis Brown" <pryce@stripperweb.com> wrote in message
news:g8se7a$a7a$1@aioe.org...

"Stacey Chuffo" <phsd-everyone@promisesandiego.com> wrote in message
news:g8sc1s$2b9$1@aioe.org...

"Ashleigh Cope" <kyfuncpl04@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:g8sb6r$urh$1@aioe.org...

"joevan" <joevan@joevanudity.com> wrote in message
news:jp51b41b70svno10cgq82045asn5ummq08@4ax.com...
I have given up on getting any help here and most of the web wants to
have you sign up for some crap help. Fuck it all.
What the hell happened to this great ng?

Nothing happened to this ng. Just just plonk all the meanies like
kabitcha man and stacey chucco and curtis brown and you for saying fuck
in this newsgroup.


And I plonked you because you're a little dicksucker.


And I plonked you for teaching her how to suck dick.

And I just plonked you for letting Ashleigh suck your cock.

 

[Dave Platt]

Anyone have this system?

I really don't use a LOT of batteries but the idea of
throwing them away bothers me as we have no way to
recycle them here locally

I've been using Eneloops, and similar "ultra-low discharge" NiMH
batteries from other vendors, in both digital cameras and in the
AA-cell pack for a portable amateur radio.

They work quite well - they hold their charge quite well for many
months (much better than older-generation NiMHs).

I'm wondering if they would work ok in graphing
calculator?

Very probably - this is a relatively low-current-drain application and
you should get many hours of use out of a single charge.

Also, is there any diff between a cheap $13 Kodak NiMH
charger and more expensive $40 one?

The least-expensive chargers are probably simple fixed-current
slow-chargers, operating at around a ten-hour charge rate... they take
somewhere between 12 and 16 hours to load up fully-discharged cells.
Such chargers do work, but they stand a fairly good change of
overcharging the batteries if you don't know just how far discharged
they were when you started. Over time, too much overcharging can
reduce the cells' capacities and shorten their lifetime (although this
isn't a really serious problem at such low charge rates).

More expensive chargers will often run at a higher charging current
(faster charging) and have a sophisticated temperature-and-voltage
sensing circuit to detect the cells' full-charge state and turn off
the charge current. This is both better for the batteries (less
overcharging) and more convenient (a good charger can restore
fully-discharged batteries to full charge in a couple of hours).

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[William Sommerwerck]

If you don't use a lot of batteries, there's nothing wrong with using
disposables. You may never recoup the cost of the rechargeable batteries and
the recharger.

In my opinion, you should not use rechargeable cells in a calculator (unless
you always carry a backup pair), simply because they might drop dead when
you need them most. Nicad and NiMH cells are particularly bad in this
regard, because they have a flat discharge curve, followed by an abrupt
voltage dive, the worst-possible characteristics for any kind of battery,
especially rechargeables.

Rechargeables make the most sense for medium- to heavy-drain applications,
such as flashlights, motorized toys, and electronic flashes. Calculators are
light-drain, and probably not worth the trouble.

 

[Arfa Daily]

troxel...@yahoo.com wrote:
I just bought a flyback tester and have a drawer full of flybacks that
I want to test. How do I know what pins to connect it to? The
directions say to simple hook it up to the primary windings, but which
pins are these?

Thanks

"Jerry G." <jerryg50@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6d6f4f61-0db1-43a3-b809-a92e095c3ab8@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

To know this you will really need the schematics from the
manufactures.

Remember that your tester is only doing a basic reactance test of the
device ...

<snip>


That may not be strictly true. If it's a Bob Parker design flyback tester
(now reworked and rebranded by another company), then it actually 'rings'
the tranny, a test that shows up most common defects such as shorted turns
on the primary, and short or leaky diodes in the HV stack.

Arfa

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Gnack Nol" <mchozfcesujcfc@mailinator.com> wrote in message
newsan.2008.08.24.04.22.16.858660@mailinator.com...

On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:23:36 -0400, Blattus Slafaly wrote:

I've been shutting off all my vampire devices including my DVR. I only
need it between 7pm and llpm. The last time the menus and all the channel
info crap would not load up. Is it broken now?

You have kept it from recieveing updates from it's server and delivering
your usage information because these events usually occour after midnight
and into the early morning hours. In other words you have kept it from
uploading your usage and the server has shut it down until it can sync
with your DVR.

It must be left on to do it's job or else ... well you already see the
result.

Absolutely. I get fed up of seeing all these non-technical prats on the TV
telling us that we should shut off everything which has a standby mode
because it's just for lazy people who can't be bothered to get out of their
chairs to turn stuff back on.

These stupid people totally fail to understand that most standby modes are
actually masking important housekeeping functions for the equipment, and
that turning them off is likely to screw them up. Most manufacturers are
very responsible about power useage, and modern switch mode power supplies,
when operating in burst standby mode, consume very little power indeed. Add
to this that switchers do not like being turned on and off all the time. A
true 'cold start' is the most stressful thing you can do to a switcher, and
is the time when most fail. If a piece of kit has a standby mode, then it
has been designed to operate this way, and should be just left alone at
night.

Arfa

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Ummm... my DirecTV DVR (forgot model number) sucks 33 watts
in standby. At 15 cents per kw-hr, that's 0.8 kw-hr per day, $0.12
per day, or $43.36 per year in electricity.

What, exactly, is it doing to "justify" drawing 33 watts?

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
newses5b4ti9dqsqin1tb22bhu507ma7lt8cd@4ax.com...

On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:47:43 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

If a piece of kit has a standby mode, then it
has been designed to operate this way, and should be just left alone at
night.

Ummm.... my DirecTV DVR (forgot model number) sucks 33 watts in
standby. At 15 cents per kw-hr, that's 0.8 kw-hr per day, $0.12 per
day, or $43.36 per year in electricity.

snip

That's an *awful* lot of power for a standby mode, and by no means 'typical'
for a modern device. Is this a quoted amount in the device's literature, or
something you believe you've measured ? If it pulls that much on standby,
then what the christ is it using when running ?

Arfa

 

[Dave Platt]

That's an *awful* lot of power for a standby mode, and by no means 'typical'
for a modern device. Is this a quoted amount in the device's literature, or
something you believe you've measured ? If it pulls that much on standby,
then what the christ is it using when running ?

Depending on the DVR type, it's quite possible that the "standby" and
"operational" power drains are essentially the same.

Satellite-type DVRs (DirecTV and Dish Network for example) generally
have to keep the CPU, memory, and the satellite receiver itself
powered up at all times, in order to keep up with the steady trickle
of program-guide updates.

Some of them may spin the hard drive down when in standby, if they
keep their program-guide data entirely in RAM. Doing so costs
them the ability to buffer the "live TV" stream and thus be able to
"rewind" into the current program immediately after being turned on.

Others do not - they're "always live", and always recording something.
"Standby" may simply mean "turn off the video and audio outputs, so
that the owner's automated video switchbox realizes that this input
isn't in use."

Cold-starting a satellite DVR can take several minutes, as there's
quite a bit of current information which has to be acquired from the
satellite data-stream before viewing/recording can start.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
newsun6b49tbd6si045ab1iiiukdht79ar34f@4ax.com...

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:57:29 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

That's an *awful* lot of power for a standby mode, and by no means
'typical'
for a modern device. Is this a quoted amount in the device's literature,
or
something you believe you've measured ? If it pulls that much on standby,
then what the christ is it using when running ?

I lied. See my other posting. It's really about 22 watts standby or
operating with one LNB. Add about 3.5 watts per additional LNB. Sorry
for the bad numbers (memory fault). Maybe more blood will help.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Bear in mind also, that the 'measured' power consumption on a consumer-type
power meter, may not be accurate with a switch mode power supply,
particularly if it's operating in a burst standby mode at the time, where it
might draw the full amount from the line, but only for brief periods, to
keep the standby supply resevoir cap charged. Some of these meters, which
are designed to give Joe Public a 'comfort factor' reading on steady draw
devices such as lamps and fridges and so on, have some difficulty doing
complex 'area under the curve' calculations for asymmetric and burst draws
by switchers, to come up with an equivalent steady draw figure that has some
real meaning in what it is costing you.

As a 'for instance' on this, a while back I read an article in a mag by a
guy that I have known for a long time. He had bought one of these meters and
gone round his house measuring all sorts of things, and then working out
what all of this standby power was costing him. One of the items he reported
on, was a Philips computer monitor, which his meter said was pulling 11
watts (from memory) when on standby. I thought that seemed a lot for a
modern device, so I looked it up on the 'net. The manufacturer's blurb said
that the standby power was < 1 watt. I can see how your DVR would be
consuming the revised figure though, if it does run the HDD all the time.
That said, my Sky+ box, which is also an HDD based sat rx and recorder, and
which also has the capability of rewinding live TV to the start of the
programme, claims (again from memory) only around 10 watts or so in standby
?

Arfa

 

[William Sommerwerck]

"Haywire1" <haywire1@email.com> wrote in message
news:48b375ed$0$31922$470ef3ce@news.pa.net...

I have Eneloops, Ray-O-Vac "Hybrid", and Duracell Low-Self-Discharge
batteries, and love them all. My children (and the rest of my family,
including me...) go through a lot of batteries, so I sprang for the best
charger (Just an opinion, there are other very good ones out there) - the
Ansmann Energy 16 (Paid $119 at Amazon.com) If you're just interested in
charging just AA's and AAA's, I think the LaCrosse BC-900 is a much
better
choice (tells you actual maH accumulated charge!) for much less ($40 at
Amazon, free shipping) and comes with 4 each (total 8) AA and AAA
batteries,
plus other accessories. It has features even my Ansmann does not, like
user-selectable charge rates, and a test mode with actual battery capacity
readout on a digital display. I haven't used one, but the reviews seem to
indicate that people are very happy with it.

I would recommend the MAHA (Powerex) MH-C9000, which I _have_ used and am
very enthusiastic about.

I don't understand this business about "low self-discharge" NiMH batteries,
as I'ven never noticed any particular problem with them.

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

I don't understand this business about "low self-discharge" NiMH batteries,
as I'ven never noticed any particular problem with them.

In order to have a lower self discharge rate, they have to have a higher
internal resistance. This lowers the effective charging rate, and the
output current.

I'm using Recyko+ battries sold by GPT out of Hong Kong. They are the
same batteries as one of them (there are only three companies that make
them), but I don't know which.

In order to get them to work, I have to charge them an awfully long time
with the chargers that have a fixed rate. For example the one that came
with the AAA batteries should charge them in 12 hours, I leave them on
at least 24 to get a useful charge. I also have one that times the
charge for 7 hours and I have to charge them twice.

With a normal NimH battery of the same capacity, the charger would charge
it completely in 7 hours.

Geoff.




--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <zJWdnb6sYZR2di7VnZ2dnUVZ_q7inZ2d@comcast.com>,
William Sommerwerck <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

I would recommend the MAHA (Powerex) MH-C9000, which I _have_ used and am
very enthusiastic about.

Agreed. The degree of control and information it provides is
wonderful.

I don't understand this business about "low self-discharge" NiMH batteries,
as I'ven never noticed any particular problem with them.

My own experiences are otherwise. "Traditional" NiMH batteries I
have used, would tend to lose a substantial fraction of their charge
within a few weeks, and would be nearly "flat" after three months of
storage.

The problem seems to be worse with the higher-capacity cells... a 2600
or 2700 mAh classic-NiMH cell would lose charge at a faster rate
(both absolute and percent-per-day) than an 1800 or 2000 mAh cell of
the same brand.

This isn't an absolute rule, though. I had a set of Lenmar "NoMEM
Pro" 2000 mAh cells which lost almost a third of their charge after
sitting around for only a week!

In certain applications - e.g. in the camera or flash unit of a very
busy photographer - the high-capacity "classic" NiMH cells may be the
best choice. It doesn't matter very much if they lose 2% of their
charge per day, if you're going to be running 'em down within a week
anyhow.

For low-rate or standby applications, the new ultra-low-discharge
cells are wonderful. I keep two sets of six in my ham-radio "go-kit"
for my spare dual-band handheld radio... each set will run the radio
through two 8-hour shifts of typical operation, and giving the a brief
topping-up charge every six months seems to be all that's required.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Dave Platt wrote:

My own experiences are otherwise. "Traditional" NiMH batteries I
have used, would tend to lose a substantial fraction of their charge
within a few weeks, and would be nearly "flat" after three months of
storage.

That's about right, if not pretty good. The discharge rate that Motorola
once claimed in an ancient phone manual I once had was 30% per week.

The problem seems to be worse with the higher-capacity cells... a 2600
or 2700 mAh classic-NiMH cell would lose charge at a faster rate
(both absolute and percent-per-day) than an 1800 or 2000 mAh cell of
the same brand.

In effect what they have done is traded off how long a charge lasts
versus hom huch that charge is. Unless you have the guts of a battery
hidden in a black hole, there is only so much room in the case.

In certain applications - e.g. in the camera or flash unit of a very
busy photographer - the high-capacity "classic" NiMH cells may be the
best choice. It doesn't matter very much if they lose 2% of their
charge per day, if you're going to be running 'em down within a week
anyhow.

For low-rate or standby applications, the new ultra-low-discharge
cells are wonderful. I keep two sets of six in my ham-radio "go-kit"
for my spare dual-band handheld radio... each set will run the radio
through two 8-hour shifts of typical operation, and giving the a brief
topping-up charge every six months seems to be all that's required.

That depends upon what power level you run the radio. I found that out in
the mid 1990's with the Ray-O-Vac rechargable alkelines. Everything I had
as except flashlights only worked for one or two charges before they
could not put out enough current to be of any use.

There were just some places that 1 watt would not open the local repeaters
even with an better quality rubber duck than the one that came with the
HT. Switching to higher power drew too much current. :-(

Geoff.



--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

UCLAN wrote:

That is a fault with your charger more than a fault of the batteries. I can
charge LSD NiMH batteries in a few hours in my Maha charger.

Sure, I can charge then in a few hours with a better charger too. But the
cheaper fixed current ones won't. The one that takes 24 hours is the
one that came with them. :-(

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM

 

[Dave Platt]

That is a fault with your charger more than a fault of the batteries. I can
charge LSD NiMH batteries in a few hours in my Maha charger.

Sure, I can charge then in a few hours with a better charger too. But the
cheaper fixed current ones won't. The one that takes 24 hours is the
one that came with them. :-(

There could be a number of things going in here.

You mention the higher resistance of the low-self-discharge cells.
Frankly I'm sceptical that this, by itself, could be great enough or
have enough effect on the battery to reduce the charging efficiency by
as much as you have observed. The low-self-discharge cells seem to be
able to discharge at rates of C/2 or even C/1 without their terminal
voltage dropping by very much, which means that the internal losses
aren't very high.

It's possible that the cheap charger you got with the batteries,
simply isn't very good - it may not be delivering as much current into
the batteries as it was supposed to. Possibly its internal current
regulator is poorly designed... if it consists only of a series
resistor hooked to a poorly-regulated DC voltage, then modest
variations in the DC supply voltage (from its internal transformer) or
in the battery's terminal voltage during charging could make a big
difference in the amount of current that the charger actually delivers
to the battery. You might be charging at a C/20 rate rather than a
C/10 rate. If the charger design was originally created for
lower-capacity cells, and wasn't revised when the capacities were
increased, it wouldn't be surprising if it's slow.

Another factor is something that I understand is true about NiMH cells
in general (not just the low-self-discharge type): charge acceptance
is quite poor at low charge rates. There seems to be a significant
"overhead cost" to charging... a fairly high fraction of the first
50-100 mA or so that you push into an AA cell just turns into heat,
rather than recharging the electrochemistry. Your charger may be
using such a low current rate that it's not actually making much
headway against this issue.

My impression is that a lot of the cheap/inexpensive "overnight"
chargers were originally designed for NiCd cells, and have been
re-branded as dual-chemistry (NiCd/NiMH) chargers without significant
change. Since NiMH cells typically have around twice as much capacity
as NiCd cells of the same size, it's not surprising that the charging
takes a long time.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <slrngb8mcl.lg9.gsm@cable.mendelson.com>,
Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm@mendelson.com> wrote:

In effect what they have done is traded off how long a charge lasts
versus hom huch that charge is. Unless you have the guts of a battery
hidden in a black hole, there is only so much room in the case.

Yup. I understand that it's an issue of the specific metal alloy and
structure that they use to create the hydride. Alloy structures which
bind the hydrogen more firmly have a lower self-discharge rate, but
less capacity per volume, and vice versa.

Changes in the plate separators also seem to be part of what they've
done to reduce the self-discharga rate.

Putting the guts in a black hole seems impractical... you just can't
get enough of the stored energy back out in Hawking radiation when you
really need it

That depends upon what power level you run the radio. I found that out in
the mid 1990's with the Ray-O-Vac rechargable alkelines. Everything I had
as except flashlights only worked for one or two charges before they
could not put out enough current to be of any use.

In general, alkalines seem to be a poor choice for high-discharge
applications. Digicam owners have discovered this independently...
most digital cameras will "kill" alkalines quite quickly. I believe
I've read that the rechargeable alkalines were even worse in this
regard... their ESR rose significantly after a few charge/discharge
cycles. So, I don't find your experience at all surprising.

There were just some places that 1 watt would not open the local repeaters
even with an better quality rubber duck than the one that came with the
HT. Switching to higher power drew too much current. :-(

I've found the low-discharge NiMH cells to work quite well in my HT
even at high power.

Somebody over in one of the rec.radio.amateur newsgroups (I think it
was Roy but it might have been Cecil) posted an interesting point
about high-current usage recently. He noted that NiMH cells have a
reputation as being worse than NiCd, when high discharge currents are
required... presumably due to higher internal resistance.

His point was true that the comparison works out this way *only* if
you're doing the comparison on the basis of discharge rates in terms
of the battery's total capacity... say, how much energy is lost from
the battery at a C/2 or C/5 discharge rate. Measured in this way,
NiMH cells do come up looking rather worse than NiCd.

In many situations, though, this isn't the right question to ask. The
better question to ask is how much of the battery's total energy is
wasted, at a specific discharge rate measured in amperes (e.g. running
a given radio at high power, or taking photos with a digital camera).

When compared on this basis, modern NiMH cells come out looking about
the same as NiCd in terms of loss.

The reason for the difference, of course, is that the NiMH cells have
a much higher capacity (2x or so) than the corresponding NiCd cells.
They'd look worse in the first sort of comparison, even if their
internal resistance was identical with that of a NiCd, because they
were being tested at a higher absolute current level.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Alec S.]

Franc Zabkar wrote (in news:ef19b45t7esjq8he52ufe0b286ec7bm2i3@4ax.com):

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:48:48 -0700 (PDT), Ron <BigELilE05@msn.com> put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Get this, it is a Orion, Memorex and Sansui, CCD remote control.
So it wasn't a universal remote in the ordinary sense.

Here is the answer to your "code set" question:
http://www.memorexelectronics.com/manuals/MT2327OM.PDF

10. CODE SET Button - Used to register the 2-digit codes to
operate your VCR or Cable/Satellite box. Press this button
and the VCR button or the CABLE button simultaneously to
start a registration (See instructions page 7).

Nice find. So it is technically a universal for VCRs and cable boxes, but looks
like it can only control the TV it ships with.

--
Alec S.
news/alec->synetech/cjb/net