I have two items here that need some form of electronics repair, and I don't want to go poking my fingers and meter leads in something I don't know anything about.
Here's where you come in. I'm looking for either:
1 - a recommendation for a shop that does this repair. One in Michigan is preferable as one of the items would be very fragile
of
2 - someone here that knows what they are doing and could either tackle the repair themselves, or guide my hand via a zoom call so I can diagnose and repair said items.
If it's option 2, I would be more than happy to pay you for your time.
I know you're curious about the items. One is this
Eye of the Storm Plasa Ball I've had this since I was a kid. My kids used it a LOT. Now it's dead. I think the power supply might have given up the ghost. It has sentimental value, so I'd like to see if I can get it going.
The other is this
amazingly small but POWERFUL subwoofer This was a bucket list item when I was becoming a audiodorkophile. I need help figuring out why it's doa.
The plasma ball is likely dried electrolytic capacitors. Should be a pretty easy fix. Open it and see if you see any of them bulging or leaking. The amp in the sub would be much more difficult, as they usually have several parts fail at once. It would be best if you could locate the schematic for that amp. Judging by its age, it could also be as simple as blown caps, as that's from the era of the capacitor plague. Another possibility is cracked solder joints, as it was made when lead-free first came back into the scene. At the time, they hadn't quite figured out what alloys to use in solder. These days, lead-free solder is almost as good as the old leaded stuff. The new stuff is less poisonous, but still don't breathe the fumes.
Any chance of finding another plate amp for the Junior? The few audio amps I've torn apart usually have a cascade failure of the MOSFETs. They turn to white powder. One goes, then the others try to take up the slack and follow suit in minutes.
Parts Express is a good place to look for plate amps, drivers, etc.
A word of caution on the plasma ball - there's some seriously high voltage inside, know what you're doing before you dig in.
jwagner (Forum Supporter) said:
*snip*
A word of caution on the plasma ball - there's some seriously high voltage inside, know what you're doing before you dig in.
Aw come on! It could be fun!
People used to work on their own CRTs all the time. I was doing it in my teens. Dangerous, sure, but you can mitigate most of the risk.
