E4SW6518RKU 65 inch TV Repair LED Backlights

I recently fixed a E4SW6518RKU 65 inch TV by replacing the LED Backlights.  The TV is so huge that there was almost not enough room where I was working on it.  So I stacked everything behind it as I took them out so they would go back in in the same order.  The screen was attached to the black plastic pieces so I tokk them out together, but that makes it very difficult to put it back together.  Perhaps a knife would have seperated the screen from the black plastic parts.

The old LED strips are glued in.  You have to rock them side to side to get them out.  Even then they will be bent and the lens will pop off them..

One of the screen ribbon cables came apart so I used a clip to reattach it, but this does not seem reliable enough. Anyone have a better solution??

Replacing a 30 gallon hot water heater with a 40 gallon one

About 10 years ago I replacde my hot water heater.  There is a old blog post on it.  For some reason the bottom element quit working so I thought i would fix it.  It turned out that there had been a water leak for a long time.  The area was completely rusted out so I did not dare touch it.  My wife wanted a 40 gallon heater but they are 21" in diameter and would not fit in the space available.  However I discovered that there is a narrow 18" diameter 40 gallon water heater that is available at Lowes.

The 12 year old water heater.  It had rust stripes below the lower element access cover.

The new narrow 40 gallon water heater.  The opening was not big enough for me to get my head in there to see the wiring so I did the wiring kind of blind.  The wire was just barely long enough.  I replaced one pipe and extended the other pipe.

Retrofitting Par 56 Light fixtures with LED lights

Someone donated some PAR56 Light fixtures.  They came equiped with 500 watt light bulbs.  That means that you can only have three of them on a typical 120 volt circuit.  So I thought I would retrofit them with some LED lights.  But a direct replacement LED light is $100 each!  Then I came up with a retrofit that can fit almost any light from a PAR38 sized bulb.  Now they are not as bright, typically 1000 to 2000 lumens.  The 500 watt lights are around 6000 lumens!  But the LED lights are still very bright, even blinding to look at.

All you need for the retrofit is a metal strap, it needs to be strong, I have doubled up some of the wimpy straps to get enough strength. Then you need a 1000 watt ceramic socket.  I bought several of them on ebay.

Here is an ad for the ceramic light sockets.  You have to reroute the wires so the mounting hole can be used.  A 10-32 screw and nut works well to mount the socket to the strap. 

Here is an ad for some 1650 lumen, 19.5 watt LED light bulbs.  Make sure they are dimmable and daylight 5000 kelvin lights.

LED Sign updated with ESP32 and LED Dividers

 I have updated my LED signs with an ESP32 processor and LED Dividers.  The hope is to eventually support some sort of graphics.  Maybe even design it on your phone and upload it to the sign.

Here is a project by someone else that supports 16x16 graphics on your phone: 

https://www.hackster.io/mircemk/how-to-control-16x16-ws2812-led-matrix-with-smartphone-c073fb

I also made an instructable for this project:

https://www.instructables.com/Four-Foot-Long-LED-Signs/

The biggest change was to add dividers between the LED's.  This picture is of the dividers being installed on the left.  As you can see it makes a big difference.  

This time I used zig zag wiring where each line goes inthe opposite direction.  At one end they get looped back by some 30 gauge wire.  At the other end they get power as shown in the second picture below.

Once the strips are wired and tested you can add the dividers.  The dividers are available at thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5801854

You will have to print out six of the design missing two sides and six of the design missing one side.  Then they are glued together ontop of the LED strips.  I added weights to hold the arrays to the sign while the glue was drying.

I used a ESP32 processor wired as shown below.  The code is on the instructable.

Fix for cheap refrigerator plastic parts

These days there are some really cheap refrigerator plastic parts.  The things in the doors break and fall out.  The bottom shelf plastic falls apart.  I looked for replacements and they run close to $100!  So I developed my own fixes for them.  To start with the door shelf holders can be fixed with a pencil and lots of glue!  The pencil is covered in E6000 or similar glue and inserted under the lip.

This is a close up of the pencil that reinforces the shelf front.

The bottom plastic surrounds a piece of glass.  The plastic breaks away and leaves the glass loose.  A nine inch long piece of 1/2 inch plastic water pipe works perfectly.  No glue is needed, but you can add some if you want.

Don't forget to fix the handle.  That breaks off rather quickly.  I used a metal strap, some screws and lots of glue.

Battery powered Rapid Fire Rektify Nerf gun

I 3D printed yet another nerf gun.  The design I used is called "rektify" and is located on thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3024361 However it needed some improvements.  The biggest problem is that the pusher would strip out the gears in the 90:1 motor gearbox.  Then I found an all metal gear version on ebay and that solved the problem.  Also I used washers as spacers between the layers around the pusher assembly.  Without the washers it gets stuck.  Another change was to drill out holes for the pusher motor gearbox mounting screws heads.  

I tested it with a 12 round magazine as well. The video is on youtube and facebook.

These are pictures of the all metal gears motor driver gearbox.

I bought a New-to-Me 2011 Chevy Equinox!

Yes, I bought a New-to-Me 2011 Chevy Equinox knowing that was a problematic year.  The crux of the issue is they added a high pressure fuel pump that overloads the timing chain that then fails.  It has a new timing chain, actually the previous owner had it replaced twice!  It also had high pressure fuel pump issues and a bad catalytic converter.  On top of that it stalled every time you slowed down or stopped.  

FOLLOW UP - It turned out the water pump was bad, whoever changed the chain did not replace the water pump.  On top of that the exhaust manifold was cracked, my mechanic welded it back together.  Also someone had drilled a hole in the intake manifold, on the bottom side, so it was missed at first.  I think they were trying to duplicate the effect of the oil catch can.

My mechanic friend replaced the Variable Valve Timing selenoids and now it runs much better.  They had been replaced SEVERAL times before.  Use premium ones!

Next I added Dura Lube Severe Catalytic & Exhaust Treatment to the gas.  After about an hour of driving the check engine light went out so I quickly got it inspected.  The check engine light has stayed out and there are no error codes other than an occasional fuel pump error.

Then the next day the starter died in my driveway.  So I repleced the starter and the car was back up and running.  It took an hour but the ground clearance is enough that you can do it without jacking up the car.

Then I added an oil catch can to reduce the amount of oil that is sucked into the engine to clog the catalytic converter.

Next up was replacing the fuel pump and checking the PCV valve opening on the intake manifold.  I also got pictures of the intake valves.  The pump was easy to remove.  In fact it was too easy.  When I went to put it back I discovered that the screws were badly stripped!  Then I notice that the old pump O ring was shot and that oil had been leaking down the front of the engine!

The fix I used was to use some 7/16 screws instead of the 10 mm screws (on the left in the picture).  I did not have a tap so I put the 7/16 inch screws in about 1/2 an inch then tightened nuts on the screws to hold the pump in place until I can properly tap the holes.

The intake valves were caked in carbon build-up.  This is a picture of a better set of valves.  I hope to use some intake valve cleaner on them.  I did spray some carb cleaner on them while I had the intake cover off.

This picture shows the oil that had been leaking down the front of the engine.  The oil filter cap is also messed up...

Arduino Tank with Nerf Launcher

I added the 3D Printed Nerf Launcher to the Arduino controlled tank.  I can control it from my phone via Bluetooth control.  I used a standard servo to make the attachment.  This gives me up/down capability.

The interface uses 1K ohm resistors to TIP127 transistors to turn the motors on and off.  The small servo doing the pushing had its electronics removed and was modified for infinite 360 degree operation.

Here are some pictures of the insides of the tank.

Here is the YouTube video of the tank with Nerf launcher in operation

InMoov head Working with Arduino UNO

I am just finishing up building the InMoov Robot head.  First you must know that there are about four revisions for every part.  For instance I did the earlier version of the eyes first.  They had very limited range of motion.  So I made a newer version and they had much better movement.

I also tried painting the parts for the first time.  I used paint-able caulk first, then several layers of a sand-able undercoat followed by at least 2 layers of paint.  This next picture shows the results.

This is what it looked like before painting, the holes have been filled with caulk. I do not know why there are so many holes in the design!

This is what the eye assembly looked like.  I modified it slightly to fit an older Logitech webcam guts.  However the camera was upside down when it was tested.

I modified the gear for the mouth and the ears as well.  I wanted ears that were fairly flat, but that resulted in the magnet hitting the jaw mechanism.  I will have to find some lower profile speakers.

I also located and added a base.  The real inMoov robot has more than just a head, but I wanted to stop there for now.  I had to cut the throat piston off at about one inch shorter to fit properly with the stand.

Here is what the completed robot head looked like.

I also recorded a video of me testing the servos to see if everything worked.  I used some MG958 servos that are twice as powerful as standard servos but I was not sure if they would be powerful enough.

 

EZ Robot JD Humanoid Painting and Repairs.

My third humanoid robot is working to some degree.  I have had lots of problems with the 3D printed parts.  The filament was likely the issue because I have used 2 other filaments that did not break as easily.  His feet kept beaking amoung other things.  I glued them back together several times.  Then I finally gave up and used metal servo brackets to fix his feet.

First I removed what was left of the broken parts leaving a smooth surface.

Next I mounted the metal bracket as shown in the picture below.  I should have used the other two outside holes as the bracket angles up slightly.  Note the use of a servo mounting spacer to make the screw a little longer.

Then the servo is mounted to the bracket as shown in the next picture.  Be sure to screw the servo center to the leg piece first, then screw the servo to the metal bracket.  His shoes do not fit over the metal bracket so it might need to be modified as far as the bracket height goes.

Another issue with the filament I was using is how bad it looks.  I printed the torso on its flat side so it took 30% less time and less filament.  However that left the surface looking a little rough.  I watched several videos and then decided to prime and paint it.  I used three layers of sandable primer with light sanding between them.  BTW I did the same thing with his shoes to save time and filament.  However the two cans of spray paint were nearly $20!!

This shows how bad the torso looked. It has been lightly sanded for this picture.

After three coats of primer with light sanding betwen them it already looks better.

Then the final product, it looks really good!  Issues included needing to fix any cracks before you start.  There were some cracks on the sides that are still visable.  You can use a soldering iron on the inside to carefully melt them back together.  I had previously reinforced some of the bottom with plastic pieces glued across the layers to hold them together.

Dual 80x160 RGB LCD Robot eyes

My latest creation uses dual 80x160 RGB LCD's to produce two robot eyes.  They are wired together so they can not "wink".  On the other hand it only takes half of the code.  They are powered by an Arduino UNO.  I was going to do this with OLED's but someone sent me a LCD instead so I went with the LCD's.  Theoretically you can wire them to have different "CS" or chip selects so each eye would be independent.  I added some more circles.  There is a small white circle on the far left and right as well as a black circle that produces the ring around the blue of the eyes.

By the way these LCD's are five volt friendly and easily run off five volts as well as use five volt logic levels.

Here are a couple of pictures.  They are more blue in reality but the camera has issues with the blue.

Here is a video of them on YouTube.

Ideally you could have two channels of your 32 channel servo controller go to analog inputs of an Arduino to set the size and direction of the eyes.

Here is the code:

// Sample program for eyes on 80x160 TFT LCD Screen

// March 2022 by Bob Davis

#include <TFT.h>  // Arduino LCD library

#include <SPI.h>

 

// Pins

#define cs   10

#define dc   8

#define rst  9

// For Arduino Uno: MOSI = pin 11 and SCLK = pin 13.  

// Create an instance of the library

TFT TFTscreen = TFT(cs, dc, rst);

int width=160; 

void setup() {

 

   // Initialize the screen

   TFTscreen.begin();

   // Clear the screen

   TFTscreen.background(255,255,255);

   // Set font color to white

   TFTscreen.stroke(255,255,255);

   // Set the font size

   TFTscreen.setTextSize(2);

   // Write some text on the screen

//   TFTscreen.text("Hello World!",0,0);

}

 

void loop() {

   TFTscreen.background(255,255,255); // Clear Screen

   // Eyes Center  NOTE SCREEN IS UPSIDE DOWN 0,0=bottom right

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(25,65,15,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(135,65,15,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(45,65,30,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(115,65,30,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillRect(45,35,70,61,0x0000); // Connect Circles

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,35,0xFFFF);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,30,0xFFE0);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,10,0xFFFF);

   delay(1000);

   // Eyes Narrow

   TFTscreen.fill(255,255,255);

   TFTscreen.rect(0,30,160,20);

   TFTscreen.rect(0,78,160,21);

   delay(1000);

   // Eyes Right

//   TFTscreen.background(255,255,255);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(25,65,15,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(135,65,15,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(45,65,30,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(115,65,30,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillRect(45,35,70,61,0x0000);// Connect Circles

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(110,65,35,0xFFFF);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(110,65,30,0xFFE0);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(110,65,10,0xFFFF);

   delay(1000);

   

   // Eyes Left

//   TFTscreen.background(255,255,255);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(25,65,15,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(135,65,15,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(45,65,30,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(115,65,30,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillRect(45,35,70,61,0x0000);// Connect Circles

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(50,65,35,0xFFFF);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(50,65,30,0xFFE0); // Blue

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(50,65,10,0xFFFF);

   delay(1000);

    

   // Eyes Big

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(25,65,15,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(135,65,15,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(45,65,30,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(115,65,30,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(60,65,40,0x0000);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(100,65,40,0x0000); 

   TFTscreen.fillRect(65,25,40,81,0x0000); // Connect Circles

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,35,0xFFFF);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,30,0xFFE0);

   TFTscreen.fillCircle(80,65,10,0xFFFF);

   delay(2000);

}