Ballast Repair Kit for Panasonic PT-50LC13 - Page 7

no the buzzing is coming from the ballast board. I beliee itis on the side where the transistors are... but hard to find an exact point.

I have a PT-50LC14. It is having the same issues that everybody is having. But my question is, will the repair kit work for the PT-50LC14? A lot of people in the forum have the LC13. If so what are the differences. I have the peice of crap in my garage for over a year. It's still new and I have a brand new $300 bulb sitting in a closet never used. I took it to a local Panasonic repair shop and the cost was to much for me to repair. I was about to take the damn thing to the dump and then I found the forum. If I can fix my TV or $30 bucks I will just so I can sell the damn thing.

ok so i have replaced all the parts and redone my solder points, and tried to bypass the thermal fuse, but nothing is working. still getting that buzzing sound and still the same light sequence.
ideas?
thanks

When you turn it on you hear a click then it goes from green then to orange flashing 5 times every 5 seconds and a second click but continues to flash orange 5 times every 5 second until I unplug it. Bought a new lamp with housing and cage tried that but did not work, called a tech, (which I was a bit uneasy because of the way he was handling the parts in the back of the tv) he said it has a bad power supply and it would cost me close to $400. which includes part and labor. After he left I opened up the back of the tv to try to locate this bad power supply and realized that some of the cables where disconnected upon further investigation one of the cables that was disconnected looks to be damaged and base on the schematic that was posted in this forum seems to be the p5302(20-pin connector) or cable that attaches to it. How and where can I buy this cable? I also found the power circuit board online for $80, but before I order I need to replace the damaged cable. I've checked in all of my local retail stores but no luck. I would like to try to fix this problem myself , I'm willing to learn, this was my first time ever dealing with a technician and my last.

Dose anybody know if the repair kit works on the PT-50lc14 Television sets. Seems like everybody has the LC 13.

Well I read through all the posts and thought I'd try the ballast repair fix. The set wouldnt start all the time. Sometimes it wouldnt come on then twenty minutes later it would. Each time the light would blink green slowly 4 or 5 times then blink faster for about 80 times then blink red.

I replaced all the parts in the kit and double checked all the solder connections. The tv worked for about 30 seconds and then back to the blinking red light. I took the set apart again and even changed the direction of the diode but no luck.

When turned on the light blinks slowly green 4 times then it starts to blink faster for about 80 times then blinks red. The bulb failure light blinks red once every five seconds.

Any suggestions?

The set is a PC-50LC13 and the repair kit is LSUC0022 the box says 2003 BALLAST REPAIR KIT



Paul

First thanks to all who have shared what they've learned about this unit - especially Tomwil, who seems to go above & beyond the call.

Here's my story. Bought the 50LC13 in Aug. 03. Worked fine for a couple of months and then quit. Replaced bulb to no avail. Had the BB extended warr. so local repairman came out. This was a head-scratcher at the time b/c he had never seen one like it. After a week or so he replaced the ballast. Everything fine until May 09 when the bulb went. Ordered replacement from River Valley Elec. Bulb only w/o the housing. Worked fine for 3 mos. and now getting error 5 (except green light flashes 90 sec. instead of 140 sec. b4 going to red flashing). No arcing noises or buzzing

I'm suspecting a bad bulb since ballast has already been replaced, and have contacted RVE. Will report back findings.

Sorry I haven't posted since late May, but here's the update. I had ordered a new ballast repair kit, 2 of the lamp power FET's (I still had 1 from 15 months ago) so I had all 4 needed. Replaced all the componets, except the fuse, (once again all seemed to check out OK), and started replacing the 4 FET's. It was pretty easy, as the 2 pairs are back to back with a large copper heatsink between them and they share 2 common screws. One thing I noticed was there was NO thermal compound on the back of the FET's and the heatsink was actually 2 pieces of copper...back to back, no thermal compound here either. I reassembled everything using Arctic Silver (computer grade thermal compound) between the copper sheets and at the back of the FET's and so far, it's worked fine.

brogers, excellent advice and can't thank you enough. I was able to fix my Panasonic (first POS from them) on my own for about $30.00. I was able to replace all of the components from the kit (LSUC0022 from partstore.com).
However, I do have one question if anyone has experienced..after I assembled the unit back and powered it...it work very well for about 2 hours. Then the display went bad and there were vertical lines one it. Frustrated, I turned it off and turned it back on the following day (this AM) it was fine. It has been working for the last 8 hours or so and I'm being hopeful...something I owe to the contributor of the thread...thank you all.
Paul.

This thread is awesome! It seems as though I chose the wrong tv 6 years ago. I hope I am not about to jinx myself but the original bulb has lasted me all this time. I just ordered the LSUC0022 ballast repair kit though hoping that will resolve my lack of video and blinking lights. For $28 i figured it would be worth trying. Kudos to Brogers for the input.

Hello everyone,

This is the first time ever that I have posted anything on a forum.. I felt so thankful to the helpful members here and couldnt resist posting on..

BTW, I have a 5 year old Panasonic PT50LC13, whose bulb was replaced 3 times on extended warranty and ballast 1 time. The extended warranty expired a few months ago. The TV wouldnt turn on in first week of September 2009. I called Panasonic support and they asked me to check the bulb. Pulled the lamp out and didnt see any signs of wear and tear. BTW, we use this TV very rarely - may be a few hours per week (max). Panasonic rep asked me to take the TV to a local service dealer, which I found out would cost a few hundred dollars atleast !

I checked google to see any advice and came upon this site. I am an electrical engineer by education, but have been in computer field for over 15 years. In essence, havenot touched a soldering iron for almost 20 years. Thought that ballast may be the culprit. Decided to get the kit and give it a try. Getting the board out of the steel enclosure was a painful effort. Changed all 5 components except for the transistor. The Diode orientation (as listed in this forum) was really helpful.

Turned on the TV and hurray .. it started working. SO far, I have used it around 10 hours.. couldnt say much... but if it lasts for 1 more year with our limited use of it... I couldnt be any more happy :-)

thanks a lot.. and keep up the great work ..

Kumar

Like many of you, I have a PT50LC13. Just recently, after turning on normally (solid green power led and good picture), about 2 minutes later, would loose picture (sound worked fine). The power led would flash red 1x / sec and the bulb led flash 1x / 5 secs. After reading ALL of the posts on here, and reading many regarding the ballast repair kit, I noticed one thing. Virtually everyone who does this repair, NEVER replaces the N-channel FET (transistor). Seems that most people that go this route never end up fixing the problem. What seems odd, is that there are FOUR transistors, and only ONE comes in the kit. ALL FOUR work together to drive the ballast, so it is very hard to determine which one to replace (in circuit). Even if a component tests ok, it could still fail under real load. I decided to order ALL FOUR transistors from Mouser.com (about 12 bucks). I have already removed the ballast, disassembled the heat sink and removed the 4 FET's. The heat sink assembly is fairly easy to take apart. It is a multi-piece assembly consisting of aluminum and copper, all held together with nuts and bolts. I decided to leave the small copper divider sink soldered to the board as it did not really get in the way. My removal technique was destructive, but the easiest. I simply cut the 4 FET's off the board, then unsoldered each leg and pulled out with a pair of needle nose. In a previous post, it was mentioned that the entire heat sink assembly uses NO HEAT SINK COMPOUND. Due to the FET's being installed "back to back", and the lack of good thermal conductivity (no HS compound). It seems plausible that this could be the "weak link" in the design of this ballast. I too am going to reassemble the entire heat sink and FET's using arctic silver compound. If the problem centers around the FET's running very hot due to poor heat sink assembly technique, we may have found a long term solution to this ongoing problem. My parts should be here by Oct 1st, so I will update this post after I get everything put back together.

While I am waiting for the parts to arrive, I am going to disassemble the heat sinks on the bridge rectifier and other diode assembly, and rebuild them using arctic silver. I think this will be relatively easy as the HS comes apart in a very similar manner. I will gently pull each component away from the heat sink and use a needle to deposit a SMALL dab of arctic silver behind each component, then reassemble.

Same boat as everyone else here. I read this thread and ordered my parts from PartsStore. When I ordered they were ready to ship whereas Panasonic said backordered till Jan 2010. A couple days later and no ship notification, PartsStore said they will ship in October. Yesterday the story was changed to Jan 2010.

So, where is everyone finding their upgrade kits? I'm not really sure I'm willing to wait 3+ months for this. I've already settled with the class action and I don't need much convincing to just cut my losses.

Any sources? Thanks in advance.

This thread already has some postings that list the parts in the kit. You can order most of them individually through any of the online electronics parts sites (mouser.com or digi-key.com)

After replacing the ballast components from the kit, my PT50LC13 is still humming along fine after a month of 11+ hours of daily use. I can't believe the issue was fixed for $39.00 when the repair shops were quoting any between $500 to 600+.

ppardesi

Gents,

while not a huge fan of Panasonic myself I got involved with a PT-50LC13 at my friend's request. The TV would consume lamps on the regular basis but the recent lamp replacement has failed to fix it. My friend Googled up this forum and this ballast thread and forwarded to me which has saved me a lot of troubleshooting time and aggravation. I'd like to thank the folks that have contributed valuable technical information to this thread and in return I'd be glad to post my own repair results in hopes that they would help somebody to save time and money.

As most everyone in this thread I have installed all of the components that came in the LSUC0022 kit except for one - the "transistor". The end result - a television set that has started from a "quarter turn" and at the moment is cheerfully running my son's cartoons since I don't have cable service in the garage.

I'll describe all of the components that came in the kit in the reverse order in my version of the "best of" show.

6. F0CAH104A001 (position C1330 on the PCB)
It's a metal film ceramic capacitor, 100,000pF.

IME unlike the drying out in time electrolytic capacitors, I have never ever seen a ceramic one just "go bad". Sure, they do explode once in a while (the old circa 1980s era AKAI liquid cooled amplifiers come to mind) and you have to scrape the black soot off the PCB while replacing its remains, but if it looks OK, then it is OK. I replaced it anyway "just because".

5. B1DEGQ00004 (positions Q1306,7,8,9 on the PCB)
It's not just a "transistor", it's a FET. I wonder why everybody's talking about four of those (including the parts list that came with the kit). In my case there were only three on the board. The fourth one was a diode. Sure all four have identical T220 cases, but only three had the proper three legs coming out of them. The fourth one had just two legs and was denoted by a diode symbol on the silkscreen.

Anyway, I didn't replace one of the three arbitrarily because it just made no sense as many participants have rightfully pointed out before. And since they were FETs and not regular bipolar transistors I had no way of testing them. Besides, I am extremely leery of testing the very sensitive to static electricity FETs since in the past I blew more of those than I am willing to admit. Sure the FETs have come a long way since 1970s when you couldn't touch the damn thing with bare hands and had to wrap up all three legs in Aluminium foil, but I elected not to touch it unless the repair would fail and I absolutely had to replace all three of those.

4. LSSF0013B50T (position F1301 on the PCB)
It's a fuse.

I did test it with the multimeter for the continuity and it checked fine, but I elected to replace it anyway "just because".

3. MA2Q73600L (position D1301 on the PCB)
It's a SMD diode.

I did test the old one with the multimeter prior to removal and it tested fine, but I replaced it anyway "just because".

2. D1F5100E0002 (position R1305 on the PCB)
It's a 10 Ohm ceramic power resistor.

Just like with ceramic capacitors, I have never ever seen a resistor just "go bad". Sure, they do burn out once in a while and you have to scrape the black soot off the PCB while replacing its remains, but if it looks OK, then it is OK. I replaced it anyway "just because".

and the winner i-i-i-i-i-s...

1. B2ZAZ0000020 (position D1315 on the PCB)
It's a power diode.

Several posters have mentioned above that they had found this particular component burnt and melted. Mine looked OK. However, in the P-N junction testing mode my multimeter showed infinity in both directions. Just for the hell of it I also tested it with the ohmmeter. It did show the expected infinity in the reverse direction but showed the unexpected ~1.2M in the forward direction. The new one passed the diode test normally and showed the expected several hundred kilo-ohms in the forward direction. This diode was clearly the culprit of the problem.

The part number search (KIV237 - for the old one, KIV269 - for the new one) did not yield any results but my gut tells me that this is a plain vanilla power rectifier which should cost less than a dollar from Digi-Key, Mouser or your other favourite electronic component supply house. Then again, the 5 bux + change that Panasonic wants for it, or better yet 4 bux from partstore.com is still a pretty good deal all things considered.

HTH
--
KBATTPO

I am not sure if there are different versions of the Ballast PCB, but mine absolutely has FOUR identical FET's 2SK2842. The PCB is marked as FOUR transistors Q1306,7,8,9.

[quote=KBATTPO;17264299]


5. B1DEGQ00004 (positions Q1306,7,8,9 on the PCB)
It's not just a "transistor", it's a FET. I wonder why everybody's talking about four of those (including the parts list that came with the kit). In my case there were only three on the board. The fourth one was a diode. Sure all four have identical T220 cases, but only three had the proper three legs coming out of them. The fourth one had just two legs and was denoted by a diode symbol on the silkscreen.

Update: I got my parts today... I discovered there are actually FIVE FET's on the PCB. FOUR are on one heat sink (two on each side) and ONE is on the other heat sink with two diodes. I replaced all five... unfortunately I still have the same problem. Bulb lights for about 2 minutes, then shuts off with the standard blinking light sequence. My next attack with be the "power diode" mentioned in the previous posts. I am going to take a chance and get a generic high voltage diode from a local supply store and see what happens. I am thinking a 3 amp 1000V (just to play it safe). Anyone have a better suggestion?

Some thoughts regarding the ONE FET that is included in the Panasonic repair kit. The FOUR FET's (two back to back) are all part of one circuit. The only FET that works alone is on the heat sink with the two diodes (all three on one side). My best guess would be that since they send one in the kit, it should replace the one in the circuit that only uses one.... seems logical to me.

Another update: I just tried replacing B2ZAZ0000020 (position D1315 on the PCB), with a generic 3 amp 600 Volt power diode.... got absolutely no bulb light at all. Removed and installed original diode and bulb lights, but goes out a minute later. The original diode tests as faulty, using multimeter in "diode mode", I get infinity both directions. New diode tests normal. Not sure what to think at this point. Perhaps the original diode is some unusual type? Going to check the .01uF capacitor next and the SMD diode.

the hum is the fan

I purchased a 50-LC13 in 2002 and am on my third bulb.

Two weeks ago, I got the dreaded click off - with fast and slow red flashing lights...after waiting a minute or two, I would try to power on the television -on for a few - same thing, then third time was a charm, it would stay on for the balance of the evening. While waiting for the lamp to re-turn on, I would hear a bzzt.

This went on for three days - and then it stopped - The unit turns on and stays on. So strange. Based on this forum, I would suspect the ballast is going out, but seems ok now.

Any thoughts?

Jeez, I did not mean to kill the discussion!

I don't want to fix this TV....would anyone want to buy it? I'm in Washington State...please send email if you want to have a hack at it... skinnydmr@yahoo.com

So I bought this albatross 60LC13 with the problem everyone has. Bought at internet auction and thought I was getting a thin flat screen. Thanks for the discussion so far. It has been a help in locating a solution.

D315 is a SIDAC made by SHINDEGEN My part number was K1V23N. Others have reported it as K1V237, K1V269, and K1V66. Suspect the last one is a typing error. Found it by google K1V2 and K1V24 pooped up.

This will not test as a regular diode, polarity does not matter at all. It starts conducting in either direction when voltage is over 180V. A post on another forum said it started conducting when it reached 185V, but he still didn't know what it was. An ohm meter will never detect anything.

A SIDAC (not a SIDACtor) is a thyristor that at a certain voltage turns into a short till current stops or reverses direction. Since this is in series withC1330, they should both be replaced. Mine is a .22 instead of a .1 so there is variance in these sets. ESR was a little over 2 ohms which sems on the ify side for something that carries current.

ONSEMI has a MKP3V240 that sells for about 50 cents at digikey and a K1V24 at Mouser is about a buck. Decide for yourself if this is a suitable item. Lets face it half the posts here are technically wrong, though well intentioned.

My set still not working, haven't located a local SIDAC and my cost limit is about $3 on this turkey. Miy diode does trip out at about 200V in both directions so I am not sure that is the problem. More to follow when I have time.

My TV has been out for the better part of a month. I first figured it was the bulb. Then after some searching I found I had the infamous ballast issue. After a bit more searching I found this thread and figured the repair idea sounded great (cheap).

SO I ordered the kit from partstore.com. Found out it is back ordered. I've been searching everywhere and you can't buy the repair kit anywhere. One place I called to ask about it I got as far as saying "Part number LS"......."Nope don't have it".

Anyone have a secret stash?

The kit is likely a waste of time and money unless things have shorted out. D1301 seems highly unlikely to fail since this is just used as a kickback diode on the relay. Any diode with a 1A 100V or better will work for this. Unless the 10 ohm resistor is burned up, the FET likely won't be needed. D315 is available under the B2ZAZ0000020 number from multiple sources, but costs about $13 when shipping is added in. I should buy 50 of the generic type I mentioned and put them on ebay along with C1330 replacement. I would suggest a MKP polypropylene type capacitor for this that has a very low ESR < 1 ohm. Common polyester caps of this value will have an internal resistance of 15 ohms or more.

I took a grinder with a thin cutoff wheel and cut multiple square holes in the case over sections I am interested in. Board was removed for this operation. This gives me easy access to the board to change components and monitor test points.

If anyone wants it I found the Panasonic Service Manual for my PT-44LCX65, you can download it at http://rapidshare.com/files/31416824...anual.pdf.html