Pimping the IR6500 with an Elstein RFS80 top heater

I have tried to solder the CPU of Philips QFU TV boards twice and failed, because the temperature distribution of the top heater was so bad that the chip sank in at one edge and got lifted up at the diagonally opposite edge. All the tedious reballing work in vain! My suspicion is that the top heater of the IR6500 is rubbish.

On eBay I found a seller who offers a Made in Germany Elstein RFS80 heater: https://www.ebay.de/itm/ELSTEIN-RFS80-400w-230v-IR-TOP-HEATER-WITH-REFLECTOR/330764961659

It also comes with a reflector, which will help to concentrate the heat even better.

So I set off to mount this thing into my station.

You can tell already from the way the heating wires are positioned that Elstein had put more thought into this. Everything is arranged around the center whereas in the original heater the energy is wasted in places where you never need it. Moreover, the surface is not even.

The new heater fits perfectly well into the original holder bracket. The one angled side with the screw holes needs to be bent to stand upright (right side on the image).

Next, I drilled four holes at the sides of the head and reused the original screws with no problem.

The silly fan, which is now even more useless than it already was, had to go. With the reflector and the mounting bracket there will not be much heat going into the head. Besides, the air has no place to escape at the bottom, anyway.

Done. Besides a slightly off center, everything turned out pretty good. With the new heater, centering needs to be more precise than with the old one because of its shape.

Unfortunately I broke the temperature sensor recently. As this one has the reverse polarity than the usual ones (they will yield negative temps), I had to order a bunch from China. So, no testing right now. I'll post a followup when the next reballing session takes place.

Building an EDS LeakSeeker 89!

The EDS LeakSeeker is a unique device for finding shorts. Watch the videos on YouTube by EDS or check the description on the EDS website. Unfortunately, EDS stopped selling them a few years ago. But there is a way to build one yourself!

During a routine search after a used LeakSeekers (which don't exist, everybody is keeping them!), I came across THIS PAGE.

I wrote a mail to Dave Miga of EDS, who designed this cool device, and after he had confirmed that shipping to Germany is possible, I ordered a board from the above source and a parts kit from Dave.

This wasn't exactly cheap, but this thing is so unique and useful that I just had to build it! I will enjoy it until the end of my days as I don't think that anybody will design something similar anytime soon.

And here it is, the assembled LeakSeeker on my bench in a prototype stage. I have yet to find a nice case for it. The original case has no space for 9V battery blocks. I like portable testing tools. The thingy draws less than 100mA when it is testing and 30mA idle.

It is not difficult to build, yet there are two things I (almost) messed up:

• Make sure that the resistors left to the gain switch are all the way in, otherwise, they might short with the metal case of the switch.
• Handle the 0.05 ohms wire carefully and don't bend its legs. The legs are welded to the wire and can break off.

During my first tests, I thought it didn't work because it can take quite a while until it moves from the green LEDs to the yellow and produces a deeper chirping sound.

Here I am playing around with a testboard that has a 10 Ohms resistor to simulate a defect component. The sensitivity of the LeakSeeker is astounding. I can hear the tonal difference of 1cm distance on a trace in the low gain setting.

Update 2024: Finally a Home for the LeakSeeker

After a whopping four years, I finally got around and built a case for the LeakSeeker. While browsing through my drawers I also found a long-forgotten 2x9V battery compartment, which fits perfectly.

With a slide switch, I can choose the power source. Cool, now it's a no-fuss portable testing device.

The case can be found on Aliexpress

This is the answer I got from Dave to my inquiry. I think he won't mind me showing it here.

The LeakSeeker and CapAnalyzer parts listed below are available. 
Purchase includes all data required to build your own CapAnalyzer and LeakSeeker; the list is shown below.
 LeakSeeker 89 is unique in the world and nothing can do what it does. Check out the eds-inc website for more info.

All prices in US Dollars:
EDS-89 or EDS-88A kit of all pcb parts (including programmed mcu) to mount to pcb (pcb not included) $89
Programmed MCUs ONLY:  IC set for CapAnalyzer88A $25, mcu for LeakSeeker89 $18.
3-piece gold-plated test lead set for LeakSeeker $18
Special tweezer probe assy for CapAnalyzer $29.
No other parts in stock, however the sources below show where to buy or fabricate the pc board, overlays and cabinet.
FEDEX or DHL shipping to Germany 81371   $49.45
Payments are in US Dollars via Paypal to semianalyzer@gmail.com. 
Or we can send you a pro-forma invoice that you can pay with a credit card or PayPal. Just email us with your list, your name, address, and phone number. FEDEX and DHL will not ship without a phone number.

This data list will be emailed to you with your purchase:
Eds88ar1 BOM  Complete bill of materials for EDS-88A CapAnalyzer series II
Eds88ar1.zip PCB and Drill files for EDS-88A.
eds88As2fp.pdf  Front panel for CapAnalyzer 88a series II
EDS-89 BOM bill of materials for EDS-89 Leakseeker
EDS-89 OVERLAYS.zip overlay graphics for Leakseeker, includes drill and mill dimensions for OKW case
EDS-89 pcb.pdf Parts layout for EDS-89. Don't really need it as pcb will have silkscreen anyway...
EDS-89 TOP LAYOUT.jpg Just another graphic of main panel in EDS-89
EDS-89.zip pcb gerber and drill files for EDS-89
All EDS products use pc boards fabricated by andy.yu@fastechcircuit.com 
These pcb makers will have a small minimum of boards that must be made so there will be extras;
There are also many people selling these extra spare pc boards on eBay; do a Google search or see email list below.
Or anyone advertising in magazines like Elektor or Nuts and Volts. Or get spare boards from other kit builders. Try these, most have purchased parts kits and may have spares...

sales@tristatesound.com
ml19554@gmail.com
hugh@mercedelectronics.com
mpeter1604@gmail.com
billmcdonald80@gmail.com
aardvark301@gmail.com
andy.thompson@moviehouse.co.uk
jrobinson@aerotecusa.com
amtate@gmail.com
jason.panrucker@odysseygaming.com
chrisiaforbes@hotmail.com
kenjensam@bellsouth.net
clint.thomas@att.net
kdchau71@gmail.com
amusementservice@bigpond.com.au
munthernahleh@gmail.com
sajidmkhi@gmail.com
amtate@gmail.com

Cabinet for EDS-88A is the 36TDB from Simco https://www.simcobox.com/
Cabinet for EDS-89 is the OKW Teko TENCLOS PULPIT 590.9 order from martyr@okwusa.com or travisr@okwusa.com or rayt@okwusa.com

User manuals (and alignment instructions for EDS-88A) on the eds website http://eds-inc.com/index.html

The Andonstar ADSM302 microscope - more versatile than you think!

BGA reballing and main board repair means staring at very small components. I am 51 years old now and need some decent magnification to be able to see these little balls, chips, resistors and whatnot.

The high end microscopes by Amtech or Eakins, which you see in various repair videos, are prohibitively expensive for occasional use, and also very bulky for my restricted workbench.

The new Andonstar ADSM302 came at the right time for me. After checking some reviews on YouTube and reading all about it, I bought one on eBay from Germany for 200 EUR.

This thing is great! The picture quality is more than I ever need. I'll show you some modifications, which I haven't seen so far anywhere. Those make it even more useful!

Turn the base by 180°

The base is not terribly small, but still annoying. I want my stuff to lay flat on my bench. It is dead easy to mount the holder to point away from the base. An old disk drive attached as a counterweight and there you have it, a flat workspace underneath the microscope!

Mount in two positions

That's not all. The optics can be attached to the holder in two positions, thanks to a second groove below the focus ring. The manual doesn't reveal that.

Large "zoom" range!

And now look what a fantasic range you get from this little microscope. We are looking at a CPU taken from a Philips TV. Beautiful full HD images on a 22 inch monitor.

Top position:

Bottom position, still enough room to work under it:

I dare to say that this is the best microscope in the 200€ range today. Second to none.

IR6500 Rework Station Modification - Ineffective bottom heater due to overly thick glass

First of all: get the original manual for the controller HERE. The description in the IR6500 manual is an unreadable desaster.

It did not take me long to realize that the thick glass of this rework station is absorbing most of the energy from the bottom heater. The 800W of the heating element were basically ineffective.

Also, the station has trouble with the peak temperature of 230°C in the reflow program. I need to adjust the top heater very close to the chip if I like to reach it. Closer than I feel comfortable with. The manual says >2 centimeters. That's actually the maximum distance. Further away and the peak temp will never be reached. If a window is open or a fume extractor running, it is even worse. I think that a good heating support from the bottom will stabilize the temperature.

I got inspired by this YouTube video.

Screw the warranty, I want this thing to work! Let's remove the top:

Oh dear, I have used the station only a dozen times and the temperature sensor shield was already burned and coming off. The sensor had no contact with the heater anymore. This thing gets too hot for any glue. A stupid design.

This is garbage. I am not interested in the temperature of the heater, anyway. I want to know the lower temperature of the board, if anything.

The sensor has a rugged, metal sleeve. So let's pull it outside through one of the slits:

The downside of the top cover:

Unscrew the frame that holds the glass and remove the glass. This thing is really thick!

I got a metal grill from a hardware store. I cut it to the right size and screwed it to the cover:

The difference in heat radiation is remarkable. The glass takes everything away!

Sweet, now let's do a preheater test without running a program and measure a few things:

With the bottom temperature set to 100C, the board heated up nicely to the specified temp in a few minutes. Note that with the glass on, the board would go up to about 40C max after ages with the heater set to 250! 

The heating element has around 300C, which should be well inside its spec.

Well, it is no surprise that a relatively cheap chinese rework station is not quite finished and has a sloppy build quality. On the other hand, those things are simple and easily tweaked.

Philips 55PFL6158 - 2 blinks - Code 53 - QFU 1.2 - CPU reflow - IR6500 rework station

I am getting the hang of those QFU boards. :-)

Update: I have revived another two of those boards recently with the same symptom by reflowing the CPU.

This Philips did not show any sign of life except for the standby LED, which responded to an infrared remote. The 2-blink would show after a while and the level 2 code in SDM mode was 53.

Quick reminder: if you attempt to repair a QFU Philips, you must have a logging adapter, otherwise you are blind. See this blog post.

I plugged in the logging adapter and I got this in many repetitions until the two blinks came:
....
20:49:53.548 0x00000002 page is reading 
20:49:53.557 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 StartUnit/EndUnit/offset 
20:49:53.557 Reading out data: 
20:49:53.557 00 unit: 
20:49:53.557 
20:49:53.567 
20:49:53.567 waiting ECC result ready 
20:49:53.567 00 bits error in the unit. 
20:49:53.567 
20:49:53.567 
20:49:53.567 {preboot} 
20:49:53.567 <000> 
20:49:53.567 <010> 
20:49:53.567 <020>K

That was it. Abrubt end.

To learn what was going on in a good TV I logged my 40 inch QFU1.2. The section where the dead device looped should look like this:

20:49:53.567 {preboot}
20:49:53.567 <000>
20:49:53.567 <010>
20:49:53.567 <020>KKG0G1 
20:49:53.773 <030>DDDDDDDDDDDDDD 
20:49:53.831 <040>secure 
20:49:53.832 Load uboot 
20:49:53.850 
20:49:53.884 
20:49:53.884 U-Boot 2009.01_Production (Jun 11 2013 - 10:29:06) 
20:49:53.884 
20:49:53.884 U�U 
20:49:53.911 NAND: NAND, size:1024MB, Micron(ID:0x2c,0x38), block size:512KB 
20:49:53.913 1024 MiB 
20:49:53.932 Env: NAND @ 0x01800000 
20:49:53.983 bootcmd1 
20:49:53.996 BOOTREASON=coldboot
...

So, the processor could not reach the point where it starts reading the main software, which is actually a Linux boot.

I suspected the SPI ROM first and swapped it. No change. Then I tried the NAND chip with an image from a 40PFL6008. No change.
The last option left was the CPU. I did not dare to reflow the whole board with its uncountable miniscule parts everywhere. I needed a tool with more precision.

I had my eyes on a BGA reflow workstation for a long time and this was the opportunity.
Here it is, the affordable IR6500 made in China (where else).

The preparation of the board was as follows:

• Remove the heatsink from the CPU. Use a heat gun briefly and it will come off easily.
• Do not put thick, tacky flux under the chip. I used to do this before, but realized that if the flux bubbles under the CPU while the balls are liquid, this can make the chip bounce and also it can cause balls to connect. Only thin, liquid flux, which does not accumulate under the chip and evaporates quickly, is suitable.
• Cover everything around the CPU with tin foil. Some instruction videos use a tape. I don't think this is necessary as this device does not blow hot air.

Reflow in progress:

The first test was almost successful. It started booting but something was wrong with the NAND flash that I swapped. Linux refused it. Because the NAND was not the fault in the first place, I put back the original and voila! It started up fine.

Last task: put the heatsink back on. The original adhesive pad got ripped apart. To make the sink removable I decided to glue a thin thermal pad between the CPU and the sink:

The glue stays somewhat flexible, yet it might be strong enough to make removing a glued sink from the chip an unpleasant work. I'd rather destroy the pad instead.

This all worked well. Hallo Frau Johansson!

I do like this TV. The LG panel produces beautiful, realistic colors. My Panasonic Plasma is still the king of skin tone, but I could totally live with this one. With the sharpening reduced to a minimum, that is. I also like that it can be switched to computer mode, which bypasses all extra image processing and pixel by pixel is displayed as is. This gives you a realistic impression which information an image really contains and how much these devices invent by themselves!

The sound is not bad either. The 6000 series is still a bit on the budget side. Stereo is not taking place. The 8000 and 9000 series have a lot more to offer there.

Improving the cooling situation

Philips has undersized the CPU cooling on all QFU chassis. The QFU1.2 is even worse than the QFU1.1. The CPU won't die from that, but the solder balls will break. Interestingly, the 1.1 seems to have different typical faults than the 1.2, yet both are caused by overheating.

This is an image of the back cover from a white 40 inch:

There is some convection going on. The air stream hits the CI socket (bravo!) and exits through a small portion of the upper grill. The dark streaks are dust accumulations on the footprint of the heat sink. Hot plastic attracts dust. This solution relies exclusively on air convection. The infrared radiation hits the plastic and in turn, being a bad heat conductor, the plastic gets hot, radiating back onto the device.

Without the back cover, at 21°C room temperature, the CPU gets 55° hot. That's okay. But with the cover on and in summer I estimate another 20° or more on top of that. That's almost 80°. Too hot for sustained function, if you ask me.

I found no way to attach a larger heatsink to the CPU. There is just no free spot on the board where to fix it.

When I put the back cover on, I noticed that the thermal pad closed the gap between the sink and the cover. That was bad! Thermal death unavoidable and high danger of mechanical shock.

I cut out a rectangle at the sink position and glued a metal grid on it. Nothing beats a sink exposed to fresh air.  Infrared radiation and air convection in one. It is not exactly robust and does not protect the CPU too well, but unusual problems require unusual solutions :-D
There are more stable grids available in hardware stores, but those are are not fine enough.

One hour break-in. About 55°C constant. This is perfect. Identical thermal situation as with an open cover.

About the IR6500

This thing is a little rough around the edges as you might expect from a budget Chinese product.

The manual is funny Chinglish. I could figure out the meaning of most sentences. However, not all details are needed. There is one predefined program for leaded and one for unleaded solder. That's all I need to know. Press start and you are good.

The glass shield on top of the downside heater is bullshit. It reduces the function of the heater plate drastically. The preheating is practically ineffective. I ran the program with the top heater swiveled aside. The board made it to 45°C on the top side. That's a joke. Proper pre-heating begins with 80 or more! I think I am going to remove the glass.

Philips 42PFL7008 - QFU 1.2 - defect NAND flash? Strange boot looping

Yet another Philips QFU case. This time, the TV got stuck in a boot loop. It would not reach the point where it displays anything.

The first thing to do is to start the emergency software installation. For that, you need an infrared remote, which does not come with the TV. You can get one for around 10€. The reason being that the software, which manages the original radio remote control will not be loaded under such circumstances. Silly Philips!

• Disconnect the TV from the mains
• Press OK or DOWN on the remote and hold it
• Plug in the mains.

I did that and the recovery program came up. Good! This means that the screen, the backlight, and the main processor are doing fine. It can only be a problem with the software or the devices that store it, respectively.

The QFU main software, which I downloaded from Philips, installed fine. The TV went to standby - and did still not start.

Next up: logfile reading. I plugged in my adapter (see this post) and realized that the device is looping. It did not stop randomly while booting, rather it happened at more or less the same moment. The last log message was truncated, no indication that the loop was intended by the software.

This means that the processor always crashed for the same reason. Processors crash due to corrupted software. As I had installed the software previously, I came to the conclusion that the NVRAM chip must be faulty.

In the schematics, the chip is a MT29F8G08ABACAWP. In reality though, it is a MT29F8G08ABABAWP.

It is a 8GB NAND chip.

I was able to to find the binary image of the software. Now I needed a programmer with which to load the software onto the chip, and a supplier from where to buy it.

I got the chips from Aliexpress HERE. It worked fine.

The programmer I chose was THIS MODEL. It also worked flawlessly.

In case you search for programmes yourself, make sure the exact name of the chip is on the compatibility list. The letter soup is confusing and I got it wrong once and bought a non-suitable programmer first.

Swapping the chip was surprisingly easy with my preheater plate and a large nozzle on the hot air gun. In about 15 seconds the chip already floated.

With a new programmed chip soldered in (use lots of flux and a good magnifier glass!) the TV behaved differently. I was able to start it with the remote and everything seemed fine. However I was  not successful each time from standby. It would not listen to the remote everytime.

So I checked the log again and spotted yet another form of boot loop, this time initiated by the software in a consistent and regular manner. The crash was gone, but the TV would refuse to go to standby properly. Instead it first attempts to stop, ambilight goes off, standby LED switches off - and then it reboots into some semi-standby. This repeats forever.

The standby LED actually has three states, which it goes through:

- Dimmed. The TV is not listening. Any command from the remote gives me a quick flickering.
- Off. The TV is not listening. Any command from the remote gives a slow, bright blinking.
- On. The TV will only start in this state.
...repeat from top

A reinstall of the software did not change anything. I also read the boot EEPROM and it was 100% identical to the binary that I have on disc.

I have no idea what to try to fix the loop. The hardware is working. WiFi, ambilight, radio remote, all good.

My only guess is that there needs to be some extra software on the NVRAM chip. Yet, the binary image I got from the Russians was a dump of the chip. I am not even sure anymore whether it is necessary to burn the software onto the chip, because the emergency recovery software will program it, anyway.

So here I am. A TV which is basically working fine, but won't switch itself off to standby. At least I have learned yet another QFU fix, sort of.

Update

I soldered in another NAND with the working software from a 55PFL6158 and now the thing does not even write a log anymore. The CPU gets a little warm and then cools off. This cannot have anything to do with the NAND. It is not even trying to boot. The SPI is good, too.
I tried a reflow of the CPU with no luck.
As it turns out, there is a short on one of the power supply lines for the Fusion processor. This CPU needs a reball and if that's not helping, it is probably toast.

Onkyo A8470 - speaker relais not clicking - "servo operation" lamp not coming on - degraded glue on protection IC's pins

That was an interesting repair. A friend brought me his Onkyo amplifier. It did not switch the speaker relais on and the servo operation lamp did not come on. Both are controlled by the integrated protection chip Toshiba TA7317 and after some tests and measurements, it became pretty clear that the error had to be there. The amp produced a signal just up to the relais and there was no DC on the output, either.

I remembered a YouTube video where a guy said that in old devices a certain type of glue would degrade and become ever so slightly conductive. Just enough to cause sensitive circuits to malfunction. And what have we got here? A big splash of that brownish gunk right over the pins of the protection IC! They had glued the patch wire to the board with it and splashed glue all over the place.

I cleaned it with acetone and the amp came back to life. I resoldered everything just to be safe that it wasn't a dodgy solder joint.

As a precaution I also took care of the other glue spots: