Panasonic Plasma TV Model TC-P50S30 Issues
 

Hello everyone, earlier last year I had picked up from a local computer store that also did electronics recycling, a 2011 Panasonic Plasma Smart TV model TC-P50S30 that when you plug it in and turn it on, you hear it attempt to turn on but then it shuts down and the power LED flashes 6 times which according to the service manual I found online for the TV means there's an issue with the SC Board, and when I removed the SC board and tested all of the electrolytics on the board they all tested extremely high ESR (like to the point of being nearly shorted because my ESR meter would read between 25 and 50 Ohms of ESR on some of them with one measuring infinite, or shorted.

My question is, I was putting together an order on Mouser of replacement capacitors for the SC Board on this TV and 3 of the capacitors I needed weren't available except as a really odd Cornell-Dublier unit that was oval shaped and was $35 a pop (and I need 3 of them) and I was wondering if I could substitute in a capacitor that's 10 uF higher than the original capacitor's value but the same voltage and have this unit still work?

I know Solid state devices are a little finickier about capacitor values than tube powered stuff but I wonder if 10 uF would affect things that much?

The Capacitor value in question is rather odd being a 140 uF 250V electrolytic capacitor, and the closest value I found that was a standard size and shape of capacitor was a 150 uF 250V electrolytic.

Thanks for your help.

Caps are usually OK to go up in value, even 100% or more. Except if its in a timing circuit. Did you check with Digikey?

Yes I did check Digikey, they were the same way as Mouser as far as Capacitor selection. The odd thing is that the capacitors that Panasonic used in this TV's SC Board were Rubycon branded Capacitors and even Rubycon didn't have that value available at Mouser or Digikey, which I wonder if Panasonic had special ordered the capacitors from Rubycon using those specific values which is why they aren't available as regular stock at Mouser or Digikey. :scratch2:

I bet that caps being only for decoupling, so values are not critical. 150µF are a more common value. Even if is somewhat critical... 140µF is so close to 150.

I have a question, and this kind of is a wide ranging question in that it is covering multiple types of electronics in this case laptops as well because they do use LCD Panels for their displays, so they are kind of in topic here.

Why is it that on eBay all of the parts that one might need to order to get say an old flat panel TV going or an old laptop going like a motherboard or a Y-Sustain board for a plasma TV are always coming from China? It seems kind of odd that China is the only place that can sell usable parts/boards for things like Laptops or Flatpanel TVs that have been salvaged from working devices that had some sort of defect like a broken screen or a broken case that otherwise was a working TV or laptop.

I'm having a hard time finding on eBay any parts for stuff like flat panel TVs or Laptops to get them going again that isn't coming from China.

Does anyone know why this is the case? Is it because they're a lot rougher with their laptops and flat panel TVs in China than we are here in America? Or is it because they just know there's a demand for used TV and laptop parts here in America and that people are willing to buy the parts to get their stuff going and that people don't care that they come from China or is it a little bit of both?

UPDATE: I was able to source a working board for this TV that wasn't from China on feebay, and the TV does turn on now, but it has an odd issue, the screen doesn't show up like its supposed to, it's kind of hard to explain what it looks like and I think in this case a picture is worth a thousand words.

See picture below.

From what I’ve seen with TVs and similar gear, going from 140 µF to 150 µF on a capacitor with the same voltage rating usually isn’t a big deal. A small difference like 10 µF won’t likely cause problems, especially if the voltage rating matches. Capacitors can have some tolerance anyway.

UPDATE: I basically replaced all of the boards related to the screen (X and Y Sustain Boards and the Driver Board), the only boards I haven't replaced yet was the Data boards (the boards running across the bottom of the back of the TV that I'm assuming processes the onscreen menus and channel and AV display functions, and all I can get the TV to do screen wise is show an extremely washed out screen that doesn't show anything in the Channel display readout box on the upper right hand corner of the screen, and when you bring up the menu you can barely make out what the menu says (you can tell something is there but you can't read what each menu selection says), but you can see a little bit of the menu navigational command readout functions on the bottom of the screen, but its very washed out, as you will see in the pictures I will be posting.

There are also black lines (thick and thin) that goes across the screen horizontally, which according to the service manual for the TV has something to do with the X or Y Sustain Boards, and or the Driver Board, but I just replaced them.

Any ideas as to what else could be wrong with this TV that I'm missing? Or is the panel itself going bad, and will I just need to give up on this TV?

See Pictures below, and I apologize for the glare in the pictures, the table I was working on the TV at was in front of a window in the basement.