Leaving the "TV Trade"

[ThermalRunaway]

For the last 7 years, ever since leaving school, I've worked in consumer electronics repair working on anything from TVs to DVD recorders, Audio systems and Satellite systems. Unfortunately the trade has been in a state of decline and infact, I joined it on the tail end of it's demise. I've got almost 50 years left of work ahead of me and I'm certain I won't be hanging onto the TV trade for all of that so I've decided to get out while the getting's good.

I start a new job on Monday. Still in Electronic repair, but I've moved across into Industrial Electronic repair instead. In the meantime I'm back at college part-time so we'll see what comes of that.

It's sad about the TV repair trade though as it's a nice line of work to be in and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

Brian

 

[Jay.slovak]

Maybe you can work with Nigel, he is reparing TVs as well :lol: (and he is from UK too)

 

[ThermalRunaway]

Yeah I know, Nigel and I have discussed a few fault symptoms together before. I understand that Nigel has quite a lot of experience in the TV trade, although I'm not sure whether he works his own business or works for a company. I get the impression that he works for a small shop dealing mainly in Sony equipment? Again I'm not sure on that one.

To be honest I don't want back into the TV trade. I enjoy the work, but it's not going to be viable work forever so it's time for a change.

Brian

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Yeah I know, Nigel and I have discussed a few fault symptoms together before. I understand that Nigel has quite a lot of experience in the TV trade, although I'm not sure whether he works his own business or works for a company. I get the impression that he works for a small shop dealing mainly in Sony equipment? Again I'm not sure on that one.

To be honest I don't want back into the TV trade. I enjoy the work, but it's not going to be viable work forever so it's time for a change.

As you say Brian, the TV servicing game is dying off, new gear is too cheap, and spares far too expensive.

I work for an independent dealer with two branches, our biggest supplier is Sony, although we do a number of other makes as well. I've worked there for 34 years, so have quite a lot of TV repair experience :lol:

 

[zevon8]

In my opinion, I thnk you will enjoy your new job. I found it to be satisfying in that there was always a wide range of "challenges" involving lots of new experiences. The industrial sector is such a varied field, including mechanical, electrical, electronic, etc, that I found it to be a refreshing change. It is not always the cleanest of environments to work in, but the satisfaction of such a multidisciplined field keeps me interested, and I think that anyone who has developed good troubleshooting skills will fit right in.

I got out of the consumer trade for the same reasons. Where I am now has a nice mix of mechanical, electrical and electronics, so each day brings something new. One day I may be under a transport truck fitting electronic control systems, the next doing R&D at the bench. That's what I enjoy, the variation of tasks.

 

[panic mode]

in my opinion your new job is only temporary too...
everything will be throw away item. repairs as trade are gone...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

in my opinion your new job is only temporary too...
everything will be throw away item. repairs as trade are gone...

There is beginning to be a big backlash against that type of thinking, for example TV sets are about to be classified as "hazardous waste" in the UK, and you will have to pay to have them disposed of.

 

[heathtech]

in my opinion your new job is only temporary too...
everything will be throw away item. repairs as trade are gone...

I have to disagree to some extent. I am an instrumentation/analyzer technician in the petro industry working on sophisticated lab instruments, I'm also qualified in process control instrumentation. The trend in industry is for more mechanicalization and automation, and less need for operators. My trade is becoming the biggest need, because even at only board level repair, a qualified person is required by OSHA regulations to make electrical and electronic repairs. You just can't have any old joe open an electronic instrument with high voltages in some cases and stick tools in there. Yeah, the challenge of the repairs is less when you don't get down to component level, but the need is still there for qualified personnel. Naysayers have been saying for years that repair jobs in industry will die, but with specialized expensive equipment, the throw away mentallity just doesn't work.

 

[panic mode]

disposing off electronic equipment is only getting faster and taxes will not stop it. repair of expencive equipment is only delay of the process since old equipment (even functional) simply doesn't have features of the new equipment or standards and prices of the new things are comming down faster and faster. tv is not exactly trend setter, it is one rare product that actually outlived most of the other electronics devices (just look around the house and see what is the oldest electronic product you have). and yet the tv repair trade is about to disapear... how many of you have transistor radio? i bet if you listen to the radio, it's in your car. sure you don't listen to radio at home, you spend all the money on computers and DVDs.
I don't see computer repair shops doing well either and the audio CDs seam to become extinct. i probably don't go out much since iPod repair shops must be all over the city...

as for specialized and expencive equipment... i'm not sure how others see it but for me word "specialized" says it all - something reduced in functionality to do very specific task.

your old tv is such device (being replaced with multifunction device such as pc).

your old phone is such device (big and wired to the wall, shared with whole housholld, no organizer, calendar, games, custom ring etc. is being replaced with mobile phones).

your old microwave is such device (only has clock? no internet connection yet? how does it know if popcorn or soup or whatever you grabbed from the grocery store shelf is perfectly done?)

they all used to be expencive, have repair shops etc. but don't you see the trend?
something shows up big flashy and expencive. young people get excited and go for it.
thing get mass produced, become smaller, cheaper and way more powerfull in a very short time.
some managed to make living out of it but most didn't.

i hate to share this with those who still have dream:
the special robocoaster you keep next to your pillow, or giant valve or flowmeter in the garage that acid or oil plant has sent to you may be big in size, expencive to buy but...

the electronics in each of them is reduced to size of wristwatch (flowmeter or valve) or shoebox (industrial robot). in few years the shoebox size cabinet for the robot might be reduced to size of common solid state relay and probably will cost 20-50 times less than the controller from today.

even now when something is dead, it's circuitry is replaced whole or on a module level at best. there are places that repair industrial electronics on a board level. few but they exist. and the ones that make money you can count on fingers of one hand.
do you want to bet your future (or carrier) on something like this?
the big and expencive specialized devices are rare at best. they are outnumbered 1000000000:1 by cellphones,
10000000:1 by TVs and digital cameras.

tv repair was one thing i started with too some 20years ago. but how do you repair this:
**broken link removed**

and how much you think you can charge for repair? do you think customer would come back next time? how much would they charge for waste disposal for something like this? one bag of gummy bears has as much plastic as this device and one bottle of water has way more glass...

 

[heathtech]

disposing off electronic equipment is only getting faster and taxes will not stop it. repair of expencive equipment is only delay of the process since old equipment (even functional) simply doesn't have features of the new equipment or standards and prices of the new things are comming down faster and faster. tv is not exactly trend setter, it is one rare product that actually outlived most of the other electronics devices (just look around the house and see what is the oldest electronic product you have). and yet the tv repair trade is about to disapear... how many of you have transistor radio? i bet if you listen to the radio, it's in your car. sure you don't listen to radio at home, you spend all the money on computers and DVDs.
I don't see computer repair shops doing well either and the audio CDs seam to become extinct. i probably don't go out much since iPod repair shops must be all over the city...

as for specialized and expencive equipment... i'm not sure how others see it but for me word "specialized" says it all - something reduced in functionality to do very specific task.

your old tv is such device (being replaced with multifunction device such as pc).

your old phone is such device (big and wired to the wall, shared with whole housholld, no organizer, calendar, games, custom ring etc. is being replaced with mobile phones).

your old microwave is such device (only has clock? no internet connection yet? how does it know if popcorn or soup or whatever you grabbed from the grocery store shelf is perfectly done?)

they all used to be expencive, have repair shops etc. but don't you see the trend?
something shows up big flashy and expencive. young people get excited and go for it.
thing get mass produced, become smaller, cheaper and way more powerfull in a very short time.
some managed to make living out of it but most didn't.

i hate to share this with those who still have dream:
the special robocoaster you keep next to your pillow, or giant valve or flowmeter in the garage that acid or oil plant has sent to you may be big in size, expencive to buy but...

the electronics in each of them is reduced to size of wristwatch (flowmeter or valve) or shoebox (industrial robot). in few years the shoebox size cabinet for the robot might be reduced to size of common solid state relay and probably will cost 20-50 times less than the controller from today.

even now when something is dead, it's circuitry is replaced whole or on a module level at best. there are places that repair industrial electronics on a board level. few but they exist. and the ones that make money you can count on fingers of one hand.
do you want to bet your future (or carrier) on something like this?
the big and expencive specialized devices are rare at best. they are outnumbered 1000000000:1 by cellphones,
10000000:1 by TVs and digital cameras.

tv repair was one thing i started with too some 20years ago. but how do you repair this:
**broken link removed**

and how much you think you can charge for repair? do you think customer would come back next time? how much would they charge for waste disposal for something like this? one bag of gummy bears has as much plastic as this device and one bottle of water has way more glass...

No, you really don't understand all that is involved in industrial electronics. Have you ever heard of Mass spectrometry, gas chromotography, Chemiluminescence analyzers, automatic kinematic viscosity or gravometric instruments? These are a few of the instruments I repair, and they cost upwards of $50,000-100,000. By specialized I don't mean simple at all, no no no, I mean UNCOMMON enough in their application that they aren't mass produced like iPODS. Some of these instruments are built on a work bench, rather than an assembly line. If a company produces only 1,000 of a certain device in its production run, it doesn't pay to build an expensive automated assembly line to build it. Some of these instruments are so uncommon that only a handfull of people know how to repair them! And guess what, companies, no matter how large, aren't eager to fork out a $100,000 on a new instrument every time a voltage regulator fries. Yes, things are much more modular, but guess what, I recently SAVED a 50,000 buck instrument that is no longer in production and boards can't be bought for by replacing a bipolar transistor and a few resistors on a power supply. Do you think my boss was happy? Oh, Yeah! No, as I said before, industrial electronics is an area where the need for technically proficient people is only growing.

 

[zevon8]

I think that you have make a distinction between things that have "designed obsolescence" as a whole, and things that are part of larger systems. Sure, an Ipod is an example of something that is "disposable", but this is born of its end-use-design. If it was repairable, it would need to be made differently, and as a result, would not take the form it is now, which is what satisfies its market and use. Who wants a 5 lb, lunch box sized MP3 player ?

Factory processes and equipment will alway change, but there will always be the need for someone who knows the "how and the why", and more importantly, the "if not why?" Many industries use machines and equipment that have gone through several control technology upgrades, but someone still has to either install the gear or maintain it.

Specialization to an extreeme is probably never a good idea, but having the ability to logically progress through a problem, determine what may be the cause, and effect a solution, is a skill that will never go unwanted or unpaid. This applies to many, many fileds, and is a portable skill that follows technology as it advances.

Consumer products may change, but the equipment pruducing it often lasts through several "fads" and somebody has to make it produce the next one.

Julius Caesar had a plumber, and there are still a few around today (joking)

 

[panic mode]

we are not talking about same thing here.
i have no doubts that there will always be need for few people
able to repair something (someone is still going to learn electronics to be
able to design new products too). this is not going to change any time soon
but the job oportunities for such skill are being reduced to such small scale
that they belong to "believe it or not" shows. that's exotic, not common.
radio and tv repair shops used to be on every corner just like gas stations.
i don't see companies building specialty instruments with custom electronics
on every corner. heathtech, if the company you work for disappears, where is the
closest similar one?

Some of these instruments are so uncommon that only a handfull
of people know how to repair them!

And guess what, companies, no matter how large, aren't eager to fork out
a $100,000 on a new instrument every time a voltage regulator fries.

well, how often does voltage regulator die? one every 5-10 years? unless someone
sized it for you to have job security... this will only last until customer
smartens and ask for better voltage regulator so this doesn't need repair.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I agree with everything panic mode says about the TV Trade and that is infact why I decided to leave. Equipment has become so cheap these days that it just isn't worth repairing. DVD Players are less than £30 a time, despite the huge complexity of the technology behind them. It's not even worth my time to look at a DVD player, let alone fault find on it and certainly not replace parts. I've found it increasingly common that manufacturers don't even supply parts for their consumer electronics products these days, and in some cases they don't even supply service information. There's so little money left in the repair trade that manufacturers can't justify the cost of a support network. Recently this mindset has been extended to include TVs - I had a Daewoo Television on the bench the other week with the power supply blown up and, when I attempted to order the parts for it, I was told that certain parts were not available. The product was only 2 months old, and Daewoo were happy to just give the customer a brand new TV and dispose of the old (2 month old) one!!!

To use Daweoo in another example, I phoned their technical department not long ago for some advice on a product I had in for repair. A woman answered the phone and, when I asked for their tech support engineers I was simply told "our engineer is not in today, it's his day off".

Our ENGINEER?? Does that mean Daewoo only employ ONE single engineer to run their entire technical support line? I just couldn't believe it.

I think the situation is slightly different with industrial electronics. Here you're talking about equipment which is worth a mint and, as such, it's worth undertaking repairs on them. I chose to move across into Industrial Electronics for this reason, and because the work is an extension of what I already know. I'm already skilled in Electronics Repair, so all I really need in order to be capable of working on Industrial Electronic equipment is product knowledge. The company who've just employed me require repair down to component level, not board swaps.

That said, I am also returning to college this year where I hope to improve on my academic qualifications with a view to opening a few more doors for me within Electronics. So we'll see how that goes.

Brian

 

[heathtech]

well, how often does voltage regulator die? one every 5-10 years? unless someone
sized it for you to have job security... this will only last until customer
smartens and ask for better voltage regulator so this doesn't need repair

But you see, in my lab I am responsible for about 350 different pieces of equipment. Sure, if I had only one piece of equipment to worry about, I might go months or years without needing to do a repair, but I run into different types of repairs from as simple as changing or cleaning the contacts of a mechanical relay or switch that is intermittently not making contact to as complex as finding a 16 pin IC that has faulted due to a short in an output device like a locked rotor motor. I make electronic repairs of some level of complexity three or four times a week, as well as mechanical, electrical, or pneumatic type troubleshooting. Look, I see your point about consumer electronics, but industrial really does follow a diffeent set of rules, and as far what if my company goes out of business? I work for the largest oil company in the world, and I feel pretty certain my job won't be going anywhere for the next 20 years. And even if it does, I am a journeyman and I can go anywhere in the world to work in various applications of my trade such as medical, pharmaceutical, chemical, paper/pulp, etc.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Our ENGINEER?? Does that mean Daewoo only employ ONE single engineer to run their entire technical support line? I just couldn't believe it.

You are talking Daewoo! - generally recognised as the cheapest junk you can buy! - most of the trade won't repair it or sell it (we certainly won't!).

 

[ThermalRunaway]

You're right there Nigel, but more and more brands are churning out "cheap junk" these days. Even the big name brands are using cheap chassis from other manufacturers. Some of the Sharp models I've had in for repair with the Vestel chassis in them have been awful. Same with JVC, who I think also use the Vestel in some of their models. Consumers have demanded cheaper products, something has to give and that something is quality. And service.

Brian