Degaussing a TV?

A friend of mine runs a hotel near here, and in the lounge, they have a TV. Unfortunately, someone recently attacked said TV set with a magnet. Result of this, being that the colours were totally messed up (Right in the middle of the Snooker I might add...), and a new set was bought.

A month later, I was donated the old one.

So, I have now in my possession, a 34" Widescreen Hitachi TV. Which needs to be degaussed. Unfortunately, the set doesn't have a degauss control (and yes, I have looked). Is there any way I can do this myself? I would take it to a rapair shop - but it's a two man job to get this beast of a thing into the jeep, and we don't have any TV rapair shops in the area any more.

Any ideas?

This works. I know because I had to do it myself when I screwed up a computer monitor with no degauss. Then we tried it with my brother's TV.

It's not as good as if you get it professionally done, but you CAN take advantage of the degauss circuit found in most CRT computer monitors. You'll need 2 people. Hold the screens together (Computer screen facing TV screen). Center it in the screen and trip the degauss on the computer monitor. It will help degauss the TV screen. No kidding!

Like I said, it's not as good as if you had it professionally done, but you can't beat the price!

I have a radioshack high power tape de magnetizer
used to de magnetize vhs tapes I have used it to de magnetize tv's

the last one I demagnetized was a tv that a teenager put a 12 inch woofer on top of the tv

or you could try one of these

Oh and here's a link that may help /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks!

Just tried it with a permenent magnet, and have got it usable again. Just a couple of blobs in the bottom corners which refuse to clear up. Methinks I need a degaussing coil...

bulk tape degaussers and the old weller soldering guns work well.i use both in my day job of fixing indusrial monitors,pc monitors and tv sets.
turn it on move all over the screen and around the front edge and when done move as far back from the set as possible befrore turning it off.stay away from the back so you dont degauss the rings on the crt neck or you will fix the bad purity and trade it for bad convergence.

Also, while degaussing, work close at first, and work your way away, about out to 10 ft with a coil, less with a bulk tape deal.

There is also a spinning hand magnet you spin yourself that works, in a pinch, spin the N and S pole perpendicular to the TV, on the end of a fast drill. Also some drills radiate enough of a field to work by themselves.

If using the proper big coil (best), when you get back 10ft, turn it off perpendicular to the TV.

Here is a low cost model that works well. When you get it, yes, it hums.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73173&item=3830273778&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

if ya throw tv off a cliff it will be degaused. kidding lol i thought most new tv degaused them selfs

Zel,
These guys are on target for this. Back in the states a good degauss ring is about 40 bucks. I haven't been here long enough to find out what one costs here.

London is nice but will have to go back to the war soon.
Buy the right tools and the job goes well. You will need it again because what happened will not be an isolated event. I use mine at home about 3 times per year.

Later dude
Jack Crow in London

Somewhere I have a *small* degaussing coil, but it doesn't work anywhere near as well as the large kind that makes a rattling, buzzing noise. The old style degaussing coil does a fantastic job; just be sure things like audio and video cassettes, floppy diskettes, bank cards, and other magnetism-sensitive material aren't near the TV you're degaussing, or you'll degauss those items too.

Abbreviated instructions for using a degaussing coil to degauss a boob tube:

Be sure the TV set is turned on. Plug the degaussing coil in. Turn it on perpendicular to the picture tube and as far away from it as the cord (and the TV set) will allow (5-6 feet is sufficient), turn it so it's parallel with the face of the picture tube, bring it to the face of the picture tube, trace a circular pattern on the face of the picture tube with it, move it back away, turn it perpendicular with the picture tube, and then turn it off.
All within about 1 minute.

These are the instructions for using a large, mains-powered degaussing coil.
The power switch for the coil is usually a spring-loaded momentary one on the power cord near the coil itself.
Press and hold it down to energise the coil; release it to turn the coil back off.

The 1 minute recommendation is because the coil consumes a considerable amount of current, and will heat up significantly during use; keeping it energised for more than a minute or two will cause the coil to overheat and burn out.

Assuming it is a CRT set, it must have a built-in degaussing coil that activates each time the set is turned on from a cold start (i.e. it has been off for 1/2 hour or so). However, these coils are weak and it may take dozens of on/off cycles to see a change, and severe magnetization may never seem to improve. Thus, the external coil is used for immediate results. Many people use anything that radiates a mains frequency magnetic field and can be placed near the screen and drawn away slowly. Thus, the mention of soldering guns, head and tape degaussers, etc. as well as the traditional coil - anything that works as an electromagnet. I use the Radio Shack bulk tape eraser myself. There is no advantage or disadvantage I know of whether the set is on or off during degaussing, except the nice colours seen during the process.

A warning if degaussing a Trinitron style tube with aperture grille wires instead of a shadow mask - the wires can stick together under a strong degausser. The factory procedure is to cover the faceplate of the screen with a cloth and bash the face with a rubber mallet until the wires come free. I kid you not.

Ding Dong (me) stacked some speakers next to a Toshiba '27 inch. This created two verticle rainbows. Got good advice from CPF and bought a 13' circular degausser off e-bay from a surplus guy for $25.00.

I followed the instructions carefully. I never could get the rainbows to go away. Attempted this at least a dozen times. Someone told me to be careful not to permenantly magnatize the tube. Maybe that's what happened?

I still haven't taken it to a shop. I fear the repair would be close the price of a new set. I fear TV repairmen because I'm convinced they are all magicians. *hopes snakebite isn't reading this thread anymore* So it sets in a corner reminding me from time to time that I might not be as smart as I think I am.

Well, going to keep an eye on that first degauss unit that was pointed out on eBay. Will ask in a few places in Aberdeen, see if any of them have a clue what I'm talking about.

As it stands, the set is perfectly watchable (and big...), aside from those two blobs. There's no way I'd ever have been able to buy a set like this, so if it's not going to cost much to get it properly sorted, it will be worth it.

Thanks for the input guys!

Zelandeth -

It's possible that the automatic degauss on your set will eventually take care of the blobs. You'll hear it as a tick sound about one second after you hit the power button. Someone told me that if the TV is turned off for about a minute then turned on again the degauss would activate. Turning the set on and off again rapidly doesn't work.

Did you ever see Steve McQueen in "The Blob"?

Icebreak, { and anyone else } here's my 2 cents from my years fixing TVs…..sounds like you need a stronger degausser coil, but sometimes if the screens messed up you also have to try degaussing on the right, left, top, and bottom, except the back by the neck of the picture tube....the way its done is to start first doing the front ……here's one technique I used over the years…TIP: just make sure the rotation/circumference for the sides/top/bottom are ½ the picture screen diameter so you will not degauss too far back into the picture tube "neck" ( in the back )


I usually did this with the TV on and I'd adjust the drives/guns and set the color screen to all red …..not that you should……but by setting the tint to red will make it easier to spend some extra time with the degausser in the area of the screen that was whacked out!

Place the coil flat against the tube [or surface], turn it on and begin to rotate in a clockwise direction...keeping the coil on...increase the size of this "rotation" till it fills the screen [and you can go out of the screen area with half of the coil ] but keep moving that coil…[ always ] …..do this for about 15 seconds.....then [ while still rotating the coil clockwise ] slowly move the coil away from the set keeping it perpendicular to the surface till ya about 6 feet away or so [ or you see on the screen that the degausser has no effect ], then turn the coil 90 degrees, then turn it off.
Note: [ If you improperly remove the coil in this procedure or turn off the coil before your done you might have more rainbows….no problem …it happens…just begin again ]

Once your done with the front, bring it back place it on the right side, watch out for the distance to the neck of the back of the picture tube and follow the same procedure…. You'll want to keep the coil close to the screen anyway to see how well its degaussing……remove it off same way. Repeat on left….or on any area you see color impurities….make sure you have enough extension cord and space to do this in and no magnetic tape or sensitive stuff nearby.
Post or PM if ya have any questions


Hope this helps and didn't bore ya { or anyone else }. Rob

Ok, I messed up my TV and a Computer monitor at my school with a magnet. For the TV, I used 2 Neyodium magnets (Same ones I messed the TV up with) with a screwdriver (flat blade) sandwiched between the magnets. Rub the screwdriver handle so the magnets spin back and fourth, go up to the screen while it is on and keep spinning the magnets in front of the screen then move away from the screen and you can stop spinning it. It was crude but it worked.
The computer monitor at school, I used a Panasonic Auto-Stop electric pencil sharpener. Just pretend to sharpen your pencil and hold the left side of the sharpener while the motor is running near the screen (you'll see the screen flicker) then move away and turn off.