Thursday, April 18, 2013

SONY KDF-E42A10 – KDF-E50A10 – LCD REAR PROJECTION TV - SERVICE MODE & ADJUSTMENTS



SERVICE MODE
Accessing the service mode is accomplished in the same way as has been used in past Sony television products. Press “DISPLAY”, “5”, “VOL+”, and “POWER” in sequence on the remote commander to enter the service mode. OSD graphics for the Main Micro data settings will appear at the top of the screen.
Although the service mode allows access to a large amount of adjustments, most will never need to be adjusted unless data becomes corrupted. In certain cases, such as board change-outs, items such as white balance or picture size may need to be adjusted.
NAVIGATING THE SERVICE MODE
There are 3 major categories of adjustments in the MIX-5 Chassis:
  • TV Micro
  • QM
  • BE Micro
These categories are selected by pressing, “JUMP” on the remote commander. Within each of these categories are groups of adjustment data.
CHASSIS SERVICE MENU NAVIGATION
ADJUSTMENT ITEMS
Graphics selection (for troubleshooting and picture adjustments) and white balance will usually be the only two areas of the service mode that require access. 3 sets of test pattern graphics are contained within the service mode located in the QM sub-group. White balance adjustments are located within the BE Micro sub-group.
TEST GRAPHICS
Various test patterns are generated to assist in picture quality checks and alignments. They are also useful for troubleshooting video problems since patterns are generated in various locations. Graphics are generated in 3 different circuits:
Main TV Micro (Saiph): Data display for general alignment and diagnostics history. These graphics will appear as large green letters and are the first to appear when entering the service mode. The Main TV Micro does not generate the graphics. It sends the appropriate data to the QM ATI Micro where the graphics are generated.
QM Board: Customer menus originate here. The QM board also generates its own service data. The adjustment data graphics are displayed as blue. Various test pattern graphics are also generated.
C board: The BE Micro generates test pattern graphics along with its own adjustment data graphics. The letters displayed are green and noticeably smaller than the Main TV Micro graphics. Since the test pattern graphics in this location are generated just before the video drives the LCD panels, they are useful when attempting to isolate the Optical Block assembly during a video failure resulting in loss of video or distortion.
QM GRAPHICS
Once the service mode has been activated, press “JUMP” on the remote commander to change the category to the QM group. Once the QM adjustment data category has been reached (the adjustment graphics will change from green to blue), the first adjustment item will appear as “INFO” and is labeled as item 0. Press the “1” key on the remote commander to move to the next adjustment item labeled “1”. This item is named “PATN”,  The data value should be set at zero. Using the “3” key on the remote commander will change this data and different test pattern graphics will appear with each increase of the data value. There are 4 sets of 20 graphics (data 1 to 80. Each set of graphics is redundantly generated but in different resolutions. They are as follows:
1-20      1080i
21-40    480i
41-60    480p
61-80    720p
NOTE: These graphics are valuable in verifying proper scaling of the 4 major ATSC resolution formats. Verification of each resolution can be seen by pressing the “4” key on the remote to move back to the “INFO” group. Change the data from “zero” to “one” and a palette will appear with information about the ATI Micro and signal performance. One of the items is the current resolution format. This palette can be left on while returning to the “PATN” group and viewing the different sets of pattern resolutions.
  A second set of test patterns can be displayed by moving to item 2 in the QM Mode. This item is labeled GPTN. These are addition test graphics and all are in high resolution (1080i) and originate from the same area that the customer menu is generated. The patterns will not fill the entire screen because of this. All of the above graphics are generated on the QM board and are useful for video troubleshooting. If they can be displayed, the B board and Optical Block are eliminated as potential causes of the failure.
BE MICRO GRAPHICS
  Use the “JUMP” key to enter the BE MICRO category. Press the “5” key (rather than the “2” key since the group is located near the end of the category  to maneuver through the adjustment groups. The BE Micro graphics are located in category 32 labeled D8909TPN. The first item is TPNSW. The default data is zero. Changing the data to “1” will cause a flat field to be displayed. By default, the field should be approximately 70IRE white. The next item can change the color of the field.  Item 01 is labeled TPNRGB. The default data is 0007 for a white screen. Changing the data progressively downward changes the field to the
primary and secondary color fields. The last setting (zero) generates a black screen. Be aware that the adjustment data graphics cannot be seen while in this mode. It is not necessary to change the TPNSW data to see these flat-field patterns. Any time you enter the TPNRGB group and change data, the various colored fields will appear. This group of adjustment graphics is extremely useful when troubleshooting video problems that appear to originate in a single panel color. Be certain to return the data back to white screen before exiting the BE group. If this is not done, none of the test patterns in the BE group can be seen. If it is left set to a primary or secondary color, the test graphics will also appear that way.
Item 4 is labeled TPN Mode. Various test patterns generated by the BE Micro in 10809i mode are generated here.
IMPORTANT: Be certain to exit the BE Micro group before turning the unit off. Always turn the unit off in the QM or Main Micro service group. If this is not done, the unit will display the BE Micro data when it is turned back on and there will be no way to turn them off. If this occurs, simply unplug the AC power to perform a hard reset and plug the unit back in.
WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS
In general, white balance adjustments are not required on a regular basis with LCD-type displays. Changes in backlight color temperature will occur over time but this occurs at an extremely slow rate and is not normally noticed by the customer. White balance adjustments are occasionally required when the optical block is changed and definitely when another person alters the data settings.  The adjustment data for white balance is located in the BE Micro category. Use the “JUMP” button on the remote commander to access this category. Press the “2” button to locate the “CTT” group. This group is located 10 steps from the initial BE Micro page so you will have to press the “2” button this many times.  Once in the “CTT” group, 6 adjustment items are found to adjust white balance. There are 3 background (R_BKG, G_BKG, B_BKG) and 3 drive adjustment items (R_DRIVE, G_DRIVE, B_DRIVE). The background adjustments affect the low light areas of the video and the drive adjustments the highlight areas.  The adjustment data for each item is a 4-digit hexadecimal number. Previous chassis designs utilized a 3-digit binary number system and this is something the technician should be aware of.