What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

I was going out for a little midnight walk. I live on the 3rd floor and i've made a habit of not taking the elevator at night coz i'd hate getting stuck in it till morning. Turns out my habit of taking the stairs was worth it...

On the 2nd floor, with two flower pots sitting on top of it, there was... *gasp* a 28" CRT TV!!! A brief look at it shows that it had the power cord cut off, but all the guts were still there. Probably coz whoever threw it out didn't have a Torx screwdriver on him, it's secured by that kind of screws. Anyway, the missing power cord clearly signaled it as "up for grabs" so i moved the flower pots off it, pulled it into the elevator (well, i HAD to use the elevator this time), and took it home.

http://www.eserviceinfo.com/download..._28mn1570.html

Here's a quick grab i took with my phone of the TV's original position. All i can say is That's the life when you're living in the !

Edit: Just took the back off and it's full of dust in there - this has last been taken apart long ago, if ever. So it might actually be working! Edit 2: I've spotted a sound converter hooked on top of the TV tuner, so yes it was taken apart before, but by the looks of the parts in the converter it's been like 10 years since. I give this one a 80% chance of being useful.

[tom66]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

The question is, does it work?

Do people throw out flat screens near you?

[retiredcaps]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

On the 2nd floor, with two flower pots sitting on top of it, there was... *gasp* a 28" CRT TV!!!

On Kijiji, top of the line (in their day) 200 pound Sony Trinitron 32 to 36 inch CRTs (Wega) in working condition are given almost daily for free or under $20.

These TVs probably cost $1500 to $2000 back in the day.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

The question is, does it work?

Do people throw out flat screens near you?

This is Romania... we haven't yet advanced to the point of throwing flatscreens out.

Well i wired a power cord to it, the degauss came on, and i can hear bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt from the power supply. Nothing else. Something shorted. I still have a couple spare HOTs, maybe i get lucky... But even if it's the flyback, new flybacks are like $15, so it's likely worth fixing. Edit: Found the HOT shorted on all three and a cracked 1600v 8n2 capacitor near it. Time to pull those parts out of the circuit and see what they read. The capacitor could have just died of old age and in that position it would definitely take out the HOT, so the flyback may be good.

On Kijiji, top of the line (in their day) 200 pound Sony Trinitron 32 to 36 inch CRTs (Wega) in working condition are given almost daily for free or under $20.

These TVs probably cost $1500 to $2000 back in the day.

Too bad that's some thousand miles away from me.

[tom66]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

It's rather strange, isn't it? A CRT is still perfectly usable; it's just not "flat". A lot of people I know watch exclusively standard definition, so I honestly don't know why they have an LCD or plasma (and why they throw out their old CRT set.) In fact, CRTs are better in many respects than cheap LCD TVs: superior contrast, good colour, rugged screen (try smashing one with a Wiimote!) and reliability. Especially since those older WEGA sets were capable of full HD, well 1440x1080, but close enough.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Pulled out the old NEI Indiana chassis from the closet, lo and behold two genuine BU508s. I also found a 7n5 1600v cap, and it looks just like the old one... Now, that means it could fail in the same fashion, but i think all the dust had a big part in the failure of the cap, it is a high voltage part and prone to arcing. The closest i have besides that is 10n 1500v.

As far as i know that cap sets horizontal size and has something to do with the timing of the HOT... IIRC smaller cap = smaller hsize but also more stress on the HOT. Either way, i'm probably going to be good with the 7n5 so i'll drop that in and see what i get.

[dumpystig]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

It's rather strange, isn't it? A CRT is still perfectly usable; it's just not "flat". A lot of people I know watch exclusively standard definition, so I honestly don't know why they have an LCD or plasma (and why they throw out their old CRT set.) In fact, CRTs are better in many respects than cheap LCD TVs: superior contrast, good colour, rugged screen (try smashing one with a Wiimote!) and reliability. Especially since those older WEGA sets were capable of full HD, well 1440x1080, but close enough.

And as big as a tank in comparison. See, size does make a difference

[mockingbird]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Why do people cut off the cords from the back of CRTs?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Mkay... Put in the HOT and the cap. For the life of me i couldn't figure out the original mounting clip of the HOT, so i drilled a new hole in the heatsink (the other side had a hole already) and used a clip from the same Nei chassis i got the parts from. Applied the highly technical method of blowing at it to remove the metal dust i created by drilling, and plugged it in.

Result? SUCCESS! Fired right up. Now to clean things up a bit here and move the beast to the hallway to plug it in to cable.

[bbjunkie]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Way to go

Dont tell your neighbour in case they ask for it back

Congrats on the repair

[Toasty]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Why do people cut off the cords from the back of CRTs?

For the copper. Junk men around here do it all the time. Fella I call when I have metal to go out makes $200 - $300 bucks every time he goes to the scrapper. I've seen the receipts.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Way to go

Dont tell your neighbour in case they ask for it back

Congrats on the repair

Thanks. Speaking of which, i think i'm gonna have one before i go to sleep.

• Put the cable in and it doesn't look too bad. Edges have a slight vertical ripple but nothing a few new caps won't fix. Although i saw mostly Nichicons inside, once i get all the dust out i'm likely to stumble upon other, cheaper brands too.
• The screen has only a couple minor scratches. Given the size and where it was left, it's quite amazing.
• The best focus is at one extreme of the knob (which it was already set at). I'm not complaining as it doesn't look bad at all. It is a bit soft but hey, it's a big SD set, i'm not expecting it to look sharp.
• Linearity isn't stellar but this was a low-end set when it came out, it doesn't even have stereo sound. There is a place to put a second speaker but the power button sits in the middle of that.
• And last but not least, i'm going to need a new remote for this thing. The ones i have will only change channels and volume, they won't adjust brightness/contrast/color. This is an older set where the only menu is the one that programs the channels in. Given its age, the tube looks really good.
• It does appear to have a service menu though, since it has only one trimpot outside of focus and G2. It could use some tweaking but i'll worry about that when i get the remote.
• There's a really comprehensive service manual available here: http://www.eserviceinfo.com/index.ph...R2%5B1%5D.2+AA (first 6 parts).

Anyway... i'll be moving out to live on my own at the end of next week. I just got myself a nice TV for my new place.

[Toasty]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Did you take the flower pots as well...?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Did you take the flower pots as well...?

Nah, i just put em back where the TV used to sit. Btw, i was wrong - it DOES have trimpots, so off a-tweakin' i go. I love trimpots. There's also not a service menu per se but a service mode enabled by an internal switch. It looks i won't be needing that.

Edit: Done tweaking size and position. It doesn't look bad, even if i say so myself. Noticed tuner sensitivity kinda sucks on UHF... or maybe we just get crap cable. Looks fine on the other sets tho, we'll see. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Btw, i couldn't find a manufacturing date on this. The only label like looks like one says 92-something. If that's 1992 it sounds about right from the set's capabilities, but i'm still surprised a tube this old has no hue shift.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

The low sensitivity on UHF traced down to an intermittent connection on the board i suspect to be the sound converter. Its ground was attached to the shield of the tuner, and it looks like that wasn't such a good idea. It's fixed now.

All caps are Nichicon, Rubycon or Panasonic. If this meant "low-end" back then... It's going to be tough to find what's responsible of the ripple on the picture.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Found a 100u 25v Nichicon VZ that leaked from the bottom, replacing it fixed the ripples on the picture. I'm about to wrap this one up and put the cover back on.

Bottom line of this story is that caps don't last forever even if they're good brands. Old equipment should always be checked for capacitor failures. Attached a pic of how it looks, of course the flash dulled things down quite a bit, it's brighter in real life. I wanted the pic to have good focus and couldn't do without the flash in this condition. I think the picture is pretty good for a 20 year old tube.

[mockingbird]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

I always avoid Nichicon VR/VZ... Doesn't seem to last as long as Panny or UCC GP caps. Nice job Unique. Long live CRT!

[cmj21973]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

Real good picture for a 20yo tube. Nice save!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What i found on the block... a 28" TV!

I always avoid Nichicon VR/VZ... Doesn't seem to last as long as Panny or UCC GP caps.

Well for 20 years i don't think that cap did bad, besides the HM/HN problem series and this one i haven't seen any other bad Nichicon caps yet. I replaced both 100uF 25v VZs even though only one was bad, i used Rubycon YXA.

Real good picture for a 20yo tube. Nice save!

Thanks. I like that it isn't overly bright and the colors are natural, none of that cold, bluish white typical of sets from 2000 and up. Actually, not going overboard with brightness and contrast is probably the reason why the tube still has life left in it.

Turning down the contrast to minimum gives a BLACK picture, which is a rare sight. With contrast set so that the picture is just barely visible, there is a slight red tinge but nothing major, the color balance is still accurate. Looks like this one is definitely a keeper. I don't really watch TV but it has a SCART input which accepts RGB, so it'll do nicely for watching movies.