Emerson 1270 Portable - Videokarma.org TV - Video

IsthmusTV · #1 06-04-2016, 11:34 AM

I picked up this cute little Emerson portable from a local antique dealer. The chassis appears to be identical to the model 1232 which I know has been discussed before. I think that the only difference is the color of the case (this one is bronze). The 8DP4 tests on the weak side, but will probably still make a decent picture.

Does anyone have a scan of the SAMS for this? It's in 354-7. Here are some photos. I forgot to shoot one before I took it out of the case. D'oh!

I'm not going to try a power-up until I replace the 'lytics in the power supply.

-Clark

robert1 · #2 06-04-2016, 12:16 PM

I have this model set. once re-capped & gone over, these little sets are good performers.

decojoe67 · #3 06-04-2016, 05:39 PM

These are great little sets in person with the radio being a nice add-on. I always known them to be excellent performers.

***Kamakiri*** · #4 06-04-2016, 07:39 PM

I should have the sams. Drop me a PM with your email address and give me a day or two to pull it and scan it.

IsthmusTV · #5 06-05-2016, 10:52 AM

Thanks for the replies, guys! This should be a fun restoration. For one thing, it's super easy moving it around on the bench

And thanks, Kamakiri (I think your name is Tim) I'll send you a PM shortly.

-Clark

IsthmusTV · #6 06-08-2016, 12:19 PM

Thanks to Tim, I got a scan of the SAMS and was able to make some good progress. I recapped the power supply with 'lytics I had on hand which meant paralleling some caps to get the right values. The new caps are so much smaller that it was no problem finding space.

I powered it up with a metered variac and got a raster right away. Current draw after warmup was about 850 MA from the AC line.

I fed it a signal and made the usual adjustments and got this:

Horizontal and vertical lock are very stable. Obviously it still has some issues, but not bad considering that it's still full of cruddy paper caps! Next, I fed it programming from a cable box. The picture looks pretty good, although the CRT is a bit dim (the brightness is up full). The sound works, but is very buzzy. I'll hold off on making any adjustments until I've finished the recap.

The contrast control is a bit flaky. I cleaned it, but I get the highest contrast in the middle of its range. Again, probably a leaky cap. All in all I'm happy with the first power-up

-Clark

***Kamakiri*** · #7 06-08-2016, 09:04 PM

Looking great! These are really fun little guys to restore, and surprisingly roomy inside. I rebuilt this one last year, here's a "before" shot. Ended up trading it to another collector and I believe he sold it on ebay.....

IsthmusTV · #8 06-09-2016, 09:56 AM

Thanks, Tim. Yes, I was surprised at how relatively uncrowded things are on the chassis. It's fun having such a small portable from the 50's, and it let me keep my promise to myself not to bring home any more consoles

It may be a while before I finish work on it (so many other projects) but I will definitely post photos when I do.

-Clark

IsthmusTV · #9 06-19-2016, 01:23 PM

I finished the recap and clean up. For the most part, things went pretty smoothly. Probably the most difficult task was working on this cramped corner that required removing a shield, the CRT and the yoke.

Here it is playing after the recap. The picture is surprisingly good.

The only issue is the linearity is not great. I spent way too much time adjusting and readjusting the centering magnets, ion trap and vertical height and linearity. (I ended up replacing those blue caps in the vertical section that had been added sometime in the past.) This is about as good as I could get it.

I also discovered that the flyback was getting hot and dripping wax. I checked voltages, and found that the 205 Volt supply was measuring 212 Volts. Someone had already added silicon rectifiers but had not added a dropping resistor. I added a 25 Ohm, 20 Watt dropping resistor that brought it down to just over 200 Volts. Now the flyback gets warm but not hot like before. I removed the selenium rectifier to create a nice spot to mount the resistor.

Here's the chassis ready to be reinstalled and a shot of the set back together.

This is a fun little TV! The screen geometry issues don't really show up while watching programming. There is still something a bit wonky with the vertical; there seems to be a bit of fold over at the bottom in the vertical blanking interval.

Here it is playing My Three Sons in the kitchen. The noise in the picture is from the cheap DTV box.

Here is the pile of parts that were replaced to get this little gem going again. It's 60 years old this year!

-Clark

kvflyer · #10 06-19-2016, 04:05 PM

Nice! And as we all know, it is an accomplishment that is appreciated by a few of us and not necessarily understood my most. Lots of work for a small black and white pictrue. Lots of parts replaced. But what a neat thing to do and why? Because we can.

Great thread, great jub.

IsthmusTV · #11 06-19-2016, 04:31 PM

Thanks! It's definitely a labor of love

kvflyer · #12 06-19-2016, 07:11 PM

Oops! It was supposed to say "job", not jub... but I bet you already knew that.

Still nice!

Electronic M · #13 06-19-2016, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kvflyer

Oops! It was supposed to say "job", not jub...

That is what the "EDIT" button in the bottom right corner of all your posts is for....

*zenithfan1* · #14 06-19-2016, 07:48 PM

Looks great! One of these sets is on my want list, maybe I'll get lucky one of these days.

Phil Nelson · #15 06-19-2016, 10:27 PM

Nice job! The kitchen is the right room for this type of TV. I sometimes regret selling my little old 1232.

Speaking of 1232s, someone in ARF posted this photo of one installed in a 1959 Cadillac:

TV doesn't work well in a moving car, but you have to love the gadget-crazed nerds who thought of this.

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html