The elusive Indextron

[Sandy G]

Anytime I read stories about this, or the CT-100, or any other kinds of long-ago exotica, I'm reminded of the scene in the FIRST "Star Wars" when Obi-Wan introduces Luke to the light saber..How it was an elegant weapon from a different age...That sentiment kinda sums up why I collect this stuff...I think of what our merry band of Mad Monks here cherish, Indextrons, CT-100s, 621TS, CTC-7s, etc, & then I stroll thru the local Screaming Yellow Zonker-style TV emporium w/all the cheap & nasty DLPs, LCDs, DVDs & hang my head in shame...

[jhalphen]

Hi Sandy,

I think that we love the vintage stuff because we understand how much research, long hours of work and sometimes sheer genius was involved to turn ideas into working products. They were also built as quality products because "last and repair" was the then current philosophy.

Personnally, i wouldn't jeer at what the last 30 years have brought us in terms of electronic marvels: Quantum-dot lasers, LCDs, taking a 150 year old chemical curiosity and turning it into bright colorful pictures, speaking of micro-projectors like the one showed above it uses a LCOS light engine and a 2W LED, what a wonder! and how about CPUs soon reaching the billion transistors per chip.

I have much respect for the people that developped these technologies. However they are let down by deliberate corner-cutting to force throwaway 2 years after purchase. THAT is where the problem resides, the technology is not flawed "per se" only the deliberate choice to produce it with a finite (short) life.

We make Comm' satellites that are sold with a guaranteed 12-15 year lifetime operating 60x 100W transmitters in the harshest environment known to man: Space, and we couldn't build an LCD/OLED/Plasma screen guaranteed to work for 15-20 years...

I bet that in the technologies described above, there will be some Nobel Prizes distributed, today's scientist are just as inventive as their colleagues of yesteryears.

Just my 2 Euro opinion

Best Regards

jhalphen

[Sandy G]

You're right, Jerome, I just get dismayed by all the "Cheap 'n' Nasty" stuff that seems to be the rule nowadays...A TV nowadays is an ugly grey-black plastic rectangle that displays pretty pictures for 2-3 years, dies, & then you have to go get another one...

[jr_tech]

In my excitement over receiving the Vidimagic projector, I neglected to post any pix of the actual unit. Here are a couple of shots of the unit set up in my "radio shack".
The "stand" at the front of the unit refuses to lock, so two of my favorite books, which are always at hand, "The Sony Vision" by Lyons and "The Cathode Ray Tube" by Keller are being used to prop it up.

jr

[crtfool]

Geez - that thing is bigger than I thought! Nice images and good color reproduction.

So, when do we get to see pictures of the inside?

OT - I WANT a pico pocket projector - for me it will be totally useless, but it is COOL!

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by crtfool

Geez - that thing is bigger than I thought! Nice images and good color reproduction.

So, when do we get to see pictures of the inside?

Well, I thought that I might have to take it apart if the Beta deck did not work, but I finally got a Beta tape (*Dire Straits "Alchemy" concert from 1983), popped it in and it ran fine , so the projector likely will not be coming apart for awhile. Here is a link to some excellent pictures of the insides of a Vidimagic, posted earlier on this site:
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=248120
jr

*What a "blast from the past" we really enjoyed watching this concert last night on the Vidimagic. This video has been long out of print, I felt that I was very lucky to find a copy. This morning, I discovered that as of June of this year the video has been available in the US on DVD and BluRay. Of course, I ordered a copy.

[Sandy G]

Dah-Yum, but that thing looks like the Eevil Dr Whoziwhatzit's Menacing Death Ray...Or at least could easily be turned into one for a homemade Sci-Fi flick....Damn, I need to get off this friggin' computer more often, don't I ?!? But I'd take it in a heartbeat...Eeevil death-ray machine or not...(grin)

[Dinkar]

Where you can download RCA CKC021 service manuals or schematics?
thks.

[jhalphen]

Hi Dinkar,

what is your interest, the camera or the color viewfinder?

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[Dinkar]

Hi jhalphen,

I have the color viewfinder, but only the PCB board and the CRT etc., no More information, so you can help give me copies of service manuals or schematics?

Best Regards

Dinkar
Fujian/China

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Dinkar

Where you can download RCA CKC021 service manuals or schematics?
thks.

I too, would like the manual too--particularly for the color EVF's.
I have TWO of the color VF cameras. One must be an EARLY production...as it has three boards, two stacked on each other and opne below. The other one I do not know about--I never took it apart. I ALSO have a "vidimagic" projo, it is the one with the beta VCR. It "kinda works", sometimes it would go off on its own, the last time I lit it off, maybe 7 years or so ago. It is in the basement here--climate--controlled year around.

[jhalphen]

Dinkar, RCA2000,

Your E-Mail adresses please.

I have scanned all the color VF data for the CKC-021 RCA camera (the 2 board version) and the CC-030 earlier RCA color VF (the 3 board version).

I have not scanned, and will not do the camera itself. It's around 100 pages with tens of meter-wide fold out schematics. The color viewfinders are great fun to use as micro-monitors, but the cameras themselves are totally outdated.

Dinkar, you're in China. Think you could find me a Hitachi HA-11759 IC? it's the color processor in the CC-030 beam-index board and i have a defective VF where the IC seriously heats up. Have been fruitlessly searching for this chip over the last 2 years.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[Scott_Est]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

I have scanned all the color VF data for the CKC-021 RCA camera (the 2 board version) and the CC-030 earlier RCA color VF (the 3 board version).

Hi

This is my first post here on Videokarma. I found Videokarma.org last year, when searched information about RCA vintage video camera view finder model CKC021 which I bought from USA.

My plan is, after hopefully getting a circuit schematic, convert this viewfinder's colour block from NTSC to PAL, because here in Europe is no NTSC signal present, all is digital using PAL parameters (576 lines). Additional converter (PAL to NTSC) will worsen the signal quality significantly, I already tried it. Secondly, all IC's are covered with thick black paint, so reverse engineering is also tricky. And Philco Indextron system is almost unknown here, no specific info about it.

There are no schematics for that in Internet. So that is the reason why I registered to Videokarma with hope, that fellow member Jhalphen still has a copy of it.

After that I planned to build wooden casing resembling old 1940-50 era TV set around this viewfinder, of course it will be very miniature size.

Best regards
Scott

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Scott_Est

Hi

This is my first post here on Videokarma. I found Videokarma.org last year, when searched information about RCA vintage video camera view finder model CKC021 which I bought from USA.

My plan is, after hopefully getting a circuit schematic, convert this viewfinder's colour block from NTSC to PAL, because here in Europe is no NTSC signal present, all is digital using PAL parameters (576 lines). Additional converter (PAL to NTSC) will worsen the signal quality significantly, I already tried it. Secondly, all IC's are covered with thick black paint, so reverse engineering is also tricky. And Philco Indextron system is almost unknown here, no specific info about it.

There are no schematics for that in Internet. So that is the reason why I registered to Videokarma with hope, that fellow member Jhalphen still has a copy of it.

After that I planned to build wooden casing resembling old 1940-50 era TV set around this viewfinder, of course it will be very miniature size.

Best regards
Scott

Welcome to VK Scott,

I have those files you are looking for, Jerome was very generous to send them to me. I will wait for Jerome to respond to your request, but if he dose not see this, I can send to you.

Sounds like an interesting project if you can pull it off.

Best regards,

Marshall

[Dinkar]

jhalphen


Thanks a lot.
My email is dinkar.net (at) gmail.com
OK, I try to find the Hitachi HA-11759, but I can not guarantee to find.