Trashpicked '87 GoldStar knob tuned 13" color TV - Videokarma.org TV - Video

radiotvnut · #1 05-29-2012, 11:25 PM

My neighbor, who just moved, left a pile of garbage behind and in the pile was an '87 13" GoldStar knob tuned color TV. Of course, it still worked when I tested it. These days, it's getting so that it's very common to find working TV's sitting on the side of the road. If it's not flat enough, people toss them. All I did to this set was adjust the G2 and focus controls on the flyback. For a GoldStar, it doesn't look too bad. I've also seen this same set with the GE badge on it. I don't know what I'll do with this set; but, I can't let anything with knobs on it go to the dump. Here's a video I made of the TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q40C--gv6JY

snelson903 · #2 05-30-2012, 03:23 AM

:thanks to videokarma and reawaking my addiction to tv collecting , i find myself once again searching mine and others neborhoods trash pickups days for tv's any chance i get ,i even have gone as far as buying a used tommy lift for my 77 gmc truck, so when im alone i can even pick up a console if i want it . i have been even expanding my work area and storage room ,see what you have done awaken sleeping giant i must be crazy,wife knew about it when she married me

snelson903 · #3 05-30-2012, 03:28 AM

keep it when times get hard you might have something to barter with or parts, i think i will take pictures of the ones i pick out of trash since the begining of the yr people through out anything broken or not ill bet you could open a used stuff shop just you pickup off the curb ,i seen this week end in the trash 3 battery powered kids cars ,the plastic ones they can ride there not cheap they looked in perfect shape probley needed something minner

DaveWM · #4 05-30-2012, 07:20 AM

I suspect a lot of this size tv was purchased as a spare bed room tv or maybe a kitchen tv and maybe did not get a lot of time (that was the case with an old small color set I bought back in the mid 80's this size). If that is the case you often find a set with very little time on it. I agree with your statement about folks junking perfectly good stuff because its not in style. I refer to that as being dumb.

dieseljeep · #5 05-30-2012, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snelson903

keep it when times get hard you might have something to barter with or parts, i think i will take pictures of the ones i pick out of trash since the begining of the yr people through out anything broken or not ill bet you could open a used stuff shop just you pickup off the curb ,i seen this week end in the trash 3 battery powered kids cars ,the plastic ones they can ride there not cheap they looked in perfect shape probley needed something minner

The re-chargable gel-cells are what generally go bad in those cars. People don't charge them at the proper interval. Also when the batteries are too dead, the cheapie wall-wart charger burns out. The earlier ones caused many fires, before they started installing thermal fuses inside the charger.

snelson903 · #6 05-30-2012, 09:37 AM

i thought about picking them but all my kids are there 20's now ,and dont know anyone else with kids that would enjoy them,i remember when they first came out with thoughs always wanted to get kids one but to much money , i worked long hours to keep wife home with the kids & payoff the house,cant stand see something wasted that someone can still get some use out of it, even if you have to modify some part of it.

YamahaFreak · #7 06-03-2012, 02:45 AM

It amazes me to no end what some people will put on the curb.

I was in Falls Church, VA (near to Washington, D.C.) most of last week, and I found (and rescued) no less than five CRT televisions from the trash. We took them back to my buddy's place to fix them, and to my amazement, one by one, they ALL came right up, no problems at all. Two 13" (Sony Trinitron KV-13EXR90 and a Broksonic from the late 80's) a 24" Thomson RCA, a 27" Akai (Samsung clone) flat screen, and a 36" Sharp. The Sharp and Akai have component video inputs, and the Akai has the original remote, and has a fantastic sound system. I kept the Akai; the others are stored pending sale. I want to say the two largest sets (from the same house!!) were unsold in a yard sale, and the owner didn't bother donating them, even with three thrifts in the immediate area.

My house has become a TV orphanage, with sets coming and going. It's kind of sad, but rewarding at the same time.

snelson903 · #8 06-03-2012, 03:22 AM

i know i probley pickup a minum of two a week from the trash ,i cant help myself i like free trash tv's it like it was when i growing up in the 70's ,the only differents is back then they were all tube sets on the curb then ,they were the 60's sets

AiboPet · #9 06-04-2012, 10:25 PM

I really enjoy the "rescue" of a trashpicked TV. One of the old 9" Quasar sets I watch sometimes in the front room was a REALLY sad...dirty...cord wrapped ALL around it...antenna rusted shut set that was in a dark corner of a surplus place.

The guy said he'd not mind if he turned around and it was GONE. I was in there a couple times and joked about STEALING that little sorry TV....but one day went in to buy some little project boxes. Saw the set again, and offered to give him five bucks for the thing. Instead.....the guy GIVES me the "project boxes" I came in for..since I INSISTED on buying the little tired Quasar. Took it home, saw someone had tried to run the thing on a 25' section of lamp cord with a 12V car plug just twisted on with some electric tape. This actually took a bit of playing around replacing burned traces, fuses and some diodes (looked like whoever wrote the set off in the first place had tried to run it backwards :-P )

Cleaned up nicely. It's no show piece by ANY means....but does have a REAL crisp 9" b/w picture and great sound. Was GREAT practice at cleaning pots, diddling controls, cleaning tuners and soldering burnt traces, replacing diodes,etc.

Another odd story was that the FIRST of my little "generic chinese 5" sets"...was LITERALLY a trash find. The thing was TRAGIC looking...case all busted up like someone THREW it. Funny thing though....THAT set has NOTHING wrong with it except that the case is a total loss. It's now "breadboarded" on of all things...an IKEA breadboard (the kind you have hanging in the kitchen). It's a novelty to see it run like that.

YamahaFreak · #10 06-05-2012, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AiboPet

I really enjoy the "rescue" of a trashpicked TV. One of the old 9" Quasar sets I watch sometimes in the front room was a REALLY sad...dirty...cord wrapped ALL around it...antenna rusted shut set that was in a dark corner of a surplus place.

The guy said he'd not mind if he turned around and it was GONE. I was in there a couple times and joked about STEALING that little sorry TV....but one day went in to buy some little project boxes. Saw the set again, and offered to give him five bucks for the thing. Instead.....the guy GIVES me the "project boxes" I came in for..since I INSISTED on buying the little tired Quasar. Took it home, saw someone had tried to run the thing on a 25' section of lamp cord with a 12V car plug just twisted on with some electric tape. This actually took a bit of playing around replacing burned traces, fuses and some diodes (looked like whoever wrote the set off in the first place had tried to run it backwards :-P )

Cleaned up nicely. It's no show piece by ANY means....but does have a REAL crisp 9" b/w picture and great sound. Was GREAT practice at cleaning pots, diddling controls, cleaning tuners and soldering burnt traces, replacing diodes,etc.

Another odd story was that the FIRST of my little "generic chinese 5" sets"...was LITERALLY a trash find. The thing was TRAGIC looking...case all busted up like someone THREW it. Funny thing though....THAT set has NOTHING wrong with it except that the case is a total loss. It's now "breadboarded" on of all things...an IKEA breadboard (the kind you have hanging in the kitchen). It's a novelty to see it run like that.

I enjoyed reading this. This guy really knows what he's talking about!! It really is a rush for me, finding something that's been abused and neglected for so long or so badly that I'm seemingly it's last hope. Call me crazy, but on some of these occasions I am almost moved to tears, not only by looking at the sorry condition, but by the joy that the unit's time to rise again has finally come. I've even brought things back to life I've found buried in the woods...

AiboPet · #11 06-05-2012, 07:29 AM

Since I'm new here....I wanted to figure out how to post pics for future posts.

just a couple pics of when I first got it home (it was actually MUCH dirtier than this, but I didn't want all that in the car)

Then a couple of it done. My little phone camera at the time just couldn't get the GREAT picture on the CRT though.

Tried to include a pic of this thing COMPLETELY apart and up...since it seems to include a decent CRT shot. This thing has a REAL strong picture, and will run for a BUNCH of years. I don't even know the model number...and even had to REALLY look around to even see it was a Quasar (the little plastic Quasar thing is not present on the front lower left where it was)...so no, it's NOT a showpiece, but a VERY respectable little set, and I really love the STORY of how it was in "crap pile". If it wasn't for LAZY employees at the little surplus place leaving this big pile of trash by the two front doors.....I woulda not seen it, and that woulda been it for the little knobber.

That green tape you see in the first pic....was a 12V ciggy lighter plug....with WIRES sorta twisted and taped to the end of it. Have NO idea what the last owner was trying to accomplish with a 25 foot lamp cord and THEN trying to tape wires to the end of a plug (Why he didn't just chop the plug?). Also, I had to "undo" a strange little mod that someone more knowledgeable had done to the set. You'll see on one side where a little toggle was put in and an RCA jack. Someone had a little section of the IF section pulled up and a little shielded cable in there to toggle in a "video in" (but no sound) with a couple little caps and a resistor. I picture this thing being used as someones REAL redneck security monitor for a motorhome or something. 12V...and video (only) in. Then they hooked up power backwards one day.....saw smoke, and it somehow ended up at this little COMPUTER surplus shop. It was a completely unexpected find since this place did NO business with just "old TVs" or anything like it. The fixed up set does have a four prong power plug that is for either AC or DC (Think....old style Sony). For some reason I get smoke if I ever switch the "charge" switch in back to charge....so I just leave it on AC and don't touch it. Dunno what I had done wrong there or maybe this set still has some issue with that part of it's PSU. I didn't wanna smoke the thing for GOOD and then toss it myself (That would have been REALLY sad).

AiboPet · #12 06-05-2012, 08:15 AM

Even THIS little generic set is fun to have on the coffeetable...JUST like this. This was literally a trashpick from the dumpster behind my flat. It was a "Pacific Technologies" bright blue case, but the case looked like someone THREW it down the street (so sad....I liked the bright blue).

I liberated it from the mess it was, thinking it would be just parts to fix something else. When I put it on this little plastic IKEA breadboard to just check it out....She POPPED to life in all her little 5" glory...WITH the AM/FM tuner still working as well. Decided to just leave it this way just for fun. I actually have a small "sub-collection" of JUST these little generic sets in different colored cases and configs. These little sets have an ASTOUNDING little picture when dialed in. Even the audio is pretty good if you upgrade the little speaker....and didn't end up with the few that have real bad "vertical" creeping into the audio.

The last pic is sorta weird because I was actually PLAYING with the set....and had recapped some of it JUST for practice. The weird picture on the CRT is actually because of the source material on the COX cable box being in an odd format (probly an old 4:3 standard def pic on an HD channel). The other pics with my "24/7 Lucy episodes" on my Archos player/HLLY transmitter are more this TV set's "happy place"

YamahaFreak · #13 06-22-2012, 03:06 AM

AiboPet, I love how you've displayed that little set! Almost like a functional museum piece about how CRT TVs work! I'd love to put something like this together with one of my innumerable sets, if I had the time. (Or would that be taking something apart like this?

)

AiboPet · #14 06-22-2012, 11:40 AM

The ORIGINAL plan was it was gonna go into a set with the OPPOSITE problem.....good cabinet with the board BUSTED in half or something. Just that never really came up. These are easy enough to fix, that I've only ended up with one "extra" cabinet...and it's boring black (It'll become a "paint project" someday). This set is MUCH more interesting out like this, and gets ALOT of grins when it's actually running.

It's only unusual requirement is you have to use a small piece of GOOD electric tape to tape the ground lead that was on it's support frame...to the underside of the CRT. I also did "clean up" the yoke leads and crt socket wires so it looks more presentable and allows the CRT to sit nicely next to the PC board. Fortunately the HV lead is already like 8" long, so I didn't have to molest that. Of course this thing will require a good DUSTING every couple months...and making sure it's never on the coffee table if a bunch of friends are over and a Coke might get spilled.

Someday, I'll probly find a HANDSOME little actual cutting board to put it on. One I can stain and make look nice. I'd then "mount" it correctly with proper standoffs, rubber bushings, clamps for the speaker,etc. Then I would turn this "permanent" and it would show much nicer. It would look REALLY quirky if I could HANG it :P

Of COURSE I would not have done this to any collectable set, but I have ALOT of this particular little "toy" set...and can get one for around $5~$15 when I "need" another one. I now only "bite" on these when they have a cabinet color I don't have yet...or an unusual feature (One of them is actually a SECURITY monitor..with THREE inputs that cycle, but looks IDENTICAL to these!).

It's sort of a "sub" collection I guess :P

Jeffhs · #15 06-22-2012, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

These days, it's getting so that it's very common to find working TV's sitting on the side of the road. If it's not flat enough, people toss them.

The flatness (or lack of same) of the CRT isn't the only reason for this. (The screens of most NTSC analog TVs, except RCA's TruFlat sets of the late '80s and '90s, are not flat anyway.) Many perfectly good TVs also get trashed when the owners find out the sets don't work anymore using only an antenna. I'm sure there are still people today, just over three years after the DTV transition, who do not understand why their sets don't work with an antenna, and I am just as certain that, once all cable systems are 100-percent digital (except, of course, for broadcast channels), these same folks may wonder why they can only receive those channels and no others without a DTA (digital transfer adaptor) or a full-featured cable box, or why their set will no longer work with the cable connected directly to the antenna input. They may think the set is hopelessly broken and....yup, you guessed it, out to the trash it goes without a backward glance. Too bad, but that's the way of it these days.