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  #1  
Old 06-23-2012, 06:45 PM
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Repair of one of those cheap "last gasp" B&W TV's

Someone gave me one of those 5" Chinese B&W TV's that are so common and I wasted some time this afternoon getting it going. Here's the video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7VlSPyArqA
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Old 06-23-2012, 06:57 PM
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My grandfather has one of those, in black..

I used to have a blue translucent black and white TV that was sold by Target.. It's CRT clamp broke and caused the picture tube to fall into the TV.. I miss that TV, it was so awesome looking..
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Old 06-23-2012, 07:54 PM
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I've fixed a few of those, one had a bad "Jungle" chip, it had no reception but would light up.
Another had a bad Flyback, got one from a donor and fixed it.
A third one came with a broken CRT, fixed with one from the donor set.

They have a really good picture for what they are, I don't recall any buzz in the sound on any of them.
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Old 06-23-2012, 09:18 PM
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These are EXACTLY what my little "sub-collection" is. I have about a dozen of these in different cabinet colors and some with A/V in (both RCAs and 1/8").

Most of these just suffer "abuse"...and generally don't see them fail on their own. ALOT of them do have that buzz in the audio (still dunno where that is coming from). When you can find one with good clean audio...has the 3" speaker rather than the 2" one, these usually DO dial in quite well. I have a couple that have PHENOMENAL picture geometry and sharpness...and are QUITE watchable.

I've scrapped ONE set that had a real mysterious horizontal instability after like a minute (likely caps, but never could find which one). That set gave it's life though to save four other sets of that same general "reference design":

Flyback/HOT.....rescued one with the board cracked for like 3" across...ended up having a bad flyback that then killed the little HOT next to it. Works after carefully dremelling and bridging all the traces..replacing the flyback and hot from the doner set.

CRT......One had a perfectly fine picture, but I didn't like the very odd "cool" bluish CRT it had. It didn't match all the others. The doner set's CRT did match the others.

Yoke.....One set had a picture in the shape of a "parralelogram"..and I couldn't figure out WHERE that was coming from. Turned out it's yoke looked like someone tried to twist it off without loosening the clamp. Doner set's yoke gave it a perfectly square crosshatch again.

Cabinet.....Doner set's cabinet was used for a funny "paint project". I'm part of a car forum (soulhamsters.com)..and the question came up about those cans of "chrome" and "gold" cans of spray paint. Doner set's cabinet was painted half chrome and half gold with a little red pinstripe....just to see what these two colors REALLY looked like (don't bother). The set DID come out fun though...and that cabinet ended up being home to one that was REAL busted up, but working perfectly.

The pics are of a little over half of 'em (all that would fit in a neat little row on that Ikea credenza thing)...with one pic of the one I did the chrome/gold treatment to. I keep them ALL tuned to my little in-house transmitter, so one push of a remote X-10 controller will have them ALL on with the same picture. I know...WEIRD, but I think it looks cool :-P

I'll take better pics of this someday when I can have ALL of them in one place. This collection is fun to see when ALL of them are together and on. I think I have like 14 now, and they all don't fit here unless I start crowding 'em.

It's nice to have someone bring up the point that these were sort of the VERY last reference design for B/W TV sets. I didn't really know how to classify this little part of my collection, because it was an "accidental" collection. I find these...buy them for real cheap if I notice an unusual one. Find them in SORRY condition and use them to practice my TV repair "kung-fu"...and then suddenly, I have a COLLECTION of them :-)
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Row 1.jpg (55.1 KB, 204 views)
File Type: jpg Row 2.jpg (62.1 KB, 212 views)
File Type: jpg Chrome-Gold.jpg (59.6 KB, 51 views)

Last edited by AiboPet; 06-23-2012 at 09:24 PM.
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Old 06-23-2012, 09:43 PM
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And yes Eric.....ALOT of those sets end up with mismatched Wall-warts. If it's anything less than 12VDC and about 500ma...It'll come on but not be at all happy. I've bought plenty at swap meets and the like...that they just found some converter that simply fit the plug, and it's a 6V/200ma or something that would do almost EXACTLY that picture AFTER you fixed the cap. The plug is DEAD common, so REAL easy to end up with the wrong one if not careful.

Also, these tended to be plugged in and forgotten. The wall wart ends up between the wall and some BLANKETS next to someone's bed, etc. I bet ALOT of them melted or just died from heat. You see there isn't much to 'em. If that transformer gets hot and the windings start shorting because the insulation melts....it's toast, and you can't do much about it unless you feel like REWINDING the transformer :-P

Also watch for these to end up with "charger" wall warts. You end up with 12VDC at a kosher current rating....but it's REAL dirty because it was meant to charge NiCads in a cordless drill or something. It won't have the caps inside to take the ripple out. You end up with a set that comes on, but the picture is wavy and you get LOTS of 60hz buzz. I used to think the buzz was from this...but you will notice it changes frequency with the vertical.

I keep at least one "known good" wall wart on my bench JUST for these sets...so I won't mis-diagnose something because of the power supply. I obviously run across these sets WAY more often than you do, so I do sorta have a specific space set aside for working on these.

Last edited by AiboPet; 06-23-2012 at 09:47 PM.
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Old 06-24-2012, 12:15 AM
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Well Aibo, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who likes these things, they make great colorful displays.
I once joked about them becoming valuable like Catalin Radios, maybe I wasn't joking!

I have a lot more still new in their boxes, I pick them up when I find them cheap, I have gone looking on eBay to find specific colors (Purple is difficult), I find lots of White Black and Silver, I sometimes pick them up for parts.

I have a few of the really small 4.5 inch models NIB that are really weird two tone colors like Pink and Green or Aqua, those are really nice but I leave them in the boxes.

If I had the skills and tools I would like to build a 1/4 scale 1950's 21" console using one of these for the chassis, complete with knobs and safety glass, at 5" they are just perfect for that scale.
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File Type: jpg jellybeans.jpg (41.7 KB, 43 views)
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Old 06-24-2012, 12:32 AM
ctc17 ctc17 is offline
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If its mass produced there will be a forum, club, user group, magazine, news letter,....something. Something devoted to it and the pattern problems associated with it.
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Old 06-24-2012, 12:51 AM
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You know what, I got one hell of a 5" black and white set to show you guys. Mine is one inherited by my family. It's an old Unisonic, from I think the early 80's, with a PLASTIC CRT screen. (I think it's protector on front, because I can't imagine a CRT having a CRT screen built in, without imploding very easily).

Has 3 TV position modes, VHF-L, VHF-H, and UHF, and runs on AC and DC power.. But I find using DC power, works better than AC for some reason (may be aging capacitors).

EDIT: Here it is!

radiotvnut, any info on these? I remember this TV in the family since I was a baby, and the thing STILL works with ZERO service.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/IMG_0743.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/IMG_0750.jpg

Last edited by lnx64; 06-24-2012 at 01:37 AM.
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  #9  
Old 06-24-2012, 09:55 AM
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COOL Eric!!

I have a few other small sets as well (Mine IS a "micro" collection). Those little 4.5" sets are neat because I like the high deflection CRTs. The sets are nearly cubes. I have a couple Magnavox "Shadow" sets. ONE of them had become a paint project because I guess the whole front of these is just a piece of real thin lexan or something. I got one from ebay that arrived in TERRIBLE condition and pretty much needed to be "re-imagined". (It's the red one here in the pics). This one is actually VERY much in use. It's in the loo and pretty much stays on at a very low volume any weekend I'm staying home. Gets alot of grins when company comes over and notices I have a set in the loo...tuned to whatever is on in the front room.

I do also have a couple "transparent" versions of the set in this thread. One is blue, and the other is indeed PURPLE. Also managed to find a purple one that wasn't transparent. I got in a weird mood and mounted colored LED modules inside the clear purple one...so it looks EXTRA annoying when turned on :P Friends call this my GAY set, because it just looks like something from a Gay Pride parade. I do sometimes put C batteries in this one and take it places just for a laugh. The LED modules are connected up to the TV side of the power switch on the left, so they come on any time the TV is on....AC or DC. I do keep forgetting that these sets don't get anything but Spanish stations when away from the apartment though. Someday I'm gonna put a transmitter in the little Kia and confuse everyone at the coffeehouse watching my little gay TV :-P

I love those YELLOW ones you have. That is deffinately a color I have NOT seen yet. I could paint up one of the white ones to be yellow, but that would be cheating. The white ones tend to get REAL bad looking if they were in smoking households or in a kitchen window for YEARS. You have that REAL bright blue Pacific Technologies set that I had started this collection with. I have one but the case was all busted up like someone THREW it down the street, and then into the dumpster I found it in (It is now the "open" set on my coffeetable).
Attached Images
File Type: jpg in loo.jpg (85.5 KB, 32 views)
File Type: jpg close.jpg (83.0 KB, 29 views)
File Type: jpg Purple trans.jpg (60.3 KB, 190 views)
File Type: jpg Purple trans close.jpg (64.3 KB, 191 views)

Last edited by AiboPet; 06-24-2012 at 10:07 AM.
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Old 06-24-2012, 12:53 PM
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Those are cool looking sets.

I've noticed they come in dozens of different brands and even though they look similar almost no two are exactly alike inside, close but always some small differences.

When I changed the Fly in the one set it looked the same but I had a difficult time installing it because the pins weren't quite lined up.
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Old 06-24-2012, 01:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric H View Post
I've fixed a few of those, one had a bad "Jungle" chip, it had no reception but would light up.
Another had a bad Flyback, got one from a donor and fixed it.
A third one came with a broken CRT, fixed with one from the donor set.

They have a really good picture for what they are, I don't recall any buzz in the sound on any of them.
I've had a handful of those little generic 5" B&W TV's in my teens. I remember fondly getting my first one at a garage sale back in the summer of 2004. I watched the Summer Olympics that year on it on car rides. It stopped working not too much longer after that.

A few weeks after it broke (early 2005), I noticed Walgreens had almost identical sets for a measly 30 bucks or so. Man, that thing was a piece of crap. The audio hummed like a bumble bee was trapped inside. I eventually took that thing back to Walgreens and got a GPX branded one at another store with a cooler looking looking casing. It was a much better set overall. I ended up selling that one off at a garage sale a year or two later.

I currently have a 5" Tenkai brand B&W set from 1986 near mint in the box. I occasionally use it for playing video games on or to see if I can pick up any of the remaining analog stations during power outages.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg IMG_1514.jpg (57.8 KB, 26 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_1516.jpg (51.2 KB, 33 views)
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Last edited by Trance88; 06-24-2012 at 01:35 PM.
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Old 06-24-2012, 01:20 PM
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I scored a 3" Unisonic "All-In-One" that has a still working cassette recorder/player & AM/FM that actually ain't half bad...The volume control is Shazbat, despite several cleanings, but if you can get it in its "Happy Place", the little bestidge has decent sound/tone. Never have bothered to hook up the TV, it works, & still gets a bleed-off signal from the cable. Cyoot widdle unit, reasonable heavy & robust, especially considering what it is.
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Old 06-24-2012, 01:39 PM
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I have a Realistic (Radio Shack) version of that Unisonic TV and it appears to be a well-made set.

I would like to find one of those later model sets in a transparent case.
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Old 06-24-2012, 01:41 PM
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AiboPet AiboPet is offline
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One of those is on ebay here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221051021938...84.m1423.l2649

I've been "watching" it...but really out of curiosity. Almost $90 opening bid (and shipping), so a little beyond the $50 or so I would pay for it. My VERY first TV I ever owned that i saved up and bought was a Unisonic "briefcase" style 5" combo cassette thing. I do still have that, and it's still going. I've rescued it's vertical at least once since I got it in 1981. I have one that is IDENTICAL to it that is by TMK, and I think TMK (ToyoMenKa) was an actual manufacturer. I pay attention to Unisonic simply because of that first set I still have. I remember playing a CASSETTE of Buckner and Garcia's Pac-Man Fever on that 5" Unisonic when I was like 14 :-)

I also found and bought a JVC 500CX which was the 5" COLOR version of this thing. I got it recently, and SIMPLY because I remember not even HOPING to buy one when I was 14. I felt it was just one of those sets I "had" to find...so I could say I won :-P
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Old 06-24-2012, 02:06 PM
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I couldn't find a good picture of my old Spectra black and white.. This is about the best pic I could find.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...agon/phone.jpg

I had it connected to my Atari/Mitsubishi video phone, as the built in screen has let the factory smoke out. Vidicon tube still works though..

Anyway, here's the Unisonic again.. This was a video but for some reason I lost the connection during the upload when I went to sleep last night.

This is the power that the Unisonic needs:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...gon/tvback.jpg

I however don't have a high enough amp/voltage adapter. All I could find is this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...on/adapter.jpg

It's a Japanese power adapter for a SEGA SG-1000. In america it puts out nearly 16v:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...on/voltage.jpg

I'm fairly certain this TV would have a good voltage regulator anyway, as it's designed to have the DC input plugged into a car, which would fluctuate on voltage a little bit.

Turns out I was right, works just fine:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...dragon/2tv.jpg

Both these TV's are being fed a signal from my Blonder Tongue, transmitting over a short range VHF signal, so these TV's can pick them up on their own built in antennas.
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