Using brighteners?
 

Good day everybody!

I know back in the day people use to use brighteners on there weak CRT's. Well how effective was it? I have a 1955 Majestic 21inch console that is getting weak. It takes a few minutes for full brightness, which isn't much. Brightness is set about 90-95% full. Retrace lines too.

Would a brightener help before I can afford a rebuild(hah!) or would it destroy the heater? Check out the photo I have.

Does that look like a weak CRT to you? 21EP4B is what I have and its already a rebuild. Origional was a 21ZP4, this looks like the same tube but the gun in the CRT has handwritten on actual structure 21EP4B.

If a brightener would work does anyone have one theyd be will to give up?
Thanks!

A brightener can extend the life of a tube and will not destroy it overnight. Sometimes you can run a brightener for a day or so and then take it off-the effects of running at higher voltage will remain even after it as been reduced, if only for a little while. Eventually the cathode will just plain wear out. I have an Emerson 21" that perked up with a brightener but finally, the last time I used it, the picture just faded to a barely visible image. The CRT is just plain shot. Luckily I have a spare. The good news is your set uses a fairly common picture tube so finding a replacement might not be so bad.

...

I'd suggest getting a later model B&K (like a 467, 470, 480, or 490) CRT tester. These usually do a pretty good job of bringing back a weak tube. Stay away from models below 467 unless you want to fry your CRT. These can often be bought on epay for a reasonable price since the popularity of the CRT is fading.

I've ran into TV's (both B&W and color) with a brightner hanging off the tube. Sometimes, the tube would already be worn to the point where rejuvenation would not work. Other times, I've removed the brightner and they rejuvenated just fine. I've seen a few B&W tubes with open filaments as a result of a brightner. An old TV repair friend told me that he once had a B&W set come in with 3 brightners hanging off the tube. He added that the filament was burned out.

If a decent CRT tester is not possible, go ahead with the brightner. I think you'll have better results with the CRT tester.

The user's manual for the Beltron CRT Restorer is pretty clear that using a brightener will severely reduce the likelihood of a successful rejuvenation later. The last few Beltron CRT restorers on eBay went for less than 30 dollars. Every serious vintage TV collector ought to have one. My 2c.

ditto on the beltron. They do wonders on weak CRTs, far more than any of the sencore or B&K rejuvenators I've owned. Worth having one if you're going to be in this hobby.

I agree with Kbmuri and Jordan about Beltrons. After reading about their success with bringing back several hopeless tubes i went out and bought one myself. It brought back several that my other restorers didnt and so far their still working great.
-Tony

So what do they do different than others? I have a Central Electronics Model RE-1 Multiphase crt Rejuvatube, with a B&K C40 Color & 110 deg. tube adapter and a B&K Cr-4 adapter. I have yet to use it but it's probably not a good unit, right?

...

The 2972-E does not use the 9-pin connectors (if andy's question confused any 2972 owners). All the different crt sockets are all just glommed together in parallel on one big ungainly cable and you use whichever one fits.

The 8080-A is a bit cleaner, the main cable with the octal tube base (that plugs into the 3 octal sockets on the main unit) has a 9-pin Molex-like rectangular female connector at the other end. Then you get a bunch of individual cables with a CRT socket on one end and the male 9-pin Molex-like rectangular connector on the other end. Lets you pick the CRT socket that fits and plug it (and only it) into the main cable. Leave the other cables on the service truck.

I use my 2972-E all the time, with great results.

Case in point: I bought an RCA 721-TS at the ETF convention last spring with a known bad CRT.
http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/johnson_TV5.jpg
So far it's the only "restorable" CRT I've encountered that the Beltron couldn't fix. A "restorable" CRT meaning it has filament continuity and vacuum -- nothing can be done if the filament is burned out or if it's gone to air. Probably goes without saying that somebody before me fried the 721's CRT with a cheapie rejuvenator or ran it forever on a brightener before retiring it. On the bright side (pun intended?) I also bought a well-used 10BP4A at the same time (ETF's silent auction) for a good price, and it responded perfectly to the low-risk "clean" function of the Beltron and shows a nice bright raster on my test jig. Am saving it to put in the 721 when I get a round tuit.

I bought an 8080-A from that ePay place because I was the only bidder and got it for a couple bucks and was curious what the difference between the two was. Not much besides the connectors and an extra switch to power 12V-filament CRTs. Anyway, the 9-pin connector is made by AMP, so I researched it and couldn't find a match. Closest I got was these:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine....38&Ns=P_SField

But I doubt they would plug-n-play. It would be possible to buy a female and then a bunch of males though, and retrofit all the existing connectors and then make new adaptors to your heart's content. I'd be inclined to try that. I need to make a few homemade adapters myself (one for the 7JP4 for sure), so I could go that route if need be.

Back on topic: mattdavala, I think the consensus is for you to NOT run your CRT on a brightener. If it has a dim pic now, without having been abused, it would probably restore to like-new and run for an indefinite period of light use if you got it to a good CRT restorer. Borrow one or buy one from that ePay place next time one shows up. My 2c.

I am glad to say that I purchased a Beltron 8080 off ebay. I am not glad to say how much I paid for it. I have been keeping a look out for Beltrons on ebay for the past couple of weeks, and this was the first one that popped up. Its ebay item # 370036091436.

Its complete with 10 adapters and 2 manuals. Can't wait to get it now!

Best regards,
Matt Davala

The tube may be weak, and a good rejuv and perhaps a brightener may bring it back some. The retrace lines I see suggest that there may be other areas in the set such as the video amplifier stages after the pix IFs that may bear further study to be sure things are as they should be.

Yeah, that was a lot to pay for one. It's hard to say what they are "worth". I think the only commercial use left for them is for video-arcade-game repairmen to rejuve CRTs on older games. In a business environment like that, $288 woud be a reasonable expense, as it would pay itself back pretty quickly. For hobbyists like us, maybe, maybe not. I imagine you just wanted one "now". Fair enough. With some patience, I think in the next 6 months probably 4 or 5 Beltrons might have shown up on ePay and sold for $25-$50. Or might not have. They're very hit-and-miss. For the convenience of "now" I guess you did ok. For what it's worth, the one you bought started out at $700 and has been for sale for a couple of years. I always wondered if it would ever sell. On the good side, it looks completely complete and is tested working. You'll want to pull all the light bulbs and check them with an ohmmeter just to be sure. I don't know how many old CRTs you have, but you may want to practice on a CRT that's not important to you first, just to get a "Feel" for using it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

...

kbmuri,

How can you tell if a CRT has lost vacuum? Do they show no emission?

The silver or mirror-colored portion of the neck will turn white. That means air has chemically interacted with the getter material deposited on the inside of the neck. This is true of nearly all vacuum tubes, not just CRTs.

That's a "slow leak". Of course the obvious indicator of a CRT losing vacuum quickly is the face of the CRT will lose a lot of the phosphor. Usually a big ugly black spot in the center of the tube.

They'll also show no emission, but that's a side effect. Open filament or completely worn out cathode will also show no emission, even if vacuum was maintained. In the case of worn out cathode, that's when the Beltron Restorer comes into play. Usually it can fix that.

Well after looking at all of the adapters that came with Mr. 8080 Beltron, none are for my B/W tubes!! Kind of a waste. . . . I need the BR-3 adapter. . . . . and the BR-1 for my roundie.

What can I do? Searching the internet comes up with no leads.

Thanks!
Matt Davala

I have a "restorable" 21ZP4B if anybody needs one. Free for pickup before I am forced to MAKE ROOM (boom). I got lucky and found a replacement which made my 56 Philco just like 1956 again! Too bad I can't find a back cover.....

Matt -

Rotten luck.

You can chop up one of the oddball adapters and make a new one out of it and a used crt socket. In fact, you can chop up an oddball adapter and just put alligator clips on each wire, and make a "universal" adaptor. It's a tad more risky to do that, as you need to make SURE every time that you clip the right wire to the right CRT pin. Making an adaptor out of a spare socket means you only have to be SURE once. Of course, having the original NOS adapter means you don't have to think about it at all. Shame about your eBay purchase.

When I get home from work, I'll look at mine and sketch up a diagram. Remember, my 8080A came without any adaptors at all, so I might have to "punt" a little. Post a couple of closeups of your least exciting adaptor. Maybe we can figure out wire colors remotely. If so, I can probably scrounge up the needed sockets and send you the two you need. If you're interested, maybe even mail me an adaptor and I'll wire and test it for you. Price would be one more adaptor that I can wire and test for me. If interested.

Matt,

Talk with Don (refill233). He has been a great help to me with the beltron. I believe he has parts and adapters as well as the replacement lamps.

According to my documents there's no such thing as a BR-1. I believe you meant BR-2. The BR-3 does most of the early B/Ws like 10BP4, 12LP4, etc. The BR-2 does early roundie colors like 21AXP22, etc.

For BR-2, you want to do the following:

Beltron Plug Function CRT Socket
----------- -------- -----------
1 - Black Filament 1
5 - Red K Red 2
8 - Yellow G1 Red 3
6 - Orange G2 Red 4
6 - Orange G2 Green 5
4 - Green K Green 6
8 - Yellow G1 Green 7
3 - Blue K Blue 11
8 - Yellow G1 Blue 12
6 - Orange G2 Blue 13
7 - Brown Filament 14

The Beltron plug is numbered
123
456
789

where the slanted/rounded corners are on bottom.

BR-3 is:

Beltron pin 1 Black -- Filament -- CRT Socket pin 1
Beltron pin 8 Yellow -- G1 -- CRT Socket pin 2
Beltron pin 4 Green -- K -- CRT Socket pin 11
Beltron pin 7 Brown -- Filament -- CRT Socket pin 12

Super excellent! I just need an old socket to use. Do you have one I could use, Kbmuri?

Thanks!
Matt Davala

...

I have a spare B/W socket for making a BR-3 you can have. I thought I had several BR-2-style color sockets but I don't. I got a big "parts box" awhile back that had several NOS color tube brighteners. After checking them, I see they're for later CRTs so the sockets are wrong. The only two roundie-color-style sockets I have are on my working Zenith and on my Beltron 2972-E. Can't part with those...

Send me a PM if you want the B/W socket.

- Kirk

Matt -

Your socket is on the way. It cost a few bucks to ship, and it came from my box of tv scraps. You've already paid enough for your Beltron, I don't need reimbursed. You can pay the favor forward to another AKer down the road.

The black and brown wires on it are already color-coded correctly. The red wire you will ignore (it's the grid 2 wire, the Beltron doesn't need to access grid 2). The green and yellow wires I believe you will have to cross. But doublecheck my opinion, for sure. The very best warm fuzzy would be for someone out there to Ohm out a complete adapter, from octal pins to CRT socket and post the results. Any volunteers?

Also, I recapped and checked all resistors on my 2972E before ever using it. I would recommend doing the same on yours. It's a pretty old piece of gear, just like our old TV sets.

Hopefully somebody else out there in AK land can set you up with the color socket.

Have fun and let us know how it goes.

- Kirk

p.s. Don't trust the wire colors in the original cable. Go by pin position. I opened mine up, there's no black wire and an orange wire is where you'd think the black wire should be...

I Ohmed the cable, and at least one thing's easy:

Octal pin 1 ==> AMP pin 1
Octal pin 3 ==> AMP pin 3
Octal pin 4 ==> AMP pin 4
Octal pin 5 ==> AMP pin 5
Octal pin 7 ==> AMP pin 7
Octal pin 8 ==> AMP pin 8

Octal pin 2 = N/A
Octal pin 6 = N/A


So in theory:

Octal pin 1 ==> CRT pin 1
Octal pin 8 ==> CRT pin 2
Octal pin 4 ==> CRT pin 11
Octal pin 7 ==> CRT pin 12

and disregard wire colors.

Let me see if i can clear this up some. Missed this thread completely.Beltron made two different models of restorers.The 2972E that sold for $339.00 and the 8080A that sold for $399.00. Both units were very good, but the 8080A was somewhat easier on your picture tube. It had some circuit changes that improved it (some).They made the complete line of adapters for each. Listed below are some of the adapters and use.

AE-4 OR BR- A = MAIN CABLE
AE4-1 OR BR-1= ROUNDIE COLOR SET
AE4-2 OR BR-2 = 14 PIN MEDIUM COLOR
AE4-3 OR BR-3 = 12 PIN B&W
AE4-4 OR BR-4 = 8 PIN B&W

AE-6 OR BR-6 = RCA PINLESS

AE-8 OR BR-8 = SONY ONE GUN
AE-9 OR BR-9 = SONY THREE GUN

CLEANING LAMPS = 49
RESTORING LAMPS = 10S6 AT 250 VOLTS
FUSE = 1 AMp

Current as of July 1, 1982

If you need any parts or help just let me know and Matt you have a PM.

Don,

Thanks refill

I stand corrected on the BR-1. There may be some gray areas. The Beltron restorer was originally produced by Appleway electronics, then for a long time was owned by Edtron Instruments, inc, and then by Conway Manufacturing, inc (and then by Conway Engineering, inc). I believe by the time Conway was manufacturing it, they stopped supporting the BR-1 and removed it from all their documentation. My 8080 is a Conway version. There's no reference to a BR-1 in the setup manual or the adapter spec manual.

I have a Conway document called "Beltron System Universal Adapter". It lists pinouts for:

BR-2
BR-3
BR-4
BR-5B
BR-6
BR-8
BR-9
BR-10
BR-12
BR-14
BR-15
BR-17
BR-19
BR-21
BR-23
BR-25
BR-26
BR-28
BR-29
BR-30
BR-31
BR-32
BR-33
BR-34
BR-35
BR-36
BR-37
BR-38
BR-39
BR-40
BR-41
BR-42
BR-43
BR-44
BR-45
BR-46
BR-47
BR-P1
BR-P2
BR-P3
BR-P4
BR-P5
BR-P7
BR-P8
BR-P9
BR-P10
BR-P11
BR-P12
BR-P14

A page for "BR-1" is conspicuously missing. It's not clear what the BR-P** variations are for, but the BR-P1 is for a B/W crt. I can only assume that by the middle 1980's there was no market to support restoring any more 21AXP22's.

I'm pretty confident in my octal-to-crt pinout for the BR-3 (10BP4-ish socket) as written above. The BR-2 pinout, maybe take with a grain of salt.

refill, if you would be wiling to write up a pinout for your BR-1 adaptor, it would really be helpful. If the 8080A is a better restorer, I would like to start using mine instead of my 2972, which means another recap, and then making some adaptors myself. I would likely just make several of them from old Octal tube bases and eliminate the intermediate AMP plugs altogether. A point-to-point scope of a known original adaptor seems critical at this juncture. Hope you can help us out...

I first used the Beltron in early 1970's. It was the quick and easy picture tube fix. We charged $20.00 for Color and $10.00 for B&W. Also we gave 1yr. on the tube. That was your money refunded on the purchase of a new or rebuilt tube. Most lasted the year. It has brought tubes back that others wouldn't touch. The 8080A's were the super restorers.
They took a somewhat softer approach on the tube. They changed the polarity on the capacitors which was easier on the tube with the same good results.

BR-1 ADAPTER PIN LAYOUT
PICTURE TUBE SOCKET

PIN-1 FILAMENT-BROWN
PIN-2 RED
PIN-3 N/C
PIN-4 YELLOW-RED TRACE
PIN-5 YELLOW-GREEN TRACE
PIN-6 GREEN
PIN-7 N/C
PIN-8 N/C
PIN-9 N/C
PIN-10 N/C
PIN-11 N/C
PIN-12 BLUE
PIN-13 YELLOW/BLUE TRACE
PIN-14 FILAMENT-BROWN

MAIN PLUG

PINS-2-6-12 RED-BLUE-GREEN WIRES TIED TOGETHER-PIN-8 MAIN PLUG (THAT PLUGS INTO BELTRON)
FILAMENT PIN-1 TO PIN 1 MAIN PLUG
YELLOW/RED TRACE TO PIN-5 MAIN PLUG
YELLOW/GREEN TRACE TO PIN-4 MAIN PLUG
YELLOW/BLUE TRACE TO PIN-3 MAIN PLUG
FILAMENT PIN-14 TO PIN-7 MAIN PLUG

6 WIRES SHOULD BE CONNECTED TO THE MAIN PLUG.

(DO NOT USE THIS FOR 2972E!!!!!!! IT IS DIFFFERENT. FOR 8080A ONLY.)

PICS BELOW.

Hope this helps,
Don

Looking up for the Beltrons. Check this one out on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-BELTRON-...QQcmdZViewItem

Don

Nobody bought it. It's a 2972E just like mine. Notice the big universal adaptor with a glom of sockets on one end.

50 bucks is the going rate. His opener of $99 was too high. If he relists it for no reserve and 25 bucks, it will be worth keeping an eye on...

Well I picked up a 8080a recently. Or it could be a 8081 according to a paper I found in the case. Allegedly it was updated. Well I was missing a couple key adapters so thanks to this post I may have it figured out. I have two setup books...one old one that refers to sockets instead of BR adapters. I also got a slew of oddball papers some certificates to give out, stickers, and even some ad's for newspapers. A few spare bulbs were in there too. Do they burn out often?
I decided to use some crt pigtails I had on a elcheapo tube tester. I will be making one for B/W A BR-3/BR-4 combo into a octal plug. And a BR-1/BR-2 into an octal. I have it all figured out amazingly except I noticed on my B/W pigtail it has crt pin 10 included. I should just do away with that one correct? Why do you think the cheapo tester included it?
Hopefully when I get a scanner going I can scan some of the papers I got with the unit to share.

I have two sets of instructions. I'm not sure which one is newer. One says"Heater meter will read approximately 14 volts until picture tube is engaged)" the other says "AC voltage meter will read approximately 15V until the picture tube is engaged." These quotes are both from the beginning paragraphs. Oh, my machine is a 8080a. I found a picture of a 8081 and this is not one.

I noticed my short light is on even though I do not have a crt hooked up. What would cause this?

Aha! One set of instructions say if the light comes on there is a short. The other says if it goes out there is a short. So I guess I have to use the one with the light on before connecting the cable. this is also the one that says 15 V. It also has a half sheet of paper with big red letters "IMPORTANT INSTUCTIONS" with "please read and follow closely to get best results from your beltron." in black. This set of instructions say nothing of model number.

The other set that say 14 volt and light comes on when shorted has the title "Beltron picture tube restorer instructions for model 8080a."

When letting a crt "cook" at a higher heater voltage for awhile shouldn't the grid be disconnected somehow? Or doesn't that matter? If I should is there a place I can put a switch in that's preferable?

Well, I'm pretty stoked! I had my first success with my beltron. I tried it out on my 17lp4 for my old Zenith and the emissions were not that great. When it slowly came up it was around .90. So I tried the cleaning function. It all went as the instructions described. I went back to the test and as soon as I had 6.3 volts ...zoom up it went and was very close to 1. And when interrupted it held for a significant amount of time. :) So I am happy! The beltron works as it's supposed to (at least the test and cleaning functions) and my crt is good. :)