Halolight fix?
 

Just started work on the Halolight I got from Mark (zenithfan1), it's a model 377 which has a dark cabinet with double doors.

Chassis produces a raster after replacing one bad rectifier so I'll recap it, but the halolight light tube is shot. Don't suppose there's any way to revive one of these, is there? The supply has enough power to light up a 40 watt bulb from my ceiling, but nothing from the tube in the set. The tube will light up if I hit it with whatever voltage is going to the picture tube from the high voltage supply, so it does work if you get enough juice to it. My guess is it's gonna be either find a way to get more voltage to the tube, or have a new one made at a neon sign place or something like that? Could there possibly be spares???

...

Is the bulb a fluorescent or a neon?

Where is it getting its power from?

True neon bulbs/tubes require significant voltage from a transformer to "light".

Most of these sets that I have seen over the years have a fried transformer on the Halolight power supply.

It IS similar to a neon tube. The light increased and decreased with the video signal. I've never seen one actually working. It would be a nice thing to see.

Can you post some pics? Even though it was my set, I've never seen the inner workings of a Halolight. Might be easier to come up with ideas. Glad to hear you have a raster. Keep us posted Nick.

Well, I cant help fix, but here is one in action today.

I like that idea, they make significantly more output than the stock transformer does. Mark, it had a raster after replacing what I though was a bad 5U4, but after going back and looking at the tube, it was just installed wrong- they key thingy on the bottom had broken off. It still worked, but since I have umpteen bazillion of 'em, I tossed it to avoid future disaster.

It's now completely recapped (the 'lytics were good! :banana: ), but I can't get horizontal to lock at all. Nice bright raster, but no matter what I do, it won't stabilize. I need a schematic to go any farther with this one, who's got it? It's model 377. Near as I can tell, there's something wrong with either the sync seperator, or maybe horizontal still, but a bright raster and controllable horizontal makes me think sync.

Check for a week solder joint in the sync circuit .
What year is it ? , I might have a schematic ?:scratch2:

No clue what year it is, I didn't find any markings. Would the chassis number help? If you can tell me where on the chassis to look, I'll find it. There are lots of numbers there, I just don't know which one is which. I'll look for bad solder joints too. I don't know what it is they used back then (100% lead?), but it sucks. Takes at least a 40 watt iron to melt the stuff, but even then much of it flakes off. Can't imagine it conducts very well at all.

I rebuilt everything in the high voltage cage as well, including replacing all HT wiring, cleaning, recapping, ect. When I first fired it up afterwards, one of the 5U4's red plated and melted. I had mistakenly connected a 'lytic and a mylar in parallel with each other on a B+ line , so..... hope the schematic shows HV in detail, but since it shows a strong raster I'll assume things in there are OK for the moment.

The chassis number for your set would be 1-518. The Sams folder is 229-15.

I don't have that one, but I have info for the 1-508 which might be close. Or it might just be more confusing.

John

Anything you got will probably be helpful, I had an incorrect schematic for the Philco but enough of it was there to help me out with some gremlins. 1-518 sounds familiar, you got a scan?

If all else fails I wonder if a string of white LEDs inside the mask would make a decent substitute for the light?

I had an HL once, it was really beat but the light worked, so did the set sort of but the CRT was shot.
I finally tossed it, I hung on to the bulb and transformer for a while but finally chucked it to, this was before the internet and eBay of course. :sigh:

I can try scanning it this evening.
John

Here's a scan for the 1-508.
John

Hi,

Any neon sign shop can repair your tube. Replace the electrodes, evacuate and replace the gas.

Bob

Have you checked the pair of 33Meg resistors feeding the light? They may have drifted significantly upward.

I tried bypassing them completely (and the control), and connected the light directly to the transformer secondary- got nothing. :no: There's a member on ARF who says he has a complete Halolight setup for me, so if that falls through it's off to the sign shop.

I did think of another thing though. What if you wrapped a thin wire around the tube, like they do with xenon camera flashes. Maybe if you fed that with some RF, it would encourage the light to work? It will come on briefly if you cycle the power switch on the set, which I attribute to either voltage spikes or RF.

there is a guy in Pa near Pittsburg that has a halolight tv chassis and light assembly , i can foward his information to ya

If he has a good bulb, I'd love to hear from him.:yes:

Does the schematic look anything like your set?

John

Some of it looks the same, like the horizontal and vertical circuits. The schematic shows a doubler in the HV section though, where I have only a 1B3 and a damper. I should be able to use it to figure out what's going on with the horizontal not locking, which is probably gonna end up being something with either the 12AX7 sync seperator, or the 12AU7 right after it. I know AGC is working fine, because if I inject a signal into the tuner I can cut off the 'picture' on the screen by adjusting the AGC pot. It goes blank past a certain point.
I'll have a look at the horizontal circuitry in detail as well on the off chance something's still amiss there, but it seems to be working fine. Well see.

It's alive!
 

She lives! Turns out the Halolight worked, it just needed a good cleaning. Apparently the bulb is very sensitive to static interference, so I cleaned out the housing it sits in, then shot the bulb and plastic with anti-static spray. Works like a champ!

Only reason why it didn't get a solid picture last time I worked on it was a few out of tolerence caps in the horizontal hold circuit, causing a no-lock situation. Replace the caps, and bingo, great picture!

This is going to end up being my favorite set, I can already tell. With the Philco I just kinda got that 'cool, it's an old TV' feeling. With this set, it's entirely different! The Halolight is something to behold, especially if you've never seen one in person before. It's like there's a whole new dimension to the TV, inviting you in to watch.

Dark is the best time to watch it, obviously. You don't need much light from the Halolight to make a difference, either. I found it gives best picture when the Halolight is set just above the lowest setting. I started a new thread to showcase the pictures, check it out!
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=242474