Woohoo! Sharp 25R-S100 with remote by the side of the road. (Updated Goodwill find!)
 

Well, it's not what I'm hoping to discover, but it seems that fate has taken notice of my desire to acquire some TVs at least.... :scratch2:


http://www.funkengine.net/curbside/06-20-14_1029.jpg

:banana:

Model: R25-S100, manufactured in 2002.

Sign on the face of the tube says "FREE FREE WORKS" and the remote is taped to the top. I just lugged it in from the car (At 28, I'm beginning to think that I'm shortly going to be too old to live in a 2nd floor apartment.) and haven't powered it on (and won't, yet, see below.) but nothing seems visually wrong with it.


It couldn't have happened on a better day either. The YL is coming over for more electronics knowledge acquisition this evening, and I just purchased a shiny new Rigol oscilloscope (which will get it's own thread shortly.) and was planning to hit up the thrift stores for some simple consumer electronics items that make for good probing, but now I'm going out to the thrifts to find a bigger or at least sturdier workbench with enough room for two people to share. And a few $3 transistor radios and alarm clocks too.


I can only hope I'll find something with more than "one" "tube" in it someday.


I like my 19" 1989 Zenith System III just fine, I don't need this 24" (or 27"?) but when it has served it's current purpose, I will pass it on to someone who will actually use it. The last time I actually had my TV on was to watch the winter Olympics. I'd say I average less than an hour per year of actual TV watching in my own home.

Would NOT have touched. Worked on them when they were new, 20 or so years ago. HATED them. Hot chassis, flimsy single board--NOTHING to attract me. They often get vertical problems, nearly ALWAYS just caps. Flys seem to be a bit better than the ones from a few years before. Tuners also sometimes go bad/get intermittent. If you like it--good, but I will save my collecting energy and funds for tube and MUCH earlier SS stuff.

I wouldn't have bothered either. Not old enough.

I reckon you'll get more picky as I did with time and the arrival of nicer SS and perhaps hybrid sets. I've junked more than I actually have right now. Never did have an interest in anything that recent though. Just last week I passed up a CTC203 set by the curb within spitting distance of my place. Not even worth getting for parts to me.

If I were you I'd build a workbench. Easier to get what you're looking for and much cheaper.

Oh yeah, I _only_ picked this up because I needed something to tear down as a teaching experience for the YL. I plan on it surviving the process and I'll give it directly to someone who actually wants it and will keep and use it. If I make $10 on the deal for "checking it out and servicing/adjustments." that's cool, if not, I got the value I needed out of it. It was all :sadwave: as I dove past. (I was actually thinking: Maybe one of these trash pickup piles has a microwave in it.) Had it been any of the various funai/san-sui/Coby brands, I'd have completely ignored it. Same goes for a similar vintage "RCA" Which is funny, I like telling people "RCA is now a French company (Thomson) that has manufacturing plants in Mexico. Go 'murrica!" I'll at least stop and prod anything Sharp/Panasonic/Samsung/Sony for free, but I'm not stopping for anything completely without worth or redemption.

I just scored this at Goodwill. Oh dear god, never again will I forget that going to *that* Goodwill outlet on a Friday (People get paid on Fridays, I've been told.) is a terrible idea... Because holy crap, we're talking bluebottles on a fresh cow-pat type frenzy!


http://www.funkengine.net/vk-img/201...0/Zi6_1531.JPG
http://www.funkengine.net/vk-img/201...0/Zi6_1533.JPG
http://www.funkengine.net/vk-img/201...0/Zi6_1534.JPG
UHF still had 70-83 back in 1986?
http://www.funkengine.net/vk-img/201...0/Zi6_1536.JPG
Fairly great condition overall. I'll find out tonight what functional condition it is in. Presumably someone at goodwill powered it on, and made sure there was static on the screen and the radios worked.

It has a degauss button on the back, that's a very desirable feature in a portable set I would think.

I think it is close to being "vintage" and now I have the added peace of mind that the YL is much less likely to suffer serious injury during the lessons. More points to probe, too! None of this "Here's the RF in, here's the tuner chip, baseband comes out of that and goes into this chip, and hey here's the color gun signals, audio goes that-a-way, mind the flyback lead, dear." crapola. I'm expecting it to be mostly discrete chips for the different functions along the way.


My new pride and joy!

http://www.funkengine.net/vk-img/201...0/Zi6_1524.JPG

Hmm, anybody happen to randomly have a service manual or schematic for the TC7 on hand? So far everything I've found is for-pay or for a modern LCD flatscreen that has "TC7" in the chassis number.

Booo!

Whooo Hooo ! !

Good for you ! ! ! I am a Sharp Fan, I always pick them up, never had a bad one....

I think it's just my luck cause I worked for'em light years ago....

I think those sets see me comin and know I like'em and they just perform better for me! !

I like that cabinet design, where they make it a point to have the cabinet hug as close to the tube

as they can, even around back.... Makes them much more manageable..... I got a Sanyo like that too..


Is that a digital scope....? Working....? or to be worked on....?

And yah, I noticed sets get tossed out with the remote taped to the top now.... I guess they want someone
to pick it up, or they gotta take it to the R-center.... So are they like, "being kind..." or just
deciding not to be a-holes......?



.

I was gifted an RCA version of the little Emerson this AM. Radio seems to work, TV is dead. Hey, it was FREE, what can I say ?

I threw away a 25" Sharp just like that, manufactured in '98..It worked but I couldn't justify taking it in a move. Someone took it the same day I put it out..likely a scrapper. They're pretty reliable sets, but the CRT was soft in a few I've seen--it wouldn't focus until about 20 seconds after power up.
My '80s Sharps are good sets IMO..I have a '84 13" with composite input and remote and an '82 with remote and an LED tuner readout. Only gripe with these is that the cabinets are cheap..If you play the volume loud on either one, there is bad rattle even after tightening up all cabinet hardware.

Brand spankin new! :yes:

Rigol DS1104Z. I have other scopes, but nothing that is actually close to calibrated enough for modern small-signal work I do. Hell, this thing even does all the math/trig for me, I'm going to get rusty with that... Pass me the naval jelly, would you?

For free, you can't go wrong! Hope you get it working.

The idea is to have fun & learn. Aint no Zenith flat chassis or
RCA 2000 but the price was right. As far as Sharp sets go I
will toss a bomb & see what happens. IMHO as usual....

Sharp sets are not a premium set & never were meant to be.
They did slip in a few gooduns now & then.
Tube sets were crappy, on a par with GE.
Early solid states were not bad but a pain to work on.
The next batch defined junk, remember all the RTRNF00**CEZZ FBT's
that went up in smoke ? Thats what you get for an under $200 19".
The set in question was not bad to deal with. All I remember
was the little square blue on/off relay that went bad L&R. Other
than that for the $$ it wasnt as bad as other "value" brands.
And one other thing with Sharp & many other of that era.
Without the OEM remote they are useless.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Turns out the TV is fine-AC cord/plug is "Spotty"..Mine was made in 1991.

I seem to remember that these sets also seem to develop problems in the 12V. ckt, often causing a dead set. Seems that often a zener would short and kill that line. Not a hard fix. Also, the standby tranny sometimes got killed, I guess by a surge. Again, not a hard fix--IF you can get one. As stated before--the blue relay and the supression diode that often would short across the coil--causing a dead set. ALL of those were easy fixes.

All in all--these are not hard sets to repair. By now--you likely will need to replace a few caps in the vertical ckt. Not sure if this one uses a chip out for vertical or discrete outs. ON the somewhat unlikely chance of a bad fly--I think they will be available and are NOT hard to change--nor too expensive. As stated--the generation before these ATE flybacks--particularly the 19 inch sets !! IF your tube is good (kinda "iffy, I saw nearly NEW sharps os this era with VERY bad tubes--and a LOT that had decent tubes too..), it IS a fair set to repair and flip.


They just do NOT float my boat...too new, too boring, too common. I sent one like it, along with a JVC and a MAG set of the late 90's--to the dump when I moved my garage....need the room for vintage stuff.

Zeno, I'm with you on that one. I'll throw out a bigger bomb... ( ready to duck and take cover.. haha) IMHO Sony is not one of my faves either. They started out with a premium product ( and I am a HUGE fan of the Trinitron tube), but in the early days, they were a bitch to get parts for if you weren't an authorized service center. They had a "tude".. Then towards the late 80's they started shipping out crap, and rolled with it because they were SONY. I look for older Trintrons, but have discovered that it's "good luck" finding a decent tube on one.

Ha, I think zeno beat you to that one actually. I'm not a fan of Fonys either, and I started with one from 1987. Don't know if the CRT was weak or if there was something wrong with the video stage, but I couldn't be bothered to find out so I junked it. The remote was badly worn which was a good indicator of heavy use. Couldn't unlock locked-out channels without that remote. I never liked the "must use OEM semiconductors" thing.

We are on the same page on Sony. The early ones were better than most
sets of the time. In the 80's they got easy to deal with & easy to fix
but reliability started sliding. Other top of line sets were just as good, pix
quality became just a thing of taste. In the early 90's with Zenith going
to the dogs were got a Sony franchise NOT easy to do. It took a year to
get & the thing that finally got it was a visit from one of there tech
who was impressed by our operation. In the end the Sony CRT sets
were probably the most unreliable sets. Tons of FBT's, power supply &
bad connection problems & tuner problems. Parts on 2 yr old sets
were coming back NLA jugs were shorting & dealing with sales became
a real pain. It all ended abt 4 yrs ago, in business since 1957 & the
last real surviving Mom & Pop in the area. All worth nothing:sigh:

73 Zeno:smoke:

Aye-Yup... I bought that 36" Trinitron right after they came out, what, late Nineties or early 2000s ?, And it died last fall-CRT would go dark, except for red splotches. In other words, I only got about 15 yrs of life offa it-Pretty shabby when a LOT of us have color sets from the FIFTIES still boogying along.. It COULD have been something simple, but WHO do you take a TV to be fixed anymore ? I'm 57, have a bum knee, & there was NO WAY I could man-handle that 280 lb monster & try to get it into the Mighty Valdez... And even if I DID, how the hell do you get it IN a shop to be fixed ? Terry's the only one I know who could fix it, but I think lugging it into his shop would be pushing our friendship...

Sandy G... oh god....you really did buy one of the HEAVY ones. ( and I bet paid a ton for it new) I have 2 32" that are my main watchers, and when they die... out to the trash they go. I am to old and FAT now to be lugging anything that heavy anymore. That 32" JVC I'art about killed me when I brought it home. I love CRT sets, but never again with anything that huge.
You wanna talk heavy tho.. someone on CL has a top of the line 27" Sony ( black lacquer cabinet) in the free section. The hoarder in me was all "ohhhhhhhh" but reality kicked in and I said EFF NO.

I suppose one major advantage to a flat screen is that you can get a big screen TV and it not kill you when trying to move it. I have a 32" HD XBR that's been in my basement for 2-3 years and I think it has bad MCZ IC's in the power supply. When I got it, my plans were to fix and sell it. Well, that's pretty much impossible today; so, if someone showed up here who would help me get it out, it would go to the dump (same goes for another 32" Sony that's also in the basement).

I had a friend who was in the second hand business and he was the only one who could sell a CRT TV; but, he passed away a few weeks ago and I've made the decision not to fool with anymore SPC/BPC TV's. When I list them for sale, they generally sit here with no interest and when someone does call, they either don't show up or they expect a new TV for $15 or $20. Frankly, I don't have the time or the patience for that BS.

I'm thinking of donating what few working BPC TV's that I have to one of the thrift stores and washing my hands of them.

I remember DEAD-LIFTING that Bad Boi when it was new-And I was only 40-42 or so, & I saw Stars, Moons, Lightnings... Another problem is they're way out of balance, & there is NOTHING to really "Get a FIRM Purchase" on when you're trying to move one-Just slippery grey/black plastic... Fun, fun, fun..

I could barely team-lift a 36" Fony, can't imagine what moving one solo must be like.

Bring to mind something most here may not have seen. Dont remember if Sonys did it but something to watch on SS sets.
When the vert output fails sometimes the yoke gets enuf DC on it to pull
the pix off the screen. You will see blurry blotches until you shut the set
off then the the "no vert" line shows up for a second. Very bad for the
set, its the cause of Zeniths getting necked, indirectly cause by the
4 lead cap. So thats one reason why modern sets have shutdown
for no vert along with overcurrent et al. Any newer sets with a vert
output IC should be resoldered, many brands had trouble here.

73 Zeno:smoke:

LOTSA Fun, my friend.. I WAS a very strong Young Man..Picked up a 289 Ford short block, & toted it out of this junk hole... But THOSE days are long gone. I'm LUCKY I didn't stumble & drop the ginormous Sony. Also didn't have NEARLY as much "Uncle Arthur-Itis" to contend with..

One real bad thing about Sony--and it STILL seems to be this way now--is their "we do it OUR way" attitude about ckty design. Some here will remember the "GCS sets", from maybe 1973 or so to 1977 or so...and ho0w they were VERRYYY difficult to0 keep running. You found one with a bad SG-613, replaced it, maybe a couple of caps in the H drive area....and it worked...for a WHILE_-then POW!! out would go that GCS with not a TRACE of warning--and it usually took the pass regulator with it.. (Sony did NOT like to use a cold chassis, till SMPS sets became common...and even THEN---"they did it THEIR way.."). The GCS sets have been discussed in depth before here.

And the Trinitron tube--while it does look good---NEVER won any accolades for long-life, compared to a chromacolor tube, 10BP4, or even a 21FJP22. And they do NOT restore at ALL. It almost seems as if they "program them" with a certain number of hours and when that runs out...."flash..flash...flash"...from the IK kill ckt. And SOME Trinitron tubes were SHIT frtom the get-go, sunch as the 710AB22 or its metric labeled sister. It is VERY unlikely one will find a useable one today...they were dying 25 YEARS ago!! And the CRT projo sets they had maybe 10 or so years ago had bad tubes when they were NEW--with contaminated cathodes that DID die-- usually after under 5000 hours of use !!

BTW--what does that "73" mean? I think it is some Ham term, right ?

A good example of why you need an OEM remote often. That Sony
was only around for a year or 2. HAD to have the OEM to add/del
channels. What made it worse was the original $25 remote fast
became NLA but was subbed to a unit that had tons off buttons &
dealer cost was $65. Its why we started telling people to bring in
the remotes with the sets even if broken. An early example of the
MFR's turning TV's into a blister pack commondity that they
didnt give a crap about. In the end all those remotes that came in
made for a nice collection & we got one of the Sonys that we held
on to instead of selling it used.

73 Zeno:smoke:

It's nice to know I'm not the only one whose not too crazy about Sony. Not only were parts hard to get, they were also way over-priced. And if you were not a Sony authorized servicer, you could forget about getting any tech assistance from them.

I can say one thing for them, they built the heaviest portable TV's on the market in the 1980's. Those darn things were a pain in the back to get up on the workbench, and a pain elsewhere once you got it taken apart:D

I often wonder about that.

Yep, a ham term. Means "Good Luck !"

I used to live on the 2nd floor of a walk-up, no big deal. I reckon the rent for those is generally lower than for a place with a lift. To get around the problem of moving heavy items up and down stairs I'd just get creative and fashion some kind of rolling platform that can easily mount stairs.

One thing I remember about the BPC Sharp TV's is that the cabinet would often become very brittle with age and literally crumble to pieces. Some Sony TV's were the same way. A few years ago, I junked a working Sharp TV because the cabinet was falling apart. In fact, it was hard keep the set together while moving it because the cabinet was so bad.

Fony cabinets falling apart? Can't say I'm surprised.

I've experienced one of those. It's near the top of an extremely short list of things that JB-Weld couldn't even help...

With carpeted stairs if I have a console I just flip it upside down and push it up the stairs...Me and my dad were able to move a HUGE dresser (a CM roundy combo has nothing on it), that we could barely move on level ground, up stairs.

We moved in to our house before we cleaned out storage (where that giant lay), and in the initial move in I came up with that trick...Mom thought I was nuts at first, but after we used that technique on the dresser she thought I was a genius/superman.