Philco Prototype Color Set
 

Well I decided to see if the Philco will come to life tonight. I spent the day checking the power supply and replacing the electrolytics. Right now I'm sitting here bringing the CRT filaments up. Here's a picture that warmed my heart (so far).

This is an engineering sample of the 15GP22 from Sylvania.

The filaments are running at about 4 volts in this picture

Chuck

Update for the night,

Brought the set up to full voltage, got audio, and what sounds like HV crackling but no light on the screen. The filaments didn't vaporize with full voltage, so it looks like the tube is still under vacuum.

Next - start recapping.


Chuck

Another update, for those interested.

A little troubleshooting located all 3 HV rectifiers bad. Replaced and got a raster, it ain't pretty but a working 15" color CRT made my day.

Chuck

"The Awakening"
 

That truly unique piece of TV history is starting to open it's eyes... uh... I meant eye!

:yippy:

Exciting
 

Chuck ,this promises to be an exciting thread!:)

It almost looks like you might have some video on the screen, out of sync and drifting, or am I seeing a camera effect?

Grey scale looks pretty good too!

Eric

It is some faint horizontal sync bars rolling through. The hold control was all the way to the stop.

This set is full of "black beauties" which we all know only work in guitar amps.:)


Chuck

Another update for the interested.

Started re-capping the two chassis' yesterday, had to stop this morning - depleted my stock.

The score so far, replaced:

66 caps - 14 more to go
8 tubes

So far all the resistors have been within tolerance

Chuck

Stay tuned!
 

Chuck,
I can't wait for the next installment. When do you sleep?:eek:

Re: Stay tuned!
 

Between 1am and 5am, isn't that normal?;)

And the catnaps during the day don't hurt either:huge:


Chuck

Todays update:

Finished recapping the two chassis today. Plugged everything together, and of course a new problem. Fuse blew and one 5U4 was doing a light show. Tried new 5U4 no difference, isolated it down to the deflection chassis. Pulled the chassis and power supply down to the bench looking for a solder bridge or something I did wrong - Nothing.

Troubleshooting 101 - disconnected all the connections to the B+, no problems B+ stayed where it belonged, no sparks. Reconnected a electrolytic, still good. Reconnected the line feeding the screen neutralizing coil control, B+ gone. Got close to the control and the unmistakable stench of burned control waifed up. This is a 60 ohm 4 watt center tapped wire wound control that adjusts the voltage to the neutralizing coil around the crt bulb. I guess it had burned up a while ago and when I cleaned it and moved the wiper it shorted. Of course no such animal in the parts bin, so for now I disconnected it from the circuit.

Fired it back up and this is what I have::D

OH YEAH BABY!
 

Chuck,

Man! You got it goin' on now! That's lookin great! The excitement is building! :cool: :) :D :huge: :smsex:

It kinda makes ya wonder how long it's been since the last time that set was operational? This could be this first time in decades!

Here's another picture of the screen after making some seat of the pants adjustments. Convergence is still out, especially the blue gun. Won't really be able to do much until I get the neutralizing coil connected.

WOW!!-- you're getting close, Chuck-- really, really, close...!!

Excellent work!!

-Kevin

Magic time
 

Chuck,
It looks like Philco could build a color tv. And you can certainly rebuild one. Great job. What a thrill when that picture came up.:p:

First Philco in stores?
 

This color prototype set brought a question to mind... what was the first Philco color set mass produced and put in stores? Chuck's set shows they were workin on it, but how long was it before they finally did mass produce one?

I skimmed the Sams index trying to find the earliest color schematic for a Philco. Found a chassis model TV123 in Sams 349-9 from '57... a good few years later after Chuck's set was made. Anyone familiar if there was an earlier Philco in stores? The picture on the front of 349-9 was pretty neat looking.

We have one at the museum:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/philco_tv-123.html

As far as I know Philco never sold a 15 inch set.

Nice! :)

Philco color
 

I recall seeing a 15" Philco color set some years ago. I remember it was a full door oriental styled cabinet. This leads me to believe that Philco did produce a limited run of 15" color sets. Can anyone else shed more light on this?

Re: Philco color
 

When I got this set, I was told that Philco bought 100 of the 15" tubes. Over 60% failed almost immediately, and they couldn't see producing a set with that kind of failure rate.

Sorry to say the paperwork on the early trial sets was thrown out by the engineers' family before this set was acquired.

Chuck

Philco prototype set
 

Does anyone out there know if philco released any of the prototype sets, with their "APPLE" tube, from 1957? It sure would be exciting to uncover one of those. I have seen pictures of operational sets on covers of vintage electronics magazines.

apple tube
 

that apple tube sure is interesting to read about,i dont think it ever hit manufacturing in sets,but this is interesting though..if you have ever hear of sony's small "VIDIMAGIC" small single tube protable video projectors,it uses what sony called an "INDEXTRON" crt,it uses the same technology as the apple,> one gun,ONE cathode,and has index electrodes like the apple tube does.i wonder where sony got the idea??:)
terry

Sony Vidimagic projector
 

I own a sony vidimagic projector . it is interesting to watch in operation. if you look at the BACK of the crt, close to where it is coupled to the lens, THERE IS A BRIGHT ,GREEN GLOW. just in front of that, THE COLOR PICTURE IS PRODUCED.

my projector was on its way to a landfill a couple of years ago, when i rescued it. it is not nearly as bright as a modern lcd or dlp projector, BUT, THE PRICE WAS RIGHT!!

...

15GP22
 

Interesting reading over on the CT-100 Site, seems this guy named Andy Lee located three NIB 15GP22's one of which was good.
Strangely enough they were addressed to the Philco Corporation!

Read it here: http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/HoF/AndyLee-bonus.html

Maybe these were originally intended for one of Philco's prototypes?

Also check out this stunning screen shot from said set: http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/HoF/AndyLee.html

Eric

Just thought I'd post an update to the Philco saga.

While trying to find out why the color was intermittent and making adjustments without fully knowing what control does what, I managed to turn this into a nice B&W set.

So for tha past few weeks I have been tracing out the circuits and making a working schematic, I'm about 30% through them now. Hopefully once I have a roadmap I will be able to find the original problem and correct my misadjustments.

To be continued......


Chuck

Chuck,

Oh Man! :( Don't ya just hate it when that happens? Well you have to look on the bright side now. You'll know this set a LOT better when you're done tracing a schematic.

Rob

Philco update:

After a full day tearing into this thing I got the color locked and pretty much demodulated. I'm pretty much back where I started from, purity is still out on the sides, convergence is out at the bottom, but it's got a picture :D

For some reason my camera just won't focus well on this set, it really looks better than this picture.

Chuck

ChuckA,

Very cool! I'll bet you feel a lot better now. :)

Rob

Update on the Philco. I was able to demagnitize the left and right sides of the picture tube so when adjusting purity the screen is 98% red. The convergence still needs work at the bottom and left side, I'll wait for my "new" generator to arrive and work on it some more.

I still can't get my digital camera to take a decent picture of the screen. After I've done all I can do with purity and convergence I'll try a 35mm and scan the pictures in.


Stay tuned.....



Chuck

Re: 15GP22
 

Eric,

I "talked" to Andy and the CRT's he found were the same Sylvania engineering sample types that are in my Philco. I suppose they were part of the original 100 piece order from Philco in 1953.

Chuck

After a few months working part time on this set, I think I have the color demodulator, purity, and convergence adjustments about as good as it's going to get. This picture is from a generator connected to the output of the video detector.

Now all I need to do is find what is wrong with the RF/IF stages.

Chuck

This is a very belated update on the 15" Philco set. I was able to finally correct the AGC problem in the set, I never found the actual problem but by rebiasing the AGC keying tube I was able to restore the correct video level from the video detector.

Those of you who attended the ETF convention in April were able to see the set in operation, the set is will be on display at the museum for awhile.

Some additional information came to light also during a conversation with Pete Deksnis, seems he talked to a Philco dealer who remembered that Philco brought a number of dealers to Philadelphia in 1954 to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on Philco's new color TV. The dealer didn't remember much about the actual set though.

Chuck