Scored!

[Kamakiri]

I may go and pick up those resistors tomorrow, but here's my situation....

The kids may be asleep soon, the wife may be occupied doing some work, and I may have chance to hook this thing up tonight as everyone, myself included, is getting over a horrible flu.

If I were to use the seperate leads to the color guns, where do you plug them in?

[Steve K]

The leads to the color guns go to the red, blue and green screen grids. The clips clip onto the wires going to the crt socket. Each clip has a small point between the jaws that puncture the insulation of the wire.

Steve

[Kamakiri]

Sorry for the questions, I just want to get this right.....

The wires on the CRT plug, not the yoke, correct? Do you know which wires those might be exactly? And, where does the black wire go?

[Steve K]

NOT the yoke! The black clip goes to chassis ground. The screen grids are crt pin numbers 3(red), 7(green), and 11(blue) on a 21 inch tube. The colors of the wires from the socket depends on manufacturer. Personally I never found these switches to be too useful, in fact I never use them.

Steve

[Kamakiri]

Okay, we're rolling

I can switch the color guns on and off, but can't seem to get a pattern. What's next?

[Steve D.]

Tim,

You understand the three leads to kill the individual color guns are a separate function from the pattern generator. You must also attach the other clips to the antenna terminals and the other ground cable to the chassis as mentioned in the previous post. Also this is a very old generator and may not be functioning properly. Hope this helps.
The other Steve

[Steve K]

Tim:

Try it on either channel 3 or channel 4, it should produce a pattern on one or the other. Set it to color bars first. Sometimes the dot pattern does not show up if the fine tuning is a little off. If that doesn't work you may have to open up the generator and test tubes in it. To take it apart you will need to remove the two screws on the bottom of the front bezel and gently pry it off. Once that is off there are about 14 screws to take off the front panel. I think that RCA wanted to make sure that the front panel never suddenly flew off during operation! You may be able to access the tubes by removing a panel on the back of the unit but I usually recap these units anyway.

I think that Andy was correct about the convergence. Using a broadcast or if you have cable, tune to a local access program that shows a community calendar (lettering), turn off the color and adjust the blue lateral magnet on the neck of the CRT until the blue edges disappear near the center of the picture. That should fix a lot of your convergence problems.

Steve

[Chad Hauris]

I've got one of these RCA pattern generators...have modulation but there is no pattern. Maybe needs caps replaced...I've not torn into it. I saw a portion of the schematic...anyway someone could post the whole thing, maybe in the picture gallery?

The round sets are easier to get good covergence on, just using the lettering from a community calendar or DVD menu, than the rectangular sets. Somehow the round sets are more forgiving with the adjustments. Like Steve said I would start with the blue lateral and the 3 center convergence red/green/blue magnets, often they can snap it back into good convergence.

Also make sure the purity/degaussing, vertical height/vertical linearity/vertical centering and the horizontal centering are set up to produce the best purity and best proportioned picture on the screen...all of these settings, if off, can aggravate misconvergence.

Also do not do any of the convergence/purity/degaussing in a remote location, do it only in the set's final position. If you can't get behind the set in its final location, move the set out in a straight line only. The round sets, especially those without built-in degaussing, are very sensitive to changes in the earth's magnetic field caused by moving the set...even turning the set side to side can cause purity problems.

[Eric H]

They can be useful for setting the purity, you can kill whatever gun you want without disturbing the greyscale.

Originally posted by Steve K
Personally I never found these switches to be too useful, in fact I never use them.

Steve

[Kamakiri]

So tomorrow I'll grab the resistors......got too busy screwing with a tube amp this afternoon

[Kamakiri]

How well will 150 ohm work, as opposed to 120? It's all Rat Shack had.....

[Steve K]

Tim:

Those resistors should work fine. In fact, you could test the generator by connecting the shielded wire to the antenna terminals without the resistors.

[Kamakiri]

Well, perhaps this thing doesn't work....what are the odds of that?

I'll check the tubes and have at it tomorrow. BTW, here's a temporary rigged up version of that schematic

[Kamakiri]

One shorted tube. Brother can you spare a 12AZ7?

[Steve K]

Tim:

I'm not sure if I have any 12AZ7s but I think that you should be able to find one a lot closer than California! BTW, in the picture of the resitor network that you made I see something taped with black friction tape. It looks like an antenna transformer. You might want to take that off before you connect the generator. It wouldn't harm anything other than perhaps the image on the screen.

Steve