Using brighteners?

[msimendi]

kbmuri,

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

[kbmuri]

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.

[mattdavala]

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

[Tubejunke]

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.....

[kbmuri]

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.

[jpdylon]

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.

[kbmuri]

Originally Posted by mattdavala

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.
...

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.

[kbmuri]

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

[mattdavala]

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

Thanks!
Matt Davala

[andy]

...

[kbmuri]

Originally Posted by mattdavala

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

[kbmuri]

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

[kbmuri]

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.

[refill233]

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,

[kbmuri]

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...