Here's my latest find, a Grundig GSC600 set from 1979, don't be fooled by its unassuming looks, check out the chassis! looks like some kind of avionic or industrial equipment... most modules have LEDs to display their operative status.

This set also has DIN AV input, 10-watt amplifier driving a 5x7" Grundig Superphon speaker, electronic tuning with OSD "green bar" indicator, and a remote storage area that also dubbed as a "docking station" for Grundig accessories like video games or a teletext interface.

and there's also a nice illustrated service manual included inside the set!

Grundig made this fancy chassis only for a couple of years (1979 and 1980 i think) then returned to much simpler and cheaper designs.

This one was thrown out on the curb due to a blown AC line fuse, probably due to a surge during last week's thunderstorm, the big power transformer protected the rest of the set from the surge, so a new fuse was all it took to repair it, and the CRT is still like new! good for 30 more years!

Let's see a Chinese FP set built like this!

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/6835/gsc600b.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4700/gsc600c.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/7694/gsc600.jpg

Wow what a find! :thmbsp:

get a screen shot please.

Yep, that's German/Swiss style electronics, alrite...Reminds me of the PLCs & other control modules we used to have on Bobst & Daetwyler equipment. The Cerutti press we got was similar, too. Don't kid yourself-the Italians can make electronic stuff that's second to none when they want to.

That's impressive. The problem with this sort of thing is that it's built too well and built to be easily serviced which is a no-no :no: in today's throw-away bean-counter controlled market. Would be nice to see an operating picture. :yes:

Wow, it is hard to believe that this was mass marketed as a consumer item. Reminds me too of an industrial control, PLC, etc. Obviously designed for super easy service.
Too bad things aren't made this was today.

When the bean-counters are away, the engineers will play! :banana:

I used to think lawyers were the scourge of our civilisation, but after working in industry & fooling w/electronics, consumer grade, industrial, & military, I think that cost accountants are VASTLY more destructive.

Here's a screen shot, my cheap dig camera isn't great at capturing CRT pictures, it's much brighter and sharper in reality.

Sadly, it's almost all letterboxed crap today :-(

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4066/gsc600d.jpg

With all the sexy, hot women on Italian TV you send us a picture of a picnic?!?

Seriously, that is an amazing set. Sad to think it almost became trash in favor of somthing that's already tras, like a Chinese FP!

The build quality of this TV is great. I see things built this way in movie theatre sound racks. LED's to let you know if things are running properly. I've only seen a few american TV's in the last 10 years or so that had LED's on the chassis here and there, and these sets were definitely NOT american... Far-Eastern, mostly.

I'm glad you saved that set.

Wonderful Grundig GSC 600 Francesco! Grundig happened to be one of my favorites when it was still alive! Is it the original crt or did you change it? My cousin had one he bought new in the eighties. It lasted almost 20 years and when he gave it to me the tube was completely gone. Very common chassis during eighties.
Sandy, italians can do electronics who is second to none when they want, the question is: when do they want to do it? Italian televisions have never been famous for reliability. When we introduced color tv in 1977 almost all tvs here were from Germany. Brionvega was famous for design but as far as I remember all tvs were crap. So happened for many other brands now long gone.

The tube looked a bit low at first but it was only due to a dirty red screen control trimpot on the CRT socket board (it was so gunked up it no longer adjusted anything so i assumed the CRT was shot at first), some repeated squirts of contact cleaner finally fixed it.

Italian manufacturers made some nice sets in the B/W tube era (50s and 60s) and even a few good color sets in the late 60s for export markets (Geloso and Phonola) before they began to cheap out in the 70s (but some, like Mivar, continued to make good sets)
There's only one problem with old Italian sets: they rarely had power transformers, so hot chassis sets are the norm here, this makes very difficult if not impossible to add AV inputs and continue to use them in the DTV era (our STBs rarely have RF outputs)

Well, all I know is that the electronics on the Cerutti press we had was top-flight stuff. But it oughta have been-IIRC, that bad boy was somethin' like $3.5 million by the time we got it bought & installed...It was also capable of running at almost 2000 FPM, where the most you could get out of the old Champlain presses was maybe 800 feet per minute...Really, they were a lot more comfortable at 3-400 feet per minute, & 500 FPM was a pretty good max speed.

Well, all I know is that the electronics on the Cerutti press we had was top-flight stuff.

Probbably Siemens. Depending on the vintage, Step 5 or Step 7. The better models are no slouches at all, I've programmed S7 400-H systems - they can do just about anything. Some nuke plants use 'em for non 'safety' related applications, notably BWR recirc pumps.

Have your checkbook ready if you need one replaced (!)

Siemens. Yeah. That rings a bell. Now that I think back on it, a LOT of our Siemens stuff was made here in the States. Think most of it on that Cerutti was Yoorupean, though...(grin)

what is a cerutti press?

A rotogravure printing press, this one had 10 color printing stations, was 1.5 meters wide, about as tall as a 2 story building, & about as long as 2 inter-city busses parked end to end. They are VERY big, impressive machines.Some of the aluminum rollers on this one, you could spin them w/yr hand, walk away, & they'd still be spinning 5 minutes later.. We had 8 presses, 6 of them were almost as wide as the Cerruti, we were able to "retire" 5 of those because it was so much more efficient. We were package printers, specialising in the food & tobacco industries. Cerruti is one of the "Big Dawgs" in the industry, a LOT of what you read was prolly printed on a Cerruti press somewhere...

What brand is the C.R.T. (picture tube)?

The CRT is a Philips A66-540X (30AX series self converging 110-degree inline tube)