Hey guys, I'm a new member and I have a TrueTone roundie at my grandmother's house. It doesn't have a power cord, so I don't know if it works. It's a color set, and by the looks of it I would guess it to be approximately 1964-1966. It has UHF tuning, and I know that it was mandatory after/for model year 1964(Thanks drh4683's Youtube page) and Western Auto's level of luxury, I'm guessing they would only put it on if it was mandatory. The set itself is pretty dirty, I must say. What is strange to me is that it looks like you can tune each color's level(red, green, and blue) instead of a collective color tuner. I would like to know what chassis this is a clone of and the best way to fix it. I know from my earlier post that this is pretty rare set, and I don't want to ruin anything by going into it blind. I looked up the model number, and there doesn't seem to be a Sam's Photofact folder for it. I took a few pictures in a hurry yesterday, and I'll take a picture of any specific part/piece next time I go over to her house(usually every Thursday). I can't figure out how to upload pictures
to the site, any help would be greatly welcomed

Thanks you guys, and greeting all the way from Alabama,

David

Could be a CTC-15 or 16 clone... Here is a video of one, maybe it looks like yours? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8lrtnG8Fls

Get some chassis pictures. Also post the model number &
any other numbers/letters printed on the chassis. Often
between us we can work out what it is. Most of us also have
paper copies of the Sams index. The Sams site is limited, if
they wanted they could make it much more usable to search.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Nearly all sets including budget sets between 1953 and 1964 had UHF tuners as an order-able option. If your region had any early UHF stations it could be pre-64, if not then assume post 64.

I use photobucket to host my pictures for a few reasons. It may work better for you.

On a set like that I'd pull out the Horizontal and vertical output tubes, variac it slowly from 20 volts AC input to 90 (step it up in 5V increments and wait 5-15 min between steps). Feel the lytics as you do that, and if they get warm, it smokes, pops, any tubes red plate or don't light power off immediately, consult us, and replace parts before next power up....If those problems don't manifest I'd pop the output tubes back in and power it up at full line voltage and see what happens. If you have raster and sound, then it should be a fairly manageable resto, otherwise get some radio and monochrome TV experience before tackling it.

As for color controls there are 4 types on most sets. Two are user controls, 2 are service adjustments. The user controls are color level (varies the amount of color from black and white to cartoonishly over-saturated, adjust for just enough color to be pleasing), Hue/Tint (shifts the color of all received colors, adjust using SMPTE color bar pattern or a commercial with known colors for proper yellow) there should be only one color and only one hue/tint knob.

The service controls should be on the back. There should be three G2/screen knobs one for each electron gun (they are adjusted using a specific procedure I can explain to you, so that the blacks on screen are not tinted RGB or some combination there of), the drive (may have another name) controls (2 if RCA, 3 on some other brands) are used to make the whites white( same general concept as the G2 knobs). Purity and convergence (a few paragraphs description in and of them selves) will need to be correct before the color service controls can be properly adjusted.

I've worked on a ton of color sets and don't mind discussing what is what so if you want me to expand on anything or pick my brains just ask. Searching the forums for some of the stuff I mentioned will also yield some great info. Part of my jump from radio restos to TV was reading these forums to expand my knowledge of real world issues and methods of solving them.

I know you haven't posted a model # for your Truetone roundie. But here is a list of Truetone 21" 1964+ color models and their SAMS folders. Hopefully your set is in here somewhere.

-Steve D.

Okay guys, I have the pictures uploaded to imgur.com, here's the link: http://imgur.com/a/3eVu7. I've actually seen that youtube video before, Swizzy-Man, and it looks almost exactly like mine. Mine is in a more modern/contemporary cabinet, but the guts look the same.

The set looks mostly complete, it looks like the yoke(thats the thing that stretches off the CRT, right?) is in decent shape. As previously stated, there is no power cord, so I can't turn it on at the moment.

The model number is...(drumroll please): 2DC1665A, which is on the picture that Steve D. posted above.

The set looks like the Silvertone CTC-15 clone that Electronic M posted on my last thread. I believe it is a CTC-15 clone.

I will get the story on the set next time I see my grandmother. What is strange is that my mother (born in 1960) says that they didn't use it when she was growing up. They had a B&W table top until approximately 1971/1972, when they then switched to a color table top. My mother said she first noticed the set in her mother's bedroom when she was visiting the summer of her freshman year of college (1979). It currently resides there now, with a tablecloth atop it, being used as a table. What concerns me is that the metal box on the back of the set has a large dent in it, and it has no power cord.

Thanks for helping,(and helping a complete novice) and when I go over to her house again (most likely thursday) I'll take specific pictures of any part/area that you guys want to see.

Yep a ctc-15 clone for sure. Good luck with it!

Are CTC-15's easy to fix? What usually goes wrong with them?

Are CTC-15's easy to fix? What usually goes wrong with them?

Make sure to restuff the filter caps. Those are usually bad and can kill the power transformer if you power on the set with bad filter caps. Also recap the horizontal and vertical deflection boards if it has one. After you get a stable bright raster. Then mess with the picture quality adjustments.

An important thing to do once you have a good raster is to get a plastic hex alignment tool (metal will crack the slug), and an analog multi-meter with a 0-250 or 0-500mA scale, and a .47uF cap, break the cathode connection to ground and insert the meter across the break with the cap in parallel with it. Use the alignment tool to adjust the horizontal linearity/efficiency coil to minimize the cathode current. It should minimize in the 175-210mA range (if higher look for problems). This minimizes the strain on the flyback transformer. RCAs and clones were notorious for eating flyback transformers (part of the reason they are scarce now) by stressing them to death.

On the video/chroma board there should be a IIRC .01uF cap near (against the socket of) one of tubes on the right half of the chassis...Usually that cap is bad from heat.
If if has a totally dark screen when on, but flashes color when turned off look for a bad boost diode.

My Silvertone was my first color resto (I did many radios and some monochrome sets prior), and aside from it blowing it's damper tube (and me thinking it could not happen rapidly with no obvious indication like it did) which had me spinning my wheels looking at the wrong things, it was a relatively straight forward resto.

Yep a ctc-15 clone for sure. Good luck with it!

It's a Wells-Gardner sourced CTC15 clone, according to the part numbers on the labels.
One of the few surviving US electronics firms, but of course, they're not building TV's or other consumer electronics. :scratch2:

I've worked on a few RCA 15's, but never a W-G clone. Any chance that the boards are better on the W-G? Worse?

I worked on some of their Sears examples from the early 1970's, and was not impressed with the hybrid models, especially the deflection tubes mounted on a PCB.

I've worked on a few RCA 15's, but never a W-G clone. Any chance that the boards are better on the W-G? Worse?

I worked on some of their Sears examples from the early 1970's, and was not impressed with the hybrid models, especially the deflection tubes mounted on a PCB.

The boards were identical! All the firms must've had the same supplier for the PC boards. It was hard to tell the difference between the clones, unless you looked at the part numbers of the larger components. :yes: