Another Westinghouse H840CK15

[trinescope]

I found this one semi-locally. Missing knobs but everything else appears to be there. I don't have a real way to test, but the getters on the CRT at least appear to be OK. I'm going to try to get this thing working little by little starting with the horizontal sweep section and go from there. Lots of paper/wax capacitors in here! You all think I should try to maintain appearance and restuff the paper caps or just say screw it and put the modern yellow ones in there? I don't see where any components have been changed on the bottom of the chassis, and most of the tubes appear to be original Westinghouse (mostly rebranded RCA and GE) except the horizontal output tubes and one 5U4. One question: Is the chassis copper plated or is it just some sort of copper colored coating?

Serial number MW005779, chassis number ME000552

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by trinescope

I found this one semi-locally. Missing knobs but everything else appears to be there. I don't have a real way to test, but the getters on the CRT at least appear to be OK. I'm going to try to get this thing working little by little starting with the horizontal sweep section and go from there. Lots of paper/wax capacitors in here! You all think I should try to maintain appearance and restuff the paper caps or just say screw it and put the modern yellow ones in there? I don't see where any components have been changed on the bottom of the chassis, and most of the tubes appear to be original Westinghouse (mostly rebranded RCA and GE) except the horizontal output tubes and one 5U4. One question: Is the chassis copper plated or is it just some sort of copper colored coating?

Serial number MW005779, chassis number ME000552

I hope you can restore this TV to its peak condition, as this was the first color television receiver to be marketed in the United States. (You can test it if you have a VCR, DVD player, or a cable box.) I did a Google search on the model number and found a site which mentioned the price of this TV was just under $1300. This meant not many such sets were sold; in fact, most of the sets Westinghouse manufactured that year did not sell for that reason and, not surprisingly, there was very, very little color programming on the 3 networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) at the time, so even folks who owned this particular TV did not see much as far as color shows went; that is, the new Westinghouse TV would display a picture, but in b&w.

Color TV was definitely a status symbol in the 1950s, with most existing TV stations not yet equipped for color telecasting, so even if you could afford this Westinghouse small-screen roundie TV, you would be watching mostly b&w programming on a pitifully small (by today's standards) round screen.

Color telecasting did not "take off" in the US until the 1960s, and even then the sets were prohibitively expensive for most folks, so most stayed with their old reliable b&w TVs; this did not change until later on that decade. Think of when the first flat-screen HDTVs went on the market shortly after the DTV transition of 2009. These sets sold for well over $1000, with very little HD programming available. Now, nine years after the introduction of HDTV, flat-screen TVs, even large-screen models, can be had in some cases for under $100. Early color TV went almost exactly the same route. By the 1960s into the 1970s, color boomed in the US; more and more homes were getting color, relegating their old b&w TV to the basement or rec room or discarding it if the CRT went bad, or the set had developed expensive repair problems. This also is the story of the evolution of today's flat-screen HDTVs and how they have completely replaced analog sets, but that will be material for another thread.

BTW, I am not sure where or even if you will be able to find a set of knobs for your Westinghouse TV. You could put an ad for such knobs on VK's own classifieds section; that failing, I would search eBay or Craigslist to see if one or more of these knobs turn up there. I would try to find a set of period-correct knobs, as this TV was the first mass-produced US color set; it would not look right with just "any old" knobs on the control shafts.

[Sandy G]

Wow ! Talk about being LUCKY.. As with any/all "1st out of the Box 15" color sets, you likely can count the survivors on the fingers of one hand... Well, maybe not quite THAT rare, but these guys ARE pushing 70 years old (Gulp !) they were temperamental things when new, & spare parts TRULY are "Unobtainium"... But, Man-Oh- Manischevitz getting to have/see one of these actually WORK would be worth ALL the hate & discontent you'd have to endure... IMHO, anyway.

[Electronic M]

Actually the westy has around 26-28 survivors known so you'd need all your fingers'n toes plus a friend with about half theirs. It is the second highest surviving 15" color to the CT-100 of which somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 still exist.
3rd place seems to be RCA model 5 prototypes at 12 then a gradual slide down to 0-1 known for some. http://www.earlytelevision.org/color_database.html

It is great that more are coming out of the woodwork. The more that we can preserve the better.

[Sandy G]

Absotively ! Also glad to get clued into the relatively HIGH number of survivors. Have wondered about someday venturing to greater Nashville, & hitting up the sort of "Downmarket" type antique stores & seeing if any odd ball "Goodies" lurk therein.... Nashville had a LOT of well paid "Industry" types, that were the kind of folks that would buy all the new type "Toys" like color sets, transistor stuff, VCRs, fancy cars, all like that. Its an ENTIRELY different world than we were, here in hardscrabble Greater Bugtussle...

[kvflyer]

Erich, I am very happy for you (and envious!). Glad that you found this set and it truly deserves a restoration. I also hope that the 15GP22 is good as well. Please, keep us posted.

[trinescope]

I got the power supply chassis OK with new capacitors in place of the multi-section electrolytic, but connecting it to the main chassis only found more electrolytics in need of replacement (a B+ dropping resistor started smoking right away). I'm going to have to remove/replace the multi-section capacitors on the main chassis one by one and do a restuff so I can avoid that kind of problem later and concentrate on getting the sweep sections going.

I was reading the other long thread here about the same model TV and saw something about magnets for static convergence. The three screws on my set don't have any kind of magnet on the end and don't look like they ever did. What is this magnet supposed to look like?

[etype2]

These are the 6-32 threaded magnets that are about 2 inches long for the static convergence.

I’m about to post an update. We are in need of one to finish our restoration.

[trinescope]

In that case I'm probably OK. The threaded rods are in fact weakly magnetic. I thought it had to have an actual magnet on the inner end.

[trinescope]

So far I restuffed the FIVE electrolytic cans on the main chassis (I thought there was four, but then another B+ resistor started smoking and I found the fifth can). Then I powered up the set without horizontal output tubes and verified the sweep oscillators. I had to replace the coupling capacitors at both the vertical and horizontal output tube control grids since there was excessive positive voltage on the grids. Next I installed the horizontal output tubes and everything seemed OK. Lastly I tried installing the CRT assembly back in to see if I can get a raster, but no go. I found normal voltages on the CRT cathode, G1 and G2 and some semblance of high voltage (slight static cling holding paper to the CRT faceplate). No abnormal light show in the CRT neck, either, so that's still a really good sign. Next step is to get a proper HV probe so I can verify the HV, focus, and convergence voltages.

One of the candohm resistors decided to short to the chassis, so I need to find a solution for that. It feeds power to the sound section, so for now it is disconnected.

EDIT: Actually my G1 voltages are a bit high, but that should cause the CRT to go to maximum brightness anyway. Will have to replace coupling capacitors in the chroma adder section for this. Had to go to the Sams folder to find CRT electrode voltage readings.

[trinescope]

I got a HV probe so I could trouble shoot the low HV. One of the doorknob capacitors is bad (measured about 1MEG resistance leakage, no good). When I pulled the plate cap on the second 3A3 the HV went from 6kV to 14kV. Repairing this should get the HV where it needs to be. Also during testing the focus control started smoking and got destroyed. I found out I have the dreaded vertical convergence transformer problem which caused the focus control to burn out. So I have three things to take care of before I can move much further.

I'm going to experiment with graphite and epoxy and see if I can repair the focus control. It looks like it's going to take quite a few attempts before I can get something I can use to replace the resistance track. Next I will see if any more reproduction convergence transformers are available. The doorknob capacitor is a bit expensive but available, so no problem there.

[trinescope]

I have another idea for repairing the focus pot. The challenge is that the pot can dissipate up to a watt according to some rough calculations. The resistance track is just a bit over 4 inches long and about a quarter inch wide. I need something that can take the heat. I ordered a sheet of .020" phenolic material, now I need to find some way to get a resistive material to adhere to it. Maybe try graphite in a clear lacquer.

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by trinescope

In that case I'm probably OK. The threaded rods are in fact weakly magnetic. I thought it had to have an actual magnet on the inner end.

If you have a bad screw magnet for a CT-100 or similar, there is an easy fix, which I used.

Just find a small ceramic magnet and break it into various size pieces. Set the
defective screw at a convenient spot, then try pieces at the OUTER end
of the screw until it more or less converges. Then glue it on, and screw the screw until its exactly right. Easy.

[trinescope]

Well I have results and some more problems to overcome. I can get picture and sound. I have no color sync at this point. I need to repair the broken coil plug on the hue control and see if that helps. It seems to have normal signal flow in the chroma section when checking with a scope, it just won't sync up. I can get on both sides of the lock point with the color hold control, so that is likely OK.

Next is the HV supply. I was able to repair the damaged focus pot. I made a new resistance track using thin phenolic board and pencil lead. I applied the pencil lead to the roughed up surface of the phenolic strip until I got the correct resistance value. I then installed it in the potentiometer housing. It seems to hold up even when constantly adjusting the control. I had to replace two doorknob capacitors as well. Now I get 27KV and can't regulate it down to normal. Possibly one of the high value resistors is out of tolerance.

Last on the list is the vertical convergence transformer. The reproduction parts are no longer available so I will have to rewind it myself at some point. For now I have wired around it for testing. Of course the convergence is off, but at least I can see how the rest of the set is working.

The CRT may be weak or the kind of picture I'm getting is a result of the excessive HV. It's better than a completely dud tube at least.

[old_coot88]

I've used india ink for DIY high-value resistors. It would probably work for potentiometer elements too, depending on wattage rating.