1940s Emerson
 

I'm back with a new tele-vison (yeup Vanilla ice) this time a Emerson and i wanted to know if emersons were considered good tvs in that time, here is the one I found.

Very cool tv ! I am fond of the Emerson brand, I have had very good experiences
with them from the years 1950 and up. I have seen the set you have here a few times,
and on ebay, sometimes going for a good penny... Very nicely styled, and collectible.

Emerson did not have dealers that I recall people talking about, but were sold in local
5 & Dime stores, Western Auto's etc. A less expensive alternative to getting a Zenith
or RCA. They lasted just as long meeting the circumstances that would lead to a long
life just as any other brand.

Good luck restoring the little guy....

.

IMHO, one of the best looking 7inch electrostatic sets made... a little cramped due to its very compact size, but a very collectable decent performer. Finding one with all the correct knobs is a real plus, many of us are not that fortunate.

A good find!

jr

I had one of them years ago and found it one of the better 7" electrostatic performers. It's also a simple set to cosmetically restore. Once you polish-up the face, redo the black trim, and refill the knobs with gold, it looks like new. Although I didn't do it on mine, refinishing the cube-shaped cabinet is as simple as you can get.

Very nice! I can't tell from the picture, is it the finished wood cabinet, or the luggage linen covered version?

The Emerson was probably better engineered, because it didn't use a voltage doubler or tripler, as all the others did. It could be operated on DC, 120 volts.
New York still had a lot DC districts. :scratch2:

It's definitely the finished wood variant. And it actually is in good shape as well

I was confused at first because someone told me emerson wasn't very good and a low quality company. But, this looks like quality to me.

The tv history site says that 1973 was the last year of production for Emerson... after that the name was slapped on a variety of inexpensive offshore sourced products of lower quality, mostly sold in places like K-Mart and Wallmart. In other words "mostly cheap junk".

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1946-49-EMERSON.htm

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-59-EMERSON.htm

On the other hand, I have an cheap (60$ or so) Chinese made Emerson branded microwave oven that has held up fine for nearly 10 years. It replaced an expensive Panasonic that only lasted 2 years.

jr

With some of their sets from the early 50's, the wiring often resembles a rats nest, with many components buried under other components and wiring.

I want to ask something though as where is an antenna supposed to plug in? It it somewhere in this area?

Should be 2 screw terminals mounted between the two insulators where the broken piece is.

jr

I restored an Emerson 639 some time ago.
It produces a nice bright picture and the chassis seems to
really open up once recapped.

The Flyback cover on mine looked like someone took a can opener to it - see photo.

Your Emerson looks to be in exceptional condition.

Here's that antenna terminal. It looks like something generic might fit.

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/q...psm4xuptrq.jpg

Anywhere you think I could find this piece?

Those antenna terminals are fairly easy to find, here's some on eBay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-2-Screw-...EAAOSwMmBV0KVH

edit Never mind, false alarm.

I'm glad this comes with all the tubes, since there are about 21 to this tiny set.

I see the auction is over... did you get it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1940s-EMERSO...8AAOSwll1WxoXk

jr

Got the Emerson, now what?
 

I recently won the bid on a 7 inch 1940s emerson tv and I wanted to know what should I do now? Get a plug (since it has a removable taht isn't there) then try it out or change every capacitor I see? Or get the back cover since that piece is missing.

You will need a cord for testing, but first thing to look for is service info. Then I usually start with a careful removal from the cabinet and inspect for obviously damaged parts and start making up a list of all the caps that need replacement (ALL the paper caps and electrolytics)

The Sams service info is available at the ETF site.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pdf/E...-Sams-87-6.pdf

If you can't find a genuine TV power cord, you can get a replacement mixer power cord at Ace hardware. Don't try to force a cord from a laptop power supply or similar. It's easy to break the pins on the interlock male connector.

Since that is a hot chassis set, an isolation transformer is going to be needed to work on it safely.....

+1
I keep a couple of those around for bench work on sets with safety interlocks. They work great...If there was an easy way to add the old style mount ears on to them they would make a great replacement cord.

You will probably want to replace the ~6KV deflection/HV stage caps before running it unless getting sound only at best floats your boat.

Looking at the diagram, the high voltage is created by an independent oscillator, not related to the deflection. Thus you could get high voltage without deflection, which would produce a damaging bright dot in the middle of the CRT screen.

Its usually best to start a project with some kind of baseline so you know iif what you do is helping or hurting.

Bringing the set up slowly on a Varied or a dim bulb tester will give you some idea if the set is completely dead or has any major shorts that need to be dealt with.

You will need to do a complete recap, including some 6000volt film caps, however I wouldn't jump right in and replace them all without the slow startup. Also take lots of clear chassis photos, this will help when you forget where something was connected.

When you do recap, start with the electrolytics, then the 6000 volt caps, then the rest.

Alright I see mostly what I need to do but is this a polarized or non polarized set? Since it's a 1940s tv I'm guessing non-polarized.

There is no polarity as such, but it is a hot chassis set, meaning one side of the AC line is connected to the metal chassis.

If the cord is plugged in so that the neutral side is connected to the chassis no problem, if the live side is connected to the chassis it can be a dangerous situation.
If you touch the chassis and a ground source, such as a water pipe or a concrete floor in your bare feet you can get 120 volts across your body, this is why an Isolation transformer was suggested earlier in this thread.

I've worked on plenty of hot chassis sets without a transformer but it requires that you pay attention to what you are doing, one hand in your pocket when touching the chassis, wear rubber soled shoes, don't stand in water and so forth.

You can also mark the cord and the set so you can be sure the neutral side is connected to the chassis.

I was more of asking so I can know which cord to get polar or non-polar. But thanks for the info.

It's a non polarized cord.

You can tell by looking at the interlock on the back of your chassis. If both prongs are identical in size, it's non-polarized. If one is larger than the other, in that case you would have needed a polarized cord.

.

Alright thanks also would rubber gloves help protect me from the high voltages?

Rubber gloves actually rated for electrical insulation would likely be too clumsy to do fine electronics work in. At least the pair I have...

I would suggest using your DMM to check the outlet you will be plugging into first, to make sure that it is properly wired (wider blade is neutral) and properly grounded. I would suggest using at least a GFCI receptacle if you want to skimp on an isolation transformer.

Marking the cord for polarity is a good idea. Installing a polarized interlock and cord is a better one.

Alright anyway I can figure out which side of the plug on the tv leads to chassis and which side goes to the rest of the circuits?

Yes, you want the neutral side of the line to connect to the chassis.

Unfortunately, the set has the power switch in the grounded side of the line, which will make the chassis hot with respect to earth ground when the set is turned off.

To make such a set as safe as possible without major redesign, I would recommend the following:

Replace the interlock and cord with a polarized type.

Move the power switch to the hot side of the line.

Directly ground the neutral side of the line to the chassis.

Delete C85.

Replace C84 with a safety rated (X1Y2) ceramic cap.

Should that capacitor have the same capacitance as the original or just anyy capacitance.

Same as original is always best, but .05uF is a bit large for a ceramic type. You may need to go with a polystyrene film cap. Whichever you use, make sure it has the proper safety rating for across the line AC service.

This cap is used for RF bypass purposes, and isn't all that critical as far as capacitance value.

You can get safety rated caps from http://www.justradios.com/ , which also has a good article about the whys & wherefores of such caps:

http://www.justradios.com/safetytips.html

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

I'm guessing the type I need is the "line to ground" variant?
Since N2IXK said it's for RF bypass.