TV Repair Test Equipment
 

Hi All:
I am new to the TV repair thing but have 30 plus years of tube equipment repair. I have a CRT tester and was wondering what you all would recommend as a most needed piece of test gear for TV work? Thanks for any and all recommendations.

Gregb

I'd say a good DMM/VTVM is by far the most usual piece of equipment. A HV adapter probe is nice to have too. A scope can also be very handy for troubleshooting.

A test pattern generator (or just a good RF modulator) too. I've seen a lot of cases where there seemed to be video or audio issues and it turned out to just be a bad RF signal feeding the set.

Specialty items like a yoke and flyback ringer or sweep alignment generator are generally not need to get a set up and running.

Thanks Bob, I guess I wasn't thinking as I have the meter and a HV probe. I was more so wondering about what I would need for doing an alignment? A pattern generator may be a good idea. Is there a particular one that folks prefer?
Thanks

Gregb

There's a lot of good pattern generators out there as long as it's a model with NTSC output to the antenna terminals.

You can also burn or buy a test pattern DVD...

Thanks Marty, I will watch for that. Is there any brand or model that folks prefer?

Gregb

I like my Leader LCG-400 but I did have to replace a few dozen little tantalum caps. The smaller LCG-396 is probably good too, but I never used one. More info here: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=248294

Sencore VA-62 is nice too plus you get a bunch of other features like a programable IF generator, yoke/flyback ringer, etc... Lots of info including a mod for using it with older TVs in this thread: http://mail.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=253433