Sony Indextron SCORE!!!!!!

[kx250rider]

I just had the find of the year! I saw this Sony Indextron on eBay, and never thought in a million years I'd win it for what I bid... I DID!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=310125196063

Then, I had a lot of trouble believing that the set could actually still be in working order, as there are only a couple of them known to exist still working. I got it today, and it is indeed brand-new. As any of us Sony enthusiasts know, the gray plastic finish around the control buttons gets shiny almost right away with any use. Not on this set! The factory kinks are still in the AC adaptor cord too. I gingerly plugged it in, and pressed the POWER button...... In a couple seconds, it came to life! It's such a weird picture in that if you blink, you see either all red, all green, or all blue. That's because of the fact that it's the Indextron, and not a standard color tube. (the tech aspects of the Indextron tube were discussed by other AKers in another thread).

This was a GREAT birthday present to myself!!!!!!!

Charles

[jpdylon]

that is way cool, Charles! It's such a rarity to see one working, especially in such wonderful condition with box and paperwork!

Congratulations!

[Sandy G]

Awrite, Charles ! What is the deal w/these things ? Why do they NOT want to work ? Izzit something to do w/the funky CRT, or something else ?

[rhiohki]

wow, so what would something like this in this condition normally go for? I never knew there was such a big collectability for the indextron. It looks like it was literally bought from the factory yesterday. Congrats!

[Stoffie]

Cool thing, don't see those too often, let alone working ones. Enjoy yours!

[zenith2134]

Neat! Works great, huh? Never had the pleasure of owning one. Happy birthday, BTW!

[andy]

...

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by andy

I would open it up and check for leaking caps before you run it too much. Every single one I've seen the inside of (including working ones) has been FULL of puking electrolytics.

That's good advice... I remember the Mitsubishi Picture-In-Picture module fiasco with the leaky electrolytics and eroded traces... This set DOES have the same telltale urine odor, which tells me indeed there are leaky caps. I bet the caps that Sony and Mitsubishi bought came from the same place. Same years, appx.

Originally Posted by andy

I don't know why these sets are considered so amazing when they are still working.

I think it's like a Cadillac Diesel from the early 80s... They're known not to run; never did run for more than a few thousand miles on each new engine, and when one comes clattering down the street in 2009, everybody's jaws drop

Originally Posted by rhiohki

wow, so what would something like this in this condition normally go for? I never knew there was such a big collectability for the indextron. It looks like it was literally bought from the factory yesterday. Congrats!

Thanks! I can't be sure on today's value, but I sold one in very clean shape, not working, but it did have the original box, about 8 years ago for a similar price to this one. The last working one, I recall, went for over $500. But with the economy, I'm sure these, and all other collectible TVs, have cooled off. Part of the mystique is that I believe I read that Sony cancelled the warranty on these, and offered a buyback. So I bet most of them went back to Sony.

Charles

[peverett]

(OFF TOPIC)
I do not know about the Indextron, but I can tell you stories about the GM diesels from the early 1980s. Both may father-in-law and a co-worker of mine had one. One had immaculate care, while the other was abused. Both engines threw rods at between 45 and 50 thousand miles.

[andy]

...

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

It's such a weird picture in that if you blink, you see either all red, all green, or all blue. That's because of the fact that it's the Indextron, and not a standard color tube. (the tech aspects of the Indextron tube were discussed by other AKers in another thread).

I don't understand this part, because elsewhere it says the colors were switched as the beam scanned across the stripes, which would be much too fast for eye-blinks to catch only one color.

Anyone got an idea on this?

[andy]

...

[Dave A]

To save some search time...the Indextron tube is a straight-line stripe from top to bottom with a black guard band in-between each stripe. No shadow mask or wire mask. Just a RGB switched color beam going to it's matching color stripe.

Black/Red/Black/Blue/Black/Green and so on. It knows where it is by sensing the green stripe from the rear of the tube. Thus the indexing. This set actually has a few stripes ahead of the viewing area to get it up to speed and keep it synchronized.

See Chuck A's site for the history of this concept in the Philco Apple tube. Sony ended up with the rights to the concept and this is what they did.

It ain't Linytron or Trinitron.

The black guard band prevents the previous switched color beam from contaminating the next color stripe during the color switch in the guard band. And focus is critical. If the beam spot focus is too big, it leaks across the guard band and contaminates the next stripe before the switch. Red beam in to green stripe, etc. It looks just like a degaussing problem.

If you count the guard band as a pixel, you have a six-wide pixel with no next line stagger for the traditional triad. Double the normal triad RGB pixels and now half the resolution with the color stripes easily visible.

And now that you have a black guard band after every RGB stripe, you have 1/2 of your screen in black. That is assuming that the guard band is as wide as the color stripe. I suspect smaller but that does nothing for brightness and contrast.

All said, I cannot think of any variation of analog tv like this that actually worked other than color wheels. Therein lies the rarity and collectability.

And my Indextron, restored by Andy, will be the set I watch the sunset of analog on.

Dave A

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by andy

I would open it up and check for leaking caps before you run it too much. Every single one I've seen the inside of (including working ones) has been FULL of puking electrolytics.

I don't know why these sets are considered so amazing when they are still working. I've personally worked on 5 or 6, and all of them just needed a basic re-cap plus some board clean up. I had to fix one open circuit board trace on one of them. I've heard of one set than needed a hard to find IC because some of the pins had corroded away, but that's the exception.

Wow, nice find. I paid like almost $800 for it used.

Andy fixed mines and I agree with him. Even though it's brand new, it reserves the right to leak caps without warning.

[colorfixer]

The leaky caps can short and blow the unobtainable ASIC that controls the tube...

I agree, time to be proactive and recap the thing.