My Sony Indextron is off to Andy right now...

[Keefla]

copyright Honda Motorcycles.

[YamahaFreak]

copyright Honda motorcycles.

Originally Posted by Keefla

.. I don't get it.

[Richard D]

Back in the 1960's Honda wanted to seperate itself from the Harley Davidson biker image and used the tag, You meet the nicest people on a Honda.

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by Richard D

Back in the 1960's Honda wanted to seperate itself from the Harley Davidson biker image and used the tag, You meet the nicest people on a Honda.

OIC.

[andy]

...

[jhalphen]

Hello Andy,

I've been following your Indextron repair thread with great interest, Thanks! for all the info.

I have two to repair, and was waiting for someone more knowledgeable for tips & tricks before tackling the task myself.

Indextron #1 worked for about 8 hours, so i posted a thread on our French TV NG to explain the technology & show pictures.

http://retro-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=11652

This set is now dead as a doorknob. Er, it does have FM audio hiss, no raster.

Indextron #2 has scan & video noise. However no channel is received as i step through the channels. I broadcast a 100mW NTSC VHF signal on US Channel 12.

From your experience, i deduct both sets need a global "shotgun" electolytic capacitor recapping. I have the full service manual, once again i will E-Mail it FREE to any collector who wants to look at this unusual circuitry.

Thanks! again for the useful tips,

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[andy]

...

[John Folsom]

About 2 years ago my Indextron was working fine. But no more. I am sending it off to Andy to see if he can work his magic.

[sweitzel]

I am amused at the fact that it's always capacitor issues in televisions. From vintage 60 year old sets to those from the late 1980's Capacitors are the thorn in our side. Just an interesting observation.

[mattdavala]

Originally Posted by sweitzel

I am amused at the fact that it's always capacitor issues in televisions. From vintage 60 year old sets to those from the late 1980's Capacitors are the thorn in our side. Just an interesting observation.

Not the case with my 66 color roundie. Unrestored and it has been a daily watcher for close to three years. Its not perfect, vertical linearity is a bit off, and there are some hum bars on the picture. But, its perfecticly watchable and reliable for hours on end.

Always an exception to the bad cap rule.

Best regards,
Matt Davala

[andy]

...

[John Folsom]

Andy, you the man!

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by andy

Does this bring back any memories?

Quite the picture difference there. Great work!

[Keefla]

damn Andy, sony could have used you around about 15 years ago!!

[Dave A]

Another Indextron is living! It Indexton #3 as Andy used #2 to diagnose mine even though mine was on the bench first, with problems. Walt will be #1 as I know. #4 is done also. Another is lurking around AK as I remember. And two more in France. Please add more sets or correct the order if you know of them. If you know why Sony killed these, please post.

The history. I bought mine on ebay as a dead set back in June. The photos below show the progress from sort-of-dead to living. After reading Andy's work with Walt's set I sent it to him. You can see what I had when I bought it. A blank raster that did not fill the screen. Andy's work is a treasure for all of us.

The Sony model #KVX-370 is a clue to the set. Sony receivers all had the KV designation. The X could be for IndeXtron or EXperimental. The 370 is for the 3.7" screen size.

You can see the real view of the CRT that shows 6 stripes out of view of the mask that starts the index beam. It gets up to speed on each sweep here and then the color beam turns on at stripe #7 as the index beam begins to count and find it's place and tell the color beam where to be. I am not sure if this counting is early digital or hopefully-in-place analog. I suspect the latter.

It is a straight-stripe tube with black guard bands between each stripe and no shadow mask. That is the flaw in the end picture. Too many black guard bands that are too big. And all color pixels are side-by-side-line-by-line. Not in a compact triad or compact staggered stripe like the Linytron. Very noticeable from up close or from photos. It is quite an average picture considering it has no shadow mask to go through and by design shoud be brilliant. No answer here. Turning up the contrast seems to degrade the color.

From here the index beam strikes each green stripe from the rear and reflects it back to a photocell on the back of the CRT to tell the set where it is at any give time. Continual information on scanning and beam information from the index beam is just like the Philco Apple in 1956...the origin of this effort by Sony who bought the Philco patents. Philco could not get it right in 1956. Manufacturing problems.

If the beam is not perfectly focused, it will leak over to the next color stripe and cause color contamination as there is no mask to stop this. Focus is critical.

The 20 surface mount cap change that is normal did not complete the fix. This the normal problem with this set. They were all bad within the first year. Something else was wrong in my set. It was discolored on the left edge for the first few stripes. The index beam was not working right and did not start the trailing color beam in the right place but caught up within a few stripes.


The problem with my set is that the beams did not coordinate. After using another set as a guide, Andy determined that there was a horizontal linerarity problem between the leading index beam and the trailing color beam. There are adjustments for both and they must be coordiated to make color.

An open circuit trace was the problem shutting down the index scan H linerarity. Fixed and good to go.

The brightness, contrast, color and hue controls are only minimal controls. Acting like sub-controls. The set also has a clock function much like any 50's clock radio that would put you to sleep or wake you up.

The screen pix are side-by-side with a Sony KV-5100 of the same era with my DVD of the source video in the background. Sorry Pete, a CT100/plasma comparison is not available this time. The Indextron is on the left.

The 5100 shows a warm picture as I have never set it up and the Indexron is as perfect a picture as there ever was. True blacks from the git go. The Indextron is as sharp as I have ever seen in this screen size. You can still see a small index discoloration on the riight in the Bing Crosby image on the far right of the left side Indextron pic.

The set does run hot to the touch after an hour or so. An amazing picture from 50 year old technology in a 1989 case. Enjoy and do not pay too much for one of these. It's fun, but not the holy grail of the collecting world. Either way, send it to Andy. And if you really want a version of this, RCA built two camcorders using an index CRT in the viewfinder with a Hitachi tube. Good hunting.

Problems loading the pix. Please stand by. Late news...got it to work. Skip next message.

Dave A