Maggie Home Entertainment Center

[DaveWM]

any updates?

[holmesuser01]

None to speak of. The set is inside the house now. The kine is shot. Calling Scotty in the morning, as I couldn't get in touch with him on my last day off from work.

I dunno. Do I really need to spend $270 plus shipping on a set that is considered totally obsolete by most of the world?

I'm still searching for the 23MP4 / 23ALP4 / 23AMP4. There's got to be one out there somewhere that needs a home!

[radiotvnut]

I'd shop around before jumping off into a new CRT just yet. Place a wanted ad in the classifieds and maybe someone has a used good CRT they'll sell you. Or, you might try video display corp. I like old electronics and try to bring as much old equipment back to life as possible; but, I'd have to think long and hard before spending $270 on a fairly common B&W set.

Also, before you condemn the tube, make sure that the CRT socket does not have an intermittent broken filament connection. If that is not the problem, try resoldering the pins on the CRT, assuming it's the type of CRT with the bakelite base and large pins.

[holmesuser01]

UPDATE: A nice guy in Raleigh NC contacted me. He told me I could have a 23MP4 tube that he has if I come and get it. I loaded up the car and went down there last weekend... about a 4-5 hour drive. About 100 miles into the trip, I remembered that I forgot my tube tester...

I got there. The guy is great. We went through his barn and found the Magnavox console that I was getting. Yep, its a 23MP4 in there. My car is not big enough to haul a console, so we pulled the tube and sat it in my trunk on several layers of blankets, and wrapped the tube up with more blankets for the trip.

I also got a load of OEM tubes from this set. ALL of them test good.

I thanked him, and headed home. When I got here, I brought the tube into the house and tested it. It has a H-K short. I'm sure he didnt know it. So, I'm back to square one, again. It only cost me a tank of gas both ways.

Hey, the filament looks really nice glowing in there!

[rpm1200]

Is it possible to blow out a CRT short? I remember reading a description of someone doing something like that... charge up a nice big capacitor, short the heater lines, connect one end of the cap to the heater and another to the cathode... just an idea, maybe it's stupid but it might work depending on the nature of the short.

[DaveWM]

did you try the tube tester short fix?

[DaveWM]

also just to see if ti works you could disconnect the filament and drive it with a separate 6.3 tranny. how did the emmisions look?

opps I see HK shorts can't be removed with my CRT tester. oh well could still try powering it with a separate tranny.

one last thing did you try leaving it on for a while just to see if it would clear up? long shot I know

[Jeffhs]

This obsession some folks outside our hobby seem to have with making fishtanks, bookcases, etc. out of old TVs is, IMHO, getting well out of hand. I found this on eBay this morning, in the item description for a Magnavox three-way entertainment center:

"Great for parts if someone has similar unit, or could be used to put a fish bowl in where the TV screen was."


As my subject line says, here we go again! What is it with people wanting to make fishtanks out of these great old consoles? I don't know about that, but I do know that if I were buying this (I'm not, despite the $9.99 starting bid, as I don't have the room in my apartment for anything that big; besides, it's too far away) I would do everything in my power to get at least the stereo working, though it would be nice to have the television operational as well. No way would I ever put a fish tank in the opening where the TV now resides. My best guess is that this TV has some very major problems the owner either doesn't want to or cannot deal with (the latter due to the expense), so he or she is selling the set with a low starting bid just to get it out of the way. I'd guess the owner upgraded to a flat panel and doesn't need this big Maggie anymore, or else he/she is moving and is getting rid of it because they are downsizing. Or perhaps the set was put down in the basement when it finally quit, and the owner wants it out of the house ASAP--who knows? The set could have little more wrong with it than a defective low-voltage rectifier tube or a blown fuse if nothing works, but if the owner wants it out of there for whatever reason, none of that really matters.

[holmesuser01]

I tried the 6V tranny. It's a bit small, and the filament is not quite as bright, but it checks boarderline between ? and good. I have a feeling that it would be good without the short. Previous owner told me it has been sitting in the barn for at least 35 years. Belonged to his granddad.

I cant zap H-K shorts with my tester either.

[DaveWM]

well if you could find a brightner it would kill two birds with one stone, at least until you find anohter tube in good shape.

[holmesuser01]

I have several color brightners, and a couple of roundie brightners. No B/W's anymore, but I can remember having a box full at one time.

I got my color brighteners from sets where I was replacing the kine. People used to do that, remember?

I'm going to wait and see what happens in the next few days. I might aquire a new tube from Moyers, or a used tube from a gent from another forum. It's not hard to replace the tube in this Maggie, but I dont like doing it over and over... When I pull the OEM tube from this set, I will vacuum the entire interior of the cabinet.

[akent36]

Use an isolation brightener and the H-K short won't be a problem.

[David Roper]

What akent36 said. After all that trouble to get it, I'd use the tube if it tests halfway decent. Either an isolation brightener or a separate 6.3V tranny will work. The transformer must be rated for at least 0.6 amp as that's what the filament draws.

[holmesuser01]

I'll see what happens with Moyers and the used tube in the meantime. I used to see isolation brightners all the time. Wha happened to them?

[holmesuser01]

Moyers doesent have a tube anymore.