Found a cute lil' Panasonic today

[mr_fixer]

I went to a thrift store today, found a cute little Panasonic ct-1110d color model made in 1984. Its definitely not a "Big Brother model" but maybe a "little brother" set.
Logan

[Celt]

Great little set! I owned one for many years as my bedroom TV. Let a friend borrow it and I'll be damned if she didn't precariously set it on top of stacked plastic milk crates. Her dumb cat knocked it over and pretty much ruined it.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Celt

Great little set! I owned one for many years as my bedroom TV. Let a friend borrow it and I'll be damned if she didn't precariously set it on top of stacked plastic milk crates. Her dumb cat knocked it over and pretty much ruined it.

Wow! She was lucky she or the cat weren't hurt, or the CRT didn't implode. Even a small-screen CRT such as the one in that set is under a heck of a lot of vacuum and will cause a lot of damage if it lets go. Setting the TV atop several milk crates wasn't such a good idea, either. Perhaps if your friend had put the TV on something solid such as a table, it wouldn't have fallen off so easily, even if her cat could get at it. My cat will jump on anything, especially when I'm not looking, so I have to be very careful where I put things in my apartment. Fortunately, he doesn't jump on top of either of my TVs anymore (there was a time he would jump on my living-room set and knock things off it, but that was a long time ago; thank goodness he doesn't do that anymore).

BTW, you said your Panasonic TV was "pretty much ruined" after your friend's cat knocked it over. How much damage was actually done, if not to the CRT? My best guess is that the main PCB shattered, for openers. If the CRT survived such a fall, I'd be amazed, as most of the time, when a TV set falls like that from any great height, the tube will implode as soon as the set hits the ground. Years ago I saw a TV that had been hurled down a flight of stairs in a fit of anger; the tube was still good even after the set hit the wall at the foot of the staircase, and the TV itself worked for some six months afterward.

[Celt]

PCB cracked in half, cabinet busted up really bad. I was mad, but didn't let on. She's always doing stupid stuff and then act surprised when it bit her in the ass.

[Tony V]

Nice find Logan! I always liked these sets for they had a nice picture.
-Tony

[Findm-Keepm]

Want an original service manual for the set? I've got one on Microfiche - dated 12/83. PM me with your address and it's your's free.

Cheers,

[Dave A]

I have three of these I found over a few weeks at the same SA store near me last summer. Never more than $8 each. One had the factory instructions. Great pix.

Dave A

[mr_fixer]

Thanks for the offer of the micro fishy but it is working already, you better hang on to it for someone who needs to fix theirs. I saw this set at the Goodwill last week but turned it down because i have limited space, but it was half price today and i couldn't resist it. It is a cute little TV with the 10 inch picture tube. I opened it up and cleaned out the insides of dust and cobwebs, and lubed the tuner, and that is all that i had to do to it. This makes my 8th tv set and in the house. It's just so funny that i found a 2006 rca last week that is busted already, yet a 20 plus year old Panasonic, Zenith, Toshiba and others are still working.
Logan

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

It's just so funny that i found a 2006 rca last week that is busted already, yet a 20 plus year old Panasonic, Zenith, Toshiba and others are still working. Logan

RCA TVs from that era (2006) back to about 1998-99 were notorious for failures around the tuner, which was mounted to the PC board (the infamous "on-board tuner" design that caused RCA no end of problems until the CTC-203 chassis, in which the RF tuner is mounted separately from the rest of the set). My own 19" RCA CTC185, bought new in late '99, has never had one issue with the tuner, save for one time when the antenna/cable RF port snapped off the tuner PCB (the set was only a month or two old at the time, but the warranty did not cover the cost of the repair). However, as far as tuner problems were concerned, this set has had none, probably because the last time it was worked on (to resolder the RF port) the repair technician also resoldered the ground points around the tuner. That was eight years ago; the TV is still working and makes an excellent picture on cable, as well as with my DVD player and VHS VCR. I don't know what happened to the 2006 model you saw, whether it had the same tuner problems (it shouldn't have, unless those sets were still using the on-board tuner design) or just what happened to put it out of commission in such a short time. A friend of mine told me his parents had a 25" RCA/Thomson TV with GuidePlus, etc. that blew a CRT after only two years, so Thomson must have had issues with CRTs in the mid-late-1990s as well--unless that particular instance was an unfortunate fluke.

[mr_fixer]

Ok when you say failures around the tuner, what exactly do you mean? Is there a cap that fails, a circuit trace? a chip? does it overheat? overvoltage? spontaneous combust? What should i look for? Logan
Oh, by the way I didn't mean to imply that RCA was the only one who is appearing to be a disposable tv manufacturer now a days, I remember someone a while back who posted about a Sanyo? that needed a part for 3 y/o set that parts were no longer available, Logan

[zenith2134]

The Tuner on Board issues were related to the soldering weakening IIRC... The weight of the tuner which was mounted on the PC board was too much.

Most modern Sanyo's are great sets (CRT I mean) and rarely need major work. Its the Funai made sets which suck IMO

[Celt]

Yep. Had a '82 RCA XL-100 console that developed a flaky tuner. Had to slap the top when it would drop out. Finally pulled the board and remade all the contacts.

[andy]

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