Sanyo 3" Beam Index Color TV - A picture at Last!

[jhalphen]

Good day Gentlemen,

Courtesy of a very kind e-Bay seller (Thanks! David) i received a scan of the elusive Sanyo 30CTV1 a Watchman-like 3 inch color TV using a beam index single gun CRT and possibly an electron gun parallel to the screen to make the receiver extremely slim.

The TV is presented in a Sanyo catalogue published in 1986 and entitled
"The Modern Art of Electronics".

Would you believe that i am searching for this receiver since 1986!

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

Good day Gentlemen,

Courtesy of a very kind e-Bay seller (Thanks! David) i received a scan of the elusive Sanyo 30CTV1 a Watchman-like 3 inch color TV using a beam index single gun CRT and possibly an electron gun parallel to the screen to make the receiver extremely slim.

The TV is presented in a Sanyo catalogue published in 1986 and entitled
"The Modern Art of Electronics".

Would you believe that i am searching for this receiver since 1986!

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

Congratulations Jerome.

Did you ever get any confirmation on whether or not these ever made it into production? And if so, what market? USA? Europe? Japan?

Have you found a schematic yet?

And it's much bigger in size than I'd imagined.


.

[jhalphen]

Hi WISCOJIM,

Thanks! for the reply.

Did you ever get any confirmation on whether or not these ever made it into production? And if so, what market? USA? Europe? Japan?

I've spent half the day tracking down my 2008 Sanyo contact, a Japanese-speaking US citizen, now at Sanyo HQ in san Diego, California. I've sent him the pictures and hope for some help.

As far as i know, the TV was sold only in the US. Strangely enough, not in Japan. I've been watching Yahoo! Japan for over a year now (Thanks! to Eckhard) and have seen none. As for Europe - just forget it!

Have you found a schematic yet?
Unfortunately, no.

Size: corrected Jan 2022 measured on actual unit by E-Type2
8" 15/16 Height x 4" 5/8 Width (5" 13/16 with battery) and 1" 3/4 inches Depth

In metric, this equates to: Height-22.70cm x Width-11.74cm (14.7cm with battery) x Depth-4.44cm.

Yup! big beast compared to a WatchMan, but take into consideration that it was mid-eighties technology - still much more lightweight than say, a GE PortaColor.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[Dave A]

Jerome,

A treat to see it finally! And like you said, much bigger than imagined...and add the sidecar battery on for good luck. It must be quite heavy.

Do you have a guess on what the six-stripe graphic might be?

Dave A

[Sandy G]

Tres Kewl, Jerome ! (grin)

[freakaftr8]

Very interesting design! Hope you find the reciever soon.

[jhalphen]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your replies.

To Dave A.
Do you have a guess on what the six-stripe graphic might be?

No, not at all. 3 x RGB symbols folded back to evoke the concept of how a gun parallel to the screen operates? - pure speculation of course.

Not too optimistic about finding one considering it has taken 24 years just to get a picture... - the chap at Sanyo HQ hasn't replied (yet?).

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[etype2]

Congratulations on the great find Jerome!

As was stated, much different then the prototype pictured in Popular Science and larger.

Your image looks production ready. The lust is back! (and the search) :-)

[etype2]

ADDED JANUARY 19, 2022

1985 Sanyo 30CTV1

We found one and as a collector, I’m ecstatic! VideoKarma member Jerome H., found the first picture in 2010 and back then, I had doubts it was ever manufactured, but here it is!

This television is the first and only FLAT beam index color CRT made available to the public. Sony made a prototype, but never released it. Introduced in 1985, the Sanyo predates the well known Sony KVX-370. We became aware of this set in 1985 from published articles in Popular Science and other magazines and have been searching diligently the past 12 years after my career retirement.

This set uses the “lollipop” style CRT, with screen being 3 inches diagonal and 42mm at its thickest point. Deflection is 45 degrees horizontal, 16 degrees vertical. The set has all the usual controls and inputs including AUTO COLOR and AFT. A detachable battery pack holds 8 double A batteries. The set measures 9 H X 4.5 W X 1.75 inches thick with battery back detached. I have the 12 volt power supply and leather case with the find, but no paperwork.

The set is in very good condition, just needed cabinet cleaning. The front viewing screen is glass, not plastic. An adjustable stand is recessed into the rear cabinet and the antenna is straight as it should be. The set feels like 2.5 pounds, a guess. Jerome was correct, the set appears to be for American standards and the label on the back reads “Assembled in U.S.A. with Japanese components.” How often or odd is that.

Indeed, after cleaning we attached a digital converter box, set the dial to channel 3 and switched on the power hoping for the best and behold, we had a gorgeous lollipop, indexed color picture! The color and brightness looks comparable to the Sony KVX-370, but the RGB stripes have a finer pitch, so the images appear in higher resolution.

In the simplest terms, a black carbon material is laid down under the 145 triplets for better contrast and every triplet is sandwiched by non emissive index stripes that emit something close to ultraviolet light which is collected by a light collector plate attached at the rear of the CRT. A diode attached to the top of the plate send the UV light to a custom IC processor that indexes the single electron beam to the proper RGB phosphor stripe. No shadow mask or aperture grill. In this scheme, the electron spot size is critical so it won’t spill over to adjacent phosphor stripes and contaminate the color.

In a few screenshots provided below, you can see the index stripes above and below the RGB stripes and gives you an idea of the spacing between them. A single strange lit blue stripe can be seen at the left and end of the run in field. I’m not sure of its function.

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...C0DF3C3C7.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...0F2886510.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...A86EA43DF.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...1211C828B.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...27287A4FF.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...F19CCDA87.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...AC9763B29.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...80B832EC7.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...B939A1DEC.jpeg

[Dave A]

Amazing! Another lost bit of technology found and working. Whose caps did they use so as to not meet the fate of the average cap challenged Indextron?

[old_tv_nut]

Neat!

[dtvmcdonald]

What a way to ressurect an 11 year old thread!

[ARC Tech-109]

Isn't that why its called Karma? I've found a wealth of great information on this forum and a member long before it split away from the original Audiokarma. Sure beats the social media platforms.

[jr_tech]

Amazing find !

The geometry of the picture appears to be much better than that of the b/w watchman sets. I suspect that there is much correction as well as dynamic focus involved, perhaps even necessary for proper operation of the beam index scheme.

Congratulations!
jr

[jhalphen]

Hi to all,

E-Type2 (Marshall), Congratulations! on finding one of the rarest color TVs on planet earth.

A quest which started in 1986, proof-of-the-pudding in 2010, then nothing for 12 long years.

I am so glad! Marshall found it. His web site is a worldwide authority with beautiful and unique photography of all aspects of color TV and i (& others) hope to see many more detailed photos of this working electronic gem.

What's next on the "impossible shopping list"? perhaps a GTC ColorNetron (see it on Marshall's site),

Best regards
jhalphen
Paris/France