Curtis Mathes 25 inch tv 1980s sensor touch

[Firebird]

Does any one have an early 1980s Curtis Mathes with sensor touch tuning?

[radiotvnut]

Haven't had one in ages. Don't mean to sound rude; but, I don't care if I ever see another one. Those things were a headache and those sensor buttons would often go crazy by not responding or trying to tune to multiple channels at once. Sears had some similar TV's that were made by Sanyo and I didn't care for those, either.

[holmesuser01]

Cleaning those sensor buttons with a little toothbrush and alcohol often cleared up the insane channel selections.

I seem to remember an IC that would cause this, too, on the Sears sets.

[zeno]

We used to clean the Sears/Sanyos the same way.
Drop the selector package out & give both the buttons
and holes a good cleaning. Worked 100%, use 91%
isopropal it wont damage anything & evaporates fast.
Its dirt cheap too !

BTW put up model#, chassis#, front & chassis pictures
to ID the set if you have problems. Most 80's C-M sets
were NEC but may have been almost anything else. They
were very rare in my area, only saw a hand full in 35+ yrs.

73 Zeno

[truetone36]

I had one out in the shed for a while, but I sold it to a friend of mine a couple of years ago.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Haven't had one in ages. Don't mean to sound rude; but, I don't care if I ever see another one. Those things were a headache and those sensor buttons would often go crazy by not responding or trying to tune to multiple channels at once. Sears had some similar TV's that were made by Sanyo and I didn't care for those, either.

With you on that one. Not too mention these sets were built VERY cheaply, ALWAYS a hot chassis, IIRC and not anywhere near worth the money people paid for them -a FAR cry from the days of tube CM sets, both BW and color. RCA , Sylvania, Mag and Zenith were superior to CM sets in the SS days. I recall one early 70's CM combo set--actually branded a "rutherford" that I worked on in 1987---and it had a VERY cheap built NEC tv chassis with an even cheaper lloyds style stereo chassis . I would not have given one DIME for the set--then or now.

[playdrv4me]

That sounds like a cool concept, but I grew up in the 80s and even by the late 80s I viewed the Curtis-Mathes brand as nothing more than perhaps one peg above or even on equal footing to brands like GPX and Soundesign and Bell+Howell. Name was nothing but a name by that time.

[Fairlane500skyliner]

Originally Posted by Firebird

Does any one have an early 1980s Curtis Mathes with sensor touch tuning?

What's "Sensor touch tuning"? Are those the tuners where instead of buttons or a turret/dial tuner, they use two metal contacts that short out when your finger comes into contact with them? I'm not all that familiar with 1970s/80s sets and related terminology.

Thanks, Chris

[Firebird]

That was it exactly. Had a friend who's mother owned a restaurant next to a dealer. She bought one. Had the best color and the tuner was really cool.

[Fairlane500skyliner]

Originally Posted by Firebird

That was it exactly. Had a friend who's mother owned a restaurant next to a dealer. She bought one. Had the best color and the tuner was really cool.

Ah, cheers! I had a portable with a sensor-touch tuner, which had a bad habbit of changing channels on it's own during humid weather. It also had an ultra-sonic remote, which was pretty neat, though the dogs absolutely hated it!

Chris

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by rca2000

With you on that one. Not too mention these sets were built VERY cheaply, ALWAYS a hot chassis, IIRC and not anywhere near worth the money people paid for them -a FAR cry from the days of tube CM sets, both BW and color. RCA , Sylvania, Mag and Zenith were superior to CM sets in the SS days. I recall one early 70's CM combo set--actually branded a "rutherford" that I worked on in 1987---and it had a VERY cheap built NEC tv chassis with an even cheaper lloyds style stereo chassis . I would not have given one DIME for the set--then or now.

That sounds like the '74 model that someone gave me and the only reason I took it was for the CRT; but, the CRT, a Westinghouse 23" delta gun tube, was totally dead and wouldn't rejuvenate. The cabinet was cheap plastic and particleboard. The TV chassis was NEC, the record changer was a Glenburn, and the stereo chassis was some cheap crap from Taiwan. The original owners probably paid $2K+ for that set; but, would have been better off buying a Zenith or RCA, for less money.

Years ago, a guy tried to sell me a dead early '80's CM console with the sensor touch tuner. I offered him $10 and he was insulted. He then went on to tell me how much he paid for the TV and that it was the best TV on the market. The whole time I'm thinking, "you wouldn't believe any different if I tried to educate you; so, you keep on believing that you have the best TV ever built and good luck on selling it."