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HMV 1800
The Cabinet.
Click
here for pictures. The cabinet is intact, but the finish is in
poor condition. We will take it to Old World Furniture Refinishing to
have new lacquer applied.
The CRT is a 9 inch
magnetic deflection, magnetic focus tube with an unusual neck. After
restoring the chassis I connected the tube and got a very dim raster.
I will try the tube again after I receive the new high voltage (EHT)
transformer, which will supply more voltage to the tube than the
temporary transformer I used.
Click here for techincal
information.
The Chassis. Click
here for pictures. There is only one chassis in the set. It is
in relatively good condition, with a small amount of rust, only on
the rear panel. There appear to be many postwar components that have
been added to the set. We don't have a schematic for this set, but
ones for other similar sets will help. The high voltage (EHT)
capacitor also had to be rebuilt.
The chassis has been significantly modified,
especially in the sweep circuits. Several of the original
electrolytic capacitors have been replaced by modern ones.
I received a schematic from David Boynes of a similar
set. After tracing the circuit of our set I discovered that it is
actually the same as the schematic, but at some point a very sloppy
serviceman installed replacement parts in a very haphazard way,
bypassing the terminal strips and connecting the parts together in
mid air. I hare rebuilt the paper capacitors in the vertical (frame)
sweep section, and have restored the components to their proper places.
The horizontal (line) sweep sections and the sync
separator and amplifier have been rebuilt. The sync circuits had been
modified to be similar to the postwar design. I returned it to the
prewar circuit. The sweep circuits now appear to function properly.
The electrolytics have been rebuilt, and the modern
ones replaced with old style cans. Though the set now looks more
authentic than it did, some of the cans are not the proper ones.
The high voltage (EHT) transformer started smoking,
and will have to be rewound or replaced. Ed Dinning in England is
building me a replica, which will be about the same size.
After replacing bad RF amplifier and oscillator/mixer
(frequency changer) tubes (valves) and finding a couple more wiring
mistakes by the previous repair person, I got a good video signal at
the output of the video amplifier. I discovered another bad
electrolytic capacitor that will have to be rebuilt.
There was no audio output, using an audio test signal
into the output tube (valve). After checking and rechecking every
component, I discovered that the plate had been tied to the screen
grid by a wire that was not easily visible. I removed it and now the
audio amplifier stages work. The audio from a RF signal source is
distorted, however.
The remaining items to be completed before putting the
set aside until the transformer arrives are to find the audio
distortion and to test the sync separator circuits. The problem with
audio distortion turned out to be in my modulator. After repairing
it, the sound is fine.
I connected a temporary high voltage (EHT) power
supply, providing about 2500 volts rather than the 3500 the original
supply put out. The raster was extremely dim. When I get the
replacement transformer I will try the CRT again.
The replacement high voltage (EHT) transformer
arrived. It is somewhat larger than the original, but, since it is
located under the chassis, it will not be visible. After connecting
the transformer, I had no raster.
I traced the problem to an off value resistor in the
video output stage, which was applying too high a voltage to the CRT
cathode, forcing the tube into cutoff even with the brightness
control fully up.
After replacing the resistor I had a dim raster. I
noticed that the CRT filament appeared to be very dim, so I measured
the voltage and found that it was 2 volts instead of the specified 4
volts. I traced the problem to a poor solder connection on a small
inductor that was in series with the filament.
I then had a bright image on the screen, but no
vertical (frame) deflection. The problem was that the can style
electrolytic capacitor I had used as the coupling capacitor in the
vertical (frame) output had the negative lead internally tied to the
can, resulting in a short to the chassis. Replacing the capacitor
solved that problem.
The set is now displaying a bright, sharp picture
(this photo was taken at 1/4 second exposure. This set has a slight
wobble in the picture caused by operating it with a 60 Hz supply
instead of the 50 Hz it was designed for. As a result the photo is blurred.)
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