The thing is the cheaper “cloned” stuff tends to not work out well in the long run.
They’d work for surface mount electrolytic caps, but for anything through hole they’d be useless.
Yeah the purpose of the product is to use them on surface mount components, not through hole.
I struggled quite a bit removing/replacing smd 30mm capacitors from a Mega CD recently with a regular soldering iron/hot air station and for some larger ones on a Game Gear sound board, so that tool would have been super useful for them. However, the majority of what I need to work on is through hole so cost not worth it at this point for the little work I do.
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Yeah, the more mods I do the more I consider getting these. There are times even on through-hole components that it would be very helpful to directly heat two pins at the same time. Some times I like to extract a cap first by heating both through holes first and then remove leftover solder after pulling the cap. With a standard iron you have to pull one leg at a time. With one of these you could heat both and pull the cap right out.
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Here’s a couple of shots of the 20L2 after a little bit of tweaking - I think in my desire to have more pronounced scanlines I had it set a little dark. After having it for nearly a year at this point I better understand its strengths so now I’m embracing its softer image.
The only thing bothering me now is that there is some light ghosting especially noticeable on 480i games. I know it’s probably due to the age of the tube and there isn’t much to be done about it but as I already planned to recap the monitor for longevity I’m hopeful it may mitigate the issue somewhat - so I opened it up last week to give it a quick clean and inspect the caps.
Other than some very light dust everything is in fantastic condition. No signs of leakage or bulging anywhere. That said my monitor was manufactured in late 2002 so its not completely surprising. I’m optimistic about recapping it as my VA1 Megadrive demonstrated that despite having high quality caps that looked to be in pristine condition a recap did wonders for the brightness of the video output and the audio quality.
I’ve assembled a cap list via the service manual - but I’ve been very, very, very slowly getting the part numbers from mouser so I can place an order. Other than discharging the flyback disassembly looks remarkably straightforward - there’s the odd screw here and there but its mostly a case of disconnecting all of the wire harnesses and remembering how to put it back together properly.
I know people go board by board but I’ll probably do it the stupid way and do everything in one go.
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Keep us posted! Love seeing this stuff. I need to recap all of mine.
Well this is quite a bump. I was kind of hoping this thread would get lost.
Think my thoughts are starting to lean along the lines of if the capacitors aren’t being problematic then leave them alone at least for CRT’s.
Not entirely convinced that part of the later issues I’ve had with my 20" PVM weren’t due to the change in capacitors in some way. I’m sure accidentally feeding it 1080p didn’t help mind.
Have re-visited this PVM several times since fixing a few other issues but none were cap related and more issues with bad IC’s, yoke alignment being bad, purity not being great and having to perform convergence adjustments.
And yet it is still a problematic set…
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What do you think about fixing an aging consumer CRT? I have been through at least a half dozen of them, and they all seem to have some sort of picture quality issue from severe bowing, convergence, or softness.
Now that I have a 32FV310, I feel like it’s worth the effort working on it, but I don’t know if recapping and tweaking it internally will be worth the trouble.
It has some slight convergence issues and slight bowing, but it’s usable and enjoyable as is.
Thoughts?
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I’ve actually recapped a few consumer CRT now. I’ve never really posted anything up about them, even though I originally intended to, as those sets have been passed on and were more about practice for me.
Re-capping in my experience has done very little along the lines of improving geometry in any meaningful way (though it can help but OSD settings tend to be the best place to start).
However, screen brightness generally has improved and capacitor whine reduces but appears to increase again over time which is likely why you often see blotches of some form of bonding material holding groups of capacitors together to help stop their vibrations.
For dim/dark set you might also be better adjusting the Screen pot as that controls the G1/G2 circuits inside the tube itself. This is usually found either on or close to the flyback on consumer sets as the flyback generally produces the voltages for them as a cheap method of doing so. On a broadcast monitor this is often not the case and can sometimes be found on the neck board instead.
I’d say inspect the capacitors if you see any blown out or leaking replace them and the ones around them.
Soft image is easily fixed by adjusting the focus pot on the flyback. I had to adjust this on my JVC DTV which has an insane amount of hours on it to get it sharp again.
Convergence is better tackled on the convergence rings IF OSD settings cant fix them. They are safe to touch and move by bare hand while the set is on but caution should be taken as the rear of the CRT will give you a nasty shock if you slip.
You will likely have to use a craft knife in between the rings to free them from the white epoxy that binds them together. My advice here is to absolutely NOT move the ring closest to the front of the CRT as this controls purity. If you have coloured blotches on screen then go ahead but moving this will mess up all geometry settings and they will have to be redone from scratch.
I also have to say that for convergence the test patterns in the 240p Suite are absolutely shit (you will end up having to rely on eye and some guesswork using it). You will really want to have some form of pattern generator that is outputting in 480i that can turn each of the RGB colours on and off as you adjust convergence. I still need to find and buy one myself. Just don’t expect to get everything spot on.
Concentrate on getting the center of the screen as close as possible and possibly use convergence strips around the edges to pull things in line.
Also keep an eye out for burnt IC’s and transistors as that is a sure fire way of telling if they are failing and need to be replaced.
Hope this helps?
I’m still learning new stuff all the time, but haven’t worked on a CRT in a while as want to concentrate on learning more and getting through my back logs of mods/repairs for other things first.
Edit:
Seems some of my image links are busted in some of my original posts in here, that i was hosting. Will have to try to sort them out sometime.
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Thing I’m trying to find a solution to/someone with experience with with my 36fv310 is how the fuck to actually open it. Seems like the back piece is also the bottom along the back and the thing weighs a fuck ton so don’t know how I would “prop it up” to actually work on it or even get the back off to do any adjustments.
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Yeah, it’s what I was following when I first was going to give it a try, but after getting all the screws off and tugging on the back a little I realized that the back may actually be part of the brace/be weight bearing and the service manual doesn’t show/mention any details about that. Couldn’t find any pictures/impressions from people online in a quick search and then got caught up in other stuff before I got to the point of asking others if they had done it. Shit is way way too heavy and big for me to want to pull it off without knowing for sure.
Edit: (also sorry for invading your thread to ask a general question. Just popped into my mind because I saw someone else mention doing work on an fv310)
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Yeah would have posted up more but getting ready to go to work. I don’t personally know that CRT but pretty much everything I have seen end up having a plastic piece at the bottom supporting the chassis like this:
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Same. It was only after tugging on the back of it and coming to the instant realization of “wait, if this thing goes there is nothing I can do to stop it” that I decided to look for verification before trying. I mean the fucker is so heavy that I can’t even tilt it up on the stand I have it on safely to look underneath and see if there is a separate peace there. One of those things that I wish I did when I had it rolling around on a dolly for like a month when I was repairing the base, but oh well.
Not like I’m in a rush since I need to source some of the little magnet strips used to correct corner issues before going balls deep into this anyway. Sure, it probably has some inside already that are just misaligned, but better to have some backups.
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The front piece of a consumer set regardless on its own can support the weight of the CRT so I doubt it would be an issue. No harm in being extra cautious though!
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So I’ve got my part list ready for a cap kit for my 20L2 but I’m holding off on ordering because I haven’t measured any of the caps and or the spacing of the leads. I’m wondering if it’s worth removing the boards and taking some measurements or whether I should just take my chances and place an order and see what happens. I’m planning on working on it board by board on weekends so it’s not the end of the world if I do it in a more thorough way.
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I have a 27FV310.
I don’t think recapping it will help. The consumer sets have much more internal area so they the caps are less likely to overheat and fail.
Repositioning the yoke and recalibrating convergence can seriously improve the picture quality. But I need to write an in depth guide. I’ll say this, to fix bowing, adjust the rings on the velocity modulation neckboard. They are designed to adjust bowing. If you reposition the yoke, that’ll affect bowing too but yoke position should be adjusted by calibrating purity and convergence, not geometry.
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If you were to write a guide on that, I would be forever grateful!
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Try a D78014FYCW. That is the OEV203 CPU. or D78018FYCW 20m2mdu CPU.
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It’s difficult to explain how to setup convergence through text. I want to make a video one day to explain the process. But hopefully this guide will help you.
Read
- Arcade Monitor - http://www.arcaderepairtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/guide_setup_adjust_arcade_monitors_v1.2.0.pdf
- Sony CRT-01 https://manualzz.com/doc/2314056/sony-crt-01-crt-tv-troubleshooting-and-diagnostic-training-…
- Read Service Manual for your TV
Big Picture
- Pushing the yoke front and back adjusts purity.
- Adjusting the yoke rings adjusts static (center) convergence.
- Tilting yoke left/right and up/down adjusts dynamic (outside) convergence.
- Adjusting the various pots and plate on yoke fine tunes dynamic (outside) convergence.
- Adding magnets fine tunes purity and convergence.
Understand this so you aren’t just wasting time.
Although the process to set the yoke in theory is very straight forward but in practice there are 2 big issues:
- Yoke has imperfections. To check convergence you look at symmetry between left and right or top and bottom. But since the yoke has imperfections it can be hard to tell if there is misconvergence or a yoke issues, which may or may not be correctable with strips).
- Although the yoke rings are used to adjust static convergence, they effect dynamic convergence so you might need to do touch
Step 0 - Prep Work
- Your rings are likely coated in paint. You’ll need to use cotton swabs and acetone to remove the paint. You might also want to remove the yoke and remove the rings to clean them if you have paint in-between the rings and on the metal spacers.
- Remove all wedges, magnets and convergence strips from your CRT. You might need extra strips which you can salvage from another step or make your own using permalloy magnets.
- Buy silicone and double-sided tape to lock the wedges, magnets and strips in place after you finish the calibration.
- Install 240p test suite onto your Wii or Dreamcast. Wii has good full 240p output so it’s the best version to use. Dreamcast is fine too. But stay away from the lower rez (224p only) 4th gen consoles.
Step 1 - Purity
- Display a pure green background image in 240p.
- Pull the yoke back until you see 3 bands: red, green, and blue.
- Inspect. Look at the figure in section 2-1 of the 27FV310 service manual. If the bands are PERFECTLY vertical and parallel then you’ll have really good purity. If the bands are diagonal or misshapen then you’ll have purity issues in that area and you might need to add magnets to the backside of the tube.
- Adjust the purity rings (2 pole magnets) so green is centered with blue and red equally spaced on the sides and push the yoke forward.
- Readjust rings if necessary to fine tune the purity. On these larger sets, the purity is very sensitive to minor changes. Try to keep purity rings as close to perfectly vertical and as closed as possible.
Step 2 - Static (Center) Convergence
To adjust static convergence you need to use the 4 pole magnets, 6 pole magnets and H Stat-VR701.
- 4 pole magnets (ribbed end) adjust blue/red (magenta) vertical convergence.
- 6 pole magnet (notched end) adjust green/magenta convergence.
- H-Stat VR adjusts blue/red (magenta) horizontal convergence.
- Use 240p Backlit Zone Test
- Look at figure 3-14 of the 14M4U service manual. You want to spread the 4 pole magnet while keeping it symmetrical around the yoke to adjust red/blue vertical convergence.
- Adjust H-Stat VR to achieve blue/red horizontal convergence.
- Adjust 6 pole magnet to align green convergence.
Once done the center dot should be perfectly white.
Tips:
- It helps to set brightness at 120nits because the lower brightness results in a sharper image.
- If your G2 is set too high, you’ll have red flare as shown in the Sony CRT-01 manual.
- Use the GON setting to disable the green gun when doing magenta convergence.
Step 3 - Dynamic Convergence.
To adjust dynamic convergence, you’ll need adjust the follow parameters. Not all are available on all models.
- Yoke Tilt: up and down.
- Yoke Tilt: left and right
- TLV1/HTRP - Adjusts HTRP size and TLV
- TLV2 - only adjusts TLV
- YCH
- XCV - Adjust using the plastic dial or using an PLASTIC hex key into the slug, depending on the set. DO NOT USE A METAL ALLEN WRENCH OR ELSE YOU WILL DESTORY THE SLUG AND NEED A NEW YOKE!!! https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/alignment-kit-gc-electronics-color-tvs
- TLH plate (not all yokes have/need the TLH plate)
- Use the 240p Linearity pattern and cycle to the version with an overlaid grid.
- See upper figure (a) and (b) in the dynamic convergence section of the arcade monitor PDF. Pull the yoke up to converge red/blue at the top and bottom of the screen. Adjust YCH VR to fine tune vertical convergence and XCV to fine tune horizontal convergence.
- See lower figure (a) and (b) in the dynamic convergence section of the arcade monitor PDF. Tilt yoke left and right to adjust parallel convergence. Fine tune top and bottom convergence with TLV, and likely TLV1/HTRP. Fine tune right and left convergence with TLH plate.
Tips
- To adjust HTRP. Disable BON and RON to display a green-only mode. Then use the linearity pattern with grids and dots to adjust the size.
- You want might to adjust tilt:up and down while adjusting purity as it as a large impact on corner puriety.
Step 4 - Final steps.
- Adjust the final set of rights on the VM board. Open/spread the rings while keeping them symmetrically around the horizontal axis of the yoke (opposite the 4 pole rings which must be symmetrically around the vertical axis). This will adjust VCEN aka the vertical geometry bowing.
- Set wedges in place and lock them in with silicon.
- Set convergence strips in corner.
- Add magnets to correct for purity issues.
Tips
- Only put 2 strips in each corner MAX.
- In general red/blue corner misconvergence is easy to fix with a strip but other types of misconvergence are difficult or impossible.
- Place purity magnets as far away from the yoke to minimize geometry warping.
Conclusion
Hope this helps. The process isn’t TOO difficult but it does require experience. In my experience, all consumer sets can be improved dramatically with a convergence adjustment. If you aren’t feeling very confident. Don’t remove the yoke and only do a static convergence adjustment. That alone should help quite a bit. In fact, I always start by doing a static adjustment first and then determining if I need to reposition the yoke depending on purity or dynamic convergence.
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