Amazing CRT Restore With Beltron 1960s RCA KCS152 Portable Black and White TV
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2021
- old television repair/Vax for the Win
If you wish to support the insanity:
/ shango066
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"with these things they either work or they don't" Now that's the kind of expert technical diagnosis that I come here for
Quite like "its either good or bad". Loved it
He gives it a 50/50 chance.
In case you don't know:
Almost all of these CRT restoring devices work the same way.
Over the years in use, the coating of the cathode can become insulating. So it can no longer, or at least only emmit a few electrons.
What these devices do if overheating the filament doesn't work, is they put a charge between the cathode and grid 1 of the tube. So a high but short current will flow between these electrodes and literally rip off the insulating coating like an onion peel. So a new and "fresh" layer of the cathode coating is revealed and can emmit electrons again.
This can surely be done only a limited number of times. But it is always worth a try before you wreck an old CRT like these.
Here in Germany we use a "MÜTER"-CRT restorer type "BMR7". With this device I already restored a lot of tubes. At least for 10 years I can tell that a restored CRT will last. That's how long I have been using these and the TV's still run today.
this sounds correct, without going memory lane and looking things up. should probably be pinned :)
wow!
Thanks for explaining, I have always wondered how they worked. I come from PAL land as well, Sweden and I started working with tv repairs as a kid in the early 90s.
And we had a lot of TV:s with half dead CRTs coming in. What I remember was that all CRTs with a thick neck (aka larger diameter on the tube), usually made by Philips could be restored with a good result and the older delta type was even better, such as Philips K9. But all newer, thin neck, usually made by Toshiba, ohh no, we seldom got a good result on these....
It flashed and sparked in the tube when doing it I remember, so yeah it was kind of brutal. The tube tester we used was some American brand, Its not this one but I think Shangoo has that one as well. Seen it in some video.
I myself found a Philips K12, it had a half dead tube, which we restored and that set lasted for years, I had it in first apartment.
@@bjornholmqvist3230 Correct. That flash is striking because it's quite a high current through the vacuum and short distance between cathode and grid 1. The charge usually comes from a capacitor with round about 470µF at 50 to 60 Volts.
Btw. I am only 27 yeras old. I just work with tube devices for hobby and for my job in the Deutsches Museum in Muncih where I am surprisingly the only one who still knows stuff about tube devices. I am no electrician or such, just a clockmaker. I gained all the knowledge just for hobby :)
Bei 10:43 hätt er fast die Bildröhre gekillt, er ist aus versehen gleich auf Volle Pulle gegangen, tsstss :-)
This channel recently started showing up in my "recommendeds", and boy, what a kicker on that ol' nostalgia button! To give perspective to the young 'uns (if there are any out there), back in my younger days in the 60's, a guy like shango was like a doctor who made housecalls for a sick "family member"....If the single household TV "went on the blink" so to speak, this man was like the "Lone Ranger" who arrived on his white horse (Country Squire station wagon full of junk in the back) to fix the 'evil deeds' that electrons did to our precious link to the 'outside world'. Fresh in my mind is the image of a grizzled stranger who we welcomed into our humble abode, who unceremoniously removed our precious TV from its venerable position, removed the mysterious back, and squatted behind the set, peering into a mirror he set upright on a couch across the room so's he could view on the screen in real time the "voodoo that he do" to our beloved set. To this day, I still feel that dead part in my heart the times the 'TV doctor' pronounced the picture tube 'dead', and the look on my father's face when he realized that two weeks (or more) of his salary will fly out the window...and soon, for a new, and sometimes 'refurbished' set. I love the OP's 'masterful' and laconic attitude towards what was once considered an "essential" service.
We knew our TV repair man so well we named a pet guinea pig after him! '67 Magnavox color console, those must have kept many TV shops profitable.
@@Oldbmwr100rs - Wow! You must have been rich! My dad bought our first Color TV in 1975, I was a junior in High School. And ha ha, now that i think about it, his father bought one o' them RCA color consoles with "The 'Works' in a drawer", and good thing too, because the repair man was always over their house. On Sunday nights, we would get in the old Chevy and go to Grandpa's house to watch "The Wonderful World of Disney" in COLOR!
I think the most interesting part is that Shango isn't that old, I think he's in his thirties which would mean he was born in the 80s sometime.......
@@lustfulvengance - Agreed. Yesterday when i watched his post when he was 900 miles away from his home, "prospecting" for his type of "gold" in an abandoned camp in the wilderness, i saw his reflection in one of the CRTs he was inspecting, and although he does sound "young" I was surprised to to see how young he looked in the reflection. He seems to have such a jaded viewpoint that can only come with experience, so I'm guessing he may look and sound young, but may be older than we might think. i really dont want to know his true age, because his seemingly "anachronistic" outlook is part of the charm.
@@cmans79tr7 Clues; he is a late gen Xer, and has mentioned working on CRT televisions professionally in the 90s, I'm guessing mid 90s. So I am guessing he is young 40s, I am 52, I sense he is about 10 years younger. He knew the world before it went full-bore returd...
Like the legendary Phoenix, an RCA tube-type portable refuses to go peacefully to the electronic graveyard.
Man, I never get tired of your videos, I hate that the views aren't great because I don't want you to give it up, but man, it never gets old watching your stuff. Much love from the Sunshine State.
I can just see the eBay listing. "Vintage TV, like new, fully restored CRT."
The Beltron was a big deal when it was introduced in the early 70s. It was invented by a local (LA area) technician. Yes, I'm that old.
so i was wondering what does it do to a tube ( technically speaking )
@@bigliftm Heats the electrodes up until the oxide layers boil/gas/sputter off and you get good "emission" again at normal power
@@bigliftm lookup patent 3641391
Yep, I'm that old too. I worked for a Magnavox dealer during the 70's and we got a Beltron around '75 or so. When the owner retired sometime in the 90's he sold everything off in an auction, I bought the Beltron along with the entire shop.
@@kaa522 maybe you can help with my old magnavox TV :D
The price for beltron picture tube restorers has just tripled on eBay
I really don't think that there is much difference between methods of restoration of the CRT testers, you just hook it up, press the button, and roll the dice, sometimes you win, but most of the time you lose, perhaps one type may do it better, but I seriously doubt it.
And in other news, 6700XTs are readily available for all your GPU needs, just pay double price and order it within 15 seconds of drop. Take advantage of this offer now, before they appear on eBay for a starting bid of $1,500...
God help us. And may the "free market" burn to the ground like Crypto.
@@suzakule The other ones I've seen on CZcams seem to have an automatic restoring control, so at least with the Beltron, someone with experience (ie Shango) could dial the amperage in and give it a little less juice and maybe beat the odds
I am now after one! I would pay a good price for a working Beltron, I have a few tired CRTs that need a bit of rejuvenation.
@@joeshmoe6752 gamers choice....
Notice that shango gets more nervous when following instructions vs. just winging it.
4:01 pretty amazing how the camera focused on the phosphor grain like that. I'd say this TV fared pretty well for it's age. We'll probably never have 60 year old flat panels that still power up.
No crap, along with hardware holding up, you have to hope the software in ROM doesn't somehow become corrupt and keep the thing from working. Or won't demand a firmware update from some server decom'd 2 yeats after the warranty was out.
In the UK the milkman advert on tv used to say the white dot on the screen as you turned the TV off was to remind you to put out your empty bottles!
In the 1970s, I was a TV repair hobbyist and constructed a picture tube tester/rejuvenator from an article in an electronics magazine. I was able to rejuvenate the CRT in a B/W console TV with amazing results like shango066 achieved in the video. I sold the TV set to a young couple who used it for a year or so while they scaped together enough money to buy a new TV set. I had mixed results with other tubes. Sometimes one color would be weak on a color set and it might only be a day or so before the emission dropped back.
My tester didn't have sockets. I think all I had was four leads with alligator clips, two for the filament, one for the cathode and one for first grid. I'd move the cathode and grid leads to test the three guns in color tubes. The filament power came from an electric train transformer with voltage set by measurement. I'd use the same VOM to measure cathode current.
At the time, I could buy a rebuilt 25AP22, the typical CRT used in color sets, for $75. I think I got a $25 discount off that for turning in a bad CRT. I had several bad CRTs on hand, so I would trade one in, take the rebuilt CRT to the customer's home, swap it into the set, and put their CRT in my stock of bad CRTs. From what I recall, the dynamic convergence usually required only minimal adjustment. Degauss, adjust purity, set the static convergence and the picture would be quite good.
We didn't have ewaste recycling at the time. The dumpster at a TV store which both sold and serviced sets was a great source of junked sets. I think customers brought in sets for repair, got a quote, and opted for purchasing a new set. Many of the junked sets were straightforward to repair and I would sell them as used sets.
Poor TV revived to pick up that news 😢
Akin to Joe aka 'Not Sure' coming to terms with 2505! #Idiocracy
That's how every revival he does goes
Working with Electron Microscopes we had a similar technique for cleaning filaments, we always told the customer that the procedure can work but its hit or miss as to the lifetime afterwards, I've done it to some filaments and the customer ran the instrument every day for years, yet on a different instrument the emission faded back to bugger all in a matter of hours, working with Electron Gun's and their optics is a bit of a black art, I enjoy your vids and learn stacks....cheers.
Beltron?
Belt that CRT, Ron.
It belts the electrons.
Never thought I would see another one of these. Our family had this exact model when I was growing up. Ended up giving it to a neighbors kid that was learning electronics.
Back in the day, RCA made good CRT's. So you had a good shot at getting that pix tube to show some life. If it had been a re-guned tube, not so much.
Do another video in a few months and report back if the restore still holds.
as easy and strong as that came back, it's likely ready to go another 10+ years lol
Spent cathode in front of the good cathode. the rejuvenator gets the cathode really hot and that scale falls off. as long as there's no hole behind the scale and the cathode you get more emission . I used to use a genuinator back when I was working on TVs in the 70s . You are right though it doesn't last very long. Once a hole Burns through the cathode it's all done. I really like watching your videos it brings back the good old times. There wasn't a house in the little town that I worked in that I hadn't been in and everybody knew me as the TV repairman. There seems to be a Renaissance in the old stereos everybody wants to listen to their old stereo so I'm getting a lot of those to work on..N0PXJ
Behold, all things are made new! See you saturday morning! K0NXM
“Usually, these things work or they don’t”
“Extremely Dead CRT, like extremely dead”
Anyways, that was amazing!!! This blew me away. The classic arcade industry needs a Beltron!!!
We used to roll the picture when someone complained about the quality, and I would say let me know witch one looks good then I would roll back say ok, I’m gonna keep it right there
Usually when they suddenly "pop" up like that, at least in my experience with my CR70, there was usually probably something partially shorting elements in the gun assembly or whatnot. Fortunately, this is the kind of fix that *can* actually last for a very long time, if you're actually removing partial shorts or whatever rather than trying to actually "rejuvenate" a truly tired cathode with nothing left to emit.
It certainly woke up like it had a partial short, but the dust still tells me it's a pretty high hour set. Though it could have been tube swapped at some point without disturbing the dust but I doubt it
It could have been used in a very dusty home perhaps in the kitchen where that stuff sticks to anything...
When I was a young boy we'd turn off the TV. It would leave a lighted dot like this one. I used to pretend it was a man walking down a dark road holding a flashlight. He'd keep walking until he was out of sight.
Yeah that "double circle" it left really looked like a flashlight.
😆Believe in The Beltron I am A Tv Tech most of my life I went to people's houses And probably restored 50 TVs Mostly zeniths, B&W Sets made me some money on restoring picture tubes. gave The certificates and stickers to my customers I been watching your channel great Videos Thank you for all your time Repairing These vintage TVs
When the picture started coming in I was immediately transported back to 8 years old in 1976 and the Magnavox S101 TV on our kitchen table.
Thanks for this video, I still have one of these in my garage. Sits on a shelf with a tube volt /ohm meter, amongst other memorable cool old, now useless electronics testers.
Maybe you should check some of the other crts that you wrote off! It might be a fun vid!
This RCA set really brought me back. Back in the 60’s, I knew struggling young families (usually with a pack of kids) so damned dirt-poor, that a prized set like this (on a rolling-cart) was their ‘one-and-only!’; and they didn’t just leave it on, burning like a light bulb, rather it was purposely used, guided along by a TV schedule. If the set went ‘on-the-blink’, it might be weeks or months before they could afford to get it fixed; and if the CRT went bad, it was like a death in the family.
They might’ve had a ratty old couch but had to drag kitchen chairs in the living room, to have a place other than the floor to sit and watch.
What I remember most, is how empty their houses were; wood-floors, devoid of carpets, using sheets for drapes without other ancillary furniture or even clutter. The children, barefoot as their shoes were saved for school and Sundays. There were times, I gave toys away or took cans of food from my parent’s cupboards. You talk about being real, this was the very definition of ‘scraping-by!’
People just don’t know how damned well-off they are these days in comparison…
RCA made a quality CRT back then.
I just love those 1960s portables with the suitcase styling. When I was a kid those kind of sets were everywhere, especially as kids bedroom sets. I think that one was just asleep too long. I would completely disassemble it, clean everything, polish the cabinet and put a hole plug in place of the no longer useful broken antenna. After, that I would display it and use it every once in a while to keep it running.
Seeing folks like you and Jordan getting the results you get with the Beltron, I've regretted not grabbing the one I saw at a hamfest for something like $20 several years ago.
"Ooh. That actually seems like it made a difference." Birds go bananas in background.
a few factors here. 1 A great technician operating the equipment properly. 2. the amount of quality the RCA factory did in punting together the CRT's. there are a few good videos that show the factory and the amount of skill that company used to make these damn things. 3. An awesome beltron CRT restorer. This set looks like a new CRT to my eyes. you need to check up on this once in a while just to see if it holds up.
Outstanding Channel brings me back to my old days.
New subscriber
I am amazed! -Who would else be doing this? Wow
@Michael Thompson welcome to the tribe. Shango is the chief.
Go thru and find the old video where he dug out an old TV from a mountain grave yard of old TV's out in the sun and elements for 20+ years and watch him resurrect it. Truly incredible! I laughed out loud when he started on it, but was amazed by the end. Shango066 IS the MASTER!!!
You may enjoy BAndersenTV's content. Excellent restorations of early radios and B/W sets.
Loads of us..Except many are now dead.
He knew exactly what is wrong with this tv at the beginning this dude knows exactly what he is talking about a bad crt i love this dudes videos 🤘🤘
Man, I am human. I understand you not paying attention to it. But I am missing alot of people right now. You do you. Love the videos, as I have for years
For a portable, that set has great sound.
Now, I'm a believer.. a Beltron believer.
It's a miracle bestowed upon us today, brothers and sisters.
That is BeltTASTIC!… Thanks man.
Always love these Videos from Dublin Ireland 🙂☘️🇮🇪
Quite a testament to how well things were made back then.
Survivorship bias, look it up.
That picture is so sharp that the dot crawl really stands out on that one!
"Man this is sketchtastic" My new favorite word, thanks.
Nice work shango
Love your videos and the added comedy as a twist.
I love the Beltron. I have been trying to get one for some time now. I had one when I ran service calls back in the '80s. Wish I had never got rid of it.
There's still life in the old dog, yet.
Me too
My grandparents used to have the same RCA in a spare bedroom, I watched cartoons on it when I was a kid in the late 80's/early 90's. They ended up giving it to me, and the last time I used it was about when analog TV went off the air. Always had a decent picture. Spent some time in the basement but now is sitting in a closet.. I'm sure the electrolytics are all dried out by now. Lucky you got this one going with the beltron!
That is amazing how that CRT came back, nice picture. I've always hated the vertical hold control on old TVs. I had one and it always rolled like that.
My older sister bought that model set when she got married and that set was used for their main tv til the early 80s when they got a console, then it was in their bedroom for years, 25+ years, with no repairs, it was indestructible.
Cool Man, Dig It! I grew up with an old Admiral Black and White square black metal box on a cart with black legs with wheels. We called it "THE SPIDER".It had a piece of first aid tape with blue ball pen on Channel 2. As a kid I "learned?" to smack it on the top to improve the reception.
Great video and your like-minded comments are priceless. It’s nice to know there are other sane individuals here in LA.
Never in my life have I've ever seen a crt bounce back that good.
I used that very same Beltron years ago working at my father's TV shop. Ya Win some ya lose some.. but it worked quite well. I even made an jig for to shoot PC monitor CRTs with my Heathkit CRT rejuvenator.
Wow , the beltron saved the day amazing , great restored take that b&K 467😄
Wow -- I've *never* seen that cleaning procedure work *that well!* I mean, I've seen it make some difference, sure. But that much?! Wow!
Well seems like a info commercial for Beltron! lol But really, that thing worked wonders! Another TV saved for the future!!
Very cool Beltron!
fascinating video, this and the comments definitely taught me quite a bit.
What a diamond in the rough, that thing is mint.
Jordan seems to love the beltron
Haha...the little white Dot when you turned off the set brought back memories.
That's unbelievable zooming in on that woman's face you can see the scan lines and the sharpness was so good you could see the grid of the shadow mask
We had one of those when I was a kid. It has a roll around cart that it set in. Used it for a long time, but the contacts in it went bad due to sulfur water that corroded everything shiny. Watched a lot of old ww2 movies on it...
Can't keep a quality vintage television down amazing recovery
When I was an apprentice we had quite a naff tube booster and I used to get a tv mag every month they did a arrival on a build yourself a booster, it a really great project and did a short duration pulse rejuvenation and we used that booster for years it worked really well and cooks often resurrect a really bad tube to what was very usable and they also seemed to last well after too , we made many different tube bases to use it and even had a set of mini crock leads so if some thing really unusual turned up you could just clip it on working out pin positions by looking at the original tube base , I seam to remember it used a 60w lamp load
Nice set.
I'm glad the Beltron variant managed to cure your Cathodavirus, also enjoyed your learned commentary on that "vax-a-million lottery" thing... (Much can be said in a genuine laugh & few words).
Seriously though that "restore" was very impressive and I move that you do the required servicing to make this set safely daily-usable & then start putting a few hours on it as and when you have time, whilst periodically recording footage of it (say, for example, a 30 second clip every 12 hours run time. In the same ambient lighting conditions, ideally dark) to compare against one another & then we can all learn how restored the tube really is by getting a good "pop" with the Beltron. Considering how proud they seemed of their product, and the guarantee they offered, I think we all might be surprised!
How I love the ominous red glow in those tubes.
I liked all your video comments. It’s a nice lookin tv
i guess i also learned something new. when i had tv's or seen tv's i saw a lot of that dust and fuzz stuck to it. but never thought it could possibly be due to a spent or failing crt i use to just clean that stuff out and never thought anymore of it.
Like the old saying goes, "Beating a dead horse"'. Then again Shango does work his magic here. Time to play the lottery." Do you feel lucky? Well do ya punk?"
If they don't get what they want, they will keep trying until they do. BINGO!
Commentary aside, excellent restore of a picture tube. Very impressive!
You were lucky there, at 10:43 you belted the picture tube at full blast in the beginning. But maybe that was just what it needed to blow the crud off the cathode and sort any leakage between the electrodes inside :-) Next time you do a crt restore, could you please film the cathode in the dark? Havent seen the sparky fireworks inside for some time now..
Cheers from Germany
Great tv set.
Thank you happy Mr S :)
amazing work like new
i used to use a regenerator in 1998- 2003 on crt pc monitors.
yes, the regenerator got the emissions up, but when you set them to spec (color/intensity) you'd usually have overshoot so they'd be scrap anyway..
That's why I always liked my Beltrons if you're careful with it and it's a well built tube that happens. If you go too far you kill it for good but if it was that weak it was done anyway. As slow as that meter dropped i bet that tube will run for a long time and it looks great now.
I've got two crt sets left in stock here and tempted to hook up the big 34" HD set I bought in 2005 that still works.
I'm familiar with the capabilities of the Beltron and the miracles it can perform like we've seen here. But as you said, go too far and you can finish a tube for good. An old tech I knew also swore by his Beltron but advised against doing the three cycle count restore function on the newer narrow necked CRTs because of their fragile cathodes. For those he would do just one restore cycle, then go to the clean/balance function. He suggested the three times restore is best used on the old, large necked CRTs like the color roundies or the '50s B&W tubes which had enough cathode mass to take those repeated high current jolts. But from the picture quality of that rejuvenated CRT and the way it held emission during the life test it looks like it will be good for quite a awhile. Congrats, Mr. Shango for a perfect save. 👌
@@Inflec Yep, the big 26" Sony tubes wouldn't take a rejuvenation for beans and almost always quickly went down hill. I always used the cleaning cycle gently and then if I had to I went to rejuvenation if cleaning didn't do it and crossed my fingers. If it was a quality tube like a Zenith they usually came back nicely. Like you said that old tube probably has plenty of material left and plenty of metal to disapate the heat as it got zapped.
That proves that it needed a good belt with a Beltron.
Nice. Makes me.wish I still had.my RCA portable. I got to check down in my basement. Chance I may have an old.Beltron down there.
yeah! shango I loved that you fixed the RCA tv it was a jewel my friend! great job
liked it
asd.. Ricardo salles franz gunart
I've had a Beltron for about 20 years, bought from a silent key Ham's estate. It seems to be a good device. After some practice on various crt's, you can tell pretty quickly if a crt has had it, or is restorable. You can tell if a brightener has been on it in the past. You can tell if a tube is going to last or not. It's not a magic box, it won't resurrect a completely spent cathode, that's when I install a brightener and use the tube to the last electron. I only go as far as necessary to improve the emission to useable condition, starting with raising the filament voltage to 8.4 and then 10 volts for a short period, only taking additional steps if needed. The restoration step is only an absolutely last resort.
Nice work bringing that tube awake. If I had it in my house I would connect a roku to it and watch some classic tv on it. I have a roku with composite jacks and I use it on a 30 inch rca color crt. Perfect picture because I treat it with respect. I think the only thing wrong with mine is the front composites are toast because of lighting striking a security camera I had connected. The back composites still work.
For some strange reason, the Rokus with composite jacks aren't available in Canada, only the ones with HDMI. And online, the composite Rokus have a disclaimer that they are "not for use in Canada". I wonder why this is. We have the same TV standards as the USA.
@@dougbrowning82 I'm not sure. It could be some obscure regulation or something. I guess you could try getting a used one off ebay.
@@Tall_Order Apparently, they work for the free stuff, but the subscription channels are not available here and you can't register them, although they are for the HDMI Rokus in Canada.
Hahaha amazing, will need sunglasses to watch that thing now.
Mr Beltron done did it again
It is gonna last another 50 years after the Belton magic!
With that much emission I don't think it would fail again soon. IMO there's a good amount of surface area emitting now. Amazing!
I had a TV much like this model. Took it to college and back. No idea what happened to it since it still worked. Oh well.
4:02 - 4:04 Kinda cool how your camera captured the phosphor coating landscape
Pretty slick
Wow! And one of the commenters below said that CRT can last 10 years after this restore treatment!
Very good my friend
I completely expected this kind of programming in LA.
I restore all my crts with the belton it's hard to find CRTs as it isI just jucied a CRT in a 1965 zenith color TV brought the numbers right up like this TV I cant believe California
Hi Shango66 love your videos . I had that same set a little trouble with the vertical hold.
Thanks
14:37 -> you made me smile!!!
you bring life where there was death - tv jesus
Dude that tv is beast i wish we could fix what we got now days like that i had a TV brand new give out on me with in a few months afteri bought it bought a new one completely different brand and its a Chinese brand but so far it been doing me good even after i droped a bed frame on it it's a brand called Hisense
Maybe try this on that other RCA black and white portable solid state from last year. It also had a dead crt.