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Forum 135

B&W TV Stella equivalent model for the Philips 1768U

Black & White Television

Last Post by Captain Peacock 10 months ago

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Captain Peacock

(@captain-peacock)

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My grandfather had a Philips 1768U from around 1957/8 (which I inherited from him in 1971 when he bought a new set - a Philips 300 series chassis - the single standard version of the 210 chassis) and shortly afterwards, Mum & Dad bought the Stella equivalent model. The user controls were very similar and in the same place, but the Stella cabinet had much more rounded corners than the Philips 1768 which had very angular, sharp corners.

Any chance someone could refresh my memory on the Stella model number?

MTIA

Posted : 19/12/2023 12:59 pm

Till Eulenspiegel

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The 17" Stella version was ST8617U. The 21" model was ST2186U. Cabinet styling apart the Stella sets were electrically identical to the Philips 1768U and 2168U. All models had an excellent record for reliability. Stella brand products were distributed through wholesalers

Till Eulenspiegel.

Posted : 20/12/2023 12:53 am

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Captain Peacock

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Thanks Till, it looks very similar to the set I remember from childhood, but I seem to remember that all four corners of the cabinet were rounded on our set. In all other respects it looks identical. Probably my dodgy memory!

That red/orange marker on the turret tuner knob rang a bell: I remember our set had two of these markers: one white and the other red like on your photo. White I think was set to BBC1 on channel 4 (Sutton Coldfield) and the red one to ITV1 on channel 8 (Lichfield)

As you say, a very reliable set and we only got rid of it in late 1970 for a colour set - a Philips 511, but a late model as it had the silver-coloured brushed aluminium user control panel rather than the earlier wood effect version. That set lasted until 1985!

I did a naughty on that 511 as I got so fed up with changing the black level clamp transistor (BC147/8 from memory) that I replaced it with the closest equivalent I could find but with a higher C-E max voltage and higher power handling which from memory was something like a BC142. It never went again!

That set sufered from many other of the usual suspects of faults: PL509 & PY500 failures, burn-up on the focus panel that eventually disintegrated (replaced with a silver mica version) the purple 'shrinker coil' atop the said focus panel, the focus resistor chain, a pocketful of PFL200s and the hum bar problem that was eventually fixed by a mod to the earthing of the main smoothing cans. The set also suffered from intermittent colour until I brought home the Philips PM5504(?) pattern generator from Derwent and set up the decoder properly - oh, and while I was at it, replaced all those awful grey plastic cased carbon rod (Dubilier?) 1W resistors in the decoder (22k feed to the ref osc valve anyone?). They were notorious for going high in value.

Stangely, the LOPTX never went which was another common failure: it was the CRT that slowly died in the end. Can't complain though as it lasted 15 years!

Posted : 20/12/2023 1:11 pm

malcscott reacted

Captain Peacock

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Found it!

It's the model ST8917 - which also used the Philips 1768U chassis. I found the (Confidential!) manufacturer's service manual for it and it lists the 8917/21 as using the same chassis as the ST8617/21 and ST5721 models i.e. the Philips 1768U chassis.

Thanks again for your help Till!

Posted : 21/12/2023 11:06 am