Hello all,
I was recently fortunate enough to be given a dual standard set that had been used as a prop in a 'retro' 60s boutique clothes shop somewhere in Leeds. A friend had spotted it being offered on Facebook to a good home and thought I'd like it.
It was grubby and without the mains lead, so condition was unknown. The stand isn't original but certainly looks the part. I've not had a Style 70 since the 90s so it's good to see one again. A thorough clean-up made the set look presentable and I had a suitable Philips connector so the mains lead was no problem.
Internally the only obvious work was the usual 'repair' on the mains dropper. The mains fuse was missing which may or may not prove ominous.... I was reminded how these sets seem to suffer generally from heat; the pcbs often warp like bananas and this set is no exception. The plugs and sockets also go brittle and some wires have been hard wired on the back of the pcbs. Indeed the initial problem of HT but no heaters was down to a poor plug connection.
The set was woken gently and at 200v a dim raster appeared. All was well with the smoothers running cool, so I gave it full mains. The raster really was was disappointingly dim - another knackered crt? Not so! There were no nice flashes as the VHF tuner was clicked round, although the speaker popped promisingly. In my late night examination of the set I'd not spotted that for reasons best known to themselves, someone had removed the PFL200 and replaced it with a PCL85! With a nice NOS PFL200 in place, we were in business, wth the results shown below. It should improve with the usual renewal of suspect caps and out of tolerance resistors.
Nice to have one of these sets in the collection again, although they are yet another model with a poor reputation for LOPT reliability (or lack of) so we'll see how it goes...
Steve
PS- Note that in the brochure below the photos of the 19 and 23 inch sets have been transposed! Oops.
Hi Steve,
That looks just the job Sir ! very nice. 
and such a minimal amount of work required 
Will it be adorning the refurbished back room ? it seems to look right for the it. 
Marc.
Marc
BVWS member
RSGB call sign 2E0VTN
colourstar said
someone had removed the PFL200 and replaced it with a PCL85! With a nice NOS PFL200 in place, we were in business, wth the results shown below.
How on earth do you get a PCL85 to fit in a PFL200 base?
A good restoration and a very nice set indeed
To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.
How do you make a PCL85 fit a PFL200 valve base? Easy...!
I've not actually done any restoration yet. The results above are pretty much 'first light', give or take a snag or two. At least the crt is perfectly good, so warrants spending some time on the chassis.
And yes Marc, it may well be used in the revamped 60s-style room... if the LOPT holds!
Steve
I have not seen one of these, the layout looks similar in style to the RBM 141 range. Nice picture and good restoration.
PCL85 into a PFL200 socket, no problem, only 1 pin different, cannot be anything important.
. Reminds me of the chap who put a cut down 6 inch nail in place of the plug top fuse, said the fuse kept blowing. He had run part of the mains lead under the carpet where it was walked on. With his extra duty fuse the wires blew a nice little hole in the carpet, don't think SWMBO was happy with him.
Frank
Frank
Nice save there of an example of a little-loved Brand
Hi Steve,
The Stella looks great! I have a very similar model, the ST2049a, in fact, it's practically identical besides the colour scheme, mine has a grey/cream tube mask, green speaker cloth, silver control panel with cream knobs. I wish mine looked as good as yours, but it came from the tip in Daventry back when they used to let me buy sets from them, and it had been rained on, so the chip-board cabinet is all swollen and gone like Weetabix. One day I'll make a new cabinet for it! I did manage to get it going a good few years back, but the tube is so well toasted that the picture is barely visible, plus it has a partially shorted heater, so I had to fit a small transformer. I had to make a good LOPT for it too, after it ate the first one, and then it's replacement! Primary went on one, and the EHT winding failed on the other. I have 2 sets of spare PCB's for this chassis, I bought some a while back to replace the blackened originals.
Despite all it's problems, when I did get a picture on it, it was actually pretty good!
Regards,
Lloyd.
Crikey Lloyd I reckon you need a medal for perserverance there! What a shame about the crt. I'd love to see a picture of the set sometime.
In the 90s a I had a few Style 70s of various shapes and sizes including the Philips model with the clock. I think LOPT trouble killed that one too. The one in my Stella looks innocent enough but....
Steve
I've found a couple of pics of it giving a not too bad account of itself!
That wasn't a full list of faults, there were more, lots more 
I'm hoping the set is OK, it's currently in storage on it's side and the back cover isn't very protective of the tube base anymore, not that it matters if the tube gets bust!
Regards,
Lloyd.
Just a little snippet, I am pretty sure the internal mains plug on the Philips g8's fit the earlier sets...I am sure there are some knocking around !
I have DS Philips set with screw in legs that I really must get on the bench - it's probably the same chassis
Stuart
Lloyd said
I've found a couple of pics of it giving a not too bad account of itself!
That's a really great looking version Lloyd. Love it! I've never seen one with a cream/white mask before. I'm so glad you rescued it. And I see you have it 'teamed' with your excellent Alba T1520. A veritable dream team! (sort of)
Steve
Lloyd said
I've found a couple of pics of it giving a not too bad account of itself!
And with a nice little Alba 1500 to complement the Philips
Derrrrr....I crossed post's with Steve. Open thine eye's. 
To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.
They do look good together! I'll have to put them side by side in the workshop when I go and fetch them from the storage place. One thing I did with them was to use the 1500 chassis to test the tube in the Stella, it showed that unfortunately it was a duff tube, rather than something else making it look bad.
I've only ever seen one other of this type, and it was on eBay earlier this year, it was in much better condition than mine! When I got mine, I was originally only going to strip it out for valves and anything else useful then dump it again, as usual, I couldn't bring myself to do it!
Regards,
Lloyd.
Two of our neighbours owned the version with the user controls horizontally above the VHF tuner.
Great to know one has survived and in good working order.
I was amazed the heater chain somehow managed to remain intact with the PCL85 fitted. I suggested looking around the video output stage, the incorrect valve was the last thing I expected!
Many may recall Chas E Miller's account of a BRC 1400 which displayed a horizontal white line and no sound. He found several incorrect valves fitted including a PCC189 in place of the 30FL1/2 line oscillator! Somehow it managed to work moderately well. The set tuned out to be a good worker when the correct valves were fitted.
As with the Stella above no apparent damage resulted from the incorrect valves.
Cheers,
Brian (currently in Cyprus)
Well that didn't last long. Stella Style 70 is no longer Go...
Boosted HT is around 520v giving only a dim balloony raster. All three line output valves have been changed to no avail, along with the boost cap.
Anything else to check?
Steve
Perhaps this will help (see below, high enough res so you can zoom in) others to play along and provide some guidance. At a glance your boost is around 60V low but there's likely more to your fault than just that discrepancy.
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I thought the boost volts should be around 930V on these sets? That's some 400V lower than it should be.
What's the line drive voltage? Do the valves overheat or run cool? Does the LOPT itself get hot?
cheers
Brian
Yes my mistake 930V as can clearly be seen on C415, that'll teach me to just do a cursory glance
CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
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Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek
colourstar said
Well that didn't last long. Stella Style 70 is no longer Go...
Yes - the high value resistors between HT and the grid of the line output valve.
Cathovisor said
colourstar said
Well that didn't last long. Stella Style 70 is no longer Go...Yes - the high value resistors between HT and the grid of the line output valve.
Ditto! Just seen these but couldn't edit my earlier post. Two at 8M2 for example.
cheers
Brian
