My first post for a long time. Its a long one!
I picked this set up, along with a few others from a house clearance. It was found in the garage, No back on it, covered in muck and cobwebs.
It really looked a lost cause.
Thinking I didn't have a lot to lose, And, out of sheer curiosity. I just went for it.. Connected it to a safeblock and gave it full mains!
Switch on and.. Nothing. Well, a slight ticking from the PSU. Then BOOM! The Rifa caps did their thing and stunk out the summerhouse.
When the stink had cleared, I got the set onto the bench for some further investigation. Removed the exploded Rifas and replaced the fuse. Switch on again, Sparks from the primary of the PSU this time! The bridge rectifier diodes had sort of dissolved and gone short. They were those ceramic bead types that really don't do well in the damp. replaced these with 4x 1N4007, Replace the fuse (again) and switch on.
Dead silence. 300V on the reservoir cap but not much else going on. I made good a few dry points on the W/W resistors and replaced the TDA2640.
It now powered up but the PSU was in a tripping state. There was a short on the HT rail. This was found to be the rusty BU208 line output transistor. Replaced this and tried again.
The set now coughed and farted into life! with a snowy raster and sound! Connected a pattern generator displaying a crosshatch, It was found to have severe E-W distortion. I left it at that and put the set to one side.
A few days later, I decide to tackle the E-W fault. Powered the set up and it was not happy. It displayed a sort of faded, ragged blank raster and no sound.
Had a poke around the IF/Decoder. The 12v rail was shorted to ground. The cause - A shorted tantalum cap in the IF can! Replaced that and we were back in business.
No sooner had I started looking at the cause of the E-W fault. after about 10 minutes, the set died again. PSU tripping.
Isolated everything. it turned out the LOPTX had developed a short. Surely not? These Philips AT2076 split diode transformers are usually rock solid!
absolutely everything on the line scan panel was disconnected and indeed the short still remained. it was indeed looking like the transformer.
I was starting to get the feeling this set really didn't want to live. I put out a wanted post looking for a LOPTX. A couple of weeks passed, Thanks to a friend who had a similar set in storage, I now had spare Line, Frame and PSU panels!
Made good a few iffy joints and a bad cap on the replacement line panel. Stuck it in and powered it up. Set was back on and working!
But, it had The exact same E-W Fault! How can this be!!
After a bit of head scratching, voltage checks etc, It was found that the transductor had an open circuit centre coil. Which turned out to be the fault on the original line panel. Luckily, it had failed at the end where the coil attached to the pins. A bit of a bodge up with some wire and it was measuring continuity.
Re fitted it and I could now set the E-W for a nice square picture! I set the HT voltage, Gave it a few geometry and greyscale tweaks, Soak tested the set for a few hours and it seemed to be holding up! With a superb picture, too! The tube seems to be very healthy!
Just a few minor niggles to sort now. There is a very light hum bar that will roll up and down the screen which I can't seem to trace the cause of. All the electrolytics have been checked. And the cabinet needs the fablon replacing, As it has stretched and bubbled around the front edges.
To summarise, Not a bad set at all!
It was definitely worth persevering with. It appears to be quite a rare set. Using the GEC PIL chassis. Service data is Non-existent!
A few pictures of the set!
Thanks for reading!
Jan
Hi Jan,
First and foremost, a big warm welcome back to VRAT, It's nice to see folk returning and boy what a comeback post!
Superb account of your battle to beat this TV into submission, looking at the photos before you started, it really did look rather poorly. A result too, getting a replacement LOPT, so often this type of failure ends a project. Those RIFA caps are a real nightmare, must admit it the first thing I rip out, even more so after Malcs MKIII went up and caught the TV on fire, destroying it and nearly his home, had he not returned to find it.
This Granada really is a very rare TV, hardly any Granada badged TVs crop up, I'm quite partial to them myself, having had a Granada badged Tandberg.
I'm sure you're aware what your Granada model decodes to, but for the benefit of others :-
C=Colour
20= 20"
T=1979
A=GEC
3=Granadacolour Basic Remote
From this code I can then normally decode it to the particular manufacturer's model, but in this instance nothing! Certainly, this GEC model appears to be unknown at present, quite fascinating.
https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/vintage-electronics-blog-forum/granada-rental-tv-vcr-equivalents/
Did you manage to find the back to it, if not are you planning on making one?
Have you experimented with a remote, does the remote receiver board have any clues, as in chips used?
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@yampy187 A Marvellous save! Well worth your perseverance, the tube looks excellent!
I liked these sets but didn't see that many in for repair, they were so reliable. Wasn't there a resistor on the power panel that would blow up the chopper when it went O/C ? 100 Ohms? I have a faded recollection but could be wrong... The biggest problem with the GEC version was wrinkling Fablon!
Thanks all for the replies!
Chris, I found the back for it. Covered in pigeon crap! It had a Saisho portable underneath it 🤣
The chassis is quite similar to the C2233H 20AX-MK2. Which I also have. Except it has a different line and frame panel. The decoder/IF and PSU are the same, and I believe are interchangeable.
Next challenge is to find a remote control!
Cheers.
Jan
I Forgot to add, Tried a couple of remotes on it. No luck. It has some Texas Instruments ICs on the remote board. TMS3720NS and SN76709AN. No datasheet available for either of these.
Cheers.
Jan
Hi Jan,
On the off chance, I spent the afternoon digging through my service manual cabinets, I think I may have found the data that matches your Granada badged GEC. The CRT matches, as does the line timebase. The manual is for the PIL Colour Television System C2026H Series.
Whilst in the process looking for yours, I also found a lot of data I didn't know I had I also needed. DOH!
PCB idents used in the C2026H series chassis
PC754 Video and sound IF
PC778 Power supply
PC783 Line osc
PC784 Line output
PC786 Decoder and signal
PC788 Field timebase
PC795 Audio
PC798 CRT
PC809 Mains filter and degauss
p.s
One for the North East lads, the manual has a dealer stamp
Ridleys - TV sales & rentals
2 West Road
Annfield Plain
Stanley
Co Durham
Would this have been the two brothers who had a TV business in Annfield Plain? The same ones that dumped their entire shop stock (TVs VCR, parts, manuals etc) to the tip a few years ago, much to my dismay.
CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
Crustys Youtube Channel: My stuff
Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek
OK, so now we know your TV is a 20" GEC C2026H, there was also an 18" the 1802H.
Can't believe I had it, who'd a thought! Glad I looked now and the mystery GEC is now solved. I'll get the service manual scanned over the weekend, and make it available in our data library.
p.s.
Amended the thread title as google will index it, this will help should others seek info on this chassis.
CrustyTV Television Shop: Take a virtual tour
Crusty's TV/VCR Collection: View my collection
Crustys Youtube Channel: My stuff
Crusty's 70s Lounge: Take a peek
@crustytv Absolute legend!
Someone mentioned those two GEC equivalents on the other forum, I couldn’t find anything. Apart from a few snippets from Television magazine about the development of the PIL chassis.
That manual must be rarer than the set itself!
Thank you for taking the time to have a look Chris! Very much appreciated.
Cheers.
Jan
Very interesting to see, not that many Granada badged sets in the wild. I remember a badge engineered Decca doing the rounds on Facebook a few years ago.
I think Granada disposed of ex rental sets with the Granada branding intact. Radio rentals removed the Baird branding from sets disposed of to the trade. I remember buying dozens if not hundreds of the Baird 3V22 / 3V16 Piano key VCRs in the early '80s they all had the Baird name removed. At least with the VCR it was just the badge gone, some of the TV sets ISTR the branding was roughly scrubbed off. One disposal outlet even had Ferguson badges made 😉 they were sold a bit 'under the counter...' Later on the rental places retailed their own ex rental sets themselves so maybe the Branding was then left intact. Remember the "clever leopard " adverts?
@slidertogrid I remember seeing a lot of ex rental Thorn sets in the late 90s- early 00s being sold off in Cash Generators. DER and Multibroadcast ones had the badges missing. TX10 stereo sets with the name literally sanded off. Some TX100s had the cabinets sprayed silver, Including the speaker grilles. They looked rough!
I have one of those ‘dodgy’ Ferguson Badges. Designed to go over the TELETEXT badge on a TX9-10
Cheers.
Jan
@yampy187 that is the one! It also fitted the space on the Piano key VCR where the Baird badge had been. (don't ask me how I know..!) They also supplied a metal plate that replaced the one on the Thorn 8000 where the front controls were as the original looked a right mess when the name had been removed.
Apparently Ferguson quickly realised what was going on by the amount of name badges that were being ordered and put a stop to it. Hence the repro ones...
@michael-dranfield Thats the one!
