This is the Ultra offered on here from Lucian's collection. I didn't particularly want another 3500 as I have a 22" and a 19" 3000 already. So I resisted, and resisted.... I hoped someone else would want it! Then it became apparent that time was up and it may have to go in the Wee skip!
I couldn't let that happen so I contacted Stuart and arranged to collect it. Stuart warned me that the cabinet was damaged but I thought even if it ended up being a parts set that was better than it going for scrap.
The set has resided in my hall while I got on with other things, But today I had some time so I thought I would have a look at it.
The cabinet certainly has taken some knocks! I think the damage on the side near the tuner pre-set box is probably the result of it being dropped onto something splitting the chipboard. The corners are battered and the trim on the front is mostly gone. ISTR you could buy this as iron on and trim to size. I did many a Pye CT205!
That is the bad news over. The inside is very good with no signs of damage. Another clue that the set has taken a jolt is that the decoder board had sprung free of its retaining clip.
The on off switch is present inside the cabinet with the escutcheon and push button which is fortunate as the correct replacements might have been hard to find.
Varicap tuning and slider controls demonstrate that this is a late model of the chassis. The focus unit is a thick film rotary control rather than the usual odd slider 'pendulum' type.
I had a quick look under the power supply to see if the smoother was falling apart and first signs are good!
It will have to wait until the mouse Pye is finished but it looks like it is well worth doing. The cabinet will be a challenge for me! I'm thinking of getting the corners back with filler and then maybe buying a roll of teak ' Fabulous Fablon'.
Better news inside. Has anyone else seen this type of focus unit? Maybe it was a service replacement? I can't remember having seen one.
You do like a basket-case Rich, what with this, the mouse-wee Pye and the soggy ITT VC200! Hats off to you for saving them where others may have just walked away. The point is all of these sets are getting very thin on the ground as they reach a venerable 50+ years of age, so what would have once been classed as 'parts only' now become worthy of restoration (or at least a noble attempt).
The cabinet damage on the Ultra looks quite challenging. Unlike ply, chipboard is so difficult to do anything with. Bashed off corners are a bit of a nightmare. I guess the condition of the crt will determine whether it's worth going much further with the work.
The very best of luck.
Steve
Wow that brings back memories!
We saw lots of 3504s in Oz at the dawn of colour in the heady days when you could sell any CTV you could get your hands on! Not that there were that many imported, it was just that they broke down a lot!
The 3504 had a VHF rotary tuner (by Matsushita) and a proper mains transformer. And the best service manual of any TV!
In the end, I was the only one where I worked who would touch them. I got a few of them ex-rental very cheaply for family and friends. In one case, when the Mazda CRT faded away, I substituted a Toshiba self-converging tube and yoke. It worked well for many years.
Think I have one of those in the pile, when I get round to looking at it.
@colourstar Yes, the basket cases do seem to find me. The CRT on the 3500 does slightly concern me. I could ask Mick to test it with his B&K but that won't find any shadow mask damage if the set has taken a fall or two... I may put a known working PSU in the set and see if I can get a picture to check what the purity is like.
I think the best way to attempt the cabinet will be to strip it out so as it is more manageable then glue it, clamp it and fill the damage as best I can. Then maybe Fablon it and see if I can get some teak iron-on trim for the front.
It won't be any worse than a ex-rental example that had been through one of the disposal places, some of those were really battered. I would have avoided one this bad though. It would have been seen as a panel and tube donor for one of their "untested off the pile sets". Translation - flat tube that won't boost, every panel faulty, bodged and / or broken, probably incomplete! 🤯 .
I'm a while off getting it on the bench though!
@irob2345 I think we had a version with a VHF tuner for wired relay systems which were VHF 625. On some of the earlier cabinet styles the place for the tuner was blanked off with the brand's badge. I never saw one as our wired TV in Peterborough was British Relay who used their own sets which had no receiver as such. I think the VHF tuner for the 3500 was valve surprisingly. There must have been some power supply arrangements for that.
@michael-dranfield I wish my set had been wrapped like that Michael! Still at least this one hadn't been nested in!
Good news today, Mick paid a visit so I asked him to bring his tube tester. The tube is a good'un! Then I spotted a label on the top of it, it's a re-gun. I think the date is 1985, could be '83? If it is '85 the set was getting on a bit by then for someone to justify a 'new' tube.
Encouraged by that Mick suggested I give it some mains. So I did. degauss buzz... Hiss from speaker... Tube heaters... No EHT. I disconnected the Tripler input and checked for output from the EHT transformer. Nothing. So I checked for volts drop across the 1R5 on the beam limiter panel. 5 volts and climbing. Then I spotted the resistor starting to glow red hot!
Time to switch off. At least I know the set is worth pursuing I will come back to it once the Pye and a few other jobs are out of the way. Now... Where to put it? "Its not staying on the dining room table!" Apparently... 🙄
that's just how it was delivered to me over a year ago, not got round to looking at it yet!!!@michael-dranfield I wish my set had been wrapped like that Michael! Still at least this one hadn't been nested in!
Good news today, Mick paid a visit so I asked him to bring his tube tester. The tube is a good'un! Then I spotted a label on the top of it, it's a re-gun. I think the date is 1985, could be '83? If it is '85 the set was getting on a bit by then for someone to justify a 'new' tube.
Encouraged by that Mick suggested I give it some mains. So I did. degauss buzz... Hiss from speaker... Tube heaters... No EHT. I disconnected the Tripler input and checked for output from the EHT transformer. Nothing. So I checked for volts drop across the 1R5 on the beam limiter panel. 5 volts and climbing. Then I spotted the resistor starting to glow red hot!
Time to switch off. At least I know the set is worth pursuing I will come back to it once the Pye and a few other jobs are out of the way. Now... Where to put it? "Its not staying on the dining room table!" Apparently... 🙄
@michael-dranfield is it a 26" ? They really were massive. I can only just manage to lift a 22" these days! I used to carry them upstairs on my own without a second thought! Age is a Ba$tard! When was the gravity turned up? 😶
I had a lovely 26" with the piano key channel buttons years ago, Mazda Newlife tube and all panels excellent and clean. It worked well but it was so big I passed it on thinking 3500s were a bit "new" at the time (maybe 10 years ago) now I have two 3500s and a 3000. They are like stray cats they just turn up and stay... 😀
Yes, unfortunately it is a 26 inch, I would even try to lifi it myself these days, I have had back problems for many years now, never bothered about lifting when I was young, thought I was invincible but paying for it now.
I had a look at the line panel today. I noticed L504 was looking a bit crooked so I took it out and picked off the scorched paper wrapping. I think it has gone shorted turns! Now did it die or was it killed? I can't remember ever changing one in the past...
C526 has been changed at some point in the past. W506 and C527 both test OK, C526 and C525 are around the right capacitance but I will replace them anyway. I am visiting Mick tomorrow to get a coil. It's only a few months ago during my clear out of the loft that I gave him a box of all my spare panels and a spare chassis. I decided I didn't need them as I wasn't getting any more 3k or 3K5s.... So much for that idea!
I seem to remember C524 was some kind of NP electro and it would fail, expelling its guts. That would give L504 a hard time.
Later chassis had a Japanese cap in that position and they were OK.
That was a VERY long time ago, when these sets were about 6 months old!
Later chassis had a Japanese cap in that position and they were OK.
They were originally ROE types but later Shizuki were used. Even these could expel their internals with an acrid white smoke like the infamous RIFA.
L504 like L502 did suffer from the core falling out but also occasionally it did go shorted turns. Really bad ones could bend into a banana shape, surprisingly without cracking it’s brittle ferrite core.
John.
This set has a EAO branded capacitor in that position. It looks and tests OK so maybe the coil just gave up. I have replaced the shrivelled electrolytics in readiness to replace the coil. I nipped over to Mick's and pinched a line panel to rob.
While Mick was making the coffee I looked over the panel it looks in pretty good condition and has a (admittedly old) label on it proclaiming "OK". So I warmed it up for a while with the old hairdryer (I no longer need one for hair!) checked it over, resoldered some cracked joints and straightened up some leaning components. plugged it in with the Tripler disconnected and switched on... 😮
I then checked for output from the EHT tranny, yep! Sparkies! reconnecting the Tripler I switched on and listened for static on the screen. I heard the shadow mask faintly go "boing" and up came a blurred mess!
A few tweaks to focus, line hold, a check of the 60V line and we have a picture! And Colour!! The brightness control, pre-set brightness and beam limiter pots do nothing and the brightness leaps up and down at will. Tuning is "driftomatic pic a channel" but it lives! I don't want to rob a good line panel but if I can find a scrap panel I'll fit a coil to the original panel and see how it fares.
Purity was a concern as it was out and the set has obviously had a clout or two. Apart from the cabinet damage the decoder panel was sprung and the frame panel loose which bears witness to that. But a wave of the magic wand and it seems OK. Next I need to strip the set out and see what can be done with the cabinet. I am pleased so far, plenty to do but what a good tube!
@slidertogrid The more I look at that set, the more I am convinced I did one of these up in the mid-80s and sold it to a work colleague of Anne's...
Hey that's looking pretty good, Rich. That box of 3500 panels you gave me has certainly come in handy for you so far. I could make a fortune charging a fiver per "dib" and a fiver each time for the B&K (per gun!).
Very nice! Pictures going to be great on that one!
I still have my 26” HMV, and it still works! Only ever had a handful of caps to get it going, and it gets left unused for months, but just comes up and works every time I decide to fire it up! Good telly’s these..
I must admit this is the easiest 3500 I have worked on as a vintage set, and the worst cabinet! When I rebuilt the mechanical tuner set which is also an Ultra, it lead me a merry dance! I made one set out of two incomplete ones and scrapped a better cabinet than this one!
Today I put on my PPE goggles and gloves and removed the tube. I am a bit (maybe over) cautious about this tube as it is clearly a lower end re-gun and I am worried that the implosion protection may possibly be compromised if a tube is heated during the process and not re-banded. I must have changed hundreds of tubes without any protection at all and some were definitely dodgy re-guns but as you get older I think you become more aware...
I think the neck join on this tube is one of the most visible I have ever seen! Tomorrow the cabinet will go out to the 'big shed' and get a soak in woodworm killer, again maybe a bit over cautious. Then the cabinet repairs can begin!
Oh wow, that neck join looks a bit iffy! I think you are right to be cautious over the dreaded worm, we were clearing out our under stairs cupboard last weekend, and there was an old picture in there that came from my Nan’s house, the back of it was plywood, and there were live worm in it, with fresh sawdust coming out. I pulled the plywood back off to chuck it in the bin, and there were live grubs wiggling about where they had eaten through the plywood against the back of the picture! I’ve never seen live ones before, I have seen the beetles, but not the grubs. Ugly little white maggoty things! Suffice to say the plywood went in the bin… the rest of the picture and frame was fine.
The only reguns I didn’t have any problems with were the Mullard ones, always worked like new. We did delve in and tried a few regun companies but I was never really satisfied. My other worry was with the RimGuard/Panorama CRT’s was how safe were they. One came back with Polyfiila filled into the gap around the glass a Rimband.
Others may have found a good supply but I didn’t and we decided only to use mainly Mullard or a few Mazda, probably cost us money but I felt more secure.
The weld on that neck is not the worst I have seen.
Frank
