I went to the house clearance place today to pick up some tut that I had bought, I always have a look by the skip where the old tellies are dumped, there was a selection of the usual plastic sets sets from the '90s nothing vintage this time. But there was this nice little Luxor face down on top of an old fridge, it was absolutely pouring with rain the handle recess was full of water, so i tipped it upright being careful not to empty the 'handle water' into the set.
I felt sorry for the little set, it is a solid little thing much better quality than some of the portables of the time. Being FST I guess it is late 80's - early 90's? Anyway I brought it home and have left it in the shed for today. I'll bring it in tomorrow and have a look inside to see how wet it has got. Then I'll make a decision as to if I try it or not.
Will It work? Watch this space!
Rich.
Looks well worth saving! I’ve never seen one of those before. Looks mid to late 80’s to me, particularly looking at those buttons! I bet it will work, I have a late 80’s Decca-colour branded Tatung portable that spent a few weeks in someone’s front garden in all weather, and by the state it was in it had also been in a house fire, lots of black smelly soot inside it, I cleaned it up and it worked good as new! No replacement parts at all. I also have a small Sony Trinitron which came from the tip years ago, it was chucking it down that day and the set got drenched! Quick blast with the hair dryer and it was absolutely fine.
Its a good job I don’t live near somewhere like that, I’d be filling the car boot every week!! Back when I first started driving I used to visit the tip on Fridays, as I used to finish early, and I’d have a rummage through the telly pile, normally come back with a few sets to play with! Best finds were a Murphy console set, think it was a V230C, a Ferguson Junior 16, and a Stella ST2049a. I could have had a load of 70’s and 80’s sets when I found the Stella and fergy, I’m sure there were a couple of 1500’s on the pile, looked like someone had emptied an old TV shop! They stopped me buying any more when some new regulations came in, which was a shame, but I guess it was a good thing as I would have bought loads more!!
Regards,
Lloyd
Well, to answer my own question "will it work?" No. Well briefly! The chassis or PCB is very clean no signs of wetness but to be on the safe side I went over it with a hairdryer. Then I gave it some mains, rustle of static, Fzzz ! Clouds of smoke and the familiar smell of smoking Rifa! To get the PCB out I had to remove the plinth on the bottom and unplug the PCB within the plinth. It looks as if this is a inverter or at least a power supply to run the set from 12V?
Removing the PCB revealed two Rifa capacitors across the mains supply one of which had split and ejected the smoke. I removed both, refitted the PCB and the plinth PCB just in case it needed to be there anyway on mains. Switching on again produced static and after a short time a snowy raster. Then it went off! The frame collapsed followed by nothing. I am not sure if it developed a frame fault which then shut it down or if the frame collapsed as the set went dead, but I suspect the former...
If I plug the set in switched on I get the standby 'dash' if I then operate the switch to bring it off standby the dash disappears and the set remains dead. I can't find the model listed online to see if I could get a diagram. The chassis is vaguely familiar I think there may have been a Salora badged version possibly smaller screen using the same PCB?
Anyway it was worth a try I don't really know if I am going to peruse this as I really do have enough sets and this is way later than I would choose to collect. So unless anyone wants it it may be returning to whence it came, (the skip that is, not Slough!).
I can't find the model listed online to see if I could get a diagram. The chassis is vaguely familiar I think there may have been a Salora badged version possibly smaller screen using the same PCB
Hi Rich, I did a little research, and that revealed this TV shared the same chassis as the Hitachi CPT1558, this might be why it appears familiar to you. I did a quick check of my service data between 1987-1996 (my books only go that far) and there was nothing to be found. I then found mention of this TV in a March 1998 article in Television, so sods-law the TV might just be from 1997.
I do have some Hitachi dealer service manual CD-Roms in my library, when I get a chance I'll have a look at them.
Television March 1998 Hitachi CPT1558 / Luxor 18036549
These 15 in" Swedish sets are ideal for kitchen use, having a sealed membrane keypad. When a Luxor example came in with a severely mangled keypad we discovered that it's no longer available as a spare part. A repair was possible, however, using a keypad from a scrap Hitachi version of the set it's marked differently but works in the same way. Our troubles were not over yet, as keyboard operation was intermittent. We eventually traced the cause of this to a cracked joint in a very unexpected place, at one end of RD54, an 820R resistor which is between the base and emitter of TD12 near the key pad ribbon-cable connector. We then knew why the original keypad had been clawed to death!
If you have trouble with the microcontroller or ROMchip (IDO1 and ID02) in these sets, get in touch with Chas Hyde (01759303068). There were several versions and sources of these chips, and they are not all compatible.
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These are excellent performer's, excellent picture and very reliable. John used to sell these and the only problem with the apart from the odd dry joint in the usual spots was the button unit on the front. John had bought up a stock off those and the odd one was still turning up for repair into the early 2010's!!
It's clearly from the picture of yours that it had little use, the buttons look in great condition.
I have one here that also had very little use, it too had the usual rifa issue. I'd say it's worth the effort, you'll be surprised at the quality it's picture.
Sounds like it wanted to work! It looks nice and clean inside. Go on, give it a go!!
Regards,
Lloyd
Thanks all for the info and encouragement ! It does look like a low hours set. Maybe with the 12V converter fitted it was just used as a caravan set? Don't rush to look for the service info Chris but if and when you do find it I will have a look to see if I can do anything with it. It may be that the frame chip has died due to electrolytics having dried up, the shorted chip shutting the set down - That's just a guess based on the fact that it seemed to go frame collapse before dead. I'm going to put it one side for the time being and come back to it later. At least it's in the dry now!
I used to repair a few Hitachi sets for a small dealer who's only engineer had retired so that may be why the chassis is vaguely familiar I can't remember working on one though.
It's a salora L-chassis, but beware, there were two versions, one with a tripler and one without.
Well, if that is the case, I do have the L service manual. It covers the 20", 22" and 26". Not sure if it will be of any use, being the TV in question is a 15" but maybe.
I believe Salora marked areas of the PCB and/or modules with codes such as STB170 etc if any are present that may help.
Some exmaple
STB = Mother board
STBX = diode modulator module
STH = CRT PCB
SCS = Control unit
STUL = Remote control tx
100 = Mother board interface components
200 = colour section
300 = Defelction circuits
500 = Power section, mains isolated
600 = Power section, mains non-isolated
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That is helpful, there is a label on the CRT stating Service manual T7C1. There is also a green and white label on the main PCB 55 31200-10F. I don't know if that helps identify it?
Well I am keeping my fingers crossed but it looks like it is working! I found a dry joint on the LOPT earth. That got the set working but with a frame problem. That jumped about going intermittent collapse. I decided to warm the chip up with a hairdryer and then freeze it to see if it was the chip or nearby component. I warmed the chip and the fault cleared. I froze the chip and the fault stayed cleared! I switched off and tried again. Perfect! I wonder if there was a bit of damp under the chip that dried out ?
The set has now been running for a half hour so far so good. Let's see what it does from cold tomorrow!?? Even all the keypad 'buttons' work! I think the keypad membrane was probably the only fault I may have had with these sets in the past. I have a dim memory of peeling one off and sticking a new one on...
Well, done Rich, that's a nice little set. 👍
I managed to find the service manual, I've loaded it into the temporary library download area should you ever need it.
Salora L-Chassis 14L10_15L30.pdf
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Excellent result, I must dig my one out when time allows. Well worth the effort.
Great result, I always liked these middling-size "monitor"-style sets. Well done for having the courage to apply power, too!
Nice work! Is that plinth just a 12V power supply? Good to see a bit of fawlty towers 🙂
I have a similar set here, a 15” FST made by NEC, but instead of the LED display it proudly claims that it has on screen display!
Regards,
Lloyd
Hi Lloyd, yes the plinth looks as if it is an optional extra. It fits on the bottom of the set and has two plugs that go through the bottom of the set into the PCB. There are numerous connections so I would guess it supplies the various rails to the main panel as needed rather than an inverter supplying 240V to the set like I think the TX90 had.
Maybe a lower consumption from the 12v supply doing it this way? Anyway the set is still working this morning, Basil continues to rant! It is incredibly clean inside there is no dirt around the anode cap, I think this set was probably very little used.
@crustytv The larger screen-size L-chassis were the versions with a split-diode loptx, rather than a tripler. TBH, I don't think the two L's shared much in common, other than being a damn fine performer. The 21" version seemed to have good CRT life too... no so the 25"
@crustytv The larger screen-size L-chassis were the versions with a split-diode loptx, rather than a tripler. TBH, I don't think the two L's shared much in common, other than being a damn fine performer. The 21" version seemed to have good CRT life too... no so the 25"
Ah, I should say split-diode IPSALO transformer!
Hi Lloyd, yes the plinth looks as if it is an optional extra. It fits on the bottom of the set and has two plugs that go through the bottom of the set into the PCB. There are numerous connections so I would guess it supplies the various rails to the main panel as needed rather than an inverter supplying 240V to the set like I think the TX90 had.
There's a similarity there with how a number of Sony professional monitors work: on those, AC mains is turned into a single low-voltage rail which then feeds into a number of switching regulators to produce the various voltage rails used within the monitor. This allows the easy addition if required of battery operation by simply inserting the battery supply where the bulk supply from AC mains would have come.
Hi Chris I couldn't open the diagram in the library. not by clicking on it, presumably I am doing something wrong? I would like to have a look at the diagram I am interested in how the 12V converter works.
Also can anyone tell me if the remote handset for the Hitachi CPT1558 mentioned will work the Luxor or point me in the right direction to a possible supplier? As the set wants to live I will buy a handset if I can get one at a reasonable price.
Mike - thanks for the info it does seem an efficient way of providing the supplies from a 12V supply rather than an inverter. The Ferguson 37140/1 that had an optional "battery converter" just used an inverter which fitted inside, it was pretty cutting edge tech at the time. I only fitted a few to customers' sets and boy did it hammer the battery! That was only a 14" as well!
