On Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 9:04:16 PM UTC-4 Instrument Resources of America wrote:
Pilot Radio Company made a three inch black and white television in the late 1940's early 1950's. It was the first television to break the $100.00 price tag, on the low side. It's CRT IIRC was a 3RP4 with P4 phosphor. These sets are highly prized by collectors, including myself. I have one currently under restoration, with a good CRT. Unfortunately many of these sets do NOT have good CRT's. and the folks who have them have resorted to using the 3RP1's and this of course is adding to their shortage. Making clocks with them is also adding to their shortage, along with the collector crowd. Ira. Forgot to mention - I have a Waterman S11-A "Pocket Scope" in fantastic working condition (including velvet lined storage carry case!) that dates back to 1948/49... A compact 5 tube (+ 3MP1 crt) scope that is actually quite versatile for the time period. Of course it's displaying a clock now or my stereo audio signal depending on the day ;-) The manual is interesting reading, especially the reference of how to test various signals by observing lissajous curves. The same model can be seen here: oscilloscope-waterman-s-11-a-s4843 - Oscilloscope Museum <https://www.oscilloscopemuseum.org/oscilloscope-waterman-s-11-a-s4843.html> And tech doesn't even have to be that old to become unobtanium - I've got a Teensy 3.6 in a drawer that's been waiting for a project like this... I went to buy another board and was shocked to discover my $30 purchase now demands nearly $300 on eBay (when they are even listed). These boards are only about 10 years old - but the controllers they are based on are obsolete. Back on topic, I'm inclined to try the HV on the cathode end - this makes the deflection drivers a bit easier to manage. I'm going to borrow heavily from Mr. Forbe's optocoupler Z axis design to handle the high negative voltages on the grid ;-) I picked up a 500VCT toroid tube power xfrmr from Antek <https://www.antekinc.com/power-transformers/>- they are very reasonably priced and made in the US. I'd like to go with a CCFL type switch mode power design, but my digital skills far outweigh my analog skills - but I can manage a basic rectified power supply lol. Between the Teensy and an Arduino Due - I have some good experiments planned for these crts. And I blame all this on Mr. Forbes lol - I was hooked when I saw that first scope clock way back ;-) I thank you for sharing your knowledge. Atari Tempest was my game back in the day, and would you believe that some kid brought in an old Dumont scope for show and tell - *in kindergarten !!! *That day is seared into my brain. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/cb052db0-1ce1-4312-94b5-43d6a7bc3759n%40googlegroups.com.
