Flyback in a box

I finally received a replacement flyback transformer for this beauty today. Took a while for Dönberg Electronics to get it in stock but I'm thankful that were actually able to source a flyback for a vintage CRT. Obviously I haven't had time to install the new fly yet but I can certainly attest to Dönberg's service. They're really helpful and are serious about what they do. Also, they wrap a pretty mean parcel!

Package from Dönberg

HR 6504 flyback

Grundig 29221-029.05 replacement

Pin out

I really hope it's as simple as just soldering this into the chassis and having life breathed back into the telly. Hopefully nothing else was taken out when the original flyback went up in smoke... I guess we'll see when I find some time for this epic operation!

For Sale: Another Sony KV-C27!

Another Sony KV-C27 comes out of the woodwork...

As the auction description says, I just can't get used to Trinitrons! This is the last Sony I'll pickup... they're awesome but they just don't give me the same tingle as a traditional curved '90s tube. I've tried several times but I've convinced myself that I'm never going to truly love Sonys even though so many others do.

eBay auction here.

Adjusting vertical linearity

While fiddling with the E3000 chassis recently, I came to reaslise how important vertical linearity is to the attainment of good overall geometry.

I decided to experiment with creating my own test patterns to check the linearity of my Calida 5072. I created a black and white bitmap in MS Paint with 5 equally distributed lines. I used an odd number of lines so that I can get the 5 lines equally spaced. Since I play so many 224 lines games, I created a 225 line mode to use for testing:

225 line linearity test screen

I used Arcade_OSD to access my test modeline and then displayed my test image fullscreen. Next, I used a small ruler to measure the space between each line. Much to my surprise, my even looking lines had up to 15mm difference in the spacing between them!

I got thinking... there had to be a way of getting this accurate. Here's the solution I came up with:

Paper mask with equidistant marker lines

Close-up of the mask

I prepared an A3 paper mask to help me line up the 5 test lines. I had to juggle between V-Amp, V-Pos, V-Lin and V-Sym in the Service Menu. Changing one value will most likely require an adjustment of the other. However, despite the interaction, it only took me around 10 minutes to get this as close to perfect as possible.

After that, I loaded up regular cross hatch and adjusted the horizontal size and centring. Next, I fiddled with the EW and Trap controls. The resulting grid wasn't perfect but it was extremely close for a CRT!

The benefit of all this fiddling is how good the games now look, especially when you have a vertical scroll effect. So even and smooth now!

Exploring the Loewe E3000 chassis

Recently the flyback on my prized Blaupunkt fried itself. It was pretty crazy because my girlfriend and I were watching r a g e at the time. The screen starting shaky, the colors got freaky and then a big cloud of evil black smoke started coming out the back. Luckily I was quick on my feet and cut the power before things got too crazy. Pretty sad day though... I'm surprised I didn't actually cry after that event! I've ordered a replacement flyback through Dönberg so hopefully that unit can be brought back to life

In the meantime, I picked up a super-rare Loewe Calida 5072. I've only seen one other specimen like this in 2 years of daily searching. This TV features a semi-flat 68cm Philips tube and the fabled E3000 chassis. I paid premium for this beauty and the picture quality is a amazing!

Street Fighter III

Calida 5072 (E3000 chassis)

The images produces are super-crisp and stable. The only problem is that while the E3000 produces a superb picture, it's extremely fussing about the signals it gets sent. There are certain refresh rates that won't sync and it crops lines from many games.

After some intense testing I have learned that the TV has two basic modes: PAL and NTSC. The Service Mode allows you to set separate geometry values for each mode.

The PAL mode will show a maximum of 285 lines and will sync up to 52 Hz.
The NTSC mode will show a maximum of 233 lines (pretty poor) and will sync down to 57 Hz.

This means that the TV is far from ideal when it comes to running native resolutions and refresh rates for the wide range found in MAME. However, the awesome picture quality makes the TV worth persevering with... especially for the quality it can bring to 224 line arcade games.

I'm currently in the process of confirming these observations and constructing a thorough set of monitor specs for use with GroovyMAME. I'll be reporting back here shortly...

Grab yourself an Extron!

Picked up an Extron RGB 201 Rxi from eBay last week.

This unit was recommended to me as a way of centering the picture horizontally on my Blaupunkt which doesn't actually feature a H position pot on the chassis.

This crafty little unit only cost me $20 but it can do some amazing things! Firstly, it does the desired H position control very well. There is a HUGE range of adjustment available. There is also a V position control that shifts the image up or down one scanline at a time. Really cool. As a bonus, there is a Level Boost pot and a Peak Control.

The Level Boost is really cool for controlling how dark the scanlines are. With the control up high, the image tends to saturate and bleed. With the control down low, the scanlines are far more defined. Neat!

Extron RGB 201 Rxi

The unit also features a horizontal and vertical frequency readout on the front LCD. Very cool for confirming that your GroovyMAME modelines are delivering what they advertise:

Horizontal and vertical frequency readout

Around the back, the unit features RGBHV on BNC connectors. It can also run RGBS meaning that I can possibly ditch my UMSA adapter in the future (provided I make up a BNC to SCART cable).

Overall, a very cool tool for those that are running native res and refresh. Highly recommended!

Street Fighter III looking seriously awesome after Extron tweaking