Distractions...

In the midst of packing up my apartment in Melbourne back in January and February, I found plenty of distractions...

One major black hole for time came in the form of a huge haul of computer hardware from a friend's workplace. The business he works for was moving premises and a whole bunch of outdated but still great gear was on offer.

Of course, being a scavenger at heart, I couldn't resist! I ended up with a huge pile of Lenovo desktops, a couple Lenovo laptops and shit load of cables, PCI cards and odd accessories. Pretty soon I was asking myself "why did I say yes to this?"

Big mess!

A boot load of PC cases en route to the recycle center

VGA cables for the next 10 years

After going nuts trying to sort through it all, I managed to make some pocket money selling some of the ThinkCenters on eBay. I also gave boxes full of LAN cables and other miscellaneous gadgets away on Gumtree.

I gutted the generic PCs and dumped the cases. They were all pretty battered and were also ugly to start with. The nice thing about Clifton Hill was the electronics recycling center just down the road. In my early SCART hunting days I had to pay $25 a pop to dump stuff! Crazy! If I'd known there was free option I would have driven across town from Brighton to make the drop. The cost of getting rid of a CRT was always a deterrent from grabbing that next unit. I really have to find a recycle center here in Berlin if I want to make the most of my new SCART hunting ground...

In the end, I guess mission paid off in the form of a couple fully working laptops and, most importantly, a bunch of quad core, small form factor machines for MAME use. The ThinkCenters are a neat size for installing inside an arcade cab or sitting under a TV (just like a old VCR or game console).

It'll be a while before I get home to all the cool stuff that I scored... but it's nice to know that when I get back from Germany there's a sweet retrogaming rig awaiting me.

Found! Pre-loved Blaupunkt

Check out this beauty:

My latest find! A vintage Blaupunkt

It's been a long time since I went on a hard rubbish scavenging mission. Mostly I just scour eBay and Gumtree for SCART televisions these days. Hard rubbish hunting is time consuming and can often lead to disappointment... you might find something good but it's damaged or wrecked.

That said, when something like this happens, and it makes me think I should be out there on the weekends while people still have CRTs to junk. I can't help but think some prized TVs must be sitting out on a suburban street right now. It eats at me. If people would only list their TVs for 99 cents on eBay I wouldn't have to face such mental anguish!

Anyway, here's how it happened: I was driving to band rehearsal last night and I spotted the distinct styling of a European television. I knew at a glance this was a Blaupunkt. The ubiquitous Samsung and Panasonic CRTs simply don't have these kind of lines:

Front

Back

I made a mental note about the location of the TV and kept an eye out for it at 11 pm when I was driving home. All the cars and garbage bins made it hard to see and I had to park the car and walk up the road before I finally found it again.

It was worth the effort though! A nice vintage 1990 model with trimpots inside! I plugged it in before work this morning and she fired up. Excellent!

Blaupunkt MS 70-109 VT M (chassis FM 500.70)

"Please take me home... In good order."

The TV has obviously been sitting on the side of the road for a while now. There are lawn clippings, dirt and water marks on it. However, the 30 degree heat yesterday probably did a good job of drying out whatever moisture this unit has endured.

We have snow!

SCART ports and S-Video

Audio outputs

This guy has serviced so many of my finds...

Can't wait to the weekend when I can get a chance to test this out with some actual RGB material! Could be a good candidate for some external pot modifications if the Service Manual is correct...

Why hard rubbish rulez

You can scan eBay all you want but the real treasure is out there on the streets...

Front

Blaupunkt PM 51-43 VT (chassis FM 241.00)

I was riding my bike to a friend's place for dinner and spied this little beauty! Haven't had a chance to plug it in yet but I reckon the fact that the owner placed the remote and manual neatly on top means that this one still goes.

Just goes to show that only a fraction of the SCART TVs out there end up on auction sites. I've never seen one of these on eBay or Gumtree in the last 12 months...

Remote and manual

Philips with detachable speakers

While riding my bike to the train station last Monday morning I spotted a retro Philips TV on the curb. I made a mental note of where it was and picked it up in the car that night after work. Turned out to be in great condition with hardly a mark on the casing and the remote sitting neatly by its side. Nice! The only downer was that some scum bag had come along and snipped the power cord and also the speaker extension cables (this TV has a cool detachable speaker system). Grr! I hate these copper recyclers!

Tonight I got around to pulling the back casing off and attaching a new power cable. Fingers crossed as I powered on... static on the screen, check... press the channel button... green led, check... picture? Check!

The chassis is super clean (looks just like new) and the picture is quite good. It's an older style Philips tube but the focus is still very good. Colours are less vivid than the later Black Matrix tubes. Perhaps a tube swap in the future? We'll see...

I'll need to find out the code for the Service Menu (some pincushion effect present) but the signs are good for this TV! Smooth picture that's well suited to retro arcade games. Very stable image.

Looking forward to spending some more time with this one as Philips is a brand I'm not very familiar with in terms of SCART gaming. I've ticked off Grundig, Sony, Loewe on my journey and Philips has been an obvious omission. More photos to come after I spend some time tuning this one up...

Philips 28GR5775/30B (Made in Belgium)

Philips A66EAK51X03 tube (Made in France)

Strider

Cabal

Altered Beast

Good Friday Scavenging (Part 3)

Slowly picking through all the junk that I collected around the Easter weekend...

This historic Philips has already gone to heaven (i.e. land fill) and I hadn't found time to post some pictures until now.

The chassis was full of old components that none of the newer TVs seem to use (different types of capacitors in the '80s?) Also, there were a bunch of small adjustment pots that I fiddled with but nothing seemed to change on screen. Oh well. This beast seemed promising at first but, as you can see, the picture was pretty dreadful!

I saved a bunch of the coloured wire for use in the future.

Where's the colour?!

Good ol' wood box

Orange!

Found: 1 × Blaupunkt television!

I was driving to a coffee shop this morning when I spied a lovely looking TV on the nature strip, not far from where I live. Even though I was only able to quickly glance across the road (I was driving) I could tell from the black finish and stylish design that it wasn't your average Panasonic or Sony. I made a U-turn at the next available opportunity and took a look. To my astonishment it was Blaupunkt in tip-top condition! Along side it was a bag of cables (S-video, RCA, broken PlayStation controller, etc.) and an LG DVD player. I took the bag and machine with me and collected the TV on the way back from the cafe.

I always prepare myself for disappointment when I get a new TV. There are so many performance variables (colour, focus, stability, etc.) and capability variables (artifacts, refresh rates, lines, etc.) that often let a television down. This time, however, I got lucky! I've only done a quick test so far but the image is excellent and I have high hopes for the compatibility since it appears to be a Grundig chassis (based on what the OSD looks like).

Can't wait to polish it up and then put it through its paces!

Blaupunkt, LG DVD player and assorted cables