Sharp Image in a better light

Before I sent the Sharp Image back to Jomac, I couldn't resist testing the chassis with a couple other tubes. I tried out another "black standard" Phillips and experienced the same geometry problems as before:

Phillips A66EAK071X11

Great focus, colours and contrast... but, err... one problem!

This was a shame because the newer "black standard" Phillips tubes have such dark blacks and more vivid colours. The older EAK tubes look greyer when they're turned off and have less contrast between highlights and black backgrounds when operating. The whole point of buying a universal chassis was have an analogue chassis driving one of these excellent newer tubes.

As a final test, I hooked the screen up to an older Phillips A66EAK71X11 tube. Bingo! The geometry came good! Still, compared to my analogue Blaupunkt, the geometry still wasn't quite as good and since there was none of the advantage I was hoping to get from using a "black standard" type Phillips, I still figured the best thing to was to send the chassis back. The Blaupunkt still looked better so there just wasn't any point keeping the Sharp Image.

Image is correct but what's the advantage over my Blaupunkt?

Well, that explains things...

So, it turns out that the warped image that my universal chassis was showing is due to an incompatibility between the Sharp Image chassis and the Phillips tube that I paired it with. Boo hoo! That means that comparing the Blaupunkt and Sharp Image isn't really a fair contest since the Sharp Image is working with a monitor it doesn't like. Here's what Joey from Jomac had to say:


"Mate honestly that picture looks awful , I know exactly what's causing it but it's not something I can do remotely or without the same tube here , I wouldn't be happy with that either the way it is. , fortunately it's not a issue with most tubes , for some reason it only appears on some of the Euro types with moulded yokes but still not all , I think you would have heard by now if this was a general issue."

I guess that means that the images I posted aren't really indicative of how these chassis usually operate. It also means that I'm out of luck in when it comes to a universal chassis.

Blaupunkt vs Sharp Image

Which would you choose? The winner is clear to me... Remember, we're comparing a $30 SCART television with a $240 arcade chassis...

Blaupunkt

Sharp Image universal chassis

Blaupunkt (left) versus Sharp Image (right)

My second ever Siemens

Siemens TVs are pretty rare in Australia. I've only seen four in my time: 1 under a ton of hard rubbish, 1 on eBay (which is now in my lounge room), 1 in an alley way (with spray paint over the screen) and another recently advertised on eBay (keeping my other Siemens company in the lounge, as of today).

Siemens televisions house chassis made by Grundig. The first Siemens I bought was a digital chassis whereas the one I picked up today has a stack of lovely analog trimpots (Siemens chassis CS 9106 = Grundig chassis CUC 5630).

Having spent some time today messing with my new Sharp Image universal chassis and, frankly, feeling pretty disappointed by the geometry, I fired up the new Siemens to see how it compared. As I suspected it would, it kicks ass! Using the trimpots at the back you can get the borders nicely in MAME before starting a game. With the universal chassis it's much more of a compromise whereas the CUC 5630 let's you get very close to perfect geometry. Pretty crazy considering the Siemens cost me AUD $10 and the Sharp Image was AUD $240!

Hopefully I'll have a detailed comparison written up soon...

Siemens FS 237 M6 (chassis type CS 9106)

Say your prayers dust, tomorrow you meet my air compressor!

Universal chassis arrives!

My universal chassis from Jomac arrived yesterday! I feverishly hooked it all up last night. As a start, you can read a little about my experience here. I'll have a full report posted sometime on the weekend. Gonna be fun putting this thing through its paces!

Game Over

Something bad and sad happened today. After a flurry of tube swapping, my antique Grundig CUC 4635 chassis went up in smoke. I left one of the connectors off (not the HV anode though!) after swapping the chassis back from testing a different tube. When I powered on there was a hiss, some smoke and then a sinking feeling in my stomach. I found the burnt resistor and replaced it but it was no use. There must have been some further damage down the line. Since I don't have the skills needed to repair something so complicated I took a deep breath and started tearing it down. I put all the circuit boards in a cardboard box and off it went to the tip with a pile of my other junk. Pretty sad. This was the best chassis I've tried so far and I reckon the chances of another one coming along in this day and age are pretty slim. Luckily, I had just ordered a universal chassis from Jomac so I didn't cry. I guess it was good to get my experimenting out of the way using a chassis I paid $0 for. I still kicked myself though! Oh well. Live and (hopefully) learn.

RIP Grundig