It’s time for another CRT-based post! This time it’s a Matsushita 40CB4-based viewfinder from 1980. These came from JVC colour tube cameras, and are physically massive! I’ve already worked out the pinout on the multicore cable here & attached a usable connector. There’s lots of information on the bottom label
Here’s the CRT & it’s drive board removed from the main chassis. Nicely modular this unit, all the individual modules (radio, tape, TV), are separate. This is effectively a TV itself, all the tuner & IF section are onboard, unlike in other vintage units I’ve modified, where the tuner &
The old Panasonic NV-M5 has the standard for the time CRT based viewfinder assembly, which will happily take a composite video signal from an external source. This viewfinder has many more connections than I would have expected, as it has an input for the iris signal, which places a
As with the previous Sony Watchman hack, injecting a composite video signal into this one is just as easy. I desoldered both the VIF/SIF IC & the digital tuner control (the tuner controller was still injecting it’s indicator into the video circuitry with the IF IC disconnected). Composite video is
Hacking the Sony FD-20 to accept a composite input is easy – the tuner receives the RF transmission, produces an IF, this is then fed into IC201, a Mitsubishi M51364P Video IF Processor. The VIF IC then separates out the composite video signal, which is output on Pin 13 (in
Here’s an oddity from the 1980’s – a CRT-based portable TV, with a very strangely shaped tube. Sony produced many types of flat CRTs back in the 80’s, with the electron gun at 90° to the curved phosphor screen. The front panel has the display window, along with the tuning
Time for another teardown! I managed to fish this Sky+ box out of a skip, but to protect the guilty, all serial numbers have been removed. These are pretty smart devices, with DVR capability on board. There’s a lot of ports on these units, from RS-232 serial, POTS modem, eSATA,
Here is the project I’m currently working on. A completely wearable computing platform based on the Raspberry Pi & the WiFi Pineapple. Above can be seen the general overview of the current unit. On the left: Alfa AWUS036NHA USB High Power WiFi Network Interface 512MB Model B Raspberry Pi, 16GB
Here are the viewfinder electronics from a 1984 Hitachi VHS Movie VM-1200E Camcorder. These small CRT based displays accept composite video as input, plus 5-12v DC for power. Here is the front face of the CRT, diameter is 0.5″. Closeup view of the PCB, there are several adjustments & a
This is an adaptor to convert computer VGA to composite & S-Video output for a normal TV. Bottom of the unit with option select switch. PCB removed from the casing, CPU in centre, buffer RAM on the right. Reverse side with the VGA connections at the top & the S-Video/composite
Teardown of the Xbox 360 HD A/V cable. Standard Xbox connector on the left. Component video/audio/composite video connectors on the right. Internals of the Xbox connector. Black unit is fiber optic audio connector, PCB underneath holds the HD/SD video switch. 00