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Sony HVC-3000P Trinicon Camera Teardown

Camera Left
Camera Left

Following on from the viewfinder teardown, here’s the rest of the camera. This unit dates back to 1980, and is made almost exclusively of cast aluminium. Very little plastic has been used here & only for the bits that the user comes into contact with. This camera is based around the Sony Trinicon camera tube system, technology dating back before CCDs. There aren’t many controls on this side of the camera, only the record button, which is hidden behind the camera handgrip.

Camera Right
Camera Right

The other side of the camera has most of the controls for the picture.

Image Controls
Image Controls

The image controls inclue auto / manual iris, white balance & colour balance.

Rear Panel
Rear Panel

Sharpness & fader controls are on the back of the camera, along with the umbilical cable which would have connected to a Betamax recorder.

Main Lens
Main Lens

The lens on this camera is massive, at least a kilo of optical glass. Focus control is manual, with both auto & manual zoom control.

Lens Zoom Control
Lens Zoom Control

The Zoom controls are on top of the grip, with a button to the rear of the control which I have no idea about. The internal belts are a bit rotted with age so the zoom function doesn’t work great.

Trinicon Control Board
Trinicon Control Board

After removing the side covers, the two large PCBs become visible. These units are absolutely packed with electronics. On this side is the Trinicon tube control board, generating all the high voltages for electron beam acceleration, focus & electrostatic deflection of the beam. There’s around 500 volts knocking around on this board, with some rather specialised hybrid modules doing all the high voltage magic.

Video Process Board
Video Process Board

The other side of the camera has the video process board, which performs all the colour separation of the video signal from the tube, processes the resulting signals into a composite video signal, and finally sends it down the umbilical.

Bare Controls
Bare Controls

Removing some of the remaining covers exposes the bare video controls, and a small PCB just underneath covered in trimpots to set factory levels.

White Balance Filter Arm
White Balance Filter Arm

The white balance is partially electronic & partially mechanical. This lever actuates a filter inside the lens assrembly.

Remote Connector
Remote Connector

A DIN connector offers remote control ability. The large loom of wires disappearing off to the right is dealing with the zoom mechanism & the onboard microphone amplifier. Just under the DIN connector hides the system power supply, inside a soldered can. The can under the white tape is the head end amplifier for the Trinicon video tube.

Trinicon Mount
Trinicon Mount

Hiding in the centre of the camera inside the casting is the Trinicon tube assembly itself. The label can just be seen here.

Camera Internals 1
Camera Internals 1

As is typical of 1980’s electronic design, the main boards swing down & are designed to slot into the base casting folded out for repairs. Internally the unit is a rat’s nest of wiring loom. There’s also another shielding can in here nestled between the boards – this is the video sync generator circuit.

Camera Internals 2
Camera Internals 2

The other side gives a better view of the video sync generator can. I’ll dive into the individual modules later on.

Lens Zoom Assembly
Lens Zoom Assembly

Under the remaining side cover is the zoom assembly & microphone amplifier board. More massive wiring loom hides within.

Video Sync Generator
Video Sync Generator

The video sync generator is pretty sparse inside, just a large Sony CX773 Sync Generator IC, with a pair of crystals. There are a couple of adjustments in here for video sync frequencies.

Head End Amplifier
Head End Amplifier

Removed from it’s shielding can, here is the head end amplifier for the Trinicon tube. This very sensitive JFET input amplifier feeds into the main video process board.

Input Transformer
Input Transformer

The Trinicon tube target connects to this input transformer on the front of the amplifier board.

Internal Video Adjustments
Internal Video Adjustments

The internal white balance controls are on this small PCB, mounted under the user-accessible controls.

Vidicon Control Board
Vidicon Control Board

Here’s the main control board responsible for the Trinicon tube & exposure control. Down near the front is the auto-iris circuit, nearer the centre is timing control & at the top is the high voltage power supply & deflection generator ICs.

High Voltage Section
High Voltage Section

Here’s the high voltage section, the main transformer at right generating the voltages required to drive the video tube. The large orange hybrids here are a pair of BX369 high-voltage sawtooth generators that create the deflection waveforms for the tube. The other large hybrid is a BX382 Fader Control.

Video Process Board
Video Process Board

The other large board contains all the video process circuitry, all analogue of course. There are a lot of manual adjustment pots on this board.

Lens Barrel
Lens Barrel

After removing the lens assembly, the tube assembly is visible inside the barrel casting. Not much to see yet, just the IR filter assembly.

Trinicon Tube Assembly
Trinicon Tube Assembly

Here’s the unit removed from the camera. Unfortunately this tube is dead – it shows a lot of target burn on the resulting image, and very bad ghosting on what poor image there is. The Trinicon tube itself is encased in the focus coil assembly, the windings of which are hidden under the shielding.

IR Filter
IR Filter

The IR filter is locked into the front of the tube, on a bayonet fitting. The twin target wires are running off to the left, where they would connect to the head end amplifier.

Bare Tube
Bare Tube

After removing the IR filter glass, the Trinicon tube itself is removed from the focus coil assembly. There’s an electron gun at the rear of the tube, like all CRTs, although this one works in reverse – sensing an image projected on the front instead of generating one.

Deflection Plates
Deflection Plates

It’s a little difficult to see, but the electrostatic deflection electrodes in this tube are created from the aluminium flashing on the inside of the glass, in a zig-zag pattern. The interleaving electrodes are connected to base pins by spring contacts at the electron gun end of the tube.

Electron Gun
Electron Gun

The electron gun is mostly hidden by the getter flash & the deflection electrodes, but the cathode can is visible through the glass, along with the spring contacts that make a connection to the deflection electrodes. This is also a very short gun – it doesn’t extend more than about 5mm into the deflection zone. The rest of the tube up to the target is empty space.

Target
Target

Finally, here’s the target end of the tube. I’m not sure how the wires are attached to the terminals – it certainly isn’t solder, maybe conductive adhesive?
It uses a vertically striped RGB colour filter over the faceplate of an otherwise standard Vidicon imaging tube to segment the scan into corresponding red, green and blue segments. It is used mostly in low-end consumer cameras, though Sony also used it in some moderate cost professional cameras in the 1980s.
Although the idea of using colour stripe filters over the target was not new, the Trinicon was the only tube to use the primary RGB colours. This necessitated an additional electrode buried in the target to detect where the scanning electron beam was relative to the stripe filter. Previous colour stripe systems had used colours where the colour circuitry was able to separate the colours purely from the relative amplitudes of the signals. As a result, the Trinicon featured a larger dynamic range of operation.

I have the service manuals below for the HVP-2000P & the HVP-4000P, which are very similar cameras, so these may be useful to anyone who has one of these!


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Sony Watchman FD-280 Teardown

Sony FD-280
Sony FD-280

Here’s another Sony Flat CRT TV, the FD0280. This one was apparently the last to use CRT technology, later devices were LCD based. This one certainly doesn’t feel as well made as the last one, with no metal parts at all in the frame, just moulded plastic.

CRT Screen
CRT Screen

Being a later model, this one has a much larger screen.

Autotuning
Autotuning

Instead of the manual tuner of the last Watchman, this one has automatic tuning control, to find the local stations.

Spec Label
Spec Label

The spec puts the power consumption a little higher than the older TV, this isn’t surprising as the CRT screen is bigger & will require higher voltages on the electrodes.

Certification Label
Certification Label

The certification label dates this model to May 1992.

External Inputs
External Inputs

Still not much in the way of inputs on this TV. There’s an external power input, external antenna input & a headphone jack. No composite from the factory. (Hack incoming ;)).

Power / Band
Power / Band

The UHF/VHF & power switches are on the top of this model.

Back Cover Removed
Back Cover Removed

Removing some very tiny screws allows the back to be removed. There’s significant difference in this model to the last, more of the electronics are integrated into ICs, nearly everything is SMD.

RF Section
RF Section

There’s the usual RF tuner section & IF, in this case the VIF/SIF is a Mitsubishi M51348AFP.

Tuner Controller
Tuner Controller

The digital control of the tuner is perfomed by this Panasonic AN5707NS.

Deflection / Sync
Deflection / Sync

The deflection & sync functions appear to be controlled by a single Sony branded custom IC, the CX20157. Similar to many other custom Sony ICs, a datasheet for this wasn’t forthcoming.

PCB Top
PCB Top

There’s very little on the top side of the board, the RF section is on the left, there’s a DC-DC converter bottom centre next to the battery contacts. This DC-DC converter has a very unusual inductor, completely encased in a metal can. This is probably done to prevent the magnetic field from interfering with the CRT.

CRT
CRT

Here’s the CRT itself, the Sony 03-JM. The back of this CRT is uncoated at the bottom, the tuning scale was taped to the back so it lined up with the tuning bar displayed on the screen.

Electronics
Electronics

Here’s the electronics completely removed from the shell. There’s much more integration in this model, everything is on a single PCB.

Phosphor Screen
Phosphor Screen

The curve in the phosphor screen can clearly be seen here. This CRT seems to have been cost-reduced as well, with the rough edges on the glass components having been left unfinished.

Electron Gun
Electron Gun

Here’s the electron gun end of the tube. There isn’t a separate final anode connection to the bell of the tube unlike the previous model. Instead the final anode voltage is on a pin of the electron gun itself. This keeps all the wiring to the tube at one end & shortens the high voltage cable.

Electron Gun
Electron Gun

Here’s the gun in the neck of the tube. Again this is pretty much standard fare for CRT guns. It’s more similar to a viewfinder tube in that the anode connection is running from the pins at the back. (It’s the line running up the right side of the tube). I’m guessing the anode voltage is pretty low for this to work without the HV flashing over, probably in the 2-4kV range.

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Sony Watchman FD-20 Flat CRT TV Teardown

Sony Watchman FD-20
Sony Watchman FD-20

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.

Front Panel
Front Panel

The front panel has the display window, along with the tuning & volume indicators. Unfortunately since analogue TV transmissions have long been switched off, this unit no longer picks up any transmissions off the air, but it can be modified to accept a composite video input.

Back Panel
Back Panel

The back panel has the battery compartment & the tilt stand.

Certification
Certification

The certification label reveals this unit was manufactured in May 1984, 32 years ago!

Spec. Label
Spec. Label

Rated at 6v, ~2.1W this device uses surprisingly little power for something CRT based.

Battery Holder
Battery Holder

The battery holder is a little unique, this plastic frame holds 4 AA cells, for a 6v pack.

Battery Compartment
Battery Compartment

The battery holder slots into the back of the TV, there’s also an extra contact that the service manual mentions is for charging, so I assume a rechargeable 6v battery pack was also available.

Front Panel Removed
Front Panel Removed

Removing a pair of pin-spanner type screws allows the front glass & screen printed CRT surround to be removed. Not much more under here other than the pair of screws that retain the CRT in the front frame.

Back Cover Removed
Back Cover Removed

Here’s the back cover removed, after unscrewing some very small screws. As per usual with Sony gear, the electronics is extremely compacted, using many flat flex cables between the various PCBs. The main PCB is visible at the back, this has all the deflection circuitry, RF tuner, Video IF, Audio IF, video amplifier & composite circuitry.

CRT Electron Gun & Flyback Transformer
CRT Electron Gun & Flyback Transformer

Lifting up the main board reveals more PCBs – the high voltage section for the CRT with the flyback transformer, focus & brightness controls is on the left. The loudspeaker PCB is below this. The CRT electron gun is tucked in behind the flyback transformer, it’s socket being connected to the rest of the circuitry with a flat flex cable.

CRT Rear
CRT Rear

Here’s the back of the CRT, the phosphor screen is on the other side of the curved glass back. These tubes must require some additional deflection complexity, as the geometry will change as the beam scans across the screen. There’s a dynamic focus circuit on the schematics, along with extensive keystone adjustments.

Sony 02-JM Flat CRT
Sony 02-JM Flat CRT

Here’s the tube entirely extracted from the chassis. The EHT connection to the final anode is on the side of the tube bell, the curved phosphor screen is clearly visible. The one thing I can’t find in this CRT is a getter spot, so Sony may have a way of getting a pure enough vacuum that one isn’t required.

I’d expect the vertical deflection waveforms to be vastly different on this kind of CRT, due to the strange screen setup. Not much of a beam movement is required to move the spot from the top to the bottom of the screen.

HV Module
HV Module

No doubt to keep the isolation gaps large, all the high voltages are kept on a separate small PCB with the flyback transformer. This board generates the voltages for the electron gun filament, focus grid & the bias to set the beam current (brightness) as well.

Bare CRT
Bare CRT

Here the deflection yoke has been removed from the CRT, showing the very odd shape better. These tubes are constructed of 3 pieces of glass, the bell with electron gun, back glass with phosphor screen & front viewing window glass. All these components are joined with glass frit.

Electron Gun
Electron Gun

The electron gun in the neck looks to be pretty much standard, with all the usual electrodes.

Viewing Window
Viewing Window

Here’s a view from the very top of the CRT, the curve in the screen is very obvious here. The electron beam emerges from the bell at the back.

FD-20 Schematic
FD-20 Schematic

Here’s the full schematic of the entire TV, I extracted this from a service manual I managed to find online.

More to come on hacking this unit to accept a standard composite video input, from something such as a Raspberry Pi!