 Hi, welcome to Retro Tech. I'm your host Steve and today I'm going to be doing a special Q&A session where I'm going to be following up on the Sony CRT here. This is the Sony KV27S26 and what we've done here is we've RGB modded it and replaced the capacitors inside, cleaned it and then we set it back up and it's been running for a little while. I want to show how I'm going to be using it, what I still need to do with it because this will not be the last video on it and also kind of my thoughts on the whole process and the end results as well as answers to a lot of great questions that were left to me in the comments of those videos and through some Facebook groups. So I've got those comments and questions right here. I figured I'd just go ahead and jump into it and just kind of let this go as informal and just a discussion. So I'll go through the questions now and first up I've got Dane Olds who basically says, Super cool stuff. I'm going to have to recap a lot of my monitors in the not too distant future. I'd love to hear where you think the best place to source components is and also know how to test them at some point to keep up the great work. Well, thanks for watching and the best place that I use personally in my situation where I live the best place to get most of the components is Mouser. Mouser is a large company that has a website that you just go in and you type in the parts you need and they carry all types of electrical parts and way more than that. They're one of the larger distributors. They do have a lot on stock. So that's one thing I'd recommend is when you order and make sure you're getting stuff that's in stock and doesn't have to be back ordered or made because a lot of products they'll still list that are back ordered. But that's where I get all of my components and then there's some things that they don't carry that I need that might be older back stock on something and of course then you have to go straight to eBay to find that most of the time. But great question. As far as testing the components, the first thing I do when I'm looking at a board for a cap replacement is just to look at the caps visually. They will start failing and leak and sometimes you can see it right away where they'll expand and bubble a little bit at the top and you can notice that. But the best way to test a capacitor to make sure it's working right, at least with the tools I have which is just a multimeter is to desolder the actual capacitor and then you can put one end on the negative and one end on the red on the positive end of your capacitor and test the capacitance on your multimeter. Just set it to the microfarance readings. And it'll tell you how much it's reading and you can see based on what the value is on the capacitor if it's still within a little bit of tolerance because what it does is it slowly goes out of tolerance and then ultimately fails. But that's just a simple test. There's no real trick. I know some people use other tools to test inline capacitors. I don't have those tools and so I just skip that test. I just pull them. Most of the time if you've got everything taken apart, the best idea is just to replace all the capacitors if you've got the time and want to do that, you know, that way you don't have to worry about the capacitors in the future and you can kind of keep them on a maintenance schedule. The next one is from Retro Video Gamer Cover Hair Dogs Way, Panasonic. He had a specific TV and it's in a foreign language by the way, two days of the purchase. He looks like he's having some problems with his chip and wanting to know about a firmware update in his specific TV and the best thing I can tell you about this is to just try to go off the user manual for your TV. Try to find it in your language. Sometimes you're going to have to pay. I had to pay about $5 to get the manual for this TV, but once I did, it gave me all the answers I needed. As far as like firmware updates on old chips, I'm going to be pretty certain that there's not going to be a lot of support for that anymore. So you're going to have to either try to get a new chip, try to maybe source it from another, see if the chip's made anywhere and still available somewhere on and you might just want to try to find a different TV. And then the next question is from MLDKHN1. How do you keep cranking out some of the awesome videos in a short time? Well, to be honest with you, I have had some time this summer to make a lot of great content, start the channel off. There'll be some times when the videos are slowed down. I'm going to always be updating new comic book reviews. I know a lot of people watch this to see the CRT stuff, but if you really like comics and want to know what's going on there, I do have a review channel where we go through every week. There's new comics that come out. There's some that you can even buy as a little bit of an investment piece. And they're really cheap when they come out $3 to $4 most of the time. Anyway, that's what I do. I'll be doing that. I'll be keeping up with CRT content. I've got a lot of CRT stuff still to work on. I've got some other mods I can show off and other things I've been wanting to do. So there's still a lot more content. Please always leave comments if there's something in a video you see that you'd like to have future content on. And I can take a look at that too. But thanks for watching. And then I got the next question from Bob Woggle. It's too bad you didn't cover the newer version of the mod. Most recently, the guys in the Smokes have figured out a MUX circuit that allows you to use the OSD simultaneously with RGB without installing a switch or needing this install on the jungle chip. And that's a very great point. And someone pointed this out to me that's a friend of mine from Europe. He let me know that this was available now through MUX. And I didn't know that till after I had already set this whole thing up and designed it this way and ordered the parts. And this one just seemed to work specifically for this one. I'm completely happy with the way it came out for this mod. The MUX might be used in the future. I'll need to obviously re-study that. But that's just using a chip that would be installed here instead of a lot of the parts, the mechanical parts. I installed like the switch and interrupting the OSD. It actually let them go at the same time, which is actually a better, probably overall mod. But again, this one was one that's the first time I've done this mod. So we want to try it and it worked out great for the way it was. But in the future, yes, I actually would recommend someone looking at that if they're planning out to do this mod. Go to Google is the next question. I love this, but it looks hard to do. Are there any other TVs you could do that would be easier? There might be some TVs that would be easier. And I would recommend getting any of the ones that are directly on the shmups forums that have been linked to in this video and other videos that have a specific list of TVs that people have done and they've got breakdowns on how they did it. And they aren't the most detailed things, so you might have to piece together a little bit of information. But also look for a TV that has a service manual. Anything that already has component N is probably going to be easier than one like this that only had S video. The reason this one's so great is because it did only have S video and no component option to begin with. So without adding even RGB, there would be nothing else beyond S video on this model of CRT. So basically, in the long run, it's going to be still a tough mod. I'd recommend getting your feet wet on other TVs, even if you wanted to take a cheaper CRT and just practice on it or other circuit boards and take them apart. When I started, I used old Atari's that were bad. So you can just try to desolder and learn how to do that way, those things. And then that'll get you some practice for when you want to go and try to use a TV. And it's always great to just plan everything out on paper and think about how it will work. All right, Bob Woggle again wanted to say on the future mods and reviewers, it's easier to pull inline components on individual legs rather than the legs of the chip, which is where I had to trouble on my jungle chip where the leg broke. And he's right, there is some places in line. What I would really think I wanted to do now is maybe go back and in the best way would be maybe to desolder that entire chip, pull it and put another socket in. And that way you could easily remove it if you ever wanted to. But I like to socket the chips and it does prevent damage. But anytime you're messing with those things, you could still damage a point on the other part of the board. But again, this is completely up to you where you installed this mod. If you can get it to work, then that's where I tried it. But that is another good spot. And that way, you know, you dare as less chance to damage something on the chip rather than what I did, which still got to work, but I did damage that chip with a tiny bit. And then the next one is Lofi Launch Lurch. That's a nice TV with picture quality is great and everything looks easy to understand. You have some cool stuff in your background. Well, there's a lot of things in our shop that are still doing some videos on and more things to come in the future. I'll show you some of those things. We've got a huge CRT out there right now that we're going to do some more content on. So I'm really looking forward to that one. But a lot of stuff out there, I really appreciate it. Again, we're going to do a lot of work with a lot of stuff. So please stay tuned and subscribe if you haven't already. The next one comes from Mr. Crimstaw. Thanks. It helped me to understand this a better. Are you using the exact diagram on the Shrubs forum? Also, are you able to show a parts list that you used? Any chance you could show a closer look at the SCART head? Wondering how you soldered it all together? Absolutely. First, let me say that thanks for watching. I talked a little bit about where I buy my parts. The wiring I used is just real generic. I'll show it to you in the shop. But what I'll have to do is after the end of this video, I'll come in and I'll show you. I have a second SCART head and we'll go out to the shop and we'll look at the SCART head closer. I'll show you how it was wired in. This was straight from the SMUPS, the diagram for it. It was just very rudimentary, just a normal schematic for any kind of electrical device or component. I'll show you that and I'll show you a practical version of what it would look like when you put it together. That way you can understand it a little bit easier seeing the finished product. That's pretty much it. Again, eBay is where I get the stuff or Mauser. JF is a fantastic series. I'm planning on doing some RGB mods with some smaller sets for my job. How many RGB CRT mods have you done? Again, this is my first full mod. Have you ever had to open up the Chase's Findout that the OSD chip you were unfamiliar with? He was talking about more than would you be willing to show your process for attenuating this input signals to proper levels and talking about purity issues too. Asked a question about how to fix any purity issues when this comes up. These are all great questions because first off, I don't own a oscilloscope right now so I don't test attenuation or attenuate the signals. I actually got just the diagram from the schmups and I also watched a couple videos that some other people had made that were all over the place really but they showed where they had some trouble after they had put the mod in and then they said try a different ground and it worked. They did. So I took a lot of the knowledge that I had seen from other people's trial and errors and used it on this TV and it just managed to work out perfectly what the picture quality did as far as the input did. The signal seemed to be attenuated already for RGB input for the style from the schmups schematic. Now there were some TVs in some different troubles that they did change a little bit at some attenu- you know, some potentiometers and to fix some other issues. Now for purity, there actually is a purity issue on this TV. It's hard to see right now but it's in this area right here where it's just got some wrong magnetism. There's a lot of problems with pureties and CRTs and it goes- it does a lot of- it's got to do with a lot of things. It's got to do with mostly magnetism but it could be the magnets or things in the room but it also could be the earth's magnetism. So if you move- I've got a lot of magnetism in magnetism in my garage where I work and it affects these TVs greatly. Like I'll move them in different spots if they don't have a lot of shielding on them they'll start getting all kinds of crazy color purity changes. This one- so again you- this one needs a magnet somewhere added on the back of this behind the backside of the CRT so I have to open it back up and add that magnet. And then even then it's not going to be something that can instantaneously go away. People that work on arcade monitors a long time know about purity that it can be something that could slowly start to go away and then one day be gone but it might not be something that would go away right when you put it on there. It could slowly take weeks sometimes even longer for the purity to completely correct itself but that's definitely an issue. That's why it's a good idea to get your mod in and then let it run for a while and see what kind of problems you have. But that's a big problem that has to be fixed on this one because it drives me a little crazy. This side just has some purity quality issues so we'll take this back out that'll be on the other fix-it issue with this. Tim Fang asked, I was wondering if the cap replacement fixed the geometry and the convergence that you showed in the previous video. And that's a great question and the answer was pretty much no. It didn't fix it. There was still the same issues I'm having on geometry with the TV I was having before. I'm still having it right now where the corners are wonky and I've still got some corner convergence over here that I need to fix but not only that when I put the TV back together or when I took it apart some of the convergence rings moved out of place so I've actually got color convergence separation on the picture overall that I'm going to need to go line those rings back up properly and then probably epoxy them into place and I'm going to need to put that purity magnet on. I'm going to need to readjust all those convergence strips in these two upper corners so the capacitor kit, it did make it a lot brighter and it made the picture quality look better sometimes but it did not improve the geometry pretty much. So thanks for asking that question. I would still recommend doing it. The problem with this television is it was just up to S-video and there wasn't a whole lot of concern for the higher picture quality and geometry matching up as well. So I believe that while I'm using these higher picture qualities too it just amplifies, it lets you see it more how much it's off but there's not potentiometers in this set it's all just like one setting so in other things, in other words you could take this back I could take this back part, maybe build some potentiometers in the place of resistors or something and that way I could tweak some of these settings and maybe move the screen tilt for example or the corner geometry around a little bit but I don't think I'm going to do all that I think the thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to take it back apart try to fix the purity quality and the corner convergence as best I can with the strips and put it, you know, epoxy back together and put it back in here and go from there because I really like it I just want to fix up those corners as best I can but I'm realizing that you're very limited that's the difference between these CRTs and a PVM and then a BVM even further than that those have a lot more processing hardware in them and it allows you to do a lot more things and it controls a lot of the settings that are not controllable in a cheaper consumer set like this one then Professor Oak has a couple questions first, I'm really enjoying the videos I got a question I have a Sony Trenetron 14M4 which is a PVM and he wants to connect a PC to it he didn't know how to do it and I have, that's the same question actually asked here and twice, there's not really a lot of things you can do to hook them up to this because you've got to get that scaled down to 480i or 240p to get it to 240p you need something that goes 480 to 240p 480p cuts in half a lot of those devices are extra on devices that are very expensive because there's not that many of them there might be some better devices if anybody has any, please link them down below you could go and downscale to composite or S-Video and then just run it through that way but you'll get lower picture quality but that would be an easier route maybe to try Justin Scott asked, now would it have been easier to get a CRT with component and just get RGB SCART component adapters for your systems and I guess yes would have been easier I mean anything would have been easier so anything would have been easier than doing this but then who would want to know a video about somebody hooking up a component SCART converter to a television that's not very interesting but you know that's one of those challenges that people get where they see something and they know something can be done they want to see if they can do it so that's why I consider this this is like a Mount Everest climb or something that's what it was kind of considered to me at least in my electronics work so far so the next one I have a question about the cap replacement and the geometry I'm moving over that again it's kind of given some issues so that's pretty much overall all the questions I had about it there some notes on it this is inside my den room that's why it's in here is perfect for the size for this armoire which is my secret thing to hide any CRT it's the best place to have them in your house you can close it up there you can't see it when you want to show it off it's like a surprise I've got this high-end VCR hooked up to it here on my consoles down below I've got the GSCART light in there that's pumping my RGB to the television you can see I use it from RGB and then if I click over here in video I don't have, I could use this for regular TV but I don't I have DVD player and then here I've got, I like to use Roku1 and stream a couple things to it they use composite out and the best thing about this might be since you get a nice remote and then it's got a built-in sound system that is awesome a great stereo sound system it's actually beyond stereo it was specifically designed to amplify the stereo sound it retakes that sound and amplifies it to where it's spread out throughout the room not just like a sweet spot right in front of the TV it's called an SRS sound system it was a standard for sound in that day but it's overall a great TV but what I want to do now is I want to take a second I'm going to break it down in the second video and in the second video I'll show you the SCART head because this one's probably going a little long so we're going to show you the SCART connector and how I built that and I'll show you a lot of details on that in the camera work but for now let's just go ahead and I'll show you a demonstration of the RGB 240p test 240p test suites pulled up I've got my test settings here and you can already see a lot of the wonking is still on the side of this screen hopefully when I pull up this grid you'll be able to see it more I've still got that corner up there I'm going to go over because it's very limited on the settings it'll just let me shift this not slowly but more of increments of side to side and then it's very sharp though you can see it's incredibly sharp you can see great scan lines overall the focus is great as soon as I get that convergence overall figured out and the focus I'm sorry not the focus the purity issues you can see again the wonking let's look at another ish screen and see if we can see some more issues there's the linearity a little bit again that's got to be fixed the wonking to some corners can do a little bit with the convergent strips let's see if we can see any of that purity now I'm not sure if it'll if it'll I'm not sure if you can see it better over here maybe on camera maybe not but you can kind of see where that magnetism has turned a little bit darker and purple and you might even be able to see the individual lines on the screen somewhere it doesn't look as bad on our RGB as it does on other things like composite you can really see it but there is there's individual lines on there that you'll notice that where it's just off a little bit but that's all fixable so maybe in the next video we'll do the geometry fix and all the corner conversions fixes and we'll go through and do that and then we'll also go through the skirt head but I really appreciate you taking time to watch this video if there's any questions please leave them for me and I'll go through them in that last video hopefully that will be the last video on this television again next time we'll be working on some more CRTs look for the comic reviews this Wednesday and have a great week