Projects

CRT Madness. Does it exist? My wife thinks I have it, so it must be real. I’ve just been on a 400mile (round trip) to pickup a pair of Sony Trinitron TV sets. It was a long day but totally worth it. I’m no stranger to buying CRT TVs and finding problems when I get them home, but this seller was showing them working. He was also able to answer questions before I made the decision to take a drive across the country to pick them up. I was getting both a 25″ and a 21″ TV.

When I got to the destination address the seller had already set them up with a DVD player to show them working. I brought along a Mega Drive and Everdrive cartridge to use the amazing 240p Test Suite program to quickly establish how good they still were.

Having done some quick tests and played a bit of Sonic 3, I loaded up the car and set off home. 4 hours later I had them both on my console workbench to do some more tests and hopefully tweak the calibration to my liking.

KV-25F1U

The 25″ Trinitron KV-25F1U was in very good condition and was producing a good strong picture with no flickering in 60hz. Its geometry was ok for a 25″, and on the whole was quite acceptable all round. I did find the Horizontal positioning was slightly over to the left (see grid below). This I’m sure can be improved in the service menu. Colour and picture settings were also improved by doing a factory reset of all settings. Thankfully no problems with the convergence or gun strength here. 

Photos before calibration above. This TV will be my new primary TV for retro consoles, and is in place. I’m still tweaking this.

KV-X2182U

I knew this Trinitron KV-X2182U could be a really good set, and I’ve owned one before. Straight away the colours and contrast were very strong and the picture looks very sharp and detailed. Unfortunately cameras cannot do justice to a good CRT in photos, but Its very impressive. This TV looks to have ok geometry but could be improved somewhat. The vertical pin, and h-shift can be corrected in service mode when I get time.

Again the photos are without any adjustments yet. I think this set will look amazing when calibrated.

Its always a roll of the dice now when buying CRT TVs, but I think I’ve got lucky with this pair. This should provide me with a couple of spear units, and CRT gaming for a long time to come. I’ll post more photos when I get them both looking perfect.

2021 is just flying by, and its been a long time since I had time to sit down and do an blog update.
My workshop got finished early this year just in time to start working from home.

So here’s how it went carrying on from the last post. Once the insulation was all installed, the plasterboards went up. Next the joints were filled and sanded to give a smooth surface for painting. I decided to go with a striking and warm orange along with contrasting grey (please don’t say ‘Easy Jet’). I then found a local supplier for floor carpet times.

These carpet tiles are new, found through Facebook. Two shades make a nice checker-board pattern.
I then finished installing the network points and the switch. I contemplated installing a patch panel, but decided to just allow the cables through the wall to the switch ports. There are 12 network sockets in total around the room, all going to the switch. I went with a TP-Link 16-port PoE switch. The WiFi point is powered from the switch and sits nicely on top.

For desks I also used Facebook marketplace and got a nice curved desk for my games table, and another straight desk for my PC area and soldering stations.

Then it was time to start unpacking boxes, setting up consoles and bringing over my arcade machines from storage. Lots more work was also done with the inclusion of smart heating and sensor controls.

So there you have it. An unused space in the garden transformed into an amazing space for playing arcade and console games, along with office space and electronics workshop.