Fidelity CTV14R vintage TV set , made in England in the 1980 s ! ZX2000 Chassis.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- This set brings back many memories for me , I use to refurbish and sell these sets in the mid 1980s when I opened my first shop at the age of 21. Now 37 years later I present a very early and I think quite rare set fitted with the ZX2000 chassis , how long ago was it when you saw one of these working ?
Michael Dranfield 6-5-2022.
I'm so glad I found this channel! It's so nice seeing old CRTs getting resurrected after so long, and also the newer flat panels escaping their landfill destiny where practically all TV manufacturers expects their sets to go as soon as possible nowadays! Greetings from Brazil!
Greetings , I grew up repairing CRT sets so they have a special place in my heart for the memories they bring back
Absolutely fantastic hopefully you will have a lot more vintage sets to look at. Not many true engineers about like yourself mending things at component level. Thank you Nigel
Got 3 more sets in the van and more of my own collection so I will have more videos coming, may be a little while though as I make up some electronic units for another company and they have just placed an order for 200 units.
I remember these tv chassis
Thanks for the memory
Hopefully have more vintage sets in the pipeline .
These Fidelty sets take me back, during the 80's small colour sets were in high demand by the new
generation of computer geeks.
We had the often thankless job of trying to fix them.
Fidelity were never the best of brands, removing the component position markings was typical of them.
I remember the LOPT with the pcb mod well, it saved the sets with the better chassis that had not been
scrapped.
As bad as these were, i would rather repair them than todays flat screen sets that take half a day just
to remove all the screws, and they call it progress!
I think we were lucky to have worked in the trade when spares were easier to source, and the stock faults
were well know.
Today in semi retirement, i can choose which sets to repair, mostly limited to brands that you can obtain
service information and spares for.
Thanks for this video taking me back to happier days.🙂
Couldn't agree more , ,when I look back to how easy it was repairing TV s and just how much fun it was and now its all gone , glad I was there to experience repairabillity as all the younger generation know is throw away and buy another .
@@michaeldranfield7140 I entered the TV repair trade after serving an electronics apprenticeship with British Rail, but didn't like working in cold dangerous conditions.
I paid for my own C&G courses including the colour dimploma and as soon as a job became available i joined the local TV/Hi-Fi shop repairing anything from Fidelity to Sony and B&O.
Much happier times.sadly as you say we now live in a throw it away age which is a shame, how many sets with simple faults are scrapped, even today power supplies still cause a lot of problems.
@@Barbarapape I dont even think G & G exists in television servicing any more things have got so bad .
@@michaeldranfield7140 All the newer TV tech's know how to fix a set is change the board.
This all started with the modular Philips G8 chassis designed for the rental market with semi skilled repair men that used to be valve changers.
We learned to repair to component level, today they are too small to even see, so we are forced to replace complete boards.
So much for modern technology.
@@Barbarapape I remember the G8 very well.
Marvelous , seeing a proper TV engineer at work, this would no doubt confuse some of the service centres board changers.
This what I've done all my life and it brings back memories of happier days, it's no fun repairing flat screen TV s.
I retired just when the smart internet TV's started to hit the market, in the early days we used to see mainly the Murphy brand TV,'s it was all rental TV's we fixed so the boss bought loads of them. it's nice to see your work brings back very happy memories.
I love your channel, I’ve learned quite a few things from you. Thanks
Glad you like it , I prefer to work on old stuff as you may have gathered but unfortunately most of my days are spent working on modern day crap .
Just found this Channel and subscribed. Takes me back to my YTS days at Granada TV and video back in the late 80s . Sadly didn’t stay in the TV repair industry
Glad you liked it, I have just acquired some more vintage sets, another video tonight all been well.
Brilliant video. My Grandad had a similar version of this as a bedroom TV. Same design but a slightly later model that had an LCD readout for the channel number. I think he bought it around 1983/84.
My other grandparents had a red CT140R bought in 1986 that was still working well into the 2000s until they gave it to a friend.
A red 140 would be a very desirable colour , I seem to remember they came in blue also, lots of people seem to like these old TV videos for the memories they bring back .
I remember these budget sets being hugely popular with home computer boom of the mid-eighties. And how could anyone forget Onslow's 'percussive maintenance' with his Fidelity CTV2201S from classic BBC sitcom, 'Keeping Up Appearances'! :'D
Compared to Ferguson and some other premium brands these were as you say budget sets but at least British made.
gosh this video brought back memories I forgot I had. The funniest story I have as a tv repair man was not locking the back of my van or tying down the TV correctly only to see it spinning down the road in my rear view mirror. doh!!!
Done silly things like that myself in the past, dropped a set on the floor just as the customer came to collect, which set have you come to collect I said, that one on the floor he said pointing to the one with detached back.
Hello there, love your channel! I have quite a collection of old CRT tvs from the 70s and 80s. I can certainly learn alot from your channel! Thank you.
I started repairing black and white valve sets in the 70 s , and generally dont do many CRT sets these days but repairing these old sets takes me back to happier days , a real trip down memory lane .
Would you be interested in repairing a 1987 hinari? It works okay still just small issues here and there that need attention like the tuner and a bit of a washed out screen
I could take a look if you want to bring the set in but as with anything old I could not guarantee I could fix it.
i had this tv when i was a teen got it as a xmas present ,great too find this channel nice to see lots of vintage electric stuff you have a new subcriber
Thanks for that, I use to repair these in the 80s so it brings back memories for me too.
Thanks Michael for this. Not sure how your chanel was suggested while browsing TH-cam, but I'm glad it was. And now I'm subscribed. A great trip down memory lane with this video, where back in the CRT days here in New Zealand, we had TX-574's, Bell (Oh my god, what a learning curve in to bad design they were) and the brilliant Philips K9. After a long spell away from the technology of those days, and nearing retirement, I've started updating some test gear and enjoying the old trade as a hobby, including audio gear. Ah. Bring back valves 🙂. A box of beer for something fixed is a very good bargain for the owner, and good thermal mass in the fridge to keep it efficient 🙂. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Pete'.
I remember the K9, 26 inch set I use to lift them on my own, can't do it now though, glay you like the channel.
Super channel to watch regarding old TVs and radios.keep up the excellent work!
Thanks for your time fella, brings back memories, stay lucky, stay safe! 😉
No problem, more old TVs coming soon.
I know of a chap who would quite happily adapt the set to work with a Thorn Jellypot LOPT. He's a bit of a dab hand with that conversion on just about any set you could whistle up. He too has been in the trade for a very long time. For reference, I'll call him David. I've never been to David's shop, but from those who have, I gather it's a lot like your place. When David comes to visit, he often brings a pickup truck full of goodies with him. He seems to have a lot of oscilloscopes in his stash!
I'm always getting things given to me, 1976 vide a few monrhs ago!
@@michaeldranfield7140 A little bird tells me that you've joined our happy little band at the forum. You'll probably come across David at some point. I think you'd probably get on like a house in fire!
@@whitesapphire5865 I have indeed joined but I'm not too good with computers and forums ,not sure what I can bring to the table though as I'm starting to forget things with age .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Don't worry too much about that, I'm not terrifically good at repairing TV and radio, but but I'm working on it.
Just looking at how you fettled up the Thorn 8800, I'd say you have nothing to worry about. We're a small forum, and I'm sure you'll fit in just fine. At least you should be able to get a shot at a Hedgehog standards converters.
I'll see you over there, but I'm a bit tied up with looking after a friend in serious need right now, so I'm not contributing much at the moment.
The fidelity lives again Michael, those on off switches were loud when the solenoid operated especially on the 20inch sets probably due to the plastic cabinets , the redifusion mk4 on off buttons used to fly off when the solenoid operated. We used to have similar degaussing wand but we used to point it at the corners then use a circular motion and walk away from the set that seemed to work well.Thought the Toshiba tube would be ok your channel brings back memories even the willow vale spares packets 👍
As you may have gathered I dont throw anything away , the Toshiba black stripe tubes were outstanding and it was what gave quite a few sets such as the Decca 80 and RBM T26 such a good picture ,happy days just a long distant memory now though , I bet in another 40 years you wont find anyone that say I still remember the Samsung LE32 ??? LCD set .
More, more, more repair videos like this one Michael !
(How did you calculate the turns for the heater series inductor ? DC resistance ?)
Very useful, I actually learned things from this one 👍🏻
Just start with and old inductor and wind off some turns until you have the correct voltage coming out.
I remember these chassis
Thanks for the memory
I very much enjoyed working in the TV repair industry I miss it a lot.
Glad you liked it , its no fun now repairing new TV s ,give me the old sets any day .
Nice one MD , fitted many loptx mods with pcb as you said the combi units were a pain, love the degauss wand I think I still have one in the back of the shed. keep up the good work. Steve.
Glad you liked it , hopefully going to do more video on old sets ,still got all old kit I have used for the last 40 years, while most people have thrown everything away I kept everything !
Thanks for sharing! I do remember these ZX2000's and 3000's. As you mentioned in your filing cabinet of manuals, I have far more nice memories of the Telefunken 711 chassis. The 711 had no stock / common faults that I was aware of and was always a brand new fault finding experience every time.😀
I have a white 711 in the round-to-it pile. PSU fault. Apparently they often ran hot as they'd been set up for 220v and in other parts of Europe, the mains could be pushing 250v. I know some people reported tubes going flat with fairly low hours too.
juse to repair the 711 s also a much better set i seem to remember than earlier grundigs where a dry joint would nearly cause a fire !
@@EclectikTronik Correct , a lot of continental sets such as the ITT CVC5 were fitted with a yellow mains filter capacitor only rated for 220v that use go up in smoke and was later replaced with a grey one rated for 250v .
Wow! That took me back.
Me too, happier days back then.
Excellent work. In this case the heater volts were low, but my first reaction on seeing that dull pic was that the tube needed some time to 'wake up' after so much non-use! I recently revived some old Sanyo sets of this era (stored for 15 odd years) and after about an hour the difference in the picture was amazing.
You are absolutely correct the tube does need to wake up, as do some of the electrolytic but as was often the case with fitting different line transformers they are sometimes slightly different to the original and one of the most overlooked items is the heater voltage as this is critical to the tube life.
@@michaeldranfield7140 True. There were some sets -very few in my experience - that never worked well - or even at all - with aftermarket LOPTxs. I once battled for ages with a Samsung S53A 28" set which, despite HR Diemen's best, never worked properly. The original Samsung part would have made the repair totally unfeasible. Sony is another similar case IIRC.
@@EclectikTronik of the HR and the Konig aftermarket LOPT it was always the HR that were crap .
I can almost smell that old line output stage
I was just happy I couldn't smell a corona discharge, these replacement transformers did eventually suffer from insulation breakdown.
I'm glad to have discovered this channel. To be honest I do miss crt tv's. I do have a few oldies in the loft. I have had one of those monitor style fidelity tv's in the 80's new, had a remote, had the pop out button which I thought was great as a kid as my mum said never leave one on standby overnight. Bought from boots when they stopped their electronics range for £109, promptly broke down 10 months later, got repaired under warranty. It used to go haywire with bright fluorescent lighting, and afterwards didn't need the remote to tune. Never understood thst. By bazzar coincidence I have one of those fidelity stereo units with the tv in, it's been here for a few years and never got around to looking at it. I look forward to more videos, I've had more than a passing interest with classic tv's and other older technologies. Best regards, Tim.
Many thanks for watching, it brings back a lot of memories for me to, look after your old sets, there's not many about now and prices are rocketing for very early stuff.
Another time capsule video from you MD. I do recall seeing a lot of these for repair, Fidelity was not a reliable brand. I really enjoyed TV repair in the 1980's
Me to and I'm really enjoying the memories these olo sets bring back, more to come!!
God! I remember working on these hah ah
Me too, better days and now long gone.
4:45 that CTV140 looks much more like the Fidelity from when I was little, but I still appreciate seeing the actual CTV14R you have in the video :)
keep an eye on my channel then , I was talking to a friend of mine who has collected TV s for donkeys years and Im going round to his house tomorrow to see if he is willing to sell me some his collection , I think he mentioned today he had a blue cased Fidelity which I seem to remember is a CTV140 so have to wait and see what I come back with !
@@michaeldranfield7140 will do :)
i beleive the 3000 chassis used a TDA4601 smps chip and the 2uf cap on pin 4 would fail damaging the chip and the chopper transistor.
fortunetly the replacement LOPT was more reliable than the original.
a lot of people dont seem to like anything made by fidelity but i found them (radios and tvs) to work well looked good and not that bad to repair
Cant remember off the top of my head if it was TDA4600 or TDA4601 but yes there was a cap and a high value resistor connected to the chip that would blow the chopper transistor at switch on if either were faulty, the replacement transformer was as you say far batter but I have had them with insulation breakdown arcing to the adjacent metal panel holding the line transistor , Fidelity did have a bit of a reputation like Amstrad stuff did, cheap and cheerful but at least it was British made
Having the PCB screen-printed makes a huge difference in locating the
components.
his chassis needs a god clean with a brush and a compressor - then a few
minutes in a ultrasonic cleaner - ideally a cleaner with 8KHz transducers.
The smaller the bubbles the better.
God only knows how many TVs I threw out that had an Isolation transformer
They would fetch an excellent price today.
I still have a late 1980s SONY multi-system Multi Voltage 26"" TV in the garage.
It was built in Germany - and its price when new was almost two and a half
times that of a commonly available TV
I know, wish I had kept more stuff now when I think about all the sets I scrapped.
Great Video Michael Rember Fixing a Fidelity Portable Back In The Day Cant Seem To Rember What Chassis It Used Though Regards mike
I might be wrong but I seem to remember this set was Fidellitys first venture into TV sets.
never come across one of those but repaired a fair few light grey case fidelity things, looked like that ctv140, also same set under various other brands, nearly always blown mains fuse, cracked degauss posistor, shorted ht diode, possibly with shorted chopper transistor, dry joints, and possible resistor or 2 in psu high as a kite (likely causing psu blow up!) , occasional dud TDA4600 psu controller 😁
the other common brand i saw began with a B but cant remember the name!! the last one i saw of these was in the early 2000s bit a write off as it looked like the eht flashed through the lopt to the lower voltage outputs, 2 holes blown in the pcb in the signals section and several blackened components 😲 maybe caused by resistor drift in the psu making it overvolt......
with more thinking, that brand may have been 'britannia' or 'britannic' ..??
I remember fitting the modded LOPT, not bad little sets.
The ZX5000 was a pig, I don't really remember the 3000.
I cant remember the ZX5000 ,but something in the back of my mind says it was the one with the all digital processing ,the biggest problem with the ZX3000 was the pcb was blank , it had no component numbers marked on either side of the board.
@@michaeldranfield7140 Correct it was digital and probably best forgotten.
The fidelity ZX sets were made for the sinclair ZX spectrum computers by amstrad
ZX spectrum, did a few repairs on these in the 80 s also .
@@michaeldranfield7140 Fun little machines but i was more of an atari 65xe/commodore 64 fan
Great little chassis and a nice familiar chip set, generally got on ok with them although i hated the digital chassis, it was chronically unreliable.
I have a vague recollection of a digital set and I wonder if it was a ZX5000 ,the digital set I was more familiar with was the ITT Digivision , just a load of crap really as it was still feeding a CRT !
My dad still has a an old fidelity similar to this but doubt it is remote in theory it should still be a working set ,there was a working blue ctv 140 but that got taken to the tip i have no love for fidelity so i never saved it at the time i did save a 90,s sony trinitron portable and this has a superb tube i have it with my old bbc b micro .There are two ferguson tx portables one is remote the other is non remote i also have a non remote model of the same tv Model No 37140 these wont be going to the tip as i have already said i would have these .
as you say some later fidelity sets were very poorly designed and almost thrown together but the ZX2000 was one of the better ones , my next video will be a 37140 I think it it , TX90 ?
Lovely wee colour portable , I worked for Currys in the 1980s , they sold lots of tx10s but also loads of logic TVs, they were 22inch screen, what chassis would they have been? They looked like a Ferguson to
The Logik 20 or 22 inch sets were the Thorn TX90 chassis.
Funny how some manufacturer's tubes seemed to last for ever and others would go flat after just a few years. I remember the ITT sets having long-lived tubes.
Must be the way tube is driven rather than the tube itself, if you remember the A56 540X mullard tube, its didn't last five minutes in the thorn TX10 but had a very long life in the Amstrad CTV2200.
That's why any on/off switch items I've got, is leave it on turn off on the wall that way switch can't go lol..
Good tip.
Remember working on a few of those, especially the AVS1600.
I recall there was an AV switching chip that used to fail for fun if there was the slightest hint of a thunderstorm. Was that the 3000 chassis though?
You could restore tuner video temporarily by grounding pin 8 of the scart.
One thing I didn't rate on them was the black level used to come up as any part of the video approached peak white.
I love those on-off switches.
I recall the remotes had both a standby and an off button, a really sensible implementation that you would use when off to bed.
The biggest problem with the AVS1600 was its tall size, you couldn't work on a bench and it had to be repaired by sitting on the floor, added to that a lot of electronics were on a front mounted panel with poor accessibility , I think both the AVS1600 and AVS2000 were ZX3000 based with no component numbers marked on the pcb , incidentally a couple of days ago there was a AVS2000 on e bay , its probley still there as the seller wanted £500. !
I think the chip that failed in the AVS1600 and 2000 was the jungle i.c. TDA8180. It was very quickly made obsolete and the replacement involved a few modifications which was made harder by the terrible access and lack of screen printing on the PCB. I can remember seeing the TDA listed in Television magazine as being available from the advertisers but when you ordered you always got the mod kit.
The TOSHIBA CRT is quite good.
SHARP in Australia used TOSHIBA CRTs.
and TOSHIBA TVs were re-badged SHARP TVs
They were very well made and easy to work on.
TELEFUNKEN had the best CRTs - but the chassis
was somewhat complex and THORN was a pain in the butt.
Absolutely dreadful design.
THORN was manufactured under License by AWA-MITSUBISHI AUSTRALA
in RYDALMERE - New South Wales
AWA = AMALGAMATED WIRELESS AUSTRALIA
I knew one of the Engineers there (born in Homs - Syria)
I was friends with him for almost 50 years.
He passed away in January 1 - 1999 - but he is not forgotten
my time is rapidly approaching also -
Thorn made good sets in the Earley days, that is until they were taken over by Thompson then they went down the pan.
@michaeldranfield7140 I work on vintage arcade monitors and have run into an issue twice. The monitor will run fine except randomly I'll hear a small "pop" and the picture dies for a spilt second. I can't tell if the CRT has a short, if the DAG wire sparks, or if it's coming from somewhere else (flyback). I've turn off the lights and try to see a spark but nothing. Anywhere else this can typically happen?
In most CRT stuff there is also a focus spark gap on the CRT base which could be flashing over , usually though due to the high voltage these are covered up with some sort of plastic cap which you would have to remove for a visual inspection , the most common cause of failure or flashover here is moisture.
Why did they mount the picture tube as they did in these european sets? They always have an odd look to the them. Here in America (and Asia) the picture tube is mounted from behind in some sort of bezel or frame.
Watching ED TECH PH
Got some more vintage sets to show soon.
So this was made just before Amstrad bought Fidelity?
yes proper British made , when Amstrad got involved I think sets were Orion sourced ?
Can you help me Michael? I have this nice LG 55" tv that was giving to me. I've replaced both the PB and MB, but the symptoms remain the same. I powers up fine but the only thing showing on the screen are the backlights. It's just a white screen. I'm fairly proficient at trouble shooting LED tvs but this one has me stumped. It's not that old, a 2018 model. Can you give me a general direction to diagnose this set please?
If the T con board has power to it you need to check the LCB bias voltages, if one or all are missing it could be the LCD panel itself or if your lucky a shorted MLCC on the COF pcb.
I like that switch, you can turn your TV off by remote but not on. How much electricity is wasted maintaining standby voltage on millions of TV's 24/7/365 just because their obese owners cannot turn the set on at the TV? That's as wasteful as flast-food drive throughs.
Absolutely, and it's not just the electricity wasted when the set is in ST/BY, the power supply is running 24 hours a day so the life of the set is reducing by the day even when it's not been watched.
Hi, enjoying the channel, lots of great advice. This model was my first telly and I’ve been on the hunt for one, however mine didn’t have a remote from memory but it otherwise looked the same. Do you know if fidelity did just a ‘ctv14’? Thanks
probably, seeing as this CTV14R seems to be the older equivalent of the CTV140R/CTV140 (remote control/non-remote) I'm guessing there was a CTV14 as well.
I don't remember now, sorry.
Hi Michael, would you be interested in a trade or purchase of the CTV? I’m quite local and have VHS and laserdisc to trade,
Sorry not for sale , I may be able to get you another one if you are prepared to fix it yourself .
@@michaeldranfield7140 thanks for replying, I’d be happy to buy a fixer upper. Would it be best to call you in the week?
I can buy you a set from my friend if you want but he's on holiday at the moment and prob won't be back till end of August so contact me again early September in case I forget.
@@michaeldranfield7140 will do, thanks !
@@michaeldranfield7140 Hi, just wanted to contact you about the possibility of getting a CTV14R. Is digifix the best contact number to use? Thanks.
These new transformers were sometimes a bit fiddly to fit
Some came with a little pcb as well.