Going Tube Searching

D_Harris

D_Harris

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Can someone direct me to a tube list that I can print out and carry with me when I go searching for some TVs to cannibalize the tubes from for the common arcade monitors?

Also, from what I read the only way to discern the tube number of a TV is to use a flashlight to try to read the numbers on the tube through the vents of the case. Is there any thing else I need to know?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
1) Well, your best bet is to find TV's that have a model number that has 19 in them somewhere. Those are normally 19" tubes.

2) Not all TV's will have vents that you can shine in to see the tube label, and some that do won't be very big to allow you to read it well, even with a flashlight. Some people take some snips and cut out one little bar to get a better view. Just do it when nobody is looking.

3) Tubes that are 19" have a label that starts with A48. If it is A51 then it is a 20". If you're searching for 25", then look for A63. Not all 19" tubes start with A48, though. some will start with 19, or even some other number.

4) If you can see the neck, then you can usually tell if it is a wide neck (CR-23 for G07, K4600, K4900, etc) or narrow neck (CR-31 for K7000, etc).

5) you could always print out the entire chart and take it with you so you can look tubes up if you need to:

http://www.bkprecision.com/support/downloads/pdfs/CRT_Setup_Chart.pdf

Or you can just print up all the A48's if you want, and hope you don't run into a 19" with some weird label number.

Here is a link to some known TV's that will have tubes you can use:

http://www.junknet.net/donor-tvs
 
Believe it or not, I've had some pretty good luck with asking CL listers to look inside their (sometimes free!) TV's they've posted. Once they give me the tube number, I cross reference it to the above posted chart and away I go.

Sure, some folks aren't willing to look inside the vents or take off the back of an old TV they're selling or giving away, but I'm suprised that over half of the people I've asked have been happy to oblige. That way when I go to pick up the TV I already know it's going to fit :)
 
Ok, no luck...

It looks as though I'd better concentrate on settling for CGA to VGA converters from now on.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
lol not to rub it in but your post reminded me to check craigs for another tube i need.....10 mins later i got one, known working, another zenith space command...those tv's are all over this area...
 
I'm sure you can find a 19" TV, right? Are you just having trouble finding ones that match the models on that list, or ones with proper tubes in them? I never find TVs with the same models as on the model list, but I usually find okay tubes in the TV's I do find - with a few exceptions...
 
Finding tubes is what is difficult in my area.

Most have either thrown out their 19" sets or want too much for them, so Craigslist or the Salvation Army are not worth it.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
hrmmm, most i've paid for a tube is $20, which is high but worth it to me for burn free....i paid $15 at salvation army and i got a couple for $1 at a consignment auction...i also had a old tube tv store give one to me for free.
 
I've paid $30 at a Goodwill, but only because I already knew it had the tube I needed. otherwise I tend to find them in the $12-20 range.

Put an ad on CL saying you'll pick up free 19" TV's. Make sure to mention the fee they'd have to pay a recycling center (and the hassle of going), and that you'll pick it up for no charge. You'll most likely get some 20" and other TV's that won't work, but you can drop those off at thrift stores yourself (and even take a tax write-off for doing so if you want) or strip them for neck sockets and other parts that might be useful.

And find out where the local recycling places and TV repair shops are. You can probably make a deal with them for free or super-cheap tv's...
 
modessitt said:
And find out where the local recycling places and TV repair shops are. You can probably make a deal with them for free or super-cheap tv's...
Click to expand...

Exactly! And the better part of the deal is most of the time they don;t care if you cherry pick. In other words you can (if needed) crack the top and verify if the tube is the correct one you need. Obviously if you start going around to peoples houses they won't much like it when you de-case their TV and say "nah wrong one." heh

However there's nothing wrong with using Wei-yah chassis as an alternative. If you go this route then it doesn;t matter what TV you buy/take because you Ohm out the yoke and but the chassis to mate it to.
 
I've been through all this already. Including a couple TV repair shops and posting several times on Craigslist several times, which only brought back a couple of people either wanting to sell me a size other than 19" or charge me $25 for a mystery TV.

And I stay away from Wei-Ya and other Japanese arcade electronics because when they act up it is very difficult to get them fixed or replaced. (For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to find the solution to an image width problem on a Friend's 29" Wei-Ya that is in his Candy Cabinet).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
hawkeye is out of business and there is no way i'd pay $85 for a used tube when i can get them laying around for $20 or less.
 
Fudd said:
hawkeye is out of business and there is no way i'd pay $85 for a used tube when i can get them laying around for $20 or less.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the price - but Hawkeye is still answering emails/phone (probably trying to ditch the stock). ;)

One question though when replacing a tube from one on the list, should I only be looking at the one that use the same values for the heater and CR/CA? Also lets just say I find a TV tube to use - I would also have to swap out the yoke to the one that is in the monitor or is the original that is on the tube ok to use (I am guessing not)?

Thanks,
 
If you try to use the arcade yoke you'll have a high incompatibility rate and you probably won't realize you've got an incompatible tube until you've wasted a lot of time (and frustration) trying to converge it. See some of my threads in this forum for examples of that frustration until I learned from Scotty at Hawkeye that you also have to worry about the gun being compatible with the yoke. Therefore you're better off using the tv's yoke but in that case you have to make sure the impedances of the tv's yoke are very close to those of the arcade yoke.
 
TheShanMan said:
If you try to use the arcade yoke you'll have a high incompatibility rate and you probably won't realize you've got an incompatible tube until you've wasted a lot of time (and frustration) trying to converge it. See some of my threads in this forum for examples of that frustration until I learned from Scotty at Hawkeye that you also have to worry about the gun being compatible with the yoke. Therefore you're better off using the tv's yoke but in that case you have to make sure the impedances of the tv's yoke are very close to those of the arcade yoke.
Click to expand...

+1.

The one time I've done this, I left the yoke on the TV tube (which luckily had impedences very close to the original's). It works great--I'm still trying to dial in the width (either my width coil is hosed or if I need to swap PP width caps for diffent values). But convergence was fine right off the bat, and geometry is pretty darn good (a little bit of "bowing out" of the sides).
 
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