Old Black & White TVs - can I use for tube swap in b&w games

Birdman661

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Old Black & White TVs - can I use for tube swap in b&w games

I happened into 7 old black And white tvs and I'm wondering if I could swap the tubes (which are burn free) into some of my black and white games that have tubes with bad burn in.

These tvs are really old and the 4 I've opened all have the old Chassis that take actual tubes so I was wondering if they'd work.
 

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Good question.. Best answer is maybe..
Measure the resistance of the yoke of the one got compared to the one your replacing...
Check the specs on both tubes. if they are close or match up, I say you got a pretty good chance of making it work.

Before you toss the frame out. Save the tv tubes. I been told some of them are worth money.

Sorry I am not more helpful but without model numbers on the tube. It just a shot in the dark kind of guess.
 
Thanks for reply

A couple tubes were zenith and marked 20up4

I assumed the first pic above was that sets tube number but I really have no idea.
 
Do you know the date of manufacture for the TVs? They were still using tubes in TVs well into the mid-70s, so I think if you have TVs that were made in the 70s you'd have a pretty good chance of them working fine in an arcade chassis, since the monitor manufacturer would have been using the same group of CRTs as the TV manufacturers. If they are like 1950s TVs the odds might not be so good.
 
Do you know the date of manufacture for the TVs? They were still using tubes in TVs well into the mid-70s, so I think if you have TVs that were made in the 70s you'd have a pretty good chance of them working fine in an arcade chassis, since the monitor manufacturer would have been using the same group of CRTs as the TV manufacturers. If they are like 1950s TVs the odds might not be so good.
I don't. I can look a little closer but I couldn't even find model numbers on tvs
 
Possibly. The issue I ran into trying to do this was that the TV tube didn't have the implosion band and mounting ears, so I couldn't mount it up to the frame.

Otherwise, do the usual thing and look up the pinout/voltages etc on Tubular & compare with your original tube. B&W swaps are a snap compared to color.

The EIA tube designation indicates viewable size with "nnV" and face size with "nn_" (where _ is any letter that isn't "V"). So 20WP4 is 19" viewable, as is 19VAEP4. Same applies for 23" monitors, where you'd see ex. 23JEP4 or 22VAMP4.
 
Depending on their size, they might be useful for some old B/W games as-is. For example, the monitor used in Computer Space was a B/W TV w/ tubes. Not sure if someone restoring a CS would necessarily care if it was tube or not, if they weren't actually going for the original model used though. But any B/W TV would certainly be better than using a color TV in it.

DogP
 
Found an old B & W 19" TV, tube 20AJP4. It has a really faded sticker that says it's from 1972, has tubes as well.

Going to store this away and hopefully will be able to use it one day.
 
All I can say is if you run into any black and white tube.. SAVE EM ! Most of the B&W tubes on the Motorola chassis are going to use 19's and 23's. It might be wise to pick up some 13's just in case you run into something smaller if you even come across them.
 
All I can say is if you run into any black and white tube.. SAVE EM ! Most of the B&W tubes on the Motorola chassis are going to use 19's and 23's. It might be wise to pick up some 13's just in case you run into something smaller if you even come across them.

Going through all my TV's that I collected, (over 30) and I see I found a 13" B & W. I will be keeping this for future use!
 
I save alot of tv's.. more than i should .
Sometimes i have friends ask for TV's not just for the tubes, but to play classic videogame
systems on them.

When i buy out arcade parts, i always include black and white monitors as well.
I try to keep two of every size spare on the rack.
 
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