I found this CRT inside a Nikon VN-7000 Video Camera that I have bought recently from the flea market. I wasn’t looking to buy a camera, but this one was interesting, since I was convinced is a Sony. Looking closer, it was a Nikon! I don’t remember even taking a Nikon apart, and confused by my mistake, I decided to buy it.
Now that I took it apart, my confusion was justified. It is identical to the Sony CCD-TR705E, down to the exact model of the CRT.
Camera overview
Camera looks clean with no traces of battery corrosion. And just like the Sony, the top plastic started deteriorating – but at least it was not so sticky.
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I’ve tried to power it on with a current limited power supply, but it would just flash the screen and go dead again.
Opening up
Opening up was easy. Surprisingly I found no date codes stamped inside the plastic panels. I finally found one inside the Electronic Viewfinder.
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I had to also recuperate the little plug where the EVF connects to, so that I can provide the signals for it using some tiny clamps.
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Electronic View Finder
This was more tricky to take apart since even if it only has two screws, it is closed very tightly. I finally found a small gap where I could start to pry it off.
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Unlike Sony, the capacitors here did not leak and were measuring small ESR values. I took the board out to find that the driver IC is an AN2512S:
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Identifying the signals was easy, the first Pin (white) beeped a bit when probing (which usually indicates VCC, as the filter capacitor is charging). Second pin had continuity to the external of the Flyback Transformer – so most likely GND. And third pin was Video IN. The 4th pin turns on the two recording LEDs.
![](https://hex.ro/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/wm_IMG_3330-1024x682.jpg)
While the CRT has plenty brightness – the image is slightly shifted upwards, hiding the top bar of the Raspberry PI Desktop. The 4 potentiometers on the driver board do not seem to have an impact on the Vertical Positioning, only on Vertical size ..
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The sharpest image is around 5.17V where the device draws 80mA.
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