Found this mini CRT inside a Panasonic NV-G101E Video camera that I found at a flea market.
Camera was sold with its own carry bag and although is more cumbersome to carry bags home, sometimes they contain hidden gems. This time there I found new tapes and a tape adapter plus an airport tag with the name of the previous owner. Memento mori.
Overview
Camera was dirty – the insides of the bag started deteriorating and there was a fine black power covering it. Battery has leaked too and started swelling.
I decided to power it on anyway – two reasons, one to remove the tape that was still inside the camera, second to see if there’s any life in the CRT. Surprise, the camera still worked!
There is a little quick of the camera – the Electronic View Finder unit is installed on the same side of the Tape compartment – and the tape cannot be ejected if the EVF is on the way. Thus, the designers installed the Eject button on the underside of the EVF unit in fact, which has to be tilted all the way backwards towards the lens, for the Eject to engage.
Taking apart the camera was not easy, I could not immediately figure the correct dismantling procedure. Eventually I got inside. Camera was made in Feb 1992 and I needed to recuperate the little EVF connector to help when hooking up probes to apply signals.
Inside the EVT Unit
Taking apart the EVT unit is straightforward – 3 screws only. Inside there is a very clean board with minimalist build, having SMD components on one side and the large components on the other side:
The naming convention of the CRT units still elude me, there is a big sticker on the neck of the CRT saying ELY07V570B, however, the service manual shows the CRT itself as being MO1KGG007WB:
Powering on the mini CRT unit
The exterior metallic case of the Fly Back Transformer is connected to Ground. But the FBT also has some pins that connect to VCC, so if one of its pins is NOT connected to GND but has a direct connection to the input plug, then it must be the power (VCC) pin. Once powered on, trial an error with a Video IN signal (coming from a Raspberry PI) until an image shows up.
The CRT is good, no blooms or big distortions are visible. There are some adjustments pots on the board, and initially I was tempted to mess with them to try to get a better contrast, but I decided not to – I’m not using the CRT, but preserving it..
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