Rejuvenating a Macintosh CRT with equipment from 1969

Comments · 706

• GR

  @greedj · 6 years ago

  I used to be a TV repair guy back in the 80s and 90s (I'm now a computer engineer). I used that exact tester (B&K actually sold additional updated modern adapters for a while with updated cross reference guides). I rejuvenated many many CRTs with that tester and I would estimate about 75% of the time the CRT remained functional for years after. The other 25% of the time there was either no change or the CRT would completely fail. The spark you hear is normal when rejuvenating and I had the best success using 3 quick taps in a row and then checking emission. It is not doing anything to the heater, it is causing an ARC across the electron gun (usually visible when pressing the rejuvenate button) that exposes fresh surface on the coating of the cathode.

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• AN

  @andymouse · 6 years ago

  " Rejuvenation" means increasing the filament current a bit, and or more extraction voltage to "blow" any surface crud of the filament and basically increase the amount of electrons liberated from the filament, this works and is used in old electron microscopes as a last resort before looking the customer in the eye and telling them how much a new filament is ! however filament lifetime after this is a bit of a lottery, also there is a risk that the crud (filament) you removed went further in and caused problems down the line, so all in all, in your situation you did the right thing and you couldn't replace the filament anyway..i'm betting you get years out of it ! and from now it could actually improve a bit more...I'm a "glass half full guy"...cheers.

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• LU

  @luke9511 · 6 years ago

  these things are used a lot by people who work on and repair and restore old arcade games and they have had good results with it

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• LT

  @ltdees2362 · 6 years ago

  🤣...someone mentioned they had used one of these "crt rejuvenaters" I have one also and would give it bout 60% success rate back in the day, saving your customer considerable expense...also, if this was the only repair and the customer had brought the TV to my shop, I would not charge them...Back in the 60"s we generally made house calls as TV's were just to heavy and bulky to load up and take to a repair shop...I had my tube-case, VOM, solder iron, cheater-cord and few basic tools...$3 house call plus parts...the good times...

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• IL

  @IlBiggo · 6 years ago

  &quot;This thing is from the &apos;60s so it&apos;s definitely really old.&quot;<br>Me, a man from the &apos;60s: T_T

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• MA

  @MatroxMillennium · 6 years ago

  Combining two of my major hobbies: Vintage computers and vintage television repair!

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• 69

  @69Dartman · 6 years ago

  I used to repair TVs back in the crt days and I was given a Beltron crt rejuvenator that was beat to death but still worked by one of the repair shops I got my sets from as their customer rejects. I made a pin adapter setup I could put on any newer crt and it increased my decent looking set output probably 60 percent because I could bring back marginal tubes to looking like new again. There is really a art to using one so it doesn&apos;t blast the guns too hard and it goes backwards and dies quickly. Some sets and the tubes they used almost always turned out great after usually just a cleaning cycle. Zenith used to have really good quality tubes that had a lot of emissions materials on the guns and usually a quick cleaning would bring them back, if not do a rejuvenation and do it similar to what you did. Push the button for a sec or a quick hit and see the crap blow off the guns with a light show inside the neck. Sometimes it would kill it, many times it would bring it back. Then you push the emissions button and watch how long it takes the meter per gun to drop to zero. The longer it holds, and if they dropped fairly evenly the better it was. If all the guns show the same level of emissions and its way up in the green the better. If one gun is way higher it would be hard to get a balanced black and white picture and the colors would be tilted towards the best gun. I much later found a totally rebuilt and fully updated Beltron on eBay for like 25 shipped in the early 2000s and last set I used it on was a 36&quot; Sony HD set my mom had been given several years ago when it was looking horrible. It did bring it back and I was very careful but true to every Sony tube I&apos;ve done it lasted about 6 months and was awful again. That Beltron had every newer crt socket adapter available and some internal upgrades and complete new manual for the newest tubes out before everything went lcd flat screens. I also have several military and high end tube testors and bixes if tubes I collected to repair TVs back in the day.<br>I&apos;m actually local to Portland if you ever run into needing any old tubes tested or a different crt testor to play with. I knew when I bought that last Beltron that I probably would never or very rarely use it but I couldn&apos;t let it go for the money and everything it could do. I MAY even have one of those B&amp;K testors just like you have, but I didn&apos;t like it as well as the Beltron I knew how to use. I can&apos;t remember what I did with it but it may still be here stashed in my shed with the others.<br>Shango is the man when it comes to troubleshooting any old stuff and getting it running, or restoring it if it&apos;s worth it. He likes the B&amp;K rejuvenators best and has a Beltron as well he occasionally uses but every one likes what they are comfortable with so if you understand how to use it they all can work. Not many shops or repair guys do component level repair, they just replace the bad board and see if it works these days.<br>That was fun to watch and brings back memories of all the sets I fixed.

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• PA

  @patrickbuckland5849 · 6 years ago

  Truly fascinating stuff. And good to see you using Crystal Quest (which I wrote)! Electronics were my original passion actually before getting into programming mainly because I couldn&apos;t afford electronic components or test equipment as a kid. Then I realised that I programming was my calling. I was 22 when I originally wrote &apos;Quest. Currently working on a new version :)

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• CR

  @craiglearmont · 1 year ago

  Hey Adrian! &nbsp;That was a FANTASTIC video. &nbsp;My dad was a Red Seal Radio Technician in the 60s, and was also very well versed with CRT and TV repair. &nbsp;What a great example of &quot;not giving up&quot; quite so quickly. &nbsp;Keep up the great work, and really cool demonstration of the vintage tech in the Rejuvenator, and how you brought it back to life with the cap replacement. &nbsp;Super fun to watch, thank you!

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• AB

  @abc-ni9uw · 6 years ago

  I was reading somewhere ( 3 years ago ) about a trinitron that needed rejuvenation In 1977 tv was only 6 years old but worked for another 30 years before it was junked

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• JA

  @JamesPotts · 6 years ago

  You snagged a rejuvenator at a thrift shop?!?!?!

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• SH

  @Sheevlord · 6 years ago

  It would be cool to know if this lasts if you keep using it. Maybe make a follow-up video several months later comparing the performance.<br>Also, it would probably be a good idea to replace the rest of the capacitors just in case. It doesn&apos;t matter that they seem to be working now - they are over 50 years old at this point, so they probably won&apos;t last much longer

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