It's a tiny CRT TV, and its got issues (Sony Watchman FD-10A)

Sony popularized the personal portable TV market in the 80s. (Not sure if they invented it.) This is one of their little 2" TVs and it has some issues. Let's try to fix the problems!

-- Info

Sony Watchman FD-10A

RF Modulator:
AMCM-860D Agile Modulator Module

-- Video Links

Some info about the FD-10A:

Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:

Support the channel on Patreon:

Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)

-- Tools

Deoxit D5:

O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)

Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)

TS100 Soldering Iron:

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:

Magnetic Screw Holder:

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)

Heat Sinks:

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)

--- Links

My GitHub repository:

Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group

--- Instructional videos

My video on damage-free chip removal:

--- Music

Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[robertforster]

Oh wow. I remember these portable TVs of the ‘90s. The Sony Watchman. I always thought these things were as futuristic as they get back then.

[Flashy]

My fear when taking things like this apart: I successfully fix it so I will have to put it together again :D And the worst is when I have to order a part and it stays disassembled for weeks and I start to forget how it was together... (also I hate when a wire snaps off before taking a photo of its intestines)

[John-ucgb]

Hi, I have the Model fd-20a. It's from 1983. Used it in college. And, yes, it still works. Still cool. Your video is great. Thank you

[LMacNeill]

The new Lithium Ion 1.5v AA and AAA batteries (like the ones from Pale Blue Earth or AmpTorrent) are *FAR* better than the old nickel-metal-hydride batteries. They actually output 1.5V, they're actually sized correctly, and they last almost as long as non-rechargeable alkaline batteries do. They're definitely not cheap, but they're very much worth it, when you consider the number of times you can recharge them. They're as close to rechargeable alkalines as you're ever going to find.

[DavisMakesGames]

Interesting to see inside of one of these tiny models! I've repaired one of the larger screen sizes, the FD-30A if I recall, it's incredible to see a CRT this small (and the interesting tube Sony has used).

[marlinbially]

Back in the late 80's my job was to install and / or repair CCTV. I loved my little Walkman. It allowed me to easily adjust the picture framing and/or focus of CCTV camera without having to climb up and down a 50ft pole a dozen times. Mine had a composite video input. I don't remember if it was stock or if I modified it with a composite input.

[Wineman]

I had this same watchman when I was about 15.
I used it almost every day riding in the car.
It was my favorite thing for quite a while.

[kjtroj]

I always wanted one of these when they were on the market. So cool to see one still working!

[dwaynezilla]

Opening up these Sony devices is always a treat. From the indicators to the quality of design and work inside. There are probably exceptions, but more often than not it's a treat!

[MikesArcadeMonitorRepair]

As soon as you mentioned "foldover, " I was like "Yup. Bad Caps." However, I would have simply replaced all the caps because if one was bad, the rest aren't far behind. But that's just me. The dim image upon start up and the screen pot having very little control is likely the other caps. Regardless, nice job! Anything CRT-related is an automatic click for me.

[thehearth]

Something to keep in mind when using those ceramic capacitors: All the ones with type-II (high-κ) dielectrics (like X7R, X5R, or Y5V) have significant voltage dependence to their capacitance--they may be 22 μF when the DC voltage on them is 0, but apply close to their rated voltage and they may have lost as much as 60% of their capacitance! It's reversible; removing the voltage bias will return the capacitance to normal, but that's definitely something to keep in mind with ceramic capacitors. Y5V is generally worse than X5R, which in turn is worse than X7R. Physically larger capacitors generally have less of a voltage coefficient than smaller ones. You don't have to worry about this at all though when working with type-I dielectrics like C0G/NP0 or U2J, though; those are pretty constant with voltage.

The capacitors you have are probably X5R or X7R, since type-I ceramics don't come in such high capacitances and Y5V would probably be physically smaller than that for 22 μF/16 V.

It likely won't be a problem here, since you're using the capacitor at well below its rated voltage (the voltage must be less than 6.3 V, probably 5 V, since the old capacitor was rated for 6.3 V!) and it looks like a fairly large one. Always good to keep in mind though!

[jaredwright]

I really like these little TVs. I have one I got from a neighbor that has a cheap plastic hood and magnifier to make it easier to see. Apparently he used to take it on hunting trips and got a lot of use out of it before replacing it with a tiny LCD TV.

[pietschreuder]

I still have the Watchman Voyager. I am from the Netherlands and took it with me in 1989 to the US. Watching TV on the bus on route! It still works!

[tonygroenewoud-powell]

Within the first 10 seconds you asked the question I've always wondered. I have a number of Sony Walkmans, DAT, MD and cassette that have all suffered from cracking battery doors. I could never figure out why...but I always use rechargable batteries, especially with the DAT machines. Those babies EAT power! ;-)

[swc]

The VHF/UHF switch broke on my FD-10 as well. What I did was desolder it, bend a capacitor lead in a U shape the size of the original and melt it in with the soldering iron. Works great.

[twtube]

@22:22 I expected it to get worse when you hit a suspect cap. Capacitors have three primary properties: Capacitance (of course), ESR (every knows about it since the invention of SMPS) and leakage. When you heat a capacitor, ESR goes down (gets better), and at the same time, leakage goes up (gets worse). You reported that when you take the device out of storage, the problem is worse, and it gets better when you run the device some time. Assuming that the effect of getting better is caused by the device getting warm due to operation, we could conclude that this is obviously an ESR issue, not a leakage issue, because leakage would not improve due to heat. So why did I still suspect leakage? The ESR improvement of warm capacitors is directly tied to the temperature. If you leave the device powered off for like 30 minutes, ESR should be back to the initial bad value. We would have seen the issue at the start of the video. We would have seen the issue again after you tore the thing down. But we didn't. The effect is on a much longer time scale. And *that's* what shouts "leakage" to me. It's a known issue that old electrolytic caps "lose formation" over time which just means increased leakage. Sometimes, they can be re-formed by applying current limited voltage slightly above the rated voltage, but oftentimes they go leaky in a matter of hours to days again. That matches your observation of "the effect only happens after the device was in storage for some time". Now, the last piece missing: Why does it get *better* when you run the device for some time, even though leakage gets worse on heating? We certainly are not cooling the cap by running the device! Well, as the device runs, it seems to put DC bias on the cap. And the DC leakage current does slight re-formation of the cap which reduces leakage!

@26:45 While indeed the cap did have high ESR, which is a sign of a cap in bad shape, I suspect this cap is used as a supply voltage buffer cap, just like in the soundless Amiga you had recently, and connected to battery voltage to a resistor to improve noise rejection. Leakage in that cap creates extra current drain over the resistor, which will drop the operating voltage of the vertical deflection stage. Try measuring the cap on the 200kOhm range: If my theory is right, the meter will *not* go into "overload", but show a some hundred ohms to a couple of kiloohms.

@18:15 I made similar experience with "Kontakt 61" by the German branch of CRC Industries, which seems to be a similar product to Deox-IT. I applied it to the polarity switch in a Tamiya kangaroo. This is a mechanical toy where you assemble everything (like battery "holder", the polarity switch and so on) from scratch as a teaching experience. The plastic case of the polarity switch got instantly brittle and broke down into many small shards. Obviously, some polymers are destroyed by the solvents of typical contact cleaners.

[paulforester]

My parents have one of those, and I think it still works. At least I think they still have it. I'll check the next time I visit.

[tonybossaller]

In that timeframe (87-91), rechargeable batteries were insanely expensive, had “memory” issues and usually were way under powered. I vaguely remember then being $10 each-ish and a mAh rating around 1000. Closer to the batteries found in solar lamps.

I actually had a Realistic cassette player that took four batteries. I think the batteries+charger was $50ish then. (Which sounds minor now but for me, that was like four entire gas tanks of fuel then… leaded of course.)

[jouniko]

I don't remember having problems fitting rechargerables before the Eneloop era. IKEAs are Eneloops AFAIK and they're fatter. It might help just a little bit if you rotate the cells so the sticker seams don't touch each other.

edit: looking at an old 1900 mAh Eneloop and newer 2450 mAh IKEA (Eneloop pro?), the 2450 has a tiny bit longer shell and shorter positive stud, I think this once caused a connection issue in a cheap tecsun radio and I had to bend the positive terminal to make it work. That radio does not like the thickness either, but some old Varta NiMH fit in there nicely. The old Eneloops seem to be slightly longer than other batteries, but this 2450 one went too far I think.

[shadesofbeige]

I've had similar issues with AA batteries. I spent over an hour going down this rabbit hole a few weeks ago.

From what I've read the NiMH and (possibly) some other rechargeables (in many cases if not all) come in a housing that is technically longer than that of the alkaline, but the length of the button terminal is shortened to accommodate the slight change. The diameter is supposed to be the same regardless, but the battery wrappers can vary in thickness.