EEVblog #554 - Sinclair FTV1 TV80 Flat Screen Pocket TV Teardown

Dave tears down a vintage 1984 Sinclair FTV1 / TV80 pocket TV and explains how the innovative 3 deflection system flat screen CRT works.
Service Manual with schematics and theory of operation:
Original scan of service manual:

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[vwestlife]

Conventional CRTs with electrostatic defection were also used in many small tabletop and portable TVs from the late 1940s through mid 1950s, where the screen was small enough (usually 7 inches) that the long neck wasn't that much of a problem. And the very first commercially produced TVs from before WWII had the tube facing vertically and used a mirror to reflect the image towards the front, because the tube was too long to put horizontally without making the TV cabinet ridiculously huge!

[DJignyte]

After watching Ben Krasnow's videos, I'd guess that the Tin-oxide layer was transferred onto the glass by way of sputtering.

Awesome video as usual, Dave.
Thanks!

[hairypaulmmwab]

Had one of these back in the day. I ran it off an external battery pack as the proper batteries were horribly expensive. Produced a surprisingly good image & was a good hand warmer in winter too! :-) Gotta love Sir Clive's funky retro gear.

[paullangton-rogers]

I love your reviews and enthusiasm Dave for the design and innovation!

There wasn't a lot of great British innovation or manufacturing going on in 1980s in the electronics sector (if you put the early computer industry aside), and Sir Clive was definitely an innovator and pioneer. Although I did work for a small electronics company myself in the late 80s which did some pretty neat stuff for the secret services/police, "radionics" you might say, covert communications stuff.

Sinclair was famous for doing things on the cheap and cutting corners both to make more money and offer things more cheaply. This would sometimes backfire though and end up costing him more in the long-run with failed products/recalls and replacements etc, and damage to his reputation. It happened on nearly every product he made, starting from his first transistor radios in 1960s (he bought faulty semiconductors and repaired them!). Likewise in some early ZX80's and 81's you see evidence like in the pocket TV there of touch-ups/repairs on the PCB's, component replacing, probably failed products returned, repaired, and resold as new..very naughty Sir Clive!!

All of his products are functional (well mostly) but only to the minimum, and his designs are not very aesthetically pleasing (except the ZX Spectrum, or speccy as it's now fondly called). Although some might disagree with me there. The ZX81 was hideous design (I owned one). The keyboard was horrible that flat keyboard with no touch key resistance, and the thing got astonishingly hot very fast, as there was nowhere for heat to go, no heat sinks or vents or fans or anything!

[ronnybkk]

Dave, my wife said she heard your voice so many times as I watched your vids on the morning having my breakfast, that she thought your were actually living somewhere in the house.
I'd suggest you come by for a morning coffee if you ever make it to Bangkok one of these days

[RuneWarhuus]

Ben Krasnow has some great videos on how to deposit conductive, and other coatings on glass with a home built vacuum chamber.

His latest video: DIY Custom LCD

Awesome stuff!

[ukrattus]

Nice teardown. I remember fixing one of these when I was still at school. The traces on the underside of the top glass had been damaged, I assume from some physical trauma, so that they didn't make full contact with the compression connectors down to the mainboard. In the end I just patched them with silver loaded paint, but not before giving myself quite a whack from the Cockcroft ladder! 
It worked OK, but the picture quality was pretty poor, and of course tiny. I certainly didn't bother with getting a new battery when the original ran out. Polaroid made the battery IIRC, and it was amazingly thin, with a very similar contruction to modern LiPos

[MKVideoful]

OMG this flat CRT screen is so beautiful

[griff]

Ah!! The old Tv-80! Picked one up myself a while ago in a broken state. Once I replaced all the pots for screen adjustments it was good as new. Couldn't test it without feeding it an RF signal from my (yes you guessed it) Sinclair Spectrum lol. As we have no analogue TV here anymore :-)

[jdflyback]

the horizontal scanning in tvs is usually produced by the high voltage transformer or flyback and is about 15.6 khz

[joyange]

To answer your question @ 27:25. Yes the frequency of the flyback transformer is in sync with and drives the horizontal raster scan on a CRT television. 

[ratdude]

I find it cool that you mentioned bubble LED displays... I'm using one (a HP 7400 series 5 digit unit) in a college project, circa 1976. Cool vintage stuff. 

[obiwanjacobi]

Hi Dave just a little tip: Put your clip-on mic on the side that is nearest to the camera. You'll get a more even sound level that way. Excellent video, thanx!

[sparkyprojects]

With the dots hitting the phosphor probably at something like 45 degrees, the dots would be oval,  the lens stretches those ovals back to dots
without using the repeller, the angle would be shallower.

[chrisharrap]

The best constructed product that Sinclair produced

[kreature]

Hehe. "Sucked out the vacuum..."
Sucked out the air and left a vacuum?
Great video. Very enjoyable to see these offshoots of the crt technology.

[DuanvantSlot]

What is incredible for me, a new-generation child, is that the electrons can be deflected so accurately and quickly in the 1980. It's mind boggling. If my math is correct- 240pixels by 180pixels x 15image per second = 648000 electron deflections per second using magnetism!

[simonparkinson]

Someone at school had one of those. I got a Casio TV400 in the late 80s.
Used to use this to watch Aussie soaps on the train home from work
I remembered which cupboard it was in, so just went to grab it to see if it would still work.
I flicked the power switch and it came on! WHAT?!?!?
I haven't used the thing since I moved into this house in '99!
The Kodak batteries are marked 08-99 and have not leaked.
Seems to pick up my CCTV modulator and digital box modulator OK (no analogue TV here either), but there are three rows of dead pixels.

[vintagepc]

It occurred to me that this would have additional complexity in driving the CRT because the deflection angle for vertical (Field) isn't constant (like it is with straight-on CRTs) as you "aim" further down the line; you'd have to correct for that or your picture would keystone terribly! It'd be conceptually easier to do your lines vertically and draw the raster from left to right, but that's not how the TV signal is transmitted.

[gamccoy]

"Bobby Dazzler"  I love the way you talk.  That was indeed quite interesting.  I wish you could get a replacement IC so we can see it in operation and scope out some signals.