I’m really glad to find that there’s a decent sized community for this special interest group on the Fediverse! Bravo, glad to be here and counted among these numbers.
When I finish later this summer, I’ll link up some pics (maybe on PixelFed!) but for now, I’m excitedly waiting for some new hardware. Having run a MiSTer for over a year now, it didn’t get much use due to being poorly placed in my house and not getting enough attention. This summer, I’ve made it a priority project and now my kids are enjoying retro Kirby games just as much as the new ones!
Eagerly awaiting (shipment and) delivery of Ironclad+ round seven with accessories, and a wagonload of OEM controllers to use on SNAC. I feel then that my quest to squash lag will be more or less complete from an acquisition standpoint. But the fuller journey is never “over.”
Long term, I either need to hire someone to adjust the yoke on my RGB modded 36" Trinitron or (better) teach me to do it safely. Alternatively I need to find another large set that I can mod and which doesn’t have convergence issues. And eventually, I’m sure FPGA programmers will migrate to a new platform that will need to be explored. :)
Maybe you aren’t looking for reassurance, but if you have the experience AND a schematic / story with pictures from someone who had done the work on your exact model, you shouldn’t have a problem.
I have personally never touched the inside of a TV and I RGB modded two of them, one after the other, with different mainboards and both of them were fine. The second one was neater work. And even if you ruin one, it’s not like they’re impossible to get pretty cheap if you wait around.
I’ll be happy to help you locate the documents you need, if you want to give it a shot. If you’d rather be self-sufficient, start here and go down the rabbit hole. MarkOZLAD has probably written a schematic on loose leaf paper or otherwise, or someone on that forum has, as well as verbally described the steps for VERY MANY common CRT boards particularly in the Sony Trinitron line, but not exclusively. The 8-bit guy also has a video on it, but it leaves out a lot of important detail you’ll get from posts on that forum.
This is the first rig I modded, a Sony kv-20s90.
If you choose to go down this road, my research does not recommend SCART. Too many deviations from the standard in cabling on the market, and many opportunities to screw something up either before or AFTER you’ve successfully completed the work. Also if you’re not in Europe, there’s not much benefit in using SCART… and even if you are, I’d recommend BNC connectors to RGBs instead, and if you for some reason need SCART, you can buy a SCART to BNC cable already made that will probably help you avoid any weird cable issues that can fry your rig.
oh yeah, I’ve got instructions for it, a BA-5 is pretty easy. But I’m terrified of messing it up because it’s the only trinitron in my area that’s a reasonable price (300 for a kv-20fs120?!) and I’m a little out of my depth here. But I had no idea about BNC connectors, so thanks on that. Maybe I’ll start on my cheapo sharp crt and work my way up. You seem super knowledgeable, and thanks for the help!
Frying the jungle chip can be a little scary I guess :)
In my area, sets go for the same price - unless you change up your search terms. If you look for “CRT” or “retro gaming TV” they are all super expensive. People have got wise to what we’re using them for, and being out of production they are commoditized.
But, I found if I look for “old tv” or “old tube television”, or use search terms that don’t betray the use case and instead reflect what the seller wants to get rid of, I get different results and some are practically free - as they should be.
No different I guess from how looking for “old rusty knife” will get you different results from “vintage bushcraft high carbon blade” but you might turn up aces.
My search terms are typically “tube tv” or “old tv” but I live near a major city so most people know what they’re selling. I’ve done a few gamecube picoboots that are way harder but like I said I might try on my POS sharp tv!
Thanks for the quick and helpful replies, I hope other people learn things from this thread too!