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Old 31st Aug 2018, 1:52 pm   #1
Richard_FM
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Default B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

To follow on from my thread about B & W sets over 16" after 1980, I was wondering if many mainstream manufacturers made monochrome sets much into the 1990s.

Certainly even by the mid to late 1980s colour portables were becoming popular, especially for use with home computers. My parents bought a 14" Goodmans in 1987 mostly for this reason.

I'm not counting anything under 10" or monitors. I do know Maplins were selling a 12" B&W set as late as 2004, but it was from a bit of Brand X manufacturer.
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Old 31st Aug 2018, 9:10 pm   #2
Clydeuk
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

There was a white Bush branded 12 inch portable sold by Grattan catalogue in the early 90's. We used to get them as returns for repair and resale through their ex catalogue stores. I remember them being very poor quality and the design was strange using Unitra parts (Polish?). None of us liked them and our success rate of repair was very low.
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Old 31st Aug 2018, 9:27 pm   #3
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

I remember in the threads on larger B&W sets there were a few mentions of Unitra & other Eastern European TVs being sold here around the start of the 1990s, & being of iffy quality at best.

I guess whoever owned the Bush brand were offered them cheap wholesale & thought they were worth a punt.

I've still got a 5" set I got a free gift from Grattans in 2000 for opening an account with them & buying clothes up to a certain amount.
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Old 1st Sep 2018, 10:34 pm   #4
Restoration73
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

A 12" Maplin TV was made by Roadstar, which initally made products in Japan, although
later models might be made in China. The TVM1203EL largely made use of conventional
components including 4 ICs. The build was good enough to use on TV fault diagnosis
for C&G students, although the pcb was mounted (hinged) on an outboard baseboard.
Date c.1999
The 5" chinese TVs could not be used as the design is based on a single jungle IC.
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Old 2nd Sep 2018, 8:10 pm   #5
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

Here's a page from the 2004/5 Maplin's catalogue featuring B&W TVs.
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Old 3rd Sep 2018, 12:18 am   #6
hamid_1
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

I have the 9" TV (branded Roadstar) as seen in that Maplin catalogue. It has AV inputs so it can be used as a CCTV monitor, or with a digital set-top box without a modulator. It runs on 12V DC, from D batteries, car adaptor or included mains adaptor.

The 5" set was sold in large quantities. Woolworths sold them for as little as £10 making them an impulse buy. They are still commonly found at car boot sales. I have a novelty 5" B/W TV in the shape of a football, made for the 2006 World Cup. It has a single large chip inside which performs most of the TV functions. The Roadstar one, as noted by Restoration73 uses some ICs and discrete components.

I've mentioned before, there was a Chinese manufacturer of black and white TVs up to 17 inch size. They used the name "JINLIPU" in some markets. The company was active until 2010 and possibly later.
Website https://jinliputv.en.ec21.com/
In 2012 I spotted a Jinlipu 14" B/W TV for sale in a flea market in Malaga, Spain. It had some Arabic writing on the back. I suspect it may have been marketed in nearby Morocco or another Arabic-speaking north African country, rather than Spain itself. Here's a picture from the flea market. The Jinlipu TV is on the right, next to a Philips KT3(?) colour set.
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Old 3rd Sep 2018, 1:48 pm   #7
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

Thanks for your post, as I've mentioned before I have one of those 5" sets, which came free from Grattans as a gift for opening an account & placing an order over a certain amount.

Alibaba has some 14" B/W sets but they seem to only be available if you buy in bulk, as it a 5" set listed.
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Old 3rd Sep 2018, 4:01 pm   #8
TonyDuell
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamid_1 View Post
The 5" set was sold in large quantities. Woolworths sold them for as little as £10 making them an impulse buy. They are still commonly found at car boot sales. I have a novelty 5" B/W TV in the shape of a football, made for the 2006 World Cup. It has a single large chip inside which performs most of the TV functions. The Roadstar one, as noted by Restoration73 uses some ICs and discrete components.
I bought a couple of the Maplin 5" ones when they were being sold off. With both a UHF and composite video input, I find them quite useful on the bench when repairing home computers. Not high enough resolution to read 80 column text (even 40 columns is a struggle) but good enough to see if anything sane is coming out.

Mine has 4 ICs inside. One on the radio PCB, the other 3 on the main board. The latter are the video IF strip, sound IF strip/audio amplifier, and vertical deflection. The horizontal deflection is discrete transistors.

I traced out the schematic in case I ever need to fix it. PM me if you need it...
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Old 6th Sep 2018, 1:35 pm   #9
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

Quote:
Originally Posted by Restoration73 View Post
A 12" Maplin TV was made by Roadstar, which initally made products in Japan, although
later models might be made in China.
As far as I know, Roadstar was a brand name only and never made anything. I'm not even sure if they were ever a Japanese company or rather a European importer. They had confirmed locations in Switzerland and in Ireland.

Last edited by Maarten; 6th Sep 2018 at 1:46 pm.
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Old 6th Sep 2018, 4:25 pm   #10
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

My sister in law has a 5" portable in her garage branded Roadstar, I've not been able to have a good look to see if it's colour or not.
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Old 6th Sep 2018, 4:52 pm   #11
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

I think the only large (i.e. 12"!) screen portables were those Unitra/Bush sets sold by Woolworths and the catalogues. They were quite large, almost cubic, and owed a lot to Eastern European design - i.e. pig ugly. They had a multi-way channel selector on the top with the last button the on/off switch, plus four (I think) slider controls. As far as I remember that was where most of the trouble was - the button unit, the mains switch and the sliders. Internally, the fuseholders were made of a special non-springy metal so it was usual to find the fuse rattling around the base of the cabinet and all attempts to replace it were doomed to failure. The tuners were either low gain or very low gain. In true fashion, all the components seemed big and chunky, but actually were of quite poor quality.
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Old 6th Sep 2018, 8:58 pm   #12
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

I’m sure I remember Tandy selling either a 12” or 14” black and white tv in around 1997, I used to have the 97 catalogue in the loft! And I’m sure it was on the front cover. I used to have a thing for collecting little 5” sets, as I didn’t think that many had been made, but then there was a glut of the things suddenly started being sold, I got one from Maplin for £30 in around 2002 or 2003.

I think I have the set that Glyn has described!! It’s an Iskra ‘Classic’, I’ll find a picture of it later

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Old 7th Sep 2018, 12:14 am   #13
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Default Re: B & W sets 10-14" after 1990

Found it! Well, pictures of it anyway.. The set itself is over 100 miles away in a storage unit Is this the set you were describing Glyn?

Regards,
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