Sony Watchman mods

bbraun · 2015-11-23 05:10:20

Ye olde hand held TV's like this are kinda useless now without VHF/UHF broadcasting, especially if they have no external input capability.
I initially tried removing the antenna from one, and replacing it with a jack to take RF input, like the channel 3/4 that older computers/video game consoles output. That worked, but the picture quality was pretty lousy (these little TV's didn't have very awesome picture quality to begin with!).
It turns out that almost all compact tv's like the sony watchman use an M51348 chip to take the TV tuner to composite video (pin 18) and mono audio output (pin 13). That means modifying the device to take composite input and mono audio is as easy as lifting those two legs on the M51348 and connecting the video and audio sources to their pads. I drilled a hole in the case for an RCA jack for video:

cc333 · 2015-11-23 05:36:54

Neat! Maybe I can use this mod to convert some of my portable TVs so that I can at least hook them up to a OTA DAC box (are there portable converter boxes?).

c

cc333 · 2015-11-23 05:45:04

Followup to last post: http://www.instructables.com/id/Digital … rter-Hack/

Very interesting! And they're cheap enough that I might give it a try!!

c

LCGuy · 2015-11-23 07:17:53

I can't see the pics on my end, but sounds like a nice little mod. I have a Casio handheld telly, nice little TFT screen, though thankfully with both an external antenna jack and an AV input its still quite useful.

jt · 2015-11-23 16:06:24

Is that a RED C64?!? So now you've got a tethered portable TV? What's the next mod?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNo58TdaWI

ClassicHasClass · 2015-11-23 16:19:39

I have a red 64C case from a Kickstarter which did them based on the original injection moulds.

bbraun · 2015-11-23 18:31:42

Sorry about that LCGuy, I think I found the offending rule and removed it. It was another apnic delegated /8 that was a little too all inclusive.

Yeah, I painted up the breadbox probably about 5yrs ago or so. Totally two tone, top case is red, bottom case is black. It was a very ricer thing to do and I probably shouldn't have done it, but it does look pretty slick if I do say so myself.
I saw those new C64-C cases. They seem ripe for modding because they've got so much empty space and extra surface area to add jacks, switches, potentiometers, etc. But I never got into the -C's because of the large footprint, and I had a breadbox when they were new so I've got an affinity for them. I've got a C128, and those things are huge. By the time you add a monitor, cables, and a card sticking out the back, you pretty much need a dining room table instead of a desk.

techknight · 2015-11-25 03:17:03

I used to have a converter box that ran on a DC brick, I actually hacked it into an LMK 5" Color CRT set a few years ago, to keep it all self contained and had to perform a similar mod as you with the IF stage.

I never messed with watchmans though, I used to own one but it was flaky.

Eudimorphodon · 2015-11-25 16:43:45

LCGuy wrote:

I can't see the pics on my end, but sounds like a nice little mod. I have a Casio handheld telly, nice little TFT screen, though thankfully with both an external antenna jack and an AV input its still quite useful.

I have one of those, found it in a box of stuff getting chucked out. (My coworker beat me to the early 80's electronic basketball game... bastard!) I've used it a few times with Atari 2600-800XL-era sources and it works fine for that. Back in the early 90's I had an older model that had a ridiculously low resolution screen, I think it was something like 120x80. That didn't work so well, at least for anything that generated text. The newer Casio, though, seems to have enough pixels to do the job. I don't know when it was made but I suspect it's near the end of the line for those little "Gameboy shaped" models.

I find it kind of shocking, actually, how cheap portable TVs are *today*. You can get a 7" one with a only slightly mediocre screen, ATSC tuner, and AV input for $60-$70. When I was a kid a 9" "portable" (IE, it has a handle molded into the case) B&W TV cost more than that. (And of course, inflation has made money worth about one third what it was then, so in today's money a 9" B&W TV cost about as much as cheap 30-inch-ish HDTV does now.)

LCGuy · 2015-11-25 20:48:55

Mine is this one: http://www.qvc.com/Casio-EV-500-2.5-Han … 47288.html

I recall that mine ran at the normal PAL resolution. Running through the AV input, I can play gaming consoles on it without issue.

jt · 2015-11-26 14:07:32

Digital or still analog broadcast down unda?

LCGuy · 2015-11-27 01:37:15

Digital - the switchover happened a few years ago - analog started getting switched off in regional areas around 2011, and 2013 in the capital cities.

Of course though, because we insist on being stuck in the dark ages, most channels are still in SD only. Manufacturers are really starting to push 4K here...but given how long its taken them to get their act together with HD, you can forget about us having 4K free to air broadcasts for at least 10 - 20 years.

cc333 · 2015-11-27 07:19:26

It's kinda too bad they switched over, because it made alot of perfectly fine analog stuff useless.

Mostly.

c

LCGuy · 2015-11-27 13:21:08

There's still ways to make it useful though, if you have the gear and the knowhow. Odds are anyone who has an analog telly at least has a VCR, which will generally have AV inputs.

When I go home for Christmas i'm going to pick up my video sender, which takes a composite video signal and mono audio signal and transmits it over a VHF channel - I'm going to set it up in my laundry with a spare analog CCTV camera I have and use it as my laundry monitoring system, so I can see from 3 floors up (laundry is in the garage, my apartment is on the 3rd floor, there's no lift and I'm lazy) whether the washing machine has finished, or if its spun itself out of balance.

jt · 2015-11-27 15:12:06

LOL! Six years ago I got a pair of those converter boxes and watched a grand total of about 15 minutes worth of broadcast TV before unhooking the antenna and returning to my adopted TV-free existence.

I took a look at HDTV prices***** for Black Friday (traditional pre-Christmas markdown madness day for Americans) and wound up driving over to Best Buy to pick up an open box special that morning. Guess what, no analog inputs! Six years later I need to buy an Analog-> HDMI converter box to watch my 1K+ VHS movie collection. It is to laugh, but the move from 32" 720p to 43" 1080p is phenomenal . . . and I can still, open and close the closet door!

For $217 + tax I'm a VERY happy camper, but if I had the likes of that Casio I could hand hold that in bed!

*****The new neighbor upstairs decided to hook up his laundry machines at about midnight two days ago and the ID10T managed to break the water pipe. So the last two of six days off were wasted in terms of my months long planned furniture building project. Three huge blowers and a commercial dehumidifier have been running since for a hot, noisy 48 hour Thanksgiving movie marathon.

edit: just shut 'em down . . . much of the carpet appears to be cleaner now.

Last edited by jt (2015-11-27 15:14:58)

ClassicHasClass · 2015-11-27 18:00:51

I have a 5.8GHz video transmitter system so I didn't have to run wire from the garage security camera to the video concentrator in the server room. That would work well with an analogue TV.

I still have a couple CRT TVs around for old video game systems.

ThinkClassic

Announcement

#1 2015-11-23 05:10:20

Sony Watchman mods

#2 2015-11-23 05:36:54

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#3 2015-11-23 05:45:04

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#4 2015-11-23 07:17:53

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#5 2015-11-23 16:06:24

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#6 2015-11-23 16:19:39

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#7 2015-11-23 18:31:42

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#8 2015-11-25 03:17:03

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#9 2015-11-25 16:43:45

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#10 2015-11-25 20:48:55

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#11 2015-11-26 14:07:32

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#12 2015-11-27 01:37:15

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#13 2015-11-27 07:19:26

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#14 2015-11-27 13:21:08

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#15 2015-11-27 15:12:06

Re: Sony Watchman mods

#16 2015-11-27 18:00:51

Re: Sony Watchman mods

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