I have two ancient TV's I desperately want to restore .. a Sony TV8-301, which was Sony's first successful consumer product, a truly beautiful relic of 50's/early-60's design ethos, which I found abandoned on the side of a country road in the Austrian countryside, and a black and red mini-TV that would look so great paired up with my Oric Atmos retro computer.

The Sony, in particular, would make an amazing terminal screen.

Trouble is, it is becoming harder and harder to find repair manuals for these.

If anyone knows of a community where these kinds of repairs are executed successfully, I'd love to hear about them. I've kept these things on my shelf for decades now, and I remain committed to their restoration. I'm pretty sure the tubes are still viable .. but maybe the capacitors aren't.

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turbocon 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

this what you're looking for? https://antiqueradio.org/art/Sony8-301WTelevisionManual.pdf

Chatgpt (especially deep research) is pretty good about digging up stuff like this

	▲	MomsAVoxell 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks for that - yes, I haven’t quite gotten on the “just use AI search for everything now” bandwagon, but of course it makes a lot of sense that it’d be in there somewhere. Guess I’m gonna go to a local service place with this PDF and the TV and see what they can do. I’m filled with anticipation for the day that I can boot up a terminal on Sony’s first TV and include it in one of my exhibits. I do retro computing exhibits, in case you were wondering why I have all this junk… ;)

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freedomben 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh man, I had a good friend who collected repair manuals for electronics, especially those built before in the 80s and earlier, basically everything he could get his hands on. He was a huge (and gifted) hardware tinkerer who always had a cool project going. When he passed away, his wife basically threw the whole collection away. She wasn't trying to be malicious or anything, just trying to clean up old junk and get ready to downsize her life (and holy cow that room was quite daunting and disorganized, and frankly looked like piles of trash even it wasn't). Those early manuals were absolutely incredible. I read quite a bit through one that for a post WWII radio that badly made me want to become a collector. I remember seeing a model much like it at my grandparents house as a kid and one of my biggest life regrets was not trying to acquire that after they passed. Same with a really cool sewing machine from the same era.

There is something so magical about those early products.

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MomsAVoxell 4 days ago | parent [-]

For sure, they are so .. serviceable .. yet also so .. inaccessible, nevertheless.

Not inaccessible in a modern “can’t de-cap that chip without killing the machine” kind of a way, but more of a “so many bespoke parts which are just not replaceable any more, unless you wanna Frankenstein the thing with 3D printed parts .. eventually ..”

I’ve since been directed towards the manuals I might need, by other HN’ers, so I’m going to have a renewed attempt at getting this old Sony and the Red/Black TV up and running. I do retro computing exhibits in my region (Vienna, Austria) so if I do end up getting these TV’s working again, they’ll be featured for sure. Recent efforts on my part have introduced over 40,000 people to retro computing platforms at a local museum, so it’ll be really fun for me to introduce the Sony TV, which is delightful bit of technological history, to the exhibit manifest.

When I think of all the folks with great stuff in the attic, potentially being lost to the landfill, it just motivates me harder to get all my own junk in good shape that will make sense for someone to maintain for decades after I’m gone ..

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bombcar 3 days ago | parent [-]

Like rebuilding a classic car, you have to make the decision pretty early on if you’re going for a genuine original restoration, or something that just looks and functions similar to how it was.

The second is much cheaper.

	▲	MomsAVoxell 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's very true - mostly I want to just keep the original working as long as possible, such as is the case with the Sony TV (because its such a significant product all things considered) - but in the case of the Red/Black TV I've often thought about just gutting it, using the case and replacing everything inside with an LCD screen/power supply, other peripherals for the Oric Atmos ..

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rzzzt 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Members of the forum "Elektrotanya" have collected a nice set of service manuals and schematics over the years: https://elektrotanya.com/content/about-site

I also see Polish forums when looking for TV stuff but I don't have a specific suggestion for that corner of the web.

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MomsAVoxell 4 days ago | parent [-]

Ah that is great, thanks for that - I’ll spend some time digging in to see if I can indeed restore these TV’s. Would be so nice to wire up the Sony and use it for something, probably log related, lol ..

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rzzzt 4 days ago | parent [-]

Note that I'm only appreciating them from a safe distance (and from the front). For an introductory list of the many things that can harm someone opening the cover, here's one: https://www.ifixit.com/Troubleshooting/Television/CRT+Repair...

	▲	MomsAVoxell 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Oh yeah, one of the reasons I’ve not yet poked at any of these TV’s with a screwdriver myself (besides the fact that my country offers a 50% credit on electronics repair by certified repair buro’s) is due to early childhood trauma getting zapped by a TV in some empty lot I once tinkered with .. ;)

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jonah 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Wow, that Sony is beautiful!

	▲	MomsAVoxell 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		It sure is! My heart skipped a bit when I saw it abandoned on the side of the road. It's a really delightful thing to look at for now - one of these days I hope to log in with it, too. ;)