Ekco T283 television restoration

[high_vacuum_house]

Hello there,
I got this set recently from Neil and I decided today to get it working It has a 14" round CRT. After removing the chassis I replaced all of the wax capacitors (mains filter one had already blown itself apart) and the main smoothing electrolytic which was bulging and covered in that white powder stuff around the seal. I cleaned the chassis where the mains filter capacitor had dumped all of its wax.

The EHT visconol capacitor had already been removed and the metrosil was also removed as it was not connected at one end. I cannot see any issues with these 2 components left out of the circuit and the picture quality is good.

I managed to break the channel selector knob when removing it (grubscrews but no obvious way to get to them !) so this will need to be sorted out.
A wrong rated fuse in the fuseholder replaced

After winding it up on the variac up came sound and afterwards line whistle. a good picture appeared and after twiddling the height width and linearity knobs gave a good stable picture.
There were white dots all over the picture as the EHT rectifier was close to the metalwork and arking across. After moving it no more problems.
I then watched a few programmes using the Domino convertor for several hours with no drift or other problems coming to light.

The picture below is a bit grotty and the picture displayed was not that great either, my camera does not like low light with the flash switched off (cant see the screen with flash on!)

Christopher Capener

[Steve_P]

Nice set. Capacitors replaced and switch on. What state is the LOPT in on this set. Some of them tend to sort of melt!

Cheers,

Steve P.

[high_vacuum_house]

The LOPT cage is in good order except that the support for the EY51 base had broken off and this was responsible for the arcing as the EY51's base came too close to the metalwork. I may put a cable tie around it to keep it in place.

I forgot to add that this set has quite a bright CRT even without the metrosil and visconol capacitors.

Christopher Capener

[ppppenguin]

Originally Posted by Steve_P

... What state is the LOPT in on this set. Some of them tend to sort of melt!....

The LOPT housing may be a complete mess of disintegrating plastic but the LOPT itself is likely to be fine. This wisdom was from John Wakely (HKshort in the forum) who has vast experience of Ekco and many others. This was certainly the case with my T311 LOPT.

Post #12 in this thread shows my rebuilt T311 LOPT assembly:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...highlight=t311

I've got another old Ekco tucked away somewhere. It might be a T283, from memory it's a 14" round tube set.

[Peter.N.]

Is the EHT rectifier not a U25 in an Ekco? I'm not being picky, just testing my memory!

[Sideband]

Brilliant job! I had one of these as a 'first TV' when I was in my teens (around 1968). I had it for a good few years before passing it on to someone else. I think the EHT rec should be a U25 (different heater voltage to EY51 I think)?? I remember the set I had had a very loud line whistle but the picture quality was exceptional. I remember the fun I had removing the CRT in it's cradle and then having to remove the implosion screen at the front to clean all the sooty marks off. Happy days!



Rich.

[Mike Phelan]

It is indeed a U25 with a 2v heater; the EY51 has, of course, a 6.3v heater. AFAIK it should be possible to put your own heater winding with more turns on the LOPTx if needed.

[Alan Stepney]

When new these were a superb set, and a popular one too.
That one looks in excellent condition, and it's nice to see one running again.

[neil29]

Hi christopher. i removed the capacitor as it was leaking. but other than finding some screws for the back cover ive not done anything else to it since i got it from jon. oh and its looking good so far. cheers neil.

[high_vacuum_house]

Many thanks for the comments I will try and put a better picture of it working in a few days time.
It is a U25 EHT rectifier not a EY51

Christopher Capener

[Heatercathodeshort]

Great receivers! The T283 gives a super picture with good black level due to the improved AGC circuit. It is quite in order to leave the metrosil and eht capacitor out of circuit. The CRT is a CRM141 or CRM142. The later has an external coating and this of course requires earthing to chassis via a spring or similar. The CRM141 is not externally coated but the capacity of the rather large bulb to chassis does provide a degree of EHT smoothing. If the brilliance is good but the contrast control tends to send the picture negative at high settings, check the forward and backward resistance of the vision detector diode mounted on the top of the final vision I.F. transformer. Its mounted under a small 'lid' that can be removed after the retaining clip has been sprung off. It will work reliably for hours on end once the LOPT case has been sorted out. Check the information for the T330 series that has been posted a while back. Most, if not all of it applies to the T283/4. Good luck with it. regards, John.

[Danny]

Hi i have just finnished one of these sets i wasnt so lucky my tube went internal oc connections but got a tube and shasis from auction fitted the tube with the coils ect that came with it and had an ht short ? fitted my origanal coils and perfect picture. the second set of coils are wired diffrently from my origanal sets coils. also the knobs are diffrent on both sets but both have the same model no. nice to see another set saved and working. Danny

Oh is that a vidor to the right ?

[Tazman1966]

Nice job Christopher...and another set saved. I look forward to some more pics.

Cheers,

[Tractorfan]

I had one of these as a lad and I remember trying to get a reasonable picture in order to watch the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 (I failed). The channel selector knob was always fragile on this range of sets. As I remember, It's removed by removing a circular metal clip just inboard of the channel numbers then taking off the rim. Line up a hole in the fine tuning control with the hole in the knob, which I think is at right angles to the "fin", and the grubscrew (possibly two at right angles).
My parents rented our first telly, a Ferranti 17" version with a VHF radio which had a very similar chassis. Great to see one working again!
Cheers de Pete

P.S. Just had a thought! After taking the rim off the channel knob as above, it may pass through the hole in the cabinet front without having to take it off the shaft.

[Sideband]

The picture on the set I had was also superb. In 1968 when I got mine, I used it every day on returning from school. I'd only changed a few valves and the visconol (you could get new ones back in those days). In 1969 I sat up and watched the first moon landing on it.


Great set and well worth preserving.


Rich.

Was it really 40 years ago?

[chipp1968]

just noticed this . very good