Sony KV1400UB - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Michael Maurice · 26th Jun 2008, 12:20 am

A new customer phoned me yesterday, she wanted to find out if it was feasible to get it repaired, it had gone off and was now dead, but was certain that it wssn't the switch.

After explaining my charges and looking things up on Euras, she decided to go for a repair.

The root of the problem was C518 in the line O/P stage which was very leaky, reading about 100R. C518 is 330pF/1.5KV, I replaced it with a 2KV type. Also blown was the chopper transistor Q605. R601, R627 were open circuit.

Q601 is a 2SC1942, these aren't available so it was replaced with a quality type BU208A

On switching on, I was rewarded with excellent picture and sound, even the grey scale was good. Only other thing was a squirt of switch cleaner on the horizontal hold control and hopefully this set will be good for anothr 25 years or so. I'll post piccys tomorrow.

Another one saved from the skip.

Welsh Anorak · 26th Jun 2008, 2:19 pm

Hi
Nice to work on these old sets - had a KV1612 last month with the high-value resistors in the PSU open-circuit. Makes a change from the 32" Sony plasma that's causing grief at the moment....
Glyn

Studio263 · 27th Jun 2008, 8:39 am

It's nice to hear of one that's been kept going. These, along with the KV-1820UB and KV-200UB were Sony's first "proper" colour sets, no self-destructing power supplies, no silly NTSC decoders, no horrible Japanese styling...

I've kept one myself (the silver version, that way I don't have to worry about it turning "was white once" yellow). The tube is A1, only a 14" Philips CTX-E (perhaps the other definitive colour portable of the 1980s?) comes close in terms of picture quality (I don't include the KT3 or the TX9 here, they are big sets with small tubes, not specially designed portables).

RS still list suitable neons for the channel indicator display, the original ones in most cases are pretty dim now.

Michael Maurice · 27th Jun 2008, 10:30 pm

Some pictures of said Sony the dark bar is NOT a hum bar but something to do with the digital camera

Maarten · 29th Jun 2008, 2:38 am

A feasible way to estimate the age of a Sony set is by SCC- chassis number. Those were assigned sequentially, probably starting with 1 allthough I never saw a chassis earlier than SCC-22A-A (I think that was a KV-1310 from the early seventies). A number between 200 and 300 was late seventies/early eighties. By 1985 they were in the 500's or so (PE-3 was SCC-522 I seem to remember, while the RX chassis was SCC-660).

26th Jun 2008, 12:20 am	#1
Michael Maurice Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Wembley, Middlesex Posts: 7,225	Sony KV1400UB A new customer phoned me yesterday, she wanted to find out if it was feasible to get it repaired, it had gone off and was now dead, but was certain that it wssn't the switch. After explaining my charges and looking things up on Euras, she decided to go for a repair. The root of the problem was C518 in the line O/P stage which was very leaky, reading about 100R. C518 is 330pF/1.5KV, I replaced it with a 2KV type. Also blown was the chopper transistor Q605. R601, R627 were open circuit. Q601 is a 2SC1942, these aren't available so it was replaced with a quality type BU208A On switching on, I was rewarded with excellent picture and sound, even the grey scale was good. Only other thing was a squirt of switch cleaner on the horizontal hold control and hopefully this set will be good for anothr 25 years or so. I'll post piccys tomorrow. Another one saved from the skip.

26th Jun 2008, 2:19 pm	#2
Welsh Anorak Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: North Wales, UK. Posts: 6,925	Re: Sony KV1400UB Hi Nice to work on these old sets - had a KV1612 last month with the high-value resistors in the PSU open-circuit. Makes a change from the 32" Sony plasma that's causing grief at the moment.... Glyn

27th Jun 2008, 8:39 am	#3
Studio263 Octode Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Hampshire, UK. Posts: 1,577	Re: Sony KV1400UB It's nice to hear of one that's been kept going. These, along with the KV-1820UB and KV-200UB were Sony's first "proper" colour sets, no self-destructing power supplies, no silly NTSC decoders, no horrible Japanese styling... I've kept one myself (the silver version, that way I don't have to worry about it turning "was white once" yellow). The tube is A1, only a 14" Philips CTX-E (perhaps the other definitive colour portable of the 1980s?) comes close in terms of picture quality (I don't include the KT3 or the TX9 here, they are big sets with small tubes, not specially designed portables). RS still list suitable neons for the channel indicator display, the original ones in most cases are pretty dim now.

27th Jun 2008, 10:30 pm	#4
Michael Maurice Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Wembley, Middlesex Posts: 7,225	Re: Sony KV1400UB Some pictures of said Sony the dark bar is NOT a hum bar but something to do with the digital camera Attached Thumbnails

29th Jun 2008, 2:38 am	#5
Maarten Dekatron Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Haarlem, Netherlands Posts: 4,203	Re: Sony KV1400UB A feasible way to estimate the age of a Sony set is by SCC- chassis number. Those were assigned sequentially, probably starting with 1 allthough I never saw a chassis earlier than SCC-22A-A (I think that was a KV-1310 from the early seventies). A number between 200 and 300 was late seventies/early eighties. By 1985 they were in the 500's or so (PE-3 was SCC-522 I seem to remember, while the RX chassis was SCC-660). Last edited by Mike Phelan; 21st Jul 2009 at 4:49 pm. Reason: Removed link to deleted quote.