Ive officially gone Predicta crazy and now have 2. I picked up a Predicta debutante the other day off eBay about 5 miles from my house. It think it was a UG-3408C model, the first part of the sticker is missing all I see is 8C. It has a 17 inch screen, and looks to have been black before the surface rust got to it. I took the CRT cover off to test the Picture tube, and in big letters someone wrote 6.3v and the tube has a sticker on it that says its a direct replacement for Philco picture tubes, requires no rewiring, then it gives multiple models and one of them is the original 17" Predicta 2.3v tube, and I can see in the black plastic on the back it actually says Philco. I didnt test it because I wasnt sure what plug to use. I have a B & K 465 and both plugs A and B fit. IN the setup guide most 17 inch tubes use plug B but the predicta 17 tube is plug A. Also I dont know what to set my G1 and 2 voltages to. Has anyone seen this type of tube before? I dont want to take the whole CRT Case apart if I dont have to, but from what I see I cant find any model numbers at all.
I think my Predicta might be shot.... I powered it up slowly tonight over a period of an hour starting at 60v on my variac hoping I'd be lucky enough to have one of the sets that still worked. The tunes glowed but I had no sound and I didn't hear the whine from the flyback warming up. So I decided to try and see if the lead to the flyback was getting power. Ive watched say Predicta videos on YouTube I can't remember which one it was but the guy took the lead that goes to the flyback off the top of the tube and held it just above the terminal to see if it would start arching. Almost like checking spark in an old car. So I tried to do that and the top terminal of the tube fell off then the plug fell off the wire.... does this mean I need a new flyback?
I've attached some pics. So you can see what I mean.
Also I took some picture of the the picture tube apparently it was replaced in 1965... but I can't read the ink as far as what model tube. It looks like 17d something....
No, you don't need a new flyback, in spite of what rumors have indicated, at least regarding the 1958 models, the flyback transformers seldom fail. However you will have to reattach the cap to the lead, it's most likely that the solder joint failed. It's very seldom that a Predicta, or any other 57-58 year old TV will fire up and work on the first try, these sets are full of paper caps and old carbon comp resistors, which can stop both the vertical and horizontal oscillators dead in their tracks. This model is different from the other set in that it has a power transformer rather then being series string, I'm not sure whether these used the 2.4 volt picture tubes like the previous predicta models or not.
Regards
Arran
(This post was last modified: 04-13-2018, 03:34 AM by Arran.)
