Hacking an RS-170 tap into a B&W TV set?

I assume there's no schematic stuck inside the set (stranger things have happened...) Be careful. In many TVs sold in the UK (and I guess elsewhere -- I am not only talking about sets designed in the UK), the control grid is used for the brightness control only, and the video signal is applied to the cathode. Most small TVs, particularly those designed to run off a 12V car battery, use a 7 pin CRT. The pinout is almost standardised at : 1 g1 (control grid) 2 cathode 3 heater 4 heater 5 control grid (linked to 1) 6 first anode ('screen control') 7 focus (second) anode If you're lucky, the video output stage will be discrete components and easy to hack. If you're unlucky it'll be hidden inside a 'jungle' IC... You also need to get the sync signals in somehow. If you're lucky (again!), you will find a point at the input of the video amplifier that also feeds the sync separator -- which means you can feed in composite video with no problems. After all, the signal at the output of the video detector stage _is_ composite video, so the set must be capable of displaying such a signal. The problem comes when this point only exists within an IC. Be very careful if you work on mains-only sets. Many of these had a live chassis (connected to one side of the power line) with no transformer isolation. Connecting one of those to your classic computer can apply mains voltage to places where you don't want it, and give you a nasty (and possibly fatal) shock, or worse still do serious damage to said classic computer. This is unlikely to apply to a set that runs off batteries too (in 99% of the cases, the mains is stepped down to 12V using a conventional transformer/retifier circuit), but it can't hurt to check. If in doubt, run the set off an isolated 12V supply connected to the battery terminals, rather than using the internal mains PSU of the set. -tony