John Foust wrote: Really? I hadn't realized that there was such a "common failure mode". But, I am unsure of what you are describing... Is the lower third of the display a "solid white band"? Or, is the *retrace* visible on the lower third of the display (i.e. the correct image is present but with a zig-zag line "scratched" through it)? I was hoping to find a monochrome CRT instead of an LCD. Color isn't a requirement. Monochrome LCD's are poor quality. And LCD's impose a certain resolution on the display contents. The watchman was the only *tiny* device that I could think of that fit the bill :-( Do you have a pointer to anything worth looking into? Small/tiny? Thanks! --don

Gordon JC Pearce wrote: No idea what a Sinclair Flat Screen TV is... :-( *But*, I'd never thought of viewfinders in video cameras! I'll have to find one and take it apart to look at the mechanics. I suspect it is an in-line tube (since the housing of most cameras would seem to accommodate "depth", there) Thanks! --don

"Rob O'Donnell" <classiccmp.org at irrelevant.fsnet.co.uk> wrote: I have that one! The LCD is on the inside of a fold up door. The outside of the door is a transluscent diffuser. Open the door, light shines from the outside through the diffuser, through the LCD, then onto the mirror and then you see it. Unless you have the optional backlight, in which case the door supports the weight of the backlight (in other words it barely stays up!) The LCD was a bit sluggish for anything but the most static video. If anything moves quickly it leaves an obvious ghost behind. I'm guessing that much of the Radio Shack stuff was designed in the far east (Japan? Taiwan?) and sold both there under some other brand name and in the US under the Radio Shack name. Tim.

John Allain wrote: Huh? Are we talking about the same device? The watchman that I am referencing is just a television. B&W. With a "real" (though "bent") CRT.

Don <THX1138 at dakotacom.net> wrote: There have been various items sold under the "Watchman" name over the years, and I seem to recall some company selling a small portable videodisc player (using a tiny disc and a completely incompatible format) in the late 90's/early 2000's that seems to have faded into obscurity. Was this Sony maybe? In any event at that point in time the display technology was not CRT but some kind of LCD. There was also in the early 2000's a kids toy that had a very low resolution LCD (maybe something like 96x64!) and could play discs or cartridges of some kind. I seem to recall this being reverse engineered by hackers. The issue of "forgotten media" is shared between video and audio and computers and a number of other areas. One of my childhood memories was when my dad got a Mickey Mouse film projector at a yard sale along with some short Disney films. Tim.

Rob O'Donnell wrote: Hmmm... "side" not "bottom" (like the watchman)? Ah, OK. So the beam still scanned left-to right but did so by (effectively) scanning "in to out" (back to front)?

Sinclair sold a flat TV about 20 years ago. It had a CRT with the electron gun and deflection plates (electrostatic deflection) alongside the screen, which was at the back of the glass envelope. A +ve high voltage on the screen and a -ve high voltage on a transparaent electrode on the inside of the front face of the envelope 'kicked' the beam onto the screen. Note that (contrary to popular belief) Sinclair (or his company) did not invent this sort of CRT -- I've seen it in much older books. Anyway, the Siclair set was typically Sinclair. Components were marginally rated, the connecting pins to the CRT tended to break free transparent conductive traces on the glase), etc. Most problems were repairable (I made my own contacts fro the CRT and put a drop of conductive paint between them and the CRT glass, for exampe), but it got tedious fast. I went back to more conventional CRTs in the end. An earlier Sinclair portable TV used a conventional (electrostatic deflection) CRT. About 2" diagonal screen, about 6" from front to back). I actually have a couple of brand-new spares in the junk box (and absolutely no data on them). Yes, a normal, often electromagnetically-defelected CRT. Some cameras mount it along the axis of the camera. Others (particularly semi-professional models) have a removeable viewfinder assembly. In these, the CRT is mounted across the body of the camera, with a 45 degree mirror ro reflect the image into the eyepiece. If you can find one of these, you might be ablr to use the viewfinder module as-is. The connections will typically be a power input (12V?) and composite video, maybe with some extra signals for things like the record-on LED. The service manual should document the conenctions... -tony

Although the screen on those is small, the CRT can be quite long (Either mounted along the video camera body, or across it, with a mirror to reflect the screen into the eyepiece). Be warned that that is a typical Sinclair design with some very marginally-rated components (the HV rectifer diodes are nothing of the sort!). The CRT is interesting, although quite wide, with the electron gun assembly mounted alongside the screen and electrodes to deflect the beam onto the screen. If you want to use one, try to get the entire TV. You need some scan correction (Due to the different distance of the 2 edges of the screen contains a custom chip (22 pins IIRC) that contains this stuff, the scan oscillators, the IF strip, and so on. Fortuately, it is possible to feed composite video into it somwhow (I forget the exact details, I have some notes _somewhere_. I played around with one of these years ago, gave up when I got fed up with the number of poor design decisions in the original.... -tony

At 08:51 PM 8/16/2006, you wrote: Like one or two scan lines that are always white. A few years ago when I researched (probably on Usenet or repair webs) there were several others with the same problem. I interpolate. Poor quality or low res? I once had a tiny handheld mono LCD TV from Radio Shack made by Casio. But have you told us what's driving this display? I would think that would quickly reduce or expand your options. VGA? Composite from VGA? Many folks don't realize how low-res is composite. Mounted on your arm or your eye? - John

At 11:47 AM 8/17/2006, Don wrote: I don't think this is the right place for you to ask about what you want to do. It's not classic computing. There are plenty of immersive computing or mobile computing mailing lists and webs who probably have this in their FAQ. A Watchman screen is small, ten-year-old old tech, and probably doesn't have the res you need. - John

On Thursday 17 August 2006 12:47, Don wrote: The Sony Watchman I've got (no, I don't want to give it up;) has an 1/8" (mini) jack, which accepts RS-170(A) video. Pat -- Purdue University Research Computing -- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcac

What about the CRT 'viewfinder' from an older cam-corder. These actually use tiny CRTs! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don" <THX1138 at dakotacom.net> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 9:51 PM Subject: Re: ISO: Sony "WATCHman"