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AppleVision 1710AV/Trinitron retrace lines - adjustment advice

Byrd

Well-known member
Hi all,

For some weeks I've been trying to get an AppleVision 1710 up and running - it's my idea of the ideal vintage Mac monitor.  Shame that the 1710 was notorious for being a complete failure, mainly due to faulty CRT/video controller boards and most were recalled or replaced.

My journey has been merging the innards of an AppleVision 1710AV (exceptional CRT but with bad CRT/video controller board and suspect chassis PSU) with a non-AV 1710 (bad CRT but with recalled CRT/video board and chassis PSU from Apple in 1999).

With the faulty CRT/video board in, you are meant to run a utility from Apple which saves the parameter settings (after jumpering pins 1+4 of the BV1 connector), for upload to the new controller board.  Unfortunately the CRT/video board I had made the monitor so unusable that I wasn't able to do this, and needed to calibrate the monitor manually after the new controller board was installed.

Using Apple's Display Service Utility, recalibrating the CRT settings was actually pretty easy (along with adjusting the focus pots on the flyback), but I've an issue with high brightness/retrace lines that are highly visible when the monitor displays a dark image.  I've read that Trinitrons do exhibit a brighter picture and retrace lines with age, however it didn't do this with the old CRT/video board.  It also does the same retrace lines with the chassis PSU replaced with the recalled one.  I've read that more generic Trintrons of the same era had a service connector for adjustment of retrace and brightness settings, but the Apple utility does not provide this much detail.

This leaves me to adjust the pots on the CRT neck to dial down the brightness; would any Trinitron experts suggest where to go from here?  Adjusting XCV and XBV does nothing ... the tube model is Sony M41KKA16X

Thanks

JB

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Byrd

Well-known member
Update: spoke too soon.  Re-ran the AppleVision colour recalibration tool for 9300K and ... perfect!  Deep blacks and good contrast  :D

 

techknight

Well-known member
I was going to say maybe the G2/Screen adjustment on the flyback would have been my thought. Otherwise you have R/G/B Cut-Off which will do this as well. Cut off is triggered during the retrace period, which is precisely what its supposed to do. cut off the beam.

 
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Byrd

Well-known member
Thanks techknight - it does not have a G2 adjustment on the flyback - horizontal and vertical focus are the only dials.  After calibration the picture isn't as perfect as the original (faulty) CRT/board and (faulty) chassis with (good) Trinitron, but just to have it working reliably is a big plus.  Bolting the AV speakers onto the monitor is a right PITA - one day I'll go back in and perform some minor focus and convergence ring adjustments.

 

Byrd

Well-known member
That makes two of us; most were junked or replaced too quickly to determine a common cause.  Apple didn't sell the CRT for long, being replaced with the Colorsync 750/850 CRTs soon after (which look the same but assume with significantly more reliable innards).

From what I gather reading the 1710AV service manual, the faults stemmed from a poorly designed IC on the CRT/video board, and insufficient voltage from the PSU/chassis board.  My "recalled" CRT/video board appears to have had all the transistors replaced (masses of replaced solder on the RF shielding), and the "recalled" PSU has bigger caps.  Sorry I can't elaborate much more there.

It's a bloody big thing to have on a desk.  Very high and deep size.  I alternate between it and a 17" Phillips LCD just to make things fit.  Best sound and bass I've ever heard on CRT speakers.

 

techknight

Well-known member
I have a perfect condition pearly white with no yellowing 1710AV. With the horror stories I read about it, I am afraid to plug it in and use it. But it does work. And its the only monitor that will sync with the SGI Indy I have. 

 

Byrd

Well-known member
Check the 1710 manual for symptoms; you know it’s trying to die when each time you turn it on the convergence is out, or the picture is overscan/bowed in, turning it on and off repeatedlyj fixes the issues. Then the above happens more and more frequently and you know the CRT board is hosed.

 
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techknight

Well-known member
that sounds like an EEPROM fault. the EEPROM contains the program calibration data that sets all of this during startup of the microcontroller. 

 
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