Sunday, July 29, 2012

Let's take a quick peek at another vintage monster in the to-do pile.

About a month ago I ran an eBay search on Panasonic WJ 545P and got a low starting price hit, I then had a peek at the sellers other listings and saw this.

As it would turn out, no one else saw fit to have a go at anything I bid on that day.

So in my recent fit of video allocation, I have essentially ignored the protests of that part of my brain that deals with the logistics of spatial order and have migrated from a critical mass NO BUY frame of mind to a "Holy shit! Cool stuff!!" free for all buying marathon.

I do believe this (as in, the growing video pile, not just this particular device) will force my hand at culling the herd a little bit.

BNC interface, with a hinge..

Guts!

The rear access guts only go so deep. I'd love a shot of the gear reduced wipe controls, but until I actually start digging into this with repair on my mind I'm going to limit the exploration to easy access.

More guts topside. Circa 1977, this is always what I sort of expected to see when cracking open video gear, but to date the majority of circuitry I've seen has been discrete.

Power up carried both good and bad news. It powered up... Also, running the wipe varied indicator light intensity of each input block in relation to position of handle, indicating proper function of that branch.

However, the preview & program output channel selectors (lit at lower left) were unresponsive, and the program bus appears spread out across four channels. Granted, I'm only going on lamp indicators and not observed signal path.

The wide range of video signal types, available simultaneously (I'll get to that device soon enough) coupled with simple tricks such as this truly make video a fascinating format.

7 comments:

matthewjosephpayne said...

How the hell do you do this? I've been hunting and hunting for stuff like this with almost no luck! Beautiful piece!

Also; two posts in two days? I hardly believe it.

matthewjosephpayne said...

When I say "stuff like this", I should clarify; video mixers, ideally old ones.

crochambeau said...

Hahaha, plug "Shintron" in eBay, there's a similarly styled, but functionally simpler unit at auction right now. Looks like more of a video camera preamp with gen-lock support (I'm guessing it predates TBC support, given the vintage & size...)

I don't know how I do it. It just happens. I'm actually editing shots for a third update right now, I just wasn't in the right head space for blogging for a while, I'm feeling an uptick coming on..

Mark R. Hasan said...

Hi -

Just wondered if you were able to get the Shintron functional, and what were the main issues.

I recently purchased the same model, minted in 1975, which has virtually identical problems. The preview output is non-responsive, but the Program does output a video signal (composite video from a DVD) when plugged into any of the Video Inputs.

Pity there's no basic manual online - There's little info on the company beyond some listings in trade publications.

Would love to know if you were able to restore the unit without too many heaches, as I'm hoping a local techie might have similar luck, as this SEG seems to have some unique features that could be useful in feedback / analogue video art.

Cheers --- Mark H.

crochambeau said...

Hi Mark,

Apologies on the delay in reply, my notifications have been "rerouted" it seems.

Anyway, sad to say I haven't done anything with this SEG. I have another one, branded 3M SEG 672... which, wait for it... exhibits similar misbehaviour. So, at this point I'd scrutinize capacitors and PCB header & switch conductivity before diving into heavy circuit analysis. Perhaps 3M documentation is easier to find?

Mark R. Hasan said...

Hi -

Just noticed your update, and in the interim period I bought a second unit that's also unresponsive (sigh). I've seen a re-badged 3M model on Ebay, but I think I'm holding back on further Shintron models. Seems they require a common degree of restoration. One day, perhaps, because I'd still love to see what this model can do. It's also a pretty mixer, decked out with very senties fonts, buttons, and those giant chrome levers.

The only residual mention of Shintron as a company can be found in old industry publications, but no actual reviews of the gear; just mentions as they were apparently a leading indie brand in ENG post-production gear for a while.

If you ever get your unit restored, would love to see footage of what it can do, and tips on getting restored.

Cheers --- Mark H.

crochambeau said...

Hi Mark

Yeah, I've been off the rails for a while regarding the blog. I recently hit a wall with social media overload, so I think I might hang out here more often.

I just grabbed the 3M and powered it up. It still doesn't respond to my button pushes. The 5 volt line reads 4.2 volts, which I believe is well below optimal for all the 7400 series logic ICs on board. This might just boil down to freshening up that power rail, though I imagine there's a lot of oxidization/etc on the switches too.

Perhaps a little switch resistance will be ignored if the logic is fed the appropriate 5 volts. It's a crazy time of year, but I might find the time to dig in and see if that helps.

Cheers, Curtis