My B&W Iconoscope TV camera project
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:18 am
G'day all.
This is my latest project I have embarked on and it is a very ambitious one too, I am going to build an Iconoscope tube B&W TV camera! Those who have followed my NBTV camera thread will be already aware of it as I gave a sneak preview. Anyways thought I'd do a bit of work on the camera first before posting anything so over the past couple of weeks I've been doing a bit of work here and there with the camera and so far made a bit of progress, so now thought I'd start making the thread.
So starting from the beginning, I am a proud owner of an early 1940s RCA 1846 military grade Iconoscope TV camera tube http://troysvintagevideo.0catch.com/1846iconoscope.html which looks to be in great condition and still under vacuum (no white spots at the getters) and I intend on making a working camera from it.
So I have been gathering up as much data as I can on iconoscope cameras and tubes from various sources and have been contacting those with greater knowledge of cameras for assistance including Yoshio Osaki who successfully built a solid state Iconoscope camera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5l39WsnKo . He couldn't provide me with the official schematics due to misplacing them but kindly provided me with some sketched schematics and notes from his memo pad he was able to find which includes the camera's power supply and the head amp and the deflection yoke construction data which is a great start . He prefers I build the camera first before sharing the data so abiding by his wishes I will get the camera built first before sharing them.
I didn't have any data on the RCA 1846 Iconoscope tube but do have data on the 1848 tube which was what Yoshio went by when constructing his 1846 Iconoscope camera. The 1846 and 1848 are nearly identical in specs and in physical appearance so the 1848 data will be fine for the job. The 1846 is actually the military version of the 1848 tube, 1846 tubes were used in WW2 bomber cameras as a visual aid to guide unmanned remote bomber planes/boats to their targets which on impact the camera gets destroyed, more info on these cameras can be found here http://www.earlytelevision.org/military_tv.html . The 1848 tubes were used in outdoor broadcast cameras and the larger 1850/1850A tubes were used for indoor studio cameras.
Now to the construction side of things, I started off racking my brain on a suitable enclosure to house an Iconoscope camera system in, I was initially going to make an enclosure out of wood but then I looked at an empty old computer tower case (initially housing a classic 90s IBM 486 DX2-66) and thought it would make a perfect enclosure due to it's size and the drive mount at the top being nice and square to sit a lens inside so I went with it.
Before doing anything with the case I decided to make a cardboard model of the Iconoscope tube around the same size to use as reference
so I don't risk damage to the tube from over handling it, so that's what I did as seen in the pics, later I also made a cardboard model of the yoke as well.
Now back onto the tower case. First step was to remove the unwanted metal framework in the case so with a hacksaw I cut it all out. Then I needed to stick a metal platform in the back end near the top for the Iconoscope tube to sit on top so I grabbed a metal cover from a scrapped computer power supply and screwed/riveted it in the back of the case at a suitable position for the tube to fit. Then I had to find a suitable way to mount the tube on the platform so I cut a piece of wood with a curved bight at the top and I lined it with rubber from an ex bike tube and sitting the tube on top it fits like a glove. Due to the limited space between the platform and the top of the case I had to make the wood mount removable and the tube fitted to it externally so I cut some brackets and drilled/screwed them to the platform in a suitable position and the wooden mount and tube slides on between the brackets and I screw the mount to the brackets with bolts and wing nuts. I then had to make a strap to hold the tube onto the wood mount so cutting more bike tube rubber I made the strap and nailed one end to one side of the mount and stuck a screw part way in the other side and on the other end of the strap connected a washer to use as a hook to hook around the screw and that worked, the strap fits nice and snug and gripped around the tube but I made sure it was not He-Man tight of course . Then next part was to make a mount for the tube's yoke and going by Yoshio's given dimensions of the yoke I made a cardboard model of it and cut another wooden mount with a slanted bight at the top for the yoke to sit in in a slanted position. Due to uncertainty of the height position of the yoke I made the mount height adjustable by cutting elongated holes into the metal piece the mount is going to be screwed to so I can adjust the height of it. And that's where I am up to at the moment with the project.
It's coming along slowly due to the fact I have to make do with resources at hand and cutting/machining/making the parts is a timely process and thinking up suitable parts and looking through metal/plastic/wood scraps adds to time and of course I am doing a lot of other things. So I guess it will be a long term project but no matter what I will keep at it even if its in small amounts.
Here below are pictures documenting my construction progress to date and some pdfs of various Iconoscope tubes:
This is my latest project I have embarked on and it is a very ambitious one too, I am going to build an Iconoscope tube B&W TV camera! Those who have followed my NBTV camera thread will be already aware of it as I gave a sneak preview. Anyways thought I'd do a bit of work on the camera first before posting anything so over the past couple of weeks I've been doing a bit of work here and there with the camera and so far made a bit of progress, so now thought I'd start making the thread.
So starting from the beginning, I am a proud owner of an early 1940s RCA 1846 military grade Iconoscope TV camera tube http://troysvintagevideo.0catch.com/1846iconoscope.html which looks to be in great condition and still under vacuum (no white spots at the getters) and I intend on making a working camera from it.
So I have been gathering up as much data as I can on iconoscope cameras and tubes from various sources and have been contacting those with greater knowledge of cameras for assistance including Yoshio Osaki who successfully built a solid state Iconoscope camera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5l39WsnKo . He couldn't provide me with the official schematics due to misplacing them but kindly provided me with some sketched schematics and notes from his memo pad he was able to find which includes the camera's power supply and the head amp and the deflection yoke construction data which is a great start . He prefers I build the camera first before sharing the data so abiding by his wishes I will get the camera built first before sharing them.
I didn't have any data on the RCA 1846 Iconoscope tube but do have data on the 1848 tube which was what Yoshio went by when constructing his 1846 Iconoscope camera. The 1846 and 1848 are nearly identical in specs and in physical appearance so the 1848 data will be fine for the job. The 1846 is actually the military version of the 1848 tube, 1846 tubes were used in WW2 bomber cameras as a visual aid to guide unmanned remote bomber planes/boats to their targets which on impact the camera gets destroyed, more info on these cameras can be found here http://www.earlytelevision.org/military_tv.html . The 1848 tubes were used in outdoor broadcast cameras and the larger 1850/1850A tubes were used for indoor studio cameras.
Now to the construction side of things, I started off racking my brain on a suitable enclosure to house an Iconoscope camera system in, I was initially going to make an enclosure out of wood but then I looked at an empty old computer tower case (initially housing a classic 90s IBM 486 DX2-66) and thought it would make a perfect enclosure due to it's size and the drive mount at the top being nice and square to sit a lens inside so I went with it.
Before doing anything with the case I decided to make a cardboard model of the Iconoscope tube around the same size to use as reference
so I don't risk damage to the tube from over handling it, so that's what I did as seen in the pics, later I also made a cardboard model of the yoke as well.
Now back onto the tower case. First step was to remove the unwanted metal framework in the case so with a hacksaw I cut it all out. Then I needed to stick a metal platform in the back end near the top for the Iconoscope tube to sit on top so I grabbed a metal cover from a scrapped computer power supply and screwed/riveted it in the back of the case at a suitable position for the tube to fit. Then I had to find a suitable way to mount the tube on the platform so I cut a piece of wood with a curved bight at the top and I lined it with rubber from an ex bike tube and sitting the tube on top it fits like a glove. Due to the limited space between the platform and the top of the case I had to make the wood mount removable and the tube fitted to it externally so I cut some brackets and drilled/screwed them to the platform in a suitable position and the wooden mount and tube slides on between the brackets and I screw the mount to the brackets with bolts and wing nuts. I then had to make a strap to hold the tube onto the wood mount so cutting more bike tube rubber I made the strap and nailed one end to one side of the mount and stuck a screw part way in the other side and on the other end of the strap connected a washer to use as a hook to hook around the screw and that worked, the strap fits nice and snug and gripped around the tube but I made sure it was not He-Man tight of course . Then next part was to make a mount for the tube's yoke and going by Yoshio's given dimensions of the yoke I made a cardboard model of it and cut another wooden mount with a slanted bight at the top for the yoke to sit in in a slanted position. Due to uncertainty of the height position of the yoke I made the mount height adjustable by cutting elongated holes into the metal piece the mount is going to be screwed to so I can adjust the height of it. And that's where I am up to at the moment with the project.
It's coming along slowly due to the fact I have to make do with resources at hand and cutting/machining/making the parts is a timely process and thinking up suitable parts and looking through metal/plastic/wood scraps adds to time and of course I am doing a lot of other things. So I guess it will be a long term project but no matter what I will keep at it even if its in small amounts.
Here below are pictures documenting my construction progress to date and some pdfs of various Iconoscope tubes: