MUTR Kit review :cry:

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MUTR Kit review :cry:

Postby pielock373 » Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:50 pm

It assembles very quickly about 20 minutes. The built in test image looks great but none of the video from the CD will sync up. It appears to be drifting randomly with no controlling effect from the sync pot.

The PC board looks to have many cold solder joints but it could be anything. I have tried all the suggestions on the forum with no luck at all.

Has anyone been able to make this kit work or have I just got a defective board?

Totally bummed out!
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Postby DrZarkov » Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:21 pm

the problem is most likely the distance of the disc to the sensor. The manual says "as far away as possible", it should be "as close as possible". It's a bit tricky to find the perfect position.

B) The CD sucks. Try some self-converted movies or the club CDs. You will find some of the testcards at my homepage: http://www.zarkovision.de/testbilder.html
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Postby pielock373 » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:44 pm

Well, it is definitely not the sensor spacing. I have tried it at every conceivable distance right up to about .5 MM any closer and it begins to rub on the disc! I am very disappointed with it, I think the unit must have a problem. I down loaded a test card from the NBTV site and have had no luck with that either.

I emailed MUTR and received an auto reply saying they will be out of contact until Aug 10th! Great...

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Postby pielock373 » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:19 pm

I just down loaded the files directly from the MUTR site, no improvement at all. I think the televisor circuit board must be bad, I am sendng it back as soon as I get a responce back from them.

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Postby DrZarkov » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:01 am

Have you tried another CD-Player? Maybe it is a a problem with the modulation? Some CD-players (and computers also, for example my old Powerbook G4) give out a picture in negative modulation. Of course you can "reverse the polarity" as the Doctor would say, but that is some work with soldering.
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Postby pielock373 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:16 am

Hi DrZarkov

I'm going to look at it tonight on the oscilloscope and see if the signal looks all right coming out of the source.

So far I have tried it on a portable CD player and my laptop with the same results.

It's just frustrating, you buy something and you just want it to work...!!!

Stay tuned...

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Postby AncientBrit » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:40 am

Pielock373.

The CD supplied with my kit was not a WAV format, ended up using the club's CD.

Also I had to build a video invert amp since the output of my cheap CD player produced negative going signal. Check with a scope in your case.

Regards,

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Postby pielock373 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:35 am

What does the inverter circuit look like? I would like some more information on it. I have a multi format DVD CD player at home, I will try that as a source and see how that works.

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Postby bigscreen » Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:46 am

Here I have some simple but usefull small circuits to invert the signal dear
Pielock, and just take care to use a saparated power, they needs 12 or 15 volts dc.

The Mutr uses only 5 and 6 volts in the circuit.
Changing the resistant R 18 (100K) with a variable miniature potty could fix the problem to got the needed power to trigger the IRL530.

And take care not to set the Volumeknob on maximum from the cd player,
just give it an 75%, the amplifierestage has to do his job..... 8)

A small circuit on a lil piece of printboard will not take much place to cover it in the mutr I guess.

I would try to replace the 100K resistor with a variable one, maybe with some wire first to see if you can got it in sync, than you can messure out how much the potty shows you in Ohm. and use this to replace a new resistor from +- the needed Ohm.

But If your device is still under garantie, better ask to change with a new one.............when you are not sure about the risc's. :lol:
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Postby pielock373 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:03 pm

I need a picture of what a typical NBTV wave form should look like to compare with my o-scope readings. I know I saw one displayed somewhere but I for the life of me can't find it on the INTERNET.

So far tonight I have tried the NBTA 32 line video sources with no luck stabilizing the picture. I have also tried the MUTR disc in three computer two Ipods a DVD/CD player and a standard CD player. None would give me a stable picture. I can't believe all of these sources have inverted out put signals.

I am beginning to think I have a bad MUTR televisor kit. :cry:
What is the most puzzling to me is the internal card source works like a charm?

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Postby pielock373 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:23 pm

Here is a signal from the MUTR disc transfered to an I-POD. This is the output of the I-pod. It does look inverted to me. So the question I have now is was the MUTR disc recorded inverted or are all my outputs on 5 different sources all inverted? RRRR...I have a headache!! :roll: I need a drink :wink:

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Postby DrZarkov » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:18 pm

You have an iPod? Great! Download some testcards from the internet, and put them on the iPod. (Don't forget the settings, no pause betwen the different files.!) If you use iTunes, use the best quality as possible. On the small screen of the MUTR televisor you will not see the difference to a CD. All iPods I know will work. The CD which came with the MUTR-kit: Throw it away! Use it for setting a beer glass on it. The quality is very bad, it is not worth the attempt.
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Postby pielock373 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:28 pm

DrZarkov wrote:You have an iPod? Great! Download some testcards from the internet, and put them on the iPod. (Don't forget the settings, no pause betwen the different files.!) If you use iTunes, use the best quality as possible. On the small screen of the MUTR televisor you will not see the difference to a CD. All iPods I know will work. The CD which came with the MUTR-kit: Throw it away! Use it for setting a beer glass on it. The quality is very bad, it is not worth the attempt.


ok, I found cards to download and I tried them from the I-pod to the MUTR. Same problem, no improvement. I am going to contact them and get a replacement sent.

I have also noticed the the pot for brightness is very noisy and the trim pot for sinc has a bent shaft, I am beginning to think they are the source of my problem?? To be honest "I just want to take the televisor and throw it against the wall!"

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Postby gary » Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:32 pm

The only thing I would say there though is that since the inbuilt image is working OK, then you would think that the sync part of the circuitry is working. The input circuitry before the sync circuitry could be awry however.

In any case if you wanted to pursue this further I would advise taking your output from the soundcard of a PC (if you have access to one), this way you can easily change the level of the signal, and also invert the signal, using either the invert option in TBP, or by using a free wave editor and inverting the left channel. If you use Video2 NBTV you can create any signal you like and be sure that it is in spec (although the test cards from DrZarkov's site are fine to use as well).


(BTW it is against NBTVA law to be cruel to a poor Televisor ;-))
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Postby Klaas Robers » Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:09 am

Indeed, the built in test signal is the clue to the whole system. When this synchronises and displays well the circuit is Ok.

If you have an oscilloscope available display the wave form of the internal test picture as well This will guide you on what you should see. So concentrate at the incoming signal, not at the MUTR kit.

However it is possible that the incoming signal is too weak or too strong. You can see that on the disc picture when turning the gain potmeter. Look for picture with good contrast, but not too much.

It is a pity that you cannot run the disc unsynchronised on a variable constant speed, but that would have made the kit more expensive.
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