How "Instant-On" Works and How to Disable it on a Motorola Quasar Color TV
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 вер 2024
- The advantages and disadvantages of "Instant-On" or "Quick-On" on 1960's and 1970's TV sets. The feature TV is a 1969 Motorola Quasar color television built by Motorola in Franklin Park, IL.
When I was a kid we had a Westinghouse color TV that had that instant on feature. It was a all tube chassis. That set was always giving us some kind of problems and the back was off more than it was on. Dad was a Westinghouse employee so he got a discount on it. That Westinghouse was replaced with a RCA solid state XL-100 in the early mid 1970's
Reminds me of my parents' 1972 Sylvania TV set. It had vacuum tubes for the video and solid state for the audio. It had a feature to keep the tubes partially operational at all times. It was easily disabled by a switch in the back of the TV. Later in the TV's life it was unplugged when not in use because the on/off switch was broken (we finally got it fixed). The picture tube lasted 18 years and my parents just got a Zenith after that, which died only a few years later.
Beautiful set. I grew up watching TV on this exact model. My parents got theirs as a wedding gift in 1968 and had it until the CRT finally died in 1987. Many find memories in front of it including watching MTV sign on when I was 7 years old on that very set.
I remember this TV from an old, old video. I really like the works in a drawer design, seems like it's very easy to service.
My family had this on a 1975 floor console model. My mother ran the set 24/7, literally. That tv lasted until I got rid of it in about 1993. Very interesting video. I never knew how Instant On worked.
I've missed your videos. I saw your console stereo in the background. Years ago, I bought a working Motorola 3 channel tube console stereo (with a huge Jensen woofer, 18"?) and it's been at my parents' house ever since. Seeing your console reminded me of that and I'm going to get it and get it into service. I'll do a cap replacement first. Thanks for you videos!
that was really a learning experience for me, i really liked this video and the way you explained how everything works, very interesting, also i could tell this was video tuesday because of the episode of bewitched i was watching that too,,i have not changed the tv channel in over 2 years, it stays on Antenna Tv,,, and when i want to see the local news i just go online and watch it because they stream it, thanks again for this really truely great video,
This was our first color TV purchased in 1970, was a great set that lasted about 20 years and had a very bright and high contrast picture. If memory serves me, it had a 27.5Kv high voltage section that was responsible for the vibrant picture. What was nice on this set is that all the convergence controls were easily accessible by pulling out the drawer. We had the instant on disable switch on the chassis which was keep off.
Totally mesmerized by this stuff! I swear, You remind me of when my dad used to take me into electronic stores in the early 70s as a kid. You would come across these super intellectual guys who still sported the crew-cuts, thin ties, white shirts, and horned rimmed glasses. Remnants of the mad-men era in the post hippie age of 1973. This is all said as a compliment of course! So much garbage on UA-cam... you're an old-school, hard-hat type of guy who speaks clearly and concise and knows what they're doing. Rarity these days.
Should also mention.. a good comparison would also be the 1960's NASA guys.
westy40 He does do an excellent job - very knowledgeable
The picture and sound is SO good on that TV. Also, without the instant on picture, it still came on very FAST. My parents had a B&W console TV from around 1959...it took around 30 or more seconds before sound OR picture came on
Another excellent video, and the first I've seen referencing that dreaded "Instant-on" fad!!
The 25AP22 was my favorite CRT, almost always a nice picture, easy to converge, ready availability of rebuilt or new CRT's, and with all major brand manufacturers (not so much with RCA). The one thing which most independents disliked about the "guts in the drawer" concept, was when troubleshooting between two boards was required. The Quasar technical manuals weren't made readily available to independents, and the SAMS Photofact sheets were virtually worthless with regards to board interconnection(s).
I remember when the quick start was a feature showcased at the dealer display advertising and the salesman pitch. thanks for the post. !
I remember the same sales pitch, but also how knowledgeable and technically correct the salesmen were, something you don't see today.
John Wascavage
Kind of funny too when you consider that with the feature disabled, it still only took 3 seconds for the picture to come on strong and clear. Compare that to an older TV that took 10-15+ seconds before it came on. Heck, I've got a NEW CRT tv that takes longer than 3 seconds to fire up!
Great to hear from you again!
I just started watching and noticed immediately on the floor was a Simpson 260 with the external field hard-shell case. I have the "exact" version as well. Yours is only the second one like mine that I've seen! Now back to the vid!
Great but very easy implement mod. Why did they even bother with this feature in a fully transistorized set when the CRT produced an image so quickly?
I had older generation relatives that had the same philosophy. They would unplug electronic devices when not in use. Who could blame them? Paper caps used in the line running 24/7. They probably had some personal stories about these sort of issues with either themselves or people that they knew. No wonder they wanted to unplug for safety reasons! In your case, this added decades to the service life of the CRT.
Wonderful color image in this set.
Thanks for the video!
That is a very nice set.. I love how the chassis slides out.
Nice set. I want my ATV! No affiliates nearby. The nearest affiliate here co-channels a stronger station. Thanks for posting.
I suspected that my grandmother's 1974 Chomacolor II (19EC45 chassis) had this "instant on" feature. I noticed that if I left the TV plugged in overnight there was very little warmup time. I never did hook up a Kill-a-watt to it to confirm my suspicions. The chassis did have a safety interlock that disconnected line power if you took the back off. I thought it was a standard feature at that point.
The good thing is for most of its life, it was plugged into the switched outlet on a cable box (so you could power the TV on/off with its remote). After it was "retired" from day to day use, it sat unplugged for about 20 years!
I like your stuff especially your 60 flat top I have a 59 Chevy Belair 61 Impala both are 283 3speeds and a 81 Elcomino 350 factorl 4 speed love the old stuff keep the videos comming
I have the same chassis, this video helped alot.
Consumer Reports, probably just before instant-on sets were banned in a lot of places, wrote that while the feature costs more to run, it was easier on the tubes because it avoided thermal shock during warmup. I'd guess that this was of varying importance depending on the construction of the tubes themselves and their surroundings. It's probably a bigger disadvantage on a vintage set, that might spend most of its life plugged in, but off, than on a then-current set that was constantly being turned on and off.
Thank you for this excellent, excellent information. We had a TV from the late 50's then our neighbor/ TV repair man Mr. Kralik delivered a new Motorola black and white early to mid 60's to us. If I send you a photo can you ID it for me?
Video starts at 1:09 (you should be able to fix this in UA-cam)
It's really cool that the original owners kept this set unplugged. Very smart.
EDIT: Okay, he edited the video so it no longer starts late
Why would the video start there?
My dad, and to a lesser degree, my mom, were terrified of electrical equipment. He unplugged EVERYTHING when it wasn't in use - the TV, the stereo, the toaster, even the floor and table lamps. No AC-powered clocks - they were all either battery operated or wind-up models. He grudgingly accepted that the refrigerator had to be left plugged in. The really odd thing was - he was perfectly okay with the pilot lights in the gas stove and the furnace. I think it was a case of what he understood versus what he didn't. You can't SEE how electricity works (generally, if you 'see' electricity, something's gone tragically wrong!), but a pilot light is a fairly simple concept.
The house was positively pitch-dark at night. Even night lights were considered 'dangerous'.
He wouldn't even change a light bulb unless he was absolutely certain the lamp was unplugged. He'd go into the basement and pull the fuses before he'd swap out a bulb in the overhead fixtures. Why? Because it was the 'official' procedure to disconnect power before changing a light bulb. He read it in a POPULAR MECHANICS or something. He never realized he was in just as much danger dinking with the fuses in that panel as he was changing the light bulb itself - perhaps even MORE danger, as the floor of the basement was concrete (and therefore technically a 'ground').
I bought my dad a VCR for Christmas one year; it too was unplugged when not in use. Which, of course, meant he couldn't use it to record his shows, and therefore the machine was completely worthless to him. It took me bloody ages to convince him it wasn't dangerous.
A friend of mine had one of these and it had a "vacation" switch on it to turn that feature off - I think it was in the back of the set.
What is interesting is they could have just had a three position switch on the front "Off" "Standby" "On" and explained in the user manual (back when people actually read those things for more than humor value) that standby would allow for an instant on but may potentially reduce tube life and the Off position should be used when retiring for the night or when not using the set for long periods of time.
Excellent video Doug.
Seen those on quite a few admiral models never knew that it could be a problem with a full tube television
Nice set Doug!
I remember we had a similar set and one particular afternoon, I had fun "painting" with a large magnet. Ended up damaging the tube beyond repair. 40 years later and I'm still grounded,
Amazing condition. a rarity in those days, a family which did not watch much TV. As a kid I remember switching on the TV set when I woke up in the morning and that set was on until my parents went to sleep at the end of the tonight show or maybe the late movie every single day. Sets never made it more than 7 to 10 years in my parents house..LoL. Funny thing, I wonder if a modern LCD set would last longer under the same conditions.
I can't believe how easy you're able to come by alot of these vintage TV's. I can't seem to find any thing in my City, which is kinda of puzzling because I don't necessarily live in a small City either. Even when i do find something on Kijiji their usually asking way too much over the value. I seem to have more luck at my local electronic drop off depots but I hardly ever come by anything 70's never mind anything late 60's. It's a real shame too, since I think most probably ended up in the landfill 25 to 30 years ago. When cheaper Plastic CRT TV's that were lighter and more affordable became the new desire.
What I find most interesting about this video is the date of manufacture. I would have sworn that all TVs in the late '60s were still using a (mostly) tube-type chassis. I owned a GE in the '70s that sure did, but maybe Magnavox was ahead of the curve. This raises a question - Did instant-on TVs with a tube-type chassis only apply filament voltage when switched off? Or did they also maintain some low level of B+ to prevent poisoning the tubes? I just can't remember now how that was done.
Hello again, I was wondering, with the amount of service literature you have, is there any info about the original design lifetime of these sets?
@7:40 would disabling this feature void the warranty in any way? I might have to dig up the bean counters from 1969 and ask them.
We had a 19 inch RCA television in 1969 and it had an instant on as well however on the back there was a toggle switch saying vacation which was the same as a defeat so we kept the vacation switch off thereby saving the life of the picture tube like you said
GREAT video as are your others ! What was the ball park average life of the CRTs that did not have this modification done ? You would think in 69 They would have deduced CRTs failing faster with this "Instant ON BUt then again they could sell more CRT replacements that way
Now I know why my old RCA color console went pop one day when I pushed the power bar down to turn it on.
@RedNeckBryon - That show was Bewitched. @Doug - Love the vid! I've heard this feature kills the sets. Curious if you made a video showing the "instant on" in action...
That's a great old set. Beautiful picture. What was the usual failure mode for CRT's with instant on?
Great TV Doug
Does it have a Motorola Radio ? Looks like in the video I saw a read dial on the front
The radio looking slide rule dial is the UHF tuner.
Hiya ! I found this video because i asked if my computer tower would charge my Switch pro controller while the tower was off ; the answer is maybe ? some of the ports can stay on if one sets them that way and that led me to thinking of Dad telling me an Instand On tee vee was actually never really completely off. Ours stayed unplugged when not in use. He was one of the first people on his block to have a television . Gosh i miss him. He was the first one my kids ever knew to have have an email address.
I remember we had a little Panasonic that had this feature.
What kind of sets did Montgomery Wards sell? I think that was our fist set.
I'd be (from today's point of view) not only concerned about the life of the CRT filament, but also how much power this feature consumes - it would be using a fair amount of power even if it was switched off I assume?
I also remember my grandmother having an old ITT TV set back during my childhood (mid-80s), it was equipped with tubes (for the audio I assume also? - I remember my grandmother opening it herself for service a few times and there were a fair bit of tubes in there). It had an instant on feature as well, but this feature could be turned off!
I still remember, there were two on/off switches. If one was pushed in, the TV set turned on, but needed ~ half a minute until sound and picture came up. The other one just set the set on standby, a red-dot indicator came up in the program preset display (by the way, a nixie tube style one!). If the standby switch had been pressed in for a while, and the power switch was turned on, there were instant picture and sound. So with this set you were offered the choice if you wanted to use the instant-on feature or not.
Unfortunately the set got disposed of after a fault and replaced by a new one - it smelled burnt for a while while watching a show and suddenly almost caught fire and scared the hell out of me.. I could hardly sleep the night afterwards!
I remember growing up there was a couple friends of mine that had parents that would make them unplug the tv after we were done watching it or playing Nintendo...I thought they were crazy....now I know why
I never knew that design that Motorola made the Chassis to stored in the drawer right nearby the Console or the Control Panel along with Speaker. =)
I remember a old tube portable B/W set. The instant on feature was just a diode across the power switch. Customer didn't like that it was warm when plugged in and turned off. So I just snipped the diode.
Do you restore and sell old sets?
This set definitley doesn't need Instant on. It doesn't take any longer for the picture to come up than most modern CRT solid state sets. Something I have noticed though is electronically controlled CRT RCA sets over the last 25 years or so seem to have an instant on and the screen doesn't "flash" or collapse when you turn them off.
Politely suggest you read about early computers that ran on vacuum tubes; they were left running 24/7 to improve the reliability of the tubes. This is 1960's technology though, it wasted a lot of electricity for a slight convenience.
I don't think it really helped the reliability of the tubes as much as it did the surrounding circuitry. When a tube device is powered on, there is a massive amount of surge current. Those computers also had so many tubes that filament flash and subsequent spontaneous failure was a greater concern than wearing out the cathode material by cooking it to death. I have seen a video someone posted of a house intercom, an object that wouldn't have seen much use have a terribly weak audio output tube because it constantly kept the filaments heated.
Correct me if I'm wrong the holiday switch is basically a similar concept, you basically hit the switch when you go away so the CRT is no longer lit.
If you think about it they should have put the holiday switch on the front of the set so more people would have used them.
Was that show, I Dream of Jeannie?
I've seen a "vacation " switch on this era set which completely turned off power to the CRT filament and the entire filament string.
That show was Bewitched.
The TV was made when I only about a month old :)
My new, modern (2006) Panasonic plasma TV takes much longer than a tube television: 30-40 seconds to "boot up."
Interesting. I remember back then there were stories (whether true or not I don't know) of instant-on TV's catching fire. I wonder if the original owners thought that so they kept it unplugged when they weren't using it.
Yeah, I remember hearing that too.
Ours started smoking, then I pulled the plug.
+meleagrisfelis The one thing I remember about these sets is that they tended to get caked in dust, probably from the constant convection currents. On a set like this, with only two tubes, that might be less of an issue.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Ironically, TV manufacturers use the instant on feature as selling point "end annoying warm-up time and to "extend the life of the tubes" by reducing "metal fatigue" in the tube filaments from constant on/off cycle. Such was not the case. It just added to power cost and lowered tube life.
The instant on feature was not limited to TV's. I worked on a 1961 Westinghouse AM/FM table radio for a friend that had that feature. There was a sticker in it that gave a similar explanation as above and said it used less power than a C7 Christmas tree lamp when the set was "off." After I replaced the capacitors and a few bad resistors, my friend's set just barely worked. I then checked all seven tubes and all seven were bad, with very low emission. The moral of the story. Two winners- the tube manufacturers and the local power company!!
Instant on wasted valuable electricity and polluting coal consumption.
Love coal , nice heat..