Hey all I'm new here and have a question. I work for a University Law college and awhile back we found an old projector in a back room. It is in a big cabinet on wheels and seems to be a crt projector. This is what I found on it.

Projection Systems, Inc.
Model CV 3 Color TV Projector
Serial #0231
Manufactured 4/76

Automation Services Division
The Union Corporation
Windsor, New York 13865

We haven't plugged it in to see if it works yet but plan to do so soon. Does anybody have an idea about this thing. Or if it's worth anything?

Hello

It is unheard of and probably worth nothing.


.

Well I thought I would see if anybody had heard of it... It's a pretty interesting piece of equipment though.

Why don't you take some pictures of it for us to go over. 1976 is really old, it may be an antique ;)

For the old timers here:

PSI? Eric Lang made it! :D

I'll bet it's an Advent or similar.

I'd love to see pictures.

Art

The only three tube projector on the market in 76 would have been the Advent 1000a. Henry Kloss's first design. It famously or infamously looked like a giant Norelco Shaver. I recall it being based on early flight simulators.
Fading memories at this point.

Ok here are some pics...

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0807.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0806.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0805.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0808.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0809.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0810.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0811.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0812.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0813.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0814.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0815.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0816.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0817.jpg

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0804.jpg

Pictures should be in the approving stage... waiting on a moderator.

Eric Lang? Wow! That's a blast from the past! I was lucky to have done a trade with him for a PD1100 DVD player and it went off without a problem. I even got support a couple of times after that!

Doc

One crazy thing I noticed were the vortex fans behind the tubes... They said Dayton on them which I'm guessing was the same company as Dayton Superchargers back then.

Wow! What a wild design from the early days.
It looks like Schmidt Reflective Optics. Target and Mirror. Similar to the early Advent and later the Kloss Novabeam. More efficient use of the very little light that was available from early crts.
Use of a refractive Lens in front of a tube came later in the Advent line and continued on until the recent demise of crt projection systems. Interestingly the later Advents were made by Electrohome, a Canadian manufacturer
I would guess this projection pioneer might be worth something as a museum or collector piece.
It looks in pretty good condition.

WOW now that is something else. Way cool! Tiny air cooled crt's mounted in schmidt cassegrain lenses. Does it power on?

Yes it powers on and the left tube fires up and if you look into the mirror you can see scribbles just like a tv thats not on a good channel. But it makes a loud humming noise like it's picking up some major interference! The remote is way cool though. Has about 20 feet of cable so you could sit waay in the back when it worked correctly.

What on earth are all those belts and pulleys for?

I had a chuckle here too...I bought a 1272 from Eric Lang 8-9 years ago. Drove out to his place in central Wisconsin to get it as I only lived a few hours away. Worked well for a few months, then an issue. He helped me through diagnosing the problem, and when we couldn't figure it out, he swapped it out for me (had to drive back out to him to do that). Only used it for another year or so, then had to pack it up when I bought a house that didn't have a room large enough to use it. Working on refinishing an area in the basement to put it...I'm looking forward to that day again. I guess I should cross my fingers it still powers up after all that time in storage!

Wow I can't believe someone else has one of these! I've owned one since the early 80s. It was one of the earliest and best units of it's time. As mentioned, it has an open Schmidt optical system, and high output Thomson 3" CRTs. The original chassis used modified RCA XL-100 components. It requires a Curved High Gain Silver Screen, or a Silver Lenticular Flat or Pulldown Projection Screen. Projection size is 6-14', adjustable. Mine still works perfectly last time I checked. BTW, the photo with the rubber bands made me laugh. They had a problem with the leads popping of the RCA video driver modules, and that was their solution believe it or not.

CollegeIT....If you realy want to tinker with it, I can be of help.
BTW, this unit retailed for $12,000.00 to $15,000.00 back in 1976.

Wow that's a handsome piece of clasic equipment! I like it.

Well I'm not sure what would be the problem with this thing as it makes an annoying buzzing sound and only one lamp seems to fire up. It would probably be more of a hassle to get this thing running correctly. Could be for sale if anyone is interested or needs some parts haha...

Make sure the three video leads are connected to the video amplifiers (the ones with the rubber bands on them). Also open the flip-down door on the back of the remote unit, and make sure all three tube switches are in the on position. The buzzing could be a defective speaker, or a bad capacitor in the audio section.

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo162/CollegeIT/DSCN0812.jpg

What... no point? :p

I just had an eyegasm! I've never seen one of those before, but I want it :)

....stardate 1354673 point 7

destination? alpha century prime!

Green love bunny? Taishey!

..Are you guys sure that this is not something from the original Star Trek prop department?

It kinda reminds me of this:


Martin

I have a hobby of restoring old tube test equipment, I also know CRT's pretty well.

The buzzing your describing is most likely bad electrolytic caps in the power supply. You really shouldn't run it until some work is done to restore it. Bad power supply caps will let tons of 60hz AC into all the circuits and could do damage. Electrolytic caps all loose thier value and should almost universally be replaced everywhere when doing a restore of this vintage and older.

Its in truly awesome shape and can 100% be restored into working condition with some nice tender loving care.

That really reminds me of the RCA video projectors used in theaters.

I would _love_ to restore that. What a wonderful device.

Hopefully the tubes have not been broken..

You might also wanna be a bit careful as it might have some x-ray output up close to the front of the tube faces. There appears to be little, if any, shielding.

...Those controls are awesome!

Like I said they look like the template for a Star Trek prop.

You should treat it with that TLC mox is talking about and get it back to its glory days!

Good luck

Martin

-OR- maybe it needs to make it to ebay where a proper price for a nice collectors item could be had. The problem is shipping. It would have to go on a pallet and have lots of nice cushioning. The shipping alone would be expensive.

What a great project tho.

Even if it does some broken tubes or some serious issue, what a great looking conversation piece for one of us CRT nerds :)

I have just the test equipment I have restored to work on it too. You DO want to work on it with test equipment of the era, not some modern digital meter or scope. http://www.xymox1.com/Projects/erie_instrumation_model_400.htm

So,,, what did happen to this projector. Its been a year..

....stardate 1354673 point 7

destination? alpha century prime!

Green love bunny? Taishey!

..Are you guys sure that this is not something from the original Star Trek prop department?

It kinda reminds me of this:


Martin

Martin,

That photo gave me a chuckle this morning!:) I'll have to show it to my wife and see what she thinks.;)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Polardoor/menandwomen.jpg

So,,, what did happen to this projector. Its been a year..

The last activity for the OP on AVS was last February. Hopefully we'll hear back someday, or maybe someone here scored it for restoration?

:):D:):D:):D:):D:)

Yeah blast that is a cool pic,show it to your wife...

When I first saw it I send it to some of my female friends...needless to say they had a nice laugh! (...then they accused it of being soooo Martin! using tech to convey a concept such as this!)

:p:p:p:p:p

yeah what did happen to this PJ???

Martin

oohh i think i'ts a T-Rex egg! :D Cool!!

Billboard in its brief MIPCOM/VIDCOM round-up in the October 2 1976 issue mentioned that this machine was shown at the Palais d'Festival, and that the distributeur was Speywood. The Advent and some GE units represented by Videac Electronique and a new entry by the UKs Zygma electronics are the listed competitors.

http://books.google.nl/books?id=qCQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=advent+videobeam+700&source=bl&ots=ivDvDQr5-V&sig=MWdvjCwTd49HruEakJmP44hNCcU&hl=nl&ei=ooHGSsqgCIys4QbG_63HAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=advent&f=false

I still have mine, plus spare parts. If there's anyone in New England interested, contact me. I say New England, because shipping this beast would be extremely expensive, not to mention crating it properly.