A 70s TV with parts from the 20s

Keeping old technology running becomes exponentially difficult with age. Most of us have experienced the capacitor plague, wire insulation decay, planned obsolescence, or even the original company that failed and no longer offers parts or service. To make an antique work often requires a lot of spare parts, or in the case of [Aaron's] vintage 70s Sony TV, a lot of modern technology designed to look like a machine from half a year ago. century.

This TV's original flyback transformer was the initial cause of this machine's failure, and getting a new one would essentially require destroying a working set, so it was a perfect candidate for a resto-mod without disturbing the purists. To start, [Aaron] ordered an LCD screen with controls (and a remote) that would almost match the existing bezel, then set out to integrate the modern controls into the older analog TV dials. This meant using many rotary encoders and programming a microcontroller to do the translation.

There are many other fine details in this version, including audio integration, the addition of modern video and audio inputs like HDMI, and the addition of LEDs to backlight the channel indicators Original (and now functional) UHF and VHF. In its 70s-themed display wall, this TV looks perfectly natural. If your own display wall sheds light on an even older era, take a look at some old radio restorations instead.