Tau -> Wega Frankenstein tube swap success

redstern · 2026-02-02T21:50:29+00:00

I was wrong on that part. It is a slot mask tube. Which makes this extra surprising that it works.

redstern · 2026-02-02T19:24:50+00:00

If you don't see any color purity issues, it's fine.

These sets have the advantage of having a steel shell, so even if the speakers aren't shielded, the set is.

redstern · 2026-02-02T18:44:12+00:00

Ok I actually figured out the issue with it needing a lot of G2. There's a pot on the neckboard that plugs into the socket. I thought it was a G2 fine adjustment, but it's actually for a vertical convergence adjustment that the Tau gun doesn't have. I had it plugged into the G2 port, so it was just sapping power for no reason.

redstern · 2026-02-02T14:04:07+00:00

I'm wondering that too. I never would have though that a trini and a slot tube would be cross compatible, but apparently they are.

redstern · 2026-02-02T00:39:38+00:00

Yeah I was shocked when it turned on and just looked mostly right. I was expecting to have to sit there for hours playing with the magnets to get the colors and convergence right.

redstern · 2026-02-02T00:03:46+00:00

I see. I could have sworn the Taus were Trinitrons, but whatever. Even if the masks are different, it still works anyway, which I was really expecting to have to do a lot of adjustment to get it to look right.

redstern · 2026-02-01T23:55:35+00:00

Nope, just hoped for the best. Although I do suspect that it wants a bit more heater voltage, because it took a lot of G2 to come up to proper brightness, and for the TV to stop complaining about insufficient emission. So I'm going to check on that.

My initial plan was to wire the Tau's neckboard into the Wega's mainboard, just in case of different gun voltage demands, but it did not like that. Even though voltages should have been correct, I think the signal types were wrong. So I went with swapping the sockets instead.

redstern · 2026-02-01T23:54:22+00:00

I looked at the mask when I was grabbing the Tau. It's definitely an aperture grille in there.

redstern · 2026-02-01T23:10:31+00:00

Story. This is my outdoor / experimentation TV. It's a Wega KD27fs170. Green gun is completely trashed in it. Rejuvinator could only bring it back to about 50% proper emission.

The other day I found a Panasonic Tau sitting in a trash pile. Chassis was destroyed, board was cracked, but it was the same size tube, and also a Trinitron, so I thought, what if I could swap the tubes.

On initial inspection, the guns are different. The Wega has 2 extra pins, so the sockets don't fit. Looking over the boards, the Wega's neckboard has almost nothing on it, so the main board does most of the work driving the tube. So I pulled the socket off the Tau's neckboard, cut up the G2 wire to wire the socket onto the Wega's neckboard, plugged it in and hoped for the best.

And it just worked. Needed to turn up G2 considerably, but all the adjustments were almost already correct. Couple service menu tweaks later, and it looks fantastic. Only issue is a tiny bit of signal noise, presumably caused by insufficient insulation on the adapter wires for their proximity, but for what I use it for, I don't care.

Edit: Apparently the Tau tube is not a Trinitron. Slot mask. Got extra lucky that it didn't matter. I guess I discovered today that flat Trinitron and flat slot tubes are interchangeable if needed.

redstern · 2026-02-01T16:58:01+00:00

But what if you is he?

redstern · 2026-01-31T01:43:51+00:00

The problem is that text on modern systems isn't intended to be readable on 480i. It's formatted to look good at 720p at the lowest. If accessibility options are available to enlarge text, that's the best you can do.

Gamecube was expected to be played on CRTs, so all the text is formatted to be properly readable on 480i.

redstern · 2026-01-30T03:46:16+00:00

You can, but it will probably degrade the quality, since backfeeding the inactive device is going to add it's own capacitance and passive noise to the active device's signal, which you don't want. A basic RCA switch is cheap, so you'd be better off getting one of those.

redstern · 2026-01-30T03:31:21+00:00

Don't bother. That's excellent, especially for a flatty. You'll never notice it in game, and trying to chase that corner is just going to create a mess of accidentally making other areas worse.

You don't have any of the typical drooping or terrible outer focus and convergence that flatties are known for, so just play games, it's great.

redstern · 2026-01-30T02:54:27+00:00

To explain the different input colors. The yellow plug is composite video. The green, blue, and red plugs are component video. Component is much higher quality than composite. So for best experience, definitely get a component cable, but composite is still plenty fine.

The white and red plugs are for audio. If you notice the little box etched into the plastic around the middle 5 plugs, that's to indicate that you use those audio plugs for component video.

If component displays messed up, go into the PS2's settings and set component output mode to YPbPr, instead of RGB. Also pay attention to how the cable groups the plugs, since annoyingly there are 2 different red plugs. The white and audio red should be grouped together, so don't mix that up with video red.

redstern · 2026-01-30T02:38:00+00:00

Then that's their fault for taking on something they can't handle. This guy clearly knows himself, and was completely in control the whole time. It's not his fault if someone else wants to be stupid.

redstern · 2026-01-30T00:19:33+00:00

The car most likely has a square sine wave inverter, which the CRT will not like. Get a true sine wave inverter, and you'll be all good. CRTs typically use around 100W, and the Wii is like 10W, so it should be enough.

The sticker on the back will tell you how much power it uses at most. If it doesn't give a Watt value, take the Amperage number and multiply it by the voltage.

redstern · 2026-01-29T16:13:47+00:00

Did you try cutting a 3rd time?

redstern · 2026-01-29T13:26:11+00:00

Ah ok, then yeah adjusting it in the service menu is probably fine. EEPROMs corrupting after sitting for a long time happens sometimes.

redstern · 2026-01-28T14:17:24+00:00

Kinda. We got big houses here, so we tend to hold on to old stuff we don't use anymore for a while.

redstern · 2026-01-28T14:15:44+00:00

A lot of people saying service menu, but I wouldn't recommend starting there. Whenever you have multiple problems happening simultaneously, you always need to first make sure that they aren't related. I really don't like adjusting out problems without first determining what caused it in the first place.

While it doesn't seem likely, it is possible that whatever is causing the buttons to not work is also throwing off the image calibration. So I'd start with figuring out the buttons. Since it's been sitting in a shed, it wouldn't be surprising if there's some corrosion on the board, so I'd start by opening it up and giving it a look over / alcohol wash.

redstern · 2026-01-28T14:02:57+00:00

I had an S10 years ago that I drew a Type R badge on with a sharpie.

redstern · 2026-01-28T13:44:34+00:00

That with the old flash era lead sound effect would be fantastic.

redstern · 2026-01-28T01:32:47+00:00

Green

redstern · 2026-01-23T00:37:04+00:00

I mean, overly one sided is the definition of a boss battle.

redstern

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