The main reason a ‘non-enthusiast’ of CRT televisions wants to get rid of them is their size, but that’s compounded by the often huge difficulties of repairing them, their power consumption, and the lack of modern connections. However, those willing to do battle with a CRT monitor or TV and unable to source the needed parts can take a shortcut with universal boards. Adrian from the Adrian’s Digital Basement channel decided to install one of these boards in a Commodore 1702 monitor, and beyond bringing it back to life, it now has additional features like multistandard support and a remote control.
I’ve seen many weird things on AliExpress, but I never imagined I’d find a universal board for CRT monitors. These are not ‘new old stock’ solutions, as their PCBs have dates stamped in 2021 or 2022, and another notable aspect is that the boards include a tuner and a remote control, meaning they work as both a monitor and a TV.
Adrian from Adrian’s Digital Basement (whom we remember for his repairs of Commodore 64 and Amiga) discovered these boards in August last year, acquired one just to see what it was about, and confirmed it works very well. A couple of weeks ago, Adrian returned to this universal board (installed in a Magnavox TV), but with a different goal: to use it in a Commodore 1702 with a tube different from the original.
Installing a Universal CRT Board in a Commodore Monitor
Why? The electronics of the Commodore 1702 are fine, but its tube has accumulated many flight hours and lost strength. Adrian’s plan is to take the tube from the Magnavox, install it in the Commodore monitor’s shell (both are the same size), and add the universal board to take full advantage of it. This combination turns the Commodore 1702 into a kind of “Ship of Theseus” (is it still a Commodore monitor if the tube and board are no longer original?), but the process is fascinating anyway.
With these changes, the Commodore 1702 gains multistandard support (something very rare on this side of the pond, which only had access to NTSC screens), a remote control, and an impressive array of advanced software controls for adjusting the image (18 pages!). The video is long, and the results appear from the 45-minute mark, but I recommend watching it all.
