Clive Sinclair was a genius,

Sinclair one of our UK mad geniuses'. Love it Fran 👍👍

Was your comment about Sinclair quality meant ironically, because from watching this I am confident that this device is the highest quality product _ever_ to come from Sinclair, with metal case, metal chassis, and non-sandpapered-off IC labels. The tube is a wonderful electrostatic-deflection device, unlike most TV tubes which use magnetic deflection. The voltage ladder caps look quite modern - replacements perhaps? I knew Clive Sinclair (he convinced me to join Mensa, one of the most boring experiences of my life), and he was a good bloke, who was more interested in getting his ideas to market than making a fortune. Here in UK people with capital do not want to invest in ideas unless they can make an immediate return, and they believe that their money contributed more to the product than the ideas of its creator. So it was with Sinclair - he developed prototypes and had to sell them early to make money, so most of his stuff was shoddy and tawdry, but with genius hidden within. By the way, the word "tawdry" comes from the town, St Ives, where Clive's factory was - in the old mill by the river Great Ouse (technically it is in the parish of Fenstanton). The Abbey of Ely was founded in 673 by Etheldreda (Audrey), who was canonised, and Ely became a site of pilgrimage. The route of pilgrimage passed through St Ives - along what is now St Audrey's Lane, and along this way stall-holders sold fingers of St Audrey in boxes of a dozen, together with other rubbishy St Audrey ('tawdry) relics and goods. I have the later 1B version of the TV, which has a plastic case, was built to a price (£0.01) and is so insensitive it can only pick up transmissions from immediately below the Sutton Coldfield transmitter mast. But after watching this video I'd quite like a 1A.

Looks like the same CRT they used in the SC110A portable oscilloscope - very unusual to have electrostatic deflection in a TV. There is a service manual for this online with schematics.

I used a later model, possibly smaller still, in 1984 when I worked for a TV news crew. The power came from single-use batteries produced by polaroid (as used in some of their cameras?). Our receiver was used as a simple off-air back-up. It was small enough to fit in a reporter's coat pocket to prompt them during live handovers. The only snag was having to quickly fade down the earpiece sound, otherwise the slight terrestrial delay would be distracting to the reporter during his spiel. Still not as extreme as satellite delay times though. It really was revolutionary, at a time when our 'mobile' phone (no screen!) was built into the car dashboard, and the TV camera ran from a battery that was way heavier than Mr Sinclair's entire TV.

I actually won one of these in a tech competition (first prize) back when they first came out. Its long gone now, but it was the thing to have in those days and ahead in technology!

I was practically screaming at the phone that antenna had to come out! 😂

How awesome! My parents won a Sinclair MTV1 as a raffle at a New Years Eve Party in 1979. I hijacked it and used it through 1982. I have a very distinct memory of watching the movie Catch 22 on it. It wasn't the best way to watch a movie, but if that's all you have, that's what you use! Thanks for posting.

I noticed right away it had no magnetic deflection so I found the PDF online and yep, a form of electrostatic deflection like a scope, rather unique for a TV in that time frame. It would make a good restore project for someone dedicated to that kind of stuff.

Wow. Your covering Sinclair. Such a big part of my childhood growing up with my father owning the first calculator that used the pulsed battery cycle, then the watch. He also had a host of computers from the ZX80 to the toast rack 128K. I remember the microdrives and tape loading. We also owned the ill fated QL. Sinclair is just so iconic here in the UK and ironically I live less then a mile away from the Sinclair research mill road headquarters. Great to see you covering something like Sinclair as most do Timex who they partnered with. It's interesting as Sinclair research ltd really was in many ways a mirror of apple. They started off hifi and radio based, moved into calculators, watches,TVs,then home pc market, portable pc then electric vehicles. Obviously apple is successful but one could argue that Clive Sinclair was just trying to bring things to the masses ahead of their time.

It'd be great to see that CRT running in some other project. The rest looks pretty crusty. They were really pushing the limits of technology. Cool!

It would be cool to see this restored and up and running, just for the novelty of a tiny tv! This reminds me a little bit of the old Sony Watchman I had back in the late 80's.

Wow that put real tears in the tear down. 😢😅

Back in the day, I integrated a Sinclair Computer with a Sinclair flat screen television and an aftermarket keyboard into what would today be called a laptop computer. The frame that held the television was on a bracket attached to the aftermarket keyboard and could be closed against the keyboard. I even added a micro cassette recorder as a memory. Sometimes all that is required is the recognition of an innovation.

Aaaah sir Clive's obsession with miniaturization ... got almost all his computers, but not going after his TVs and calculators ... though his C5 might tempt me 😁

What a cool device - considering that they had to pack in both high voltage and electronics for the range of TV channels. If the batteries hadn't ruined everything it would have been cool to connect it to a converter and see a current TV station on it.

It was a cool tech gadget for the day. I remember seeing the adverts for them. I just couldn't imagine trying to watch any show on that small screen. They really packed everything in tight into that brick. I didn't think the gunk and corrosion was that bad for a device made in 1978. I've seen some battery leakage that was just over everything. Obviously not much thought was given to much repair access, as those batteries are right in the middle, and only a few adjustable pots at the back. Sinclair came out with some very unique things, back in the day. Though their reliability left much to be desired.

I love these old tech tear downs. It’s impressive to see how small they got a crt down to back then. Reminds me of the tricorder blueprints from the Star Trek tech manual printed around the same time.

I actually had one of these, my parents bought it for me in the late 70's. I had a great interest in long distance tv reception particularly in the summer months on band I. I received signals from all over Europe from Iceland to Russia. Never manged any reception from the US though, but others did in the UK I believe.

I have designed and built few simple tube amplifier projects, and have always had the most problems trying to cram everything into an enclosure in a way that it'll be serviceable later. Enormous respect for the engineers that designed this thing. It looks a little janky, but it had to have taken a lot of effort to get all that stuff crammed into that little box and actually have it work. A pain to disassemble for sure, but everything is still accessible. Shame it was in such bad condition though.

I am very fond of Sinclar. In my freshman year of college, I had a Sinclar calculator. It served me well. Later I changed to an HP calculator, but both used the same logic and was an essay adoption.

I bought my Sinclair micro vision new in the late 70s. I use it for about two months and it broke when I showed it to my senior aged uncle. I still have it but I have no idea where it is. I haven’t seen it in 35 years. Fran, I just want to tell you that me and my wife really enjoy your videos. Keep it up the best to you!

Certainly a serviceman’s nightmare! Love that beautiful CRT, nice to be able to see all the detail of it’s internal elements, pity that unit is in such a poor condition.

I used to work at the Sinclair factory in St.Ives as a Technician repairing these Microvision TV's - I spent almost a year working on the main circuit boards that failed production test - that was al long time ago back in the late 70s :)

these things are so adorable!

I owned the one after this model which was about half the width but the same length in 1978. Worked great! and used regular AA batteries. I was working in London and got home by train at about 7:30pm. Before getting that job in London I used to sit in an armchair at home watching the nightly news so I bought a Sinclair mini TV and sat watching the news on the train on my way home. Just swapped an armchair for a train ride and extra overtime pay! Thanks to Clive Sinclair, a very clever man (except for the C5!)

I have one of these on the shelf in very good condition. I actually didn’t know there were batteries in it so thanks very much for this tear down information.

Amazing engineering & design - - with all the discrete & mechanical components it's practically a miracle product given it's size and that's especially considering it's a TV in the days of CRT technology.

Usually when I hear "Sinclair" with "television" it's bad news, but this is awesome! I love the little baby satchel.

Sinclair stuff was always a little bit shonky, but they were always ahead of the technology curve. You have to admire Clive though. If he could have given us smart phones, he would have.

Very Sinclair 😄. Thanks for a lot for posting Fran..👍

Again, I love when you tear stuff down. I could almost smell the old electronics.

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with 2K of memory

Clever UHF antenna. Good packaging all around. Nice to see the accessories too.

The flat screen mini Sinclair TV was novel, it used a standard electron gun but the beam was bent by 90 degrees to hit the phosphor. It’s battery was a flat pack thing, almost like a modern chewing gum lithium battery.

Warm leatherette .....

I'm loving all these electronics lately!

I bought one of these in the UK, I think in 1979. I still have it in a box somewhere in my loft. I haven't used it since 1981. Might be fun to dig it out!

A thing of beauty! I wish Fran could work some magic and get it going again!

Hi Fran, As soon as I saw this TV I grabbed my Elvis Costello album "This Years Model" because I was sure at first glance that I had grown up never owning one, but saw it often. It's in the album's sleeve cover and shows a rubber glove hand holding this TV with what appears to be Costello and the Attractions playing Radio Radio on stage. To funny. I haven't looked at that sleeve cover in 15 years until now.

I was hollering at ya to remove vhf antenna! Gases from battery degradation seems to have done its work well. Thank goodness it was kept in a semi-air tight bag or else all those gases may not have done their work creating corrosion. Love ya and your vids!

Thank you very much Fran for another wonderful video!

THAT, was a lot of fun! Thanks, Fran!

Still adore that stuff and can't get the ZX Series of Computers out of my head, the C5 also, Clive Sinclair RIP.

I'm glad I saw how that antenna came out 👍

Fantastic, the video I wanted to see but didn't exist! I have the same television, I tried to open it but immediately gave up so as not to disintegrate it. Now I know how to do it, finally I can try to revive it. Thank you Fran!

I had the very first zx spectrum from Asda with the silky smooth rubber keys. Much simpler days when things were made by hand.

It may be bashed because the tube in these suffered from very fragile glass construction inside break off moving around and shorting. Had to keep knocking it to make it work. I've a family relative used to work for him. Very very nice guy

I suspect the antenna 'mod' board is some matching and possibly snubbing should any HV get onto one side of the connection?

Curiosa fabricación, y peculiar receptor de tv, gracias por mostrar👍

loved the old tvs i even had radio shack color pocket tvs

Thanks, Fran! Another great teardown of an iconic piece of historic technology. Sinclair made several of these way-ahead-of-their-time electronic gadgets. I had a pair of terrific-looking walkie-talkies which never actually worked but they were impressive looking. 🙂 The other iconic portable TV receiver was the Sony 8-310W. a 5-inch CRT all-transistor (except for a couple of HV rectifier tubes). consumer product widely sold to the general public (vs. Sinclair which likely was popular only among the geek population.) Phil's Old Radios has a good web page teardown, photos and restoration. Proud to be a Patreon supporter of Fran's Channel.

I for one would love to see it restored and connected to a digital converter for over the air TV once more.

17:49 on-screen data sheets in real time; nice 👍

Neat. I had a Casio tv-21 from childhood. I want more.

I have a JVC portable color monitor that’s about 6 inches across diagonally on the screen. It runs on mains or 12v or internal rechargeable battery (it’s in it but dead). I have it on my bench connected to a VCR directly as a monitor. It’s great to pop in a vhs tape and watch an old movie while working on something else. It’s small size and direct video connection gives you the best image your going to get from any VCR.

I had one,,,watched ,Mork and Mindy on it

My dad had one of those installed in his 1979 Ford Tbird back in the day.

I still have one of these...Complete with the box it came in.

As a kid I had s Sinclair Micro 6 radio,revolutionary small.for the 60s!

Best teardown i've seen in a while

Hi Fran, was this Sinclair TV a Timex product like the Sinclair computer?

When I was in the National Guard back in the early '90s, a friend of mine had one of these. Everybody wanted to share a pup tent with him. Watching TV out in the woods was THAT MUCH of a novelty at the time.

I never thought I’d see the insides of one of these. Thanks for doing this teardown!

Fantastic thanks

You missed the most significant thing about the set. It has an electrostatic CRT! There is no flyback. Their was two sets of voltage multipliers one for the for horizontal deflection and beam acceleration and the other for vertical deflection. Way cool tare down. I've never seen an electrostatic CRT that small.

I have one just like it apart from the fact it is brown. Sadly no longer works in Uk as no AM transmiddions any longer. I used it for a while as a mini monitor.

Gloves seem like such a good idea!

When i was a kid my mom would dumpster dive and bring me things like this to disassemble and trash again when i was done tearing it up. I loved it, learned a lot

I remember the Sony Watchman models. REALLY wanted one, heck, still would love one of the mini TVs.\

the way those boards are jammed together it reminds me of some kind of prop from 70's Doctor Who.

lovely video,on such an old relic of technology. 👍

Yes! You said 'warm leatherette'! You are •so• our kinda kewl!

I’m glad you didn’t edit out the painful process of getting the insides out from the cover. I’ve had equipment like this that took me an hour or more to figure out

New subscriber just checking in to say what a find this channel is! Thank you for the content Fran.

Sir Clive = genius.

I always wanted a pocket Tv. Can you even get them anymore?

Wish I understood electronics. Fascinating stuff.

Heh! Warm Leatherette with a T.V.O.D. inside! I guess we've joined the Car Crash Set! Nice one Fran. I had that idea in my young head, then a few months later, that model was on the BBC's "Tomorrows World" science programme on TV. (Has anyone else had that sort of thing occur?) Much new epoxies in that era. Nice subject, much goo! Cheers!

Cute little picture tube!

Clive Sinclair is a kinda hero. More Sinclair! For a show an idea I discussed with Chat GPT... User can i make a logic circuit with ONLY diodes? ChatGPT Yes, you can create simple logic circuits using only diodes. Diodes can act as logical gates by allowing or blocking the flow of current based on their properties. Here's a basic overview of how you can use diodes to create logic gates: AND Gate: You can create an AND gate using diodes. Connect two or more diodes in series, and the output will be active (allowing current to pass) only when all input signals are active. OR Gate: You can create an OR gate using diodes as well. Connect two or more diodes in parallel, and the output will be active if any of the input signals are active. NOT Gate: A NOT gate can be constructed using a diode and a resistor. When the input signal is low (0V), the diode blocks current, and the output is high (1). These diode-based logic circuits are quite basic and have limitations, such as voltage drop across the diodes and slower response times compared to modern integrated circuits. However, they can serve as educational examples of how diodes can be used for basic logic operations. For more complex logic functions and faster response times, integrated circuits like logic gates (using transistors) are more commonly used in modern electronics. Fran, do it. I double dog dare you. It would be fun!

Now, THAT, was a lot of fun, Fran! Taking stuff apart is cool. Too bad I'm not so good at putting those things back together! Keep on Franin'!

RSVP that Sinclair MTV1. I was cringing when you were snapping the plastic because I was holding onto the hope that it's not so bad inside. But after seeing all that corrosion, it's definitely not worth restoring. It would take days of scrubbing, replacing connectors and parts, then more days of troubleshooting to get working. And in the end you'll still just have a Sinclair. Sure it's ridiculously small for a CRT TV, especially in the era before everything was integrated into a few chips, but Sinclair was never known for producing the highest quality devices. At least we got to see the teardown in the end.

Fran, I was expecting the ill-fated TV80 but I knew this was from the Sinclair Radionics era as soon as I saw it. I used to have a 48K ZX Spectrum back in the 1980s. I have a Spectrum +2A and I get my fix on emulators these days. RIP Sir Clive Sinclair. He was a genius.

This sure was interesting and if my memory serves it seems to me that Sony introduced their LCD T.V. ,the Watchman around the same time as this Sinclair was made. I hope those circuit boards might be used for other sets that need them for repair. Cool video!

I picked up a Magnavox bd 3902 handheld TV/radio at a yardsale for two dollars. I think the seller got the better end of the deal. Of course batteries had been left in it at some point. Some Deoxit got things freed up and I got reception on FM and noise on AM. Little picture tube didn't seem to power up at all. Cute item though....

Oh man that brings me back. 83 channels. EU, UK, US This reminds me of my 12 band, or maybe 15 band GE radio. That had SW bands, CB, Low 20 to 70 mhz, TV 1 channel 1 to 6, FM 86 to 108, AIR 108 to 136 VHF low 136 to 180 mhz TV 7 to 13, Military Air 250 to 350, Military Land 350 to 450 UHF low 450 to 520.mhz UHF TV 14 to 83 Basically the full band .1 to 1 ghz radio I know icom made a handheld really small full coverage.1 to 1 ghz radio I think the Uniden BR330T had some missing sections. The BC9000XLT had 25 mhz to 950 mhz The 2500,3000,8500 and 9000 I think had the full 25 to 950 coverage I saw last year an auction for a scanner from the early 80s that was way ahead of its time. 1 mhz to 999 mhz am/fm analog There are so many cool radios available in China now that are not available anywhere else and not shipped to America Like the UV-5R that does what the 500 dollar ham radios did for 20 dollars, they have a digital phase 2, dmr, open sky scanner for 50 dollars thst does what the 900 dollar Uniden sds100 does with all the extra keys I really wish they would start selling them here

The extension antenna is likely for VHF, the loop is UHF. The Sinclair PC was my first step into the flip-flop fandango probably 40 years ago. 😂

Sir Clive continuously repeated around the office, "Beg, Borrow, Steal components, I don't care." A sentiment so prevalent, it made it into the "Micro Men" movie. ;)

My uncle had one of these he bought in the UK in the 80's he got it for a song because it was old stock at a store going out of business. I used to watch tv on it here state side.

Man I had a version of one of these mini CRT TVs back in the late 70's. I thought it was the bees knees! It was the iPhone 18 of its time! :)

Interesting build. 😎😎

My great aunts realistic radio cassette recorder antenna came out like that. Was nuts.

i like the reference of money for nothing

Howdy. Nostalgia. I have an analog 12 V portable black and white TV. Its inputs are 300 ohm VHF and UHF. It works but there is a lot of signal adaptions to be made. First I need an older model digibox. It converts cable or antenna to SCART. Second I need an analog SCART to carrier modulator. Finally I must use an impedance matcher transformer to match 75 ohm to 300 ohm. The concotion setup actually works. Fortunately I had the brains to buy the adapting stuff when still available. Regards.

Good Stuff Boss THANKS Fran

I would give it a try. I would just remove the dead NiCads, clean all the pins and power it on using a variable DC PSU to see what happens. I wouldn´t be surprised at all if the TV turns on. The corrosion damage is very limited, so it isn´t unsalvageable.

bonus points for vintage ear sqidge!

Sir Clive had an obsession for miniature TV's. Nearly as bad as his obsession for the 3 wheeled battery vehicle the C5. He truly was a mad genius. Iconic design aesthetics but built to Hong Kong standards of the day, everything fell to bits. I still have several Sinclair items, the watch being the worst, 3 calculators that feel like they are made of polystyrene, a tiny radio earpiece and some measurement equipment. Sinclair could have been massive with a few tweaks to design and quality but he seemed very OCD about the wrong things.

That green surface corrosion visible on external metal surfaces is typical of PVC damage. The vinyl carrying case outgassed Chloride which reacts with atmospheric moisture to produce hydrochloric acid.