SONY CRT Viewfinder

The CRT viewfinder is another one of my more proud hack's. While the link up is simple, working it out was not. The diagram is how to link the viewfinder up to a composite port. If you live in the UK then the PAL signal will not need any form of calibration for the composite signal. But in the US I have herd that the NTSC signal needs driver circuits to run, however I do not know if this is fact. All I can say is, try it out.

To find the right pins make sure you have a composite video source: VHS, DVD, Play station, N64 etc. Scart conectors are compatible with composite, but do your research first! You must have a 6V-9V power source depending on the voltage of the camera the viewfinder was palled from. Hook the power up to random leads until you get some form of life from the display. Then using the image to the right for reference hook the video up to random leads on the viewfinder un till you get an image displayed. Note the results for easy modification in the time ahead. You may need to play with the brightness knob on the viewfinder to get some life.

I would also not recommend running them opened up as they can give you a nasty shock, If you get one without a case then build/find one for it. I also have some LCD ones That I need to experiment with. Also they can be easily hacked to run off S-VIDEO. You should experiment with the capacitor values to get a clear picture.

Here's an interesting project I have, the project is on hold. A mini TV. The idea is to use a small battery powered monitor, aka the Sony viewfinder and an old TV tuner. Due to complete failures in building DC/DC converters for the tuner tuning circuit, the projects has made so little progress that its not worth building a page for, but it should be mentioned as it might be completed one day even if its after the analogue switch off. This means that it can be a portable CCTV monitor.

Fun fact: This page is the most popular on my website followed by the still in slow progress VFD clock.

Sadly due to the analogue switch off the Mini TV is a dead project although I might try and construct an portable digital TV at some point.

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEPROM9?feature=mhee

The camera the CRT viewfinder came from, sadly don't have much of it left now thanks to an old parents turnout years ago.