Any one use Sencore VA62 Video Analyzer

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Sat 10, 2010 9:04 pm

Not sure if this should go here or in the test equipment forum but I figure I would get more people that might use one of these in the TV form.

I just picked one of these up off of ebay and it looks to have a lot of nice features. I'm sure it will be overkill for restoring the old Admiral TV I plan on doing this winter. But I figured more is better than less.

Does anyone use one of these and what are their opinions on it? Also, I don't have the owners manual but have put an ad in the classifieds. I do have one question about the feature I will probably use first. What is the Amp rating of the the 0-35V DC power supply?

Finally, has anyone use the book Practical Troubleshooting With the Advanced Video Analyzer by Robert Goodman?

Thanks
Rod

Johnnysan · **Posted:** Jul Sat 10, 2010 11:01 pm

I haven't used one in over 15 years. They are quality-built and work well, but you may have some issues with poor solder connections. I don't know where you can get a manual though.

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Sun 11, 2010 5:37 pm

Johnnysan wrote:

I haven't used one in over 15 years. They are quality-built and work well, but you may have some issues with poor solder connections. I don't know where you can get a manual though.

Hopefully the bad solder joints have been worked out over the years.

Also, I found the advertising with the specifications and it stated that the variable DC power supply was rated for 1 amp. I think I will get Goodman book since it was a tech school text will probably cover everything I need to know about the unit.

Rod

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Jul Sun 11, 2010 7:17 pm

I have one but I have only used it a few times. Seemed fine at first. Now the keypad is intermittent and the color bars are funky.

I'd love to have a pattern generator that can output to every VHF channel, but trying to tweak this thing is not my my summer schedule.

I have the manual -- just over 100 pages. If you're willing to pay photocopying at Kinko's, send me a PM with your address and we can work something out.

Phil Nelson

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Sun 11, 2010 9:31 pm

philsoldradios wrote:

I have one but I have only used it a few times. Seemed fine at first. Now the keypad is intermittent and the color bars are funky.

I'd love to have a pattern generator that can output to every VHF channel, but trying to tweak this thing is not my my summer schedule.

I have the manual -- just over 100 pages. If you're willing to pay photocopying at Kinko's, send me a PM with your address and we can work something out.

Phil Nelson

Phil, I may take you up on the offer of the manual if I don't find another one. I'm not in too big of a hurry because working on the tv probably won't happen until fall at the earliest.

The VA62A listed for $3495 when it first came out. I imagine only very busy shops could justify that kind of money. I know it is probably more than I will ever need but it is a very nice looking piece of test equipment.

Rod

radiorich · **Posted:** Jul Mon 12, 2010 12:10 am

Hello Hotrod,
Well my Shop we had two one Va62 and one VA48.
I kept The Va48 and sold the Va62 some years back
Rich
P.S. they are hand to use once you get used to using it.

Bruce McGee · **Posted:** Jul Mon 12, 2010 6:01 pm

I had a VA62 when I was servicing rent-to-own TV's. I liked it.

It stopped me having to go to customers houses repeatedly and show them that the TV is able to pick up that channel that they insist they should be picking up on the cable. (They usually were not paying for the channels they wanted!) Yes, I hauled the VA62 to their homes... It never failed.

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Mon 12, 2010 8:11 pm

Bruce McGee wrote:

I had a VA62 when I was servicing rent-to-own TV's. I liked it.

It stopped me having to go to customers houses repeatedly and show them that the TV is able to pick up that channel that they insist they should be picking up on the cable. (They usually were not paying for the channels they wanted!) Yes, I hauled the VA62 to their homes... It never failed.

Hauling that thing around would keep you in shape. But it would sure beat hauling the tv's back to the shop.

Rod

DaveM · **Posted:** Jul Mon 12, 2010 9:29 pm

radiorich wrote:

Hello Hotrod,
Well my Shop we had two one Va62 and one VA48.
I kept The Va48 and sold the Va62 some years back
Rich
P.S. they are hand to use once you get used to using it.

is the VA 48 the one that does alignments by looking at the CRT for bar shapes, rather than a traditional scope and sweep gen? I thought that was a gimmick?

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Jul Thu 22, 2010 6:29 pm

My VA62A manual has a section explaining how to use their multiburst bar sweep pattern to diagnose various alignment problems. The section begins with a strong warning that you will mess things up if you try to do alignment from the screen.

I just got out my VA62A again and now it has a bad ripple in the power supply. Maybe a dying power supply was responsible for the problems that I remembered from before.

If anyone has a service manual or schematic -- ha-ha, I know -- I'd love to get my hands on a copy. This looks like an extremely handy device, but I'm allergic to solid state and don't have the skills to dive in and fix this sort of thing bareback.

Phil Nelson

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Thu 22, 2010 7:04 pm

I dd find the simplified operations manual for Sencore and also got Goodman's book which really covers what it will do.

Sencore states in the simplified operations guide:

Note: After gaining experience with the VA62 many technicians use the TV screen for troubleshooting and alignment. We recommend that you use an oscilloscope and monitor the output of the detector, the VA62 drive out, and each referenced test point to become familiar with the waveform that you will find in a good chassis.

It only states to use an oscilloscope when doing the detector stage to look for clean linear stair-steps. It does not call for using a scope in the video IF or IF trap alignment just the screen.

I think I will be fine with what i got until I need to trouble shoot it.

Rod

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Sun 25, 2010 4:30 am

philsoldradios wrote:

My VA62A manual has a section explaining how to use their multiburst bar sweep pattern to diagnose various alignment problems. The section begins with a strong warning that you will mess things up if you try to do alignment from the screen.

I just got out my VA62A again and now it has a bad ripple in the power supply. Maybe a dying power supply was responsible for the problems that I remembered from before.

If anyone has a service manual or schematic -- ha-ha, I know -- I'd love to get my hands on a copy. This looks like an extremely handy device, but I'm allergic to solid state and don't have the skills to dive in and fix this sort of thing bareback.

Phil Nelson

Somehow I missed that you were looking for the service information.

I have the schematic and service information but it is all very large format but let me see what i can do about getting it digitized somehow.

Also, I now have the operations manual on the way.

Rod

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Jul Sun 25, 2010 6:26 am

If it's simpler to take it to a Kinko's, I'd be happy to pay for photocopying & postage, etc., to get hardcopies. You can email me via http://antiqueradio.org/contact.htm if that's a possibility.

Phil

hotrod · **Posted:** Jul Sun 25, 2010 7:51 am

Email sent, Phil.

Rod

jimmc · **Posted:** Jul Sun 25, 2010 7:44 pm

It appears the either the TV set or the VA62 has a serious video bandwidth issue as well as the hum glitch.

I wonder how a multiburst test slide would work in a B&K 1077 scanner? I know the resolution wedge gets up to some decent frequency response if the TV doesn't notch out color.

Jim

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Jul Mon 26, 2010 5:56 am

Thanks, Rod.

Jim, yeah, my VA62 is clearly sick. It makes colorless color bars in addition to the ripple. What bandwidth problem are you seeing in the TV showing the multiburst pattern? If it needs tweaks, I'd like to know what they are, even if I'm not ready to deal with them at the moment.

Regards,

Phil

zenithfound · **Joined:** Apr Tue 17, 2012 8:53 pm **Posts:** 1

@philsoldradios

Hi I realize this is an old post, but if you or anyone else has a digitized version of that Sencore VA62 manual around I'd love to get a copy!
I've just started using this machine to process and manipulate external video sources and as a source generator for other video mixing. Would be great to learn more about it, besides what I've gathered through experimentation and trial and error...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMPucgpLdiE&feature=relmfu
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRmrjj1M2c&feature=plcp&context=C4b15affVDvjVQa1PpcFOvtDHbWYBmxmvydJSBqgcSE5TMx2p_JNg%3D
[/url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tesJxIZU1MM&feature=relmfu

Thank you,
Scott Kiernan

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Apr Tue 17, 2012 9:55 pm

wiscojim · **Posted:** Apr Wed 18, 2012 3:06 am

Thanks for these Phil.

Could you check the third one? I get a 404 message on it.

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/VA62VA52VCRApps.pdf

.

philsoldradios · **Posted:** Apr Wed 18, 2012 4:46 am

Oops, typo.

http://antiqueradio.org/art/temp/VA62VCRApps.pdf

I corrected the link in my previous post, as well.

Phil Nelson

Any one use Sencore VA62 Video Analyzer

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