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Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:57 am
by BigOlTexasBoy
I found this Sony Watchman in a storage building behind my grandma's house. Everything works. It just can't pick up a TV signal now that everything has gone to digital. The plan is to somehow remove the old black & white CRT and replace it with a color LCD. I would like to somehow keep the AM/FM radio and tie a Pi3 in to the existing board. I won't have to worry about adding controls to it since it isn't exactly handheld. I'll have a couple of USB jacks for controllers or there is always Bluetooth.
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 1:55 am
by moooarcuuuus
You have to put the LCD behind the CRT glass. So it looks like an old CRT.
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:10 am
by moosepr
or keep the crt
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:21 am
by RetroRocket
Forgive me if you've seen this before, but this guy put a pi in a beautiful vintage portable TV with bluetooth-enabled controllers. I particularly liked his solution to the CRT glass by...making his own!
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:57 am
by Chrisagu28
moosepr wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:10 am
or keep the crt
Only problem is that battery life with keeping the crt would be terrible. You would get a authentic retro gaming experience thru that crt and would make up for it lol.
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:19 am
by abrugsch
moosepr wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:10 am
or keep the crt
Black and white though... might be okay for 2600 (since a common theme seems to be that many people only played 2600 on their parents second B&W set) or gameboy games...
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:14 am
by moosepr
yeah CRT isnt ideal. I did see someone doing an old apple PC, and they shaped some acrylic sheet over the old CRT with some gentle heat. You could use that method and make it look super awesome!!
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 6:37 am
by abrugsch
was that on here or over on retropie forums (I saw it too...)
edit: nevermind, it was here:
http://www.sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:00 am
by BigOlTexasBoy
You really can't tell that the screen is curved as small as it is. I will leave the LCD tilted back like the CRT. I'll have batteries in it, but it will probably be plugged in most of the time. With 8x D batteries, I guess there is room for a fairly large battery. The system looks like it runs off 12V. Those are usually big batteries anyway.
Re: Sony Mega Watchman Project
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:03 am
by BigOlTexasBoy
RetroRocket wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:21 am
Forgive me if you've seen this before, but this guy put a pi in a beautiful vintage portable TV with bluetooth-enabled controllers. I particularly liked his solution to the CRT glass by...making his own!
I like that. I really wish I could put a digital TV tuner in it to keep all the original functions as well.
