RCA E13320

Martin Seibert (pics)Sunthar (article)About 4 min

RCA E13320 RGB mod

This tutorial is meant for those seeking the highest video quality possible from an old RCA CRT TV E13320. This article was originally written by Martin Seibert and later enhanced with additional details by Sunthar.

CRT safety

Caution

You can die doing this! So read carefully! CRT TV is not a toy. Do not open a CRT TV. If you don't have any prior knowledge about handling high voltage devices, this guide is not for you. CRT TV contains high enough voltage (20,000+ V) and current to be deadly, even when it is turned off.

READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING

Plan of attack

READ THIS TO PREPARE

Theory

Sometimes it is nice to know the theory behind the mod. I have put this on a separate page. This shows how the various resistor values are calculated.

READ THE RGB MODDING THEORY

Service manuals

RCA E13320 Service Manual

Specs

RCA E13320

Manufactured: February 2004, Thailand
55W, NTSC, 60 Hz
Chassis: TX808H
Tube: 37GDA86X-TC02
Jungle Chip: Toshiba TA1268N
OSD Chip: ST9294J5B1

Schematics

Prepare the mux diagram. If you are building your own circuit, this diagram should help

Video Schematics

Performing the mod

Now that you roughly know what needs to be done, prepare for the mod. Place the board on a comfortable place. Make sure you are not putting pressure on the flyback or other components.

There are 6 screws to remove. 4 shown in the below picture.

STEP 1: Remove the following components

Remove the following RGB resistors that are connected to the ground.

RR535
RR536
RR537

STEP 2: Add inline diodes to reduce interference

STEP 3: Connect RGB and Blanking

Picture below shows where the RGB and blanking wires should be soldered.

STEP 4: Connect Audio, Sync and Ground

Composite Sync, Audio and Ground wires should be connected.

STEP 5: Build your mux board/circuit

Below mod uses the RGB mux board. This is optional, but will make your mod easier and stable. You can also create the circuit presented in the schematics above without the board.

Buy your RGB mux board

TV Model	E13220 (Sunthar's config with micro board)	E13220 (Martin's config without diodes)
RGB termination (R1, R2, R3)	75Ω	180Ω
RGB inline resistors (R4, R5, R6)	390Ω	820Ω
Audio LR (R7, R8)	1kΩ	1kΩ
Diode (R9)	1N4148	1N4148
Blanking Resistor (R11)	1.2kΩ	1.5kΩ
RGB inline diodes needed?	Yes	No
Blanking inline diode needed?	Yes	Yes

Sunthar micro board (recommended) or 1.3B full scart board can be used.

Below image is from the older standard mux board. New full scart mini mux board (1.3B) is slightly smaller than this.

Buy your RGB mux board

STEP 6: Attaching the micro board to your set

Drill a small hole. Make sure you have sufficient clearance and no obstructions especially when you close the chassis. You want to avoid areas where your tuner or flyback might interfere.

Expand the hole, just so that the MD8 feame header tightly fits in. If it is loose, then you'll have to epoxy or glue it later. Therefore, measure multiple times to make sure you find the tightest fit possible and avoid epoxy as much as possible.

This is now ready for action.

Push the MD8 connector through the hole. At this point, you can epoxy the MD8 connector optionally.

Assemble the board. See configuration above.

Now find a way to get the MD8 pins aligned, such that you can push the MD8 pins through the micro board.

Solder the board. At this point MD8 connector won't fall inside or get fully removed.

Connect the ribbon cable

Close off the unit

Finally, connect the MD8 to female SCART cable for some RGB action!

STEP 7: Attach the female SCART connector to TV

Creating a SCART cutout and mounting it is an art. I have a dedicated section for it.

You can also install the full SCART port.

How to create and mount a SCART female plug?

Get into the service menu by following the instructions on Service Manual.

With the instrument "ON" press and hold the "VOL - " button and then in sequence press and release the "CH +" button and the "CH -" button.

Then, press and hold VOL + button until you see 076.

Once there, use CH + and CH - button to choose the correct parameter.

09 is the Horizontal phase parameter.

Update the value using VOL - or VOL + buttons.

When values are changed they are automatically written to memory. Just power off and power on to exit the service menu and get back to normal operation.