The Fine Things are Always Hand Made
For folks unfamiliar, we are talking about a pre-war Scott radio equipped for remote control operation - recognized by a big rear semi-circular housing for 12 station presets and a 21 pin Jones socket on the rear apron. In addition, the amp has an additional 24 volt step down transformer to power two motors and two relays inside the receiver. The volume control is motorized and has two switches, one to power up the radio and a second switch for most of the 24 volt circuit. Tuning is also motorized for the presets. The radio/phono switch is operated by a relay instead of a front control knob.
A Scott keyboard can be a problem to locate: uncommon, expensive and apt to have condition issues. And, although the pre-war and post-war versions look the same with flat 20 wire cable and a 21 pin Jones plug, they are NOT wired the same and are NOT interchangeable. The pre-war cable has black insulated wired inside the flat cable. The post-wire flat cable has a variety of wire colors inside the cable. To distinguish which version, carefully remove the keyboard bottom plate to see the wires - but be careful not to disturb the contents. But there is always a chance someone has rewired it. Best to trace a couple wires. Pre-war pin 1 goes to the volume control "ON" button. Post-war pin 1 is for the station preset 1. Pre-war pin 2 is 24 volt to power for the on and off buttons. Post-war pin 2 is for station preset 2. The post-war wiring info is available in archives for the 800B Scott. Pre-war keyboard wiring factory documentation has not been found to my knowledge.
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So, I like to sometimes use a CD player on my remote control Philharmonic or Phantom Deluxe because they sound superb. (I have a couple Walkman CD players. And mini jacks on cables to the phono input of most of my Scotts.) But the radio/phono switch on my remote control Scotts can only be operated by keyboard. Moving the re-habilitated keyboard between the two Scotts is inconvenient and the old keyboard cable is in delicate condition - I had to scrap over 5 feet of the keyboard end of the cable just to find decent wire insulation. At that, I had to heat shrink some wires to protect them reinstalling the keyboard bottom.
So - I built a a sufficient substitute PRE-WAR version keyboard for my Phantom Deluxe using six "momentary" push button switches mounted on a box. I had a length of old 8 wire TV antenna motor cable and a 21 pin Jones plug in my stash. --- See attached photo.
-A momentary switch is OFF unless the spring loaded button is pushed, for as long as it is held.
-The keyboard has two 24 volt source wires. A button pushed completes a connection to operate a motor or relay.
-pin 2 is always live 24 volts to operate the volume control ON or OFF buttons (pin 1 and 3 respectively). (For that reason, I keep these two radios on a separate power strip.) Pushing the black ON or OFF button powers the volume control motor clockwise or counter clockwise
-Pin 5 is 24 volts ONLY after the radio has been powered ON. It is wired to the other 4 switches. Pushing any of the other 4 silver switches powers the function noted.
- I could have had more switches for more station presets, but there are very few stations of interest theses days - a local classic/soft rock station and, at night, the Toronto Zoomer station at 740 KC. The LOW button is to preset 3 (pin 19) and HIGH to preset 11 (pin 11). Thus, I can quickly move up or down the dial like a Robot dial Zenith.
A lot of hard fought remote control information here which I gleaned restoring these two radios and a keyboard. I finished today testing my substitute keyboard on both radios. Intended to help someone needing some kind of keyboard for a remote control Scott. Have fun.
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That looks great! Nice solution to operate the fundamental controls on the remote sets.
The substitute keyboard shown on my Phantom Deluxe with remote option.
(Scott cabinet - Louis XV lowboy, original finish, repo cloth).
Nice remote box and nice solution. Not all post-war Scott remote keyboards had colored insulation on the wires (some had all white) but all used vinyl insulation rather than black rubber insulation.
Norman
That's great, Dave! Lots of work, there.
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