I use the screen module from one of these as a nametag at cons. It accepts regular composite video and can go up to 120 Hz, or presumably even more if I tweak some component values. Jan Šlehofer used a color wheel to make a Col’R’Tel and dared to call it “solid state” in his YouTube video (the nearest Czech word is tranzistorový, which means no vacuum tubes as switching devices and he does fill this criterion but “solid state” additionally means no moving parts (that would require a super rare liquid crystal color shutter - LCCS - even Daniel Kobrle aka Danyk/DiodeGoneWild was unable to source a replacement one for his luxury early digital Tektronix oscilloscope) and arguably no CRT, although even 1960s TV sets were marketed as “solid state”).
[deleted]
Submitted 6 days ago by SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml to [deleted]
Comments
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 days ago
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 5 days ago
Damn, that’s so sick. Using this unit actually made me want to buy one for myself and take the CRT module out of it. Do you know if the module exposes the high voltage parts like TVs do, or is it safer to work with?
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 days ago
I’ve been to 39C3 and EH23. Here’s a photo of my badge, advertising something I shadily imported to Germany :)
witter.cz/@sebi@23.social/116374451432382202
There is a 12V-negotiating USB-C module (I had to mod it to support any of my powerbanks, and the only one is the size of the thing, twice as heavy and a fire risk (puffed-up 20Ah cell shoddily replaced with found 6x 18650), but on EH23 I was smart enough to get a long-enough cable to reach a pocket so my neck didn’t hurt.
The screwdriver, from a shitty Merkur-like construction toy set, is plus-shaped but not as sharp as Phillips and non-magnetic, making it easy to adjust the potentiometers (a Phillips would wear them out, and a flat one would be less convenient) without the display getting all wonky (even the magnetic field inside Hamburg S-Bahn trains from their power lines makes it wobble!)
The 3 kV is presumably only reachable via the thickly insulated wire between the flyback transformer and anode, however some high voltage does exist on the PCB between the CRT grids (for example, there’s about 48 volts between the brightness and contrast potentiometers). I used a piece of acrylic to cover the bare PCB but it fell off (shitty transparent tape) and I got shocked through my T-shirt. A little unpleasant but the current is low, especially after the small HV capacitor discharges, it felt like a normal static electricity fluffy clothing incident. I prepared the same piece of acrylic with holes for potentiometers for the front but it was matte, fell off even sooner, made it hard to adjust, and it was unlikely someone would reach inside so I abandoned it.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 5 days ago
Oh is it hitting the screen from the front instead of the back?
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 5 days ago
Yeah, the screen is slanted and it’s hitting it from underneath
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 days ago
Yup. The metal anode is phosphor-coated. What’s more interesting: it’s using a standard “defection IC” to detect sync pulses and generate horizontal and vertical ramps but the focus and horizontal width change dynamically as the picture is scanned top-to-bottom to achieve keystone correction and maintain sharpness.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
For the curious: you can actually see the CRT electron gun if you look closely enough
Image
CluckN@lemmy.world 5 days ago
If the microwave is broken you can put a Hotpocket up to it for 2 minutes.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 days ago
The power draw is 4 watts, not much more than a color LCD of this size and brightness, and most of it is the CRT heater. Very little ionizing radiation at 3 kV.