Let's improve some CRT monitors!
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- I have 4 monochrome monitors in the basement where none of them work very well, mostly due to the fact they are worn out or filthy. Can I fix these monitors up to at least end up with a couple good ones out of the lot? Watch to find out!
NEC JB-1205MA
Philips / Magnavox "Computer Monitor 80" Model: BM7622
Philips / Magnavox "Computer Monitor"
Amdek VIDEO-300A
Part 1: This part!
Part 2: Coming soon
--- Tools
Deoxit D5:
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O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
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Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
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Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
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--- Links
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--- Instructional videos
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Adrian's analog basement!
cls used to have a couple of good drives made by Eastern Analog
I used to know a couple called Phillip & Amber. They suited each other and got along very well.
Your schedule is a reliable constant in unpredictable times. Thanks :-)
Even when new those CRTs would bloom when turned up too high. Especially the longer persistence green ones.I wouldn't judge how tired the CRT is based on that alone.
Yeah, the high voltage regulation on non-high-end 80s TVs and monitors wasn't always great, and that can cause blooming when the CRT is fine.
@Egon Freeman personally I think Adrian is driving them top hard. Compared with modern displays those we're dim. For reference: my 14in VGA monochrome CRT is rated at max brightness for full resolution (in other words it will bloom if set higher) of 60 cd/m2. A Diamondtron XGA tube is rated at 90cd/m2 max. The minimal brightness on my desktop LCD is about 70. Max ca 350. So if one of those is as bright as your modern display at min setting... That's as bright as it's meant to be.
Hes been watching shango066 too much lol
I used to repair CRT TV's. On TV's with a weak tube but was too expensive to replace I would "band aid" the problem by running the filament voltage a volt higher. On a TV the filament was a 16 khz AC signal from a winding on the flyback. It was rather easy to cut the power to the filament and add in a self wound toroid transformer that had 5 turns for the primary and 6 turns for the secondary. This would wear out the CRT faster, but it was already dying. For the CRT's that had an internal short to the filament I would do the same thing but make a 1:1 (5 turns, 5 turns) toroid transformer.
Another interesting tidbit about the cover of Softporn Adventure is that the lady on the right is actually Roberta Williams, the co-founder of Sierra On-line and the creator of the King's Quest series of games.
Ken Williams is the dude with the mighty moustache, too.
@@shmehfleh3115 Heh, that's what I thought at first when I saw the mustache but according to Wikipedia he's actually an actual waiter from some local restaurant.
@@Nr7 there is a nice behind the scenes photograph in Ken's book 'Not all fairytales have happy endings' with him, the women and the waiter all in shot.
Softporn adventure, for those who don't know, was the text adventure whose plot became the first Leisure Suit Larry.
Fun fact about that Sierra game @04:32, the women on the cover were all Sierra employees. From left to right: Diane Siegel (Sierra's Production Manager), Susan Davis (Sierra's bookkeeper & wife to programmer Bob Davis) and finally Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra & creator/designer of the King's Quest series, Mystery House and Phantasmagoria! And the waiter was an actual waiter from a local restaurant, The Broken Bit. Which bit exactly, I wonder?
Philips made very nice monitors. I used to have an EGA one which could be switched to green or amber with a push of a switch.
I think I might be one of the few people who like those mesh filters over the CRT's. Have them on my Vector 3's and used a Sirius 1 that had one fitted. I've found they can be cleaned quite easily with just warm water & left to dry. Did cringle a little when you cut the mesh on that Amdek. Mainly due to fear of scratching the CRT :)
The glass is very hard cant be scratched with the steel knife, thats why diamonds are used for cutting glass plates.
@@rastislavzima I have to say that from my experience it is indeed possible to scratch the glass with a knive. I did this accidently while cutting off an anti-glare foil.
@@Dietzebacher than that had to be some knife made of hardened steel or the monitor glass could have some coating? As i've understood hardened steel is not very good for making knifes because it is not so flexible and can break more easily so knifes are made from softer steel, also because the softer steel is more easily sharpened. E.g. file is made of harder steel and that could scratch the glass.
@@rastislavzima Your kitchen knife may not be hardened, but razor blades certainly are! If you try to bend one, it will just snap as they are hardened.
@@AerFixus ok understand, but makes me want to test this :-D
#1 needs retrobright.
Green is a much tougher phosphor than amber or white. Hard to burn, and stays bright longer as it's much more efficient. Green is the standard for oscilloscopes.
When swapping tubes, it's also very important, that the two CRT's have the same socket, unless you want to get a replacement socket and rewire things.
some may have the same socket/base but different pinout, you have to watch out for this! also may need different a1 and focus voltage
Still taking a box cutter to a glass screen makes my spine shiver
Well, any screen for that matter
Went to say the exact same thing. Leaded glass is soft and far easier to mar up than you'd expect.
Adrian is the kind of guy to drag his fingernails across a chalkboard while saying "I know some of you will hate me in the comments for this, but this is just what I do!", still one of my favorite RUclips channels ❤
I had great fun fitting a CRT to a Tandy model 4 case, the case came as a spare part from Tandy, that I used for a custom Model 1 rebuild. The CRT I ended up fitting was wrong in many ways, including the curvature of the front glass.
It took many hours but I eventually succeded, including reshaping the Tandy bezel to suit.
I also fitted a mesh filter, yes you lose brightness, but the improved blacks and anti glare well and make up.
Adrian, thank you SO MUCH for this content. I'm a CRT fanatic, they're my fave part of retro consoles/retro computers. And to have a channel like yours, where they're often featured in depth, and also Steve's RetroTech channel, is just awesome for us CRT afficionnados in 2021. (not that I don't love your other content - I absolutely do - but I just thought I'd highlight this particularoty of your channel so that you know it's hugely appreciated by at least some of us.
Phosphor color will define the burn in risk. Most of the green phosphors are the most resistant to burn in. They chose the orange ones because it was closest to white without the glare of white phosphors. In the early 70s we bought monitors with ten different phosphors and one of the green ones has the most persistance. Another green was good for PPI radar displays. It had a white component that showed the radar sweep line, plus a slow green component that held the data for a full scan.
Excelent, I always love some CRT action!! Can't wait to view it
D’oh! I detest being left on a cliffhanger episode!
Nice video and well edited to make the comparisons concise. Looking forward to the next part!
I recently recapped my NEC JB-1201M(A) and I have the excel sheet of every capacitor thats inside if you require it. Even on the daughterboard. Great video!
Videos like this one are turning out to be far better and more interesting than what's on Freeview TV here at the UK.
Pretty cool! My uncle used to work on crt tvs back in the 80's and 90's. Kids these days will never know what it's like using old style tv tuners that were worn out and you have to put a piece of paper behind the knob as a wedge to keep the contact in the tuner touching in order to keep the channel made. 😂
oh man you are capturing those screens so nicely through the camera
Keep coming with the next parts as quickly as possible
Thanks Adrian for the content in the weekend!
The monitor #2 is a Magnavox. That's the exact monitor I had on my first childhood computer, a Laser 128 Apple II clone. How fitting for you to be testing it with the Apple //c. It might even still be in my parents house.
I also had a Laser 128, with the sidecar! I miss it! Now they're like gold.
@@Cherijo78 mine also had the expansion box with a mockingboard in it and perhaps another card. The 128 was a better Apple //c with that expansion box.. I typically watch them sell for $400 on ebay. Never have seen the expansion box on there. I learned BASIC on that thing and it really got me into computers. My laser 128 died eventually and got replaced with a //e. I miss my Laser 128. 😭
Adrian came across your Ch recently and LOVE IT !! I've made it a ritual to catch a vid of yours with my lunch cuppa daily , Got 14 years to catch up on ;) Keep up the amazing content !!
Seeing that Syntax error message brings back lots of memories.
I got a commodore 1702 monitor off craigslist that was covered in mud and dirt and dripping wet when I brought it hpme
After opening it, I was shocked at how little dust was on the crt, which is often a way of guessing runtime
The green neon also wasn't blackened at all, and after a good cleaning, drying, and reassembly, the picture tube is astoundingly bright. Convergence was dead on the money too.
I must say that you have quite an impressive collection of free software stickers
There is a youtuber that fixes 1950-to-1970’s tv’s, refreshes crt tubes - cutoff and tube life are checked, he’s from Frisco so could be interesting for a joint clip!
Adrian owns a CRT rejuvenator.
Channel name?
I like that you're willing to get creative and swap parts, not a lot of people do that on RUclips.
Actually, sometimes you can dump a colour tube in a monochrome chassis. We did it a few times in the 90's when I worked at a TV repair place. It'll just fire all the guns so you get a B/W picture. You can also get something we called a "Tube Booster" that you can use to get more life out of those dim tubes, can't remember the proper name of it but might be worth tracking down to aid your salvage efforts.
Love your videos Adrian.
25:15 - I didn't realize this. Explains why I was able to buy replacement CRT's in different colors via mail order at very reasonable prices for my TRS-80 Model IV in the mid-80's. Langley-St. Clair, IIRC. I guess they were just surplus/repurposed from some other application.
I love the case designs. They match the computers of that era nicely! I had a NEC for my II albeit a different model.
The Amdek was made in Elk Grove Village, Il. My old home town. Very cool!
Monochrome monitors worked today in factories EU . People see how this see . Thanks him . I like. And woman
keep up the great work Adrian 🕹
Thank You for making those videos!
Great and informative video!
Random trivia: that "ugly" monitor, aka, #3, was sold in a relabeled form by Leading Edge as the "Gorilla". (They also sold a printer called the "Banana".) That's the 80's for you.
Can’t argue with your comments on the looks of number 3. I had a 230V version of it connected to a BBC Model B. It was the cheapest one my parents could find at the time. The picture was way better than the 12” black and white tv I used before it.
I had the green version of that NEC monitor, it came from a school where it has been used with a BBC Micro. In 2005 I sold it on eBay and got a whole £1 for it - now I wish I'd never sold it. I also had a couple of Philips Computer Monitor 80s that had been used with RM Nimbus computers in a school, I kind-of wish I hadn't sold them but they had really bad screen burn.
To make up for these I recently bought a Novex branded green monitor from eBay for £5, from somewhere close enough to me that I could pick it up in person. I've not even managed to plug it in once since I bought it.
I have an Amdek Video 300, which is green monochrome. It came to me filthy as well. I also removed the anti-glare mesh, and was amazed by the difference.
I could see Fran from Fran’s Lab having a field day with these CRTs! :)
exactly what i wanted thanks Adrian
I love the TRS-80 ZONE poster! I loved my TRS-80's I kept them for years until they died..:-)
Super cool video!
Back in the days of B&W Television we used a tube tester/ regenerator to reverse the thermionic emission inside the tube.
You could restore them to some degree
Great video
I had one of those NEC monitors (it was featured in war games) the on eI had was a green screen model. I modified it to run from a 12 V supply and took it on holiday with me to run my Atari 2600 on. (Happy memorys).
I can't wait till the next episode. :)
Many years ago we used to have a B&W TV that looked like monitor number 3 (with the addition of some buttons to select the channels). My set had a kind of plastic transparent dark "mask" that fit there on the front (there is space for that if you look) and that made the set look much better... Of course it would have the same effect of that cloth in front of the crt, making it dimmer...
Came across my feed just as I was adjusting the pots on a Mac SE/30 analog board. Convergence!
I feel a great convergence in the Force, as if millions of CRTs were suddenly adjusted
Nice I am getting ready to completely replace all the capacitors in my Apple SE/30
Same here. Have to recap the logic board. The rest will be recapped later. I was able to successfully twist horizontally the caps off very gently. None of the pads ripped off or came loose. Whew! Now, on to cleaning before signal tracing before recapping. 😁
@@richardbrobeck2384 I just did that to an SE/30 I bought on ebay. It was so satisfying I bought another one... then a 3rd. Eventually my house will be saturated with SE/30s!
@@BestSpatula sweet I want to get another too my Se/30 has 8MB RAM, 80MB Hard disk
I saw your t-slim Adrian 😃
I have one also. They are great insulin pumps. Good video I enjoy them all
Those mesh screen covers were great in reducing reflection and glare from office lights or windows. I actually referred the green on black text based computer systems compared to the bright white windows based types of today when working with them for 8+ hours a day.
Laughing as the one Adrian doesn't like is the one I own #3
Funny, I really like the design of that #3 monitor.
I actually really like that NEC's yellow colour. It's yellowed so thoroughly that it actually looks intentional, rather than looking like your average SNES does these days.
Loved it!
Great Video!! I love old CRTs. I also recently changed the CRT of my 9“ color VGA monitor. Was lucky to score a new replacement tube. 😃
I would just love to get my hands on a small 9" VGA monitor -- perfect for quick testing without taking up too much room!
@@adriansdigitalbasement yeah, they are damn hard to find and very handy
Hey Adrian, get yourself a proper brand new monitor like that guy at LGR and we, the community, will support you to buy it! Keep up the great content, you are such a good story teller in your videos!
Hopefully Adrian busts out that TV repairman suitcase kit in the next video. I don't know why, but I really dig that thing! Love the channel!!
Ooh! Adrian playing with CRTs? Seems like the perfect way to start a lazy Sunday!
Finished watching the video and it did not disappoint! Monitor 3 was a surprise. My first impression was that it was an older low-end model, but I think it was saved by the green phosphor CRT.
From memory amber phosphors generally had a shorter persistence than the green ones, so they had to run them hotter to get the same brightness. You might find the brightness even lower on the amber tube once it's put into the chassis that the green one came from. And vice-versa for the green tube, it may be too bright in the other enclosure, but at least you can just turn it down.
Anyway, this was a great way to start a lazy Sunday! Especially paired with my breakfast - a large mocha and (amber?) mango! 😁
Getting closer to 100K subs!
I love these!!!
Ooo getting close to 100k!
I think they all looked pretty good, apart from the one chassis, which I agree was rather awful. I don't see much reason to swap tubes, but would be interesting to see if any of them can be rejuvenated and improved.
I remember those old Amedek monitors with that anti-glare thing on it.
My favorite monochrome monitor of all time is the Apple Monitor III. It uses this gorgeous emerald green long persistence phosphor that gives a smeary, RADAR image quality to everything it displays. It also has a mesh anti-glare coating which definitely dims down the screen. But given that's it's green, it's generally bright enough to be visible in a bright room even with the mesh. It's only real downside is that, since it was meant to sit on top of an Apple III, its doesn't sit right on the top of an Apple II.
That NEC monitor is basically the same as an HP 82913A -- only the HP version is a green-screen monitor. Kind of interesting to learn that that is, aside from the tube and bezel, the exact same hardware.
Now I can start my Saturday!!
Focus looked great -- I would liked to have seen a close up of the 80 column text though!
I could watch Adrian rate CRT's all weekend long :)
CRT Rejuvinator time?
Yeah that's what I've been wondering. Monochrome CRTs are really easy to rejuvinate. It's possible to screw up and fry your tube, but if you're working with sacrificial components anyway, why not?
Yes please I came her to add this comment. Zap those toobs!
You should get a crt emissions tester. Judging purely by looks isn't always the best. But seeing as you have multiple compatible tubes I understand the fun of said project.
Those Philips monitors have been available in so many variants, rebranded under various names.
Recently I usually also had to crank up the brightness to the max of the monochrome BM7502 / BM7522 and derivatives. I'm not sure it's always exclusively CRT related. A lot of these haven't been used that much, since they were usually paired with home computers. I have owned many of these and the last ones I had all had pretty dim screens. I don't sell them anymore for that reason.
By the way: the Apple Monitor III also has a mat screen finish.
i love your video pic quality
Cant what for the next one. I've got a couple i need to calibrate once I get a chance.
If you see the movie The Phantoms. There's TV monitors inside the truck units. All the lights and visual stuff you see in there, I did. On some, I had to take apart the TVs to get them into the set. I shocked myself so many times. Yeah, it's not fun. CRTs pack a punch.
Very cool.
I really like that green phosphor one, including the case. I think it looks almost soviet in design
I had the Amdek 300A on my first PC (Tandy 1000a), and I ended up cutting the screen mesh off eventually.
I like them all.
The mesh coating on monitor #4 demonstrates how a shadow mask in color picure tubes reduces the amount of electrons hitting the phosphors on the screen.
I love Amber displays/monitors.
i love amber monitors, easy to see and easy on the eyes
Gotta love the amber.
Interesting to see the Alien Downpour game had a 40th Birthday message for the Apple II.
Ah I cannot wait for the next vid. Thank you, Adrian. Getting in my nerd crack.
Watching this as I read through the Sony GDM-500PS (actually an IBM P202) repair manual.
22:06 shango066: Hold my soldering iron...
The electronics were jason jj cruzed. That's why it's not tromboculating
Sparkle pony master charge...
I’ve noticed that amber crts tended to be run on machines that displayed a constant picture or at least a border. There’s an old CNC machine at my job and the functions around the bottom and top are burned into it
Will the CRT rejuvenator kit see some use in the next episode?
Amber monitors seemed to be left on on in commercial or library applications. We still have some running 24/7 at work
I may not be a crt expert but i feel like amber might be left on more often because of it's less harsh color.
That'd be my guess as well. Combined with the fact that amber and green crts often displayed non-moving images (like text on wordprocessors)
Maybe amber CRTs were used more in businesses and just happened to be left on longer?
Mutilating the Amdek was painful to watch... I loved that anti-glare screen, and I would have expected Adrian to take out the tube and clean the tube/mesh combo. Notice how the blacks are now grey in the tube, the mesh makes the black - black. I love all of Adrian's videos but I was shocked to see him do this to the Amdek :(
I agree! I would have made an attempt to clean it. Stuff this old really should be preserved if you're going to bother fixing. Otherwise why not just replace the tube with an LCD and put a raspberrypi in it running an emulator?
Sadly it's not the first time he's ruined something like this. I'm sure it won't be the last, either. He's not one to preserve original designs and honestly I think that's his big weakness.
I'm just awaiting capacitors and other parts to repair my 10" Torch RGB CRT monitor (actually a Sony somethingorother model "Trinitron Character Display" chassis in a hefty plastic case), any improvement on that would basically be it powering up... :P
I've seen two models of the Philips Monitors (the version you have (EDIT: number 3) as well as one that mimics exactly the 1084) both in green and amber and yes - the color of the LED coincides with the phosphor on both models and the 1084-looking has either green or amber stripes printed on the lid, also depending on the color of the phosphor.
I still have that Amdek monitor down my basement in storage but I don't think I've plugged it in for thirty years.
Wow. That AMDEK monitor looks familiar. I'm sure I used to have one, or used one at a place of work, many years ago.