The other day at the electronics flea market I obtained a couple of new CRTs. The one below has a P2 phosphor which is brighter and more energetic than the P1 and has much longer persistence. You can light it up with one of those UV LED flashlights. Notice the inspection sticker.
And the one below is a fine example of the P12 phosphor–it lights up amber. The color is similar to that of the old amber MDA monitors but the persistence is longer.
Hello to everyone from the Maker Faire! It was great meeting you all in person. But if you missed out, here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of what the event was all about:
There are many more pictures in the MAKE Flickr Pool. The entire San Mateo expo center was jammed with crazy, cool, weird, and wild exhibits, projects, vehicles, and people!
My friend Jeri recorded some video of my exhibit, so take a look if you couldn’t make it to the Faire.
Yesterday I went to the local electronics flea market and picked up some interesting items. The first is a 3BP1 3″ round cathode ray tube. It was in the original box which was still sealed and coated with wax.
The label indicated that the tube was manufactured in 1945.
Of course I needed to open it to make sure the tube was intact. Many times these tubes are stored upside down, and often fragments of various internal parts will break off due to vibration, fall down, and ruin the phosphor screen.
I half-expected an Indiana-Jones-style puff of ancient air as I broke the seal.
And yes, it’s in perfect condition. The outside of the tube is slightly dirty but these tubes really didn’t need to be cleaned before leaving the assembly line to work properly.
The next find is an RCA 5820 Image Orthicon tube. This tube came in the original box which indicates that it was shipped to KGO-TV in San Francisco in 1953. It would have been used in the RCA TK-11 TV camera which was very common at the time.
This is a closeup of the front.
And here you can see the internal elements. The round bit in the middle is actually a very fine mesh screen.
