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Transplanting 9-inch CRTs - A Journey

jessenator

Well-known member
b4wAGej.jpg.7b0b2c2eba93be18a500561a83bc8b02.jpg


I've mostly calibrated the green CRT, full album here: https://imgur.com/a/6jpFusD I used the Apple Display Utility available on one of the service CD images.

In the time it took me to go through the adjustments the flyback got up to around 95* F. I'm thinking I might see if a 40mm noctua fan might fit between the top of the case and the FBT's cage, just to get some direct flow on it.

 

Byrd

Well-known member
I imagine it would need to be a second, custom metal band around the outside and secured with a worm-screw type mechanism at the top. If yours does have ears, I'd measure the ears' holes vs the OEM like I did to see how much play there is, etc. Good luck!


Just had a look, I'll post pics up another time, but this security CRT is screwed into its bezel using steel clips that attach to a tightly wound wire around the back face of the CRT.  It might be enough to transplant and mount in a Mac.

 

jessenator

Well-known member
(linked thumbnails) of some more dramatic, but a more accurate representation green CRT in the SE/30 :)  






 
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Jinnai

Well-known member
Very cool, and thanks for the stls!

RE the CRT without tabs: I thought one might be able to spot weld tabs onto the CRT, but then again, you might just cause the CRT to erupt. There's one with tabs on ebay for less last I checked, though.

 

jessenator

Well-known member
So, minor snag with installing the amber CRT.

As nickpunt mentioned, the orientation of the neck pins is rotated, necessitating either a flip of the tube (putting the anode cap right next to the AB) or extending the wires on the neck board.

I thought I'd be clever and utilize some spare pieces from my Macintosh Classic parts machine (specifically the neck board itself, and from the analog board). The neck boards between the SE(/30) and the Classic (early version with the compatible yoke and CRT) look almost identical, save the more modern components. But since the Classic neck board is hard-wired into its analog board, I did some wire swapping with the logic board—pulled out the wires from the connector, matched it to the SE(/30) connector, and soldered those (longer) wires into the Classic neck board. I did notice that there was one deviation: the black and brown wires are apparently swapped on the board itself.




Do I swap the brown and black wire positions to match the SE(/30) neck board, or is the circuit on the Classic neck board different enough that I should just leave it? 

 

jessenator

Well-known member
That green CRT looks fantastic! Nice work!
Thanks! It definitely has a certain aesthetic—kinda like the //c Snow White vibe just carried right over to the Macintosh, bypassing the early models. I mean, it would be more impressive if I didn't have a marbley-looking case, but I think it shines through mostly ;)

Also, I think, just to be absolutely sure it works and won't blow anything up, I bought an SE neck board, into which I'll solder my extended connector leads. As Ripley said, "it's the only way to be sure…"

 

nickpunt

Well-known member
Looks great! Love the dramatic photos. Seems like the picture is not distorted, guessing you didn't have to mess with the magnets much? I gotta find one of these green CRTs.

 

jessenator

Well-known member
guessing you didn't have to mess with the magnets much?
Thankfully not! The upper left corner was a little wonky, but it's mostly cleared up. One could definitely get by with a decent pattern, like a check fill in SuperPaint, but I used the Display Service Utility that's included on this, and possibly other versions of the Service Source CD. Apparently v1 has some Classic-centric utility that didn't really do anything on my SE/30 (was the Classic II software brightness controlled?), but the patterns were nice to have.

I guess I never shared that Matsushita p/n did I? It's TR-9DK1 B 

Most might command some sort of premium for who knows why... But I'm getting the impression from members in the know that most, if not all, 9" monochrome CRTs are going to work, but not always the mounting, as we've seen ;)  

 

Jinnai

Well-known member
I can't help but wonder, how do I wire the amber CRT as-is to work with a signal?

[EDIT] From looking at it, it appears yellow is a composite signal, black is ground, and purple is +12v, and that's all there is. Pic where someone has wired a composite signal to the black and yellow CRT connection:

4YCinyE.jpg.681307d313304026ce2f05a96c131168.jpg


 
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jessenator

Well-known member
Finally got around to installing the amber CRT tonight!

My first snag was that the wires used on the Classic were (strangely) a thicker gauge of wire than the SE(/30)'s, so I had to take a different tack when soldering the longer wires to the spare SE neck board I bought:


Thankfully the board is a simple, one sided (layered?) variety so I just went right onto the pads, vs through-hole

Here's a view of the CRT in place and the full length of the new neck board connector:


Did run into a tight, but not tugging fit with the ground wire. I would have spliced another wire, but I misplaced my heat shrink tubing, annoyingly.



Cheesey StartupScreen, I know :)  



There is some distortion on the bottom (top) of the CRT that I wasn't able to correct with the yoke magnets (what I could reach anyway), but I'm pretty satisfied with it! I did have to adjust the rings quite a bit to get it right on center. Let's just say I'm thankful for the more modern controls of the other Macintosh monitors that don't require such manual operation.



 

Byrd

Well-known member
Looks great jessenator - it almost needs a really badly yellowed case to give it that sun drenched 80's effect :)

 

jessenator

Well-known member
Looks great jessenator - it almost needs a really badly yellowed case to give it that sun drenched 80's effect :)
Thanks! yeah, I think I shouldn't have messed with the case, but there's some quality about the botched brite job that I don't mind :)  

Overdue, but some decent amber-screen shots (linked thumbnails) :






 

jessenator

Well-known member
I love this.  I hope it has a matching amber HDD LED? :)
Yes! since the pin header on the SCSI2SD is large enough (space-wise) to actually take whatever size connector, really.  For my other 68k machines, I have only 2 still-working SCSI spinners, and while they're both Quantum, they're non-original(Apple), so the LED connectors don't fit either my IIci or Q700 connectors . They just sit there ...lifelessly unblinking

I'm personally liking the amber phosphor quite a bit. Does it look Mac'ish? Not strictly speaking, no. But apart from liking it, I also like the invisible, anonymous schadenfreude I'm getting because of its existence :lol:  

 
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Nick

New member
I have a few of of the compact macs one of my 2 mac pluses is dead and im tapping into the yoke to use the CRT as a crude oscilloscope dose anyone have the model number of the tube itself or the yoke?

 
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