Discharging CRT anode and capacitors on a VT52 DECscope

From: Steven Canning <cannings_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu May 27 17:11:05 2004

Ashley,

Lots of good advice in these postings BUT (and it's a BIG but) there seems
to be one fundamental item missing from them all. This advice applies to
CRTs and high voltage capacitors. Even after you have grounded those suckers
and taken the voltage to zero (or close to zero), they are not totally safe
to handle. After you remove the ground these bad boys will build up a charge
just sitting there! Not a super lot of voltage, but enough to make you
"soil" your uniform should you get across it! I would HIGHLY recommend
leaving a ground wire to the anode of the CRT (or across a high voltage cap)
for the entire time you are messing around with it (with power off of
course). I got nailed pretty good once when the "grounded" side of my wire
had come loose and the big giant glass capacitor (CRT) had built up a pretty
good charge. Working with Tesla coils has given me much respect for high
voltage! Have a blast (no pun intended).

Best regards, SAC
Received on Thu May 27 2004 - 17:11:05 BST