HP CRT decay (was: Re: HP2648 heartbreak)

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Sat Feb 12 15:19:05 2005

On Fri, 2005-02-11 at 21:32 -0600, Jay West wrote:
> Sellam wrote...
> I know of just a few collectors who have one or two, and some of
> them have the dreaded crt mold.

I was doing some more sorting through the piles of HP stuff at Bletchley
today that needs attention. There are maybe 40 terminals (of all
flavours), but probably 3/4 of them have decayed screens, with black or
white splotches within the glass.

Question though; is that a dead CRT (i.e. phosophor rot, loss of vacuum
etc.) or "just" water damage following delamination of the glass forming
the face of the CRT? (latter often seen in the corner of ancient car
windscreens)

It'd be a shame if all the CRTs are scrap - particularly the ones for
the pair of HP 250's that we have :-(

Oh, I "found" a pair of HP magnetic drum stores today. I'd only been
walking past them for weeks because they look like big industrial power
conditioners! (They're vaguely transformer-shaped, gun-metal grey unlike
other HP stuff, and all the data connectors happen to be on the
underside so I hadn't seen them). One's 384 line, the other 512 - I
pulled the side on the 384-line one and it looks spotless inside.
Presumably they're for the pair of HP-250's, but time will tell...

cheers

Jules
Received on Sat Feb 12 2005 - 15:19:05 GMT