Last week I made a post asking if I should buy an old vintage monitor.

Well, I went back to the recycled goods store this week and it was still there, so $30 later I have it, and it seems to just work*

There’s very little about this monitor on the internet, so I’m thinking of documenting as much as I can about it, especially as it’s Osborne branded so there could be some interesting history behind it.

* The power button is stuck on, and it does an occasional unsettling arc sound and the image slightly distorts for a millisecond. I believe the latter is fairly common among old CRTs but I don’t know much more than that.

  • SanguineBrahEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    This monitor has no OSD or button to trigger a degauss. The coil will be wired directly to AC via a posistor, so it’s entirely passive and will only trigger again when the monitor cools down.

    The distortion is caused by the high voltage arcing over, which droops and interrupts beam deflection for a moment. I wouldn’t want to run it this way for very long, because it can damage the flyback transformer over time (although the flyback could itself be arcing anyway).

    • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Thanks for the heads up - it’ll stay as a very occasional use monitor until I either feel comfortable enough to look inside (after lots of research, given the voltages within) or find a friend experienced in CRTs. I really wouldn’t want to blow it up when it could’ve been prevented easily by maintaining it.

      • SanguineBrahEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Ragebutt’s advice is good RE: maintenance. I would take the back off, make sure it’s discharged then clean around the anode cap and in general make sure there is not excessive dust/soot that could form a path for electrical discharge. Clean the anode with alcohol, apply a little dialectric grease to the cup and put everything back together. There is a decent chance that will help, just make sure not to wipe off the black paint on the tube - this is called “aquadag” and it is important to the operation of the monitor.