03-02-2022, 05:58 PM
Brings back memories of fixing them back in the mid/late '90s. Always quite loud in service, but with the covers off, they were really bad. When not synced, they were deafening - and there were many faults that led to a unsync fault condition. Many faults were caused by the blue axial Philips caps - the ones that are so very reliable in transistor radios. They had a hard life in those monitors.
Of course, some 25 years on, they're no longer deafening. We have a small number left, and use them as a reference during an exercise in visual colour matching. It's fun to watch the new recruits suffer the pain I did back in the day. If I'm feeling cruel, I'll hit the external sync button and watch them clasp their hands over their ears. They're at least 10dB quieter to me now - probably more...
I'll try to remember to look in the card index of faults when I'm back in the office. They won't be for the ones I fixed - those were in a different part of the company - but I'd guess the team here had much the same problems we did. On the whole, given how long they were powered for, they weren't bad. Did quite a few CRT changes. I remember buying a couple of new ones in about 2001, and the design hadn't changed significantly. I'm not sure when they were designed, but would guess the 1970s. I'll try to remember if we still have copies of the manuals...
Of course, some 25 years on, they're no longer deafening. We have a small number left, and use them as a reference during an exercise in visual colour matching. It's fun to watch the new recruits suffer the pain I did back in the day. If I'm feeling cruel, I'll hit the external sync button and watch them clasp their hands over their ears. They're at least 10dB quieter to me now - probably more...
I'll try to remember to look in the card index of faults when I'm back in the office. They won't be for the ones I fixed - those were in a different part of the company - but I'd guess the team here had much the same problems we did. On the whole, given how long they were powered for, they weren't bad. Did quite a few CRT changes. I remember buying a couple of new ones in about 2001, and the design hadn't changed significantly. I'm not sure when they were designed, but would guess the 1970s. I'll try to remember if we still have copies of the manuals...
