13 Aug
2020
13 Aug
'20
2:25 p.m.
Thanks Paul. Yes, I know the old Plato plasma display terminals well, having grown up with
them as
my introduction to computers.
The DEC VR01 is a much newer design, though I'm sure it has some similar properties,
including a
high voltage display. Unfortunately, the display itself never lights at this point, just
an LED to
indicate power is on. I suspect the low voltage is at least partially working and the high
(or
other) is detected to be out and so the whole supply shuts down. This is a typical design
for DEC
supplies.
Thanks for putting me in touch with your expert.
--tom
On 8/13/20 3:38 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
You may want to see if the PLATO terminal
documentation is any help, look on Bitsavers under University of Illinois. Those plasma
display power supplies are hairy devices; the panel is actually a memory device and the
power supply produces a high voltage AC waveform to make that work. Those panels normally
light up around the rim; the fact you see that briefly but not sustained gives some hope
that adjusting may be all that is needed.
That's quite a display; the usual plasma panels were 8 inches square, 512 by 512
pixels. I'm guessing this is a 1k by 1k pixel display, which I have seen once or
twice, at SAI in San Diego in some military displays.
I know a plasma terminal expert; I've forwarded your message to him.
paul
On Aug 13, 2020, at 3:23 PM, Tom Uban via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I have a DEC VRE01 terminal that I bought NIB years ago. For those who don't know
about this model,
it has a flat plasma (orange/black) display of about 17". It worked when I bought
it, but now, years
later, I tried powering it up and the light comes on for a moment and goes out. I suspect
a power
supply issue, but bitsavers does not seem to have this one.
Does anyone have schematic (or other) documentation for it?
--tnx
--tom