8 Feb
2007
8 Feb
'07
12:32 p.m.
Start by pulling off the CRT anode, just slip
your finger under the suction
cup and pull, and it should come off.
You should not need to put your finger under the cup to pull it off (a
little suprise might be under there anyway). Most HV anode connections
on CRTs can be removed by squeezing the outside of the cup, while
giving it a bit of a lifting twist, if that makes sense. Once it comes
loose, it can be moved over and touched to something to ground it. I have never been shocked doing it this way, although a
couple of times
I did get a good spark. A very clean CRT can hold a charge for well
over a day.
_Well_ over a day!
I have been bitten other ways with CRT high voltage,
and while not fun
experience, the pain is temporary. I am still alive. In fact, I have
I had the 30 kV of the EHT in my Barco monitor flash over to my hand
(while the monitor was turned on). It was darn unpleasant, I said some
things I am not going to repeat here, and I don't want to repeat the
experience.
never actually heard of anyone dying from a CRT zap.
The worst case
Unless you have a heart problem, a pacemaker, etc, it's unlikely the
stored charge in a CRT would be fatal. Ditto the output of a working
high-freuqnecy EHT generator (such as the output of a flyback transformer).
But be careful if yoou work on DEC vector displays (VR14, etc). Those
things have mains-derrived EHT in them. The capactiors are _much_ higher
than those used with high-frequency generators -- around 0.1uF I think.
And the output current when in operaton can be a lot higher than from a
flyback transformer. I think this could well be fatal if touched.
-tony