One other project I'm having some difficulties with is a Commodore PET 2001
that I've had for 10 years. In that time, turning it on only ever produced
a 'blank' raster screen, as in this video:
I assume you hae the scan lines (if you turn the brightness up?) but no
vidoe modulation.
involved with a CRT. Wondering if anyone has any
other ideas on where my
problem could be.
If you ahve hre raster lines, then most odf the circuitry is working. In
particular, the deflection circuits are oorking, and most of the
electrode ovltages are right.
Most of the time, the modualtion is applied ot the CRT cathode. The more
postiibe the cathode is, the more negative the control grid is with
respect to it, so the lower the beam current. Typically, the catode is
drive by a common emitter stage with a supply of a few 10's of volts.
With the trasnsitor cut off, the cathode is sufficiently +ve to cut the
CRT off. When a vidoe signal si applied ot the abse of that transsitor,
the cathode voltage is lowered,, turning on the electron beam in the CRT.
My first test would be to measure hte CRT cathode votlage. This is
normally pinb 2 of the CRT IIRC. Expect perhaps 40-70V there. If it's
very low, or zero, susepct a problem in the power supply to the video
amplifer. Nomally this will give an uncontrollably bright raster, but it
doesn;'t hurt to check.
The voltage for this stage is almsot always obtaiend from the flyback
transformer. A tamp on one of the windings is halfwave rectified ans
smoothed.So if the supply is missing, chekc that diode and cpacitor, when
you've foudn them.
Simialrly , fif the cathode votlage looks OK, check that video transistor
and associated components.
Now, how to find them... If you don't ahve the schematic, just trace that
cathode lead back. You may find varios series inductors and resistors,
but you will come to the collector of a transistor. That's the one to
look at.
-tony