View Full Version : Arcade enthusiast / monitor newbie


JBingo
04-10-2012, 08:35 AM
Hi everyone,
My hobby is restoring old arcade machines like Pacman, Donkey Kong, etc. and the one aspect of the hobby that scares the hell out of me is working with monitors and the high voltages that go along with them. Hoping that if I'm called a big baby enough times I'll get the courage to work on them. :D

I'm in the NY/NJ area, and I'm also interested in getting some help tracking down early 80's TV tubes that are compatible with older arcade monitor chassis like a 19VJTP22 tube that is compatible with a G07 Electrohome arcade monitor chassis for example.

OK, I'll shut up now....

Steve
04-10-2012, 09:59 AM
I also collect and restore classic vids (San Francisco bay area), and
there is nothing wrong with having a lot of respect for CRT's and HV.
It can be done safely, and in fact many of us have been doing just
that for many years. Just be careful and think before you do anything.

In this area its easy to find dead video games cheap and thats how
I get replacement monitors and parts. Try placing an ad locally looking
for these and you may end up with more than you have space for.

If you haven't worked on a vector vid yet, try to find one. They are
the best games IMO and a challenge to keep running. Games like;
Tempest, Black Widow, Space Duel, Star Wars, Asteroids, and Red Baron.
Steve

JBingo
04-10-2012, 03:38 PM
No such luck in my neck of the woods. Cheap vids get snatched up and turned into multicades and thrown back on Craigslist for $1000. Really stinks. I can usually get my hands on a monitor pretty easily, but it will typically have massive screen burn. That's why I'm hoping to learn a bit more about monitors and trying my hand at tube swaps. This site has given me a head start on it: http://www.junknet.net/donor-tvs and is the reason why I was asking about a 19VJTP22 tube.

Oh, and I was lucky enough to snag a NOS tube for the Amplifone in my Star Wars. My favorite game in my collection. :thmbsp:

bandersen
04-10-2012, 04:33 PM
Welcome to Videokarma.
Maybe this seller has something you can use ? http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-RCA-and-Major-Video-Picture-Tubes-CRTs-Projection-Tubes-Various-Numbers-/370602142569

ChrisW6ATV
04-11-2012, 03:16 AM
JBingo-

Welcome to Videokarma. Restoring arcade games sounds very interesting. I was the warranty service technician for the Electrohome G07 monitors in the Chicago area (Stern, Williams, Taito, etc.) when they were new, and I replaced a lot of those CRTs among other parts.

JBingo
04-11-2012, 08:15 AM
Thanks for the link Banderson!

Chris, that is very cool that you worked at Electrohome. I should probably start a thread about this, but do the letters used in a tube # have particular meaning? For example, I'm looking for the 19VJTP22 tube that is supposed to be plug and play with a G07 chassis. In the ebay link Banderson posted, there is a 19VJWP22. Do the T and W stand for an attribute/feature that differentiates the two, or is it just a random letter assigned?

Electronic M
04-11-2012, 01:29 PM
Back around 1967 tubes diagonal measure switched from bulb size to viewable phosphor size and tubes went from having 2-4 letters in the middle to having 5 letters in the middle of the number. The first numbers are diagonal measure and the last are phosphor type 22 being the common value for color tubes and 4 being the common letter for monochrome(there were other numbers, but they were usually for special purpose gear).

ChrisW6ATV
04-12-2012, 02:26 AM
Do the T and W stand for an attribute/feature that differentiates the two, or is it just a random letter assigned?
I never learned how the letters in CRT numbers were decided (nor regular tubes, for that matter), except for the details Tom (Electronic M) mentioned. In this case the JT and the JW are the specific identifiers; the 19V is viewable size diagonally, and the P22 is the phosphor type assigned to all color CRTs. Other countries had the picture size in millimeters and a B instead of the P (but I do not know why), so the 240AB4 in that Ebay auction is about a 9-inch black-and-white CRT. The ones with numbers starting like A68 represent the number of centimeters diagonally (an A68 CRT is about a 25-inch CRT).

AiboPet
05-29-2012, 12:13 PM
I'm new to this site....and saw this thread.

My "greatest" achievement around 15 years ago was to recap an old Sanyo 19" vertical monitor in my Donkey Kong upright cabinet. A friend closed an arcade up in LA (I'm in San Diego), and I bought a Frogger, Galaga and this DK machine. I've had the DK machine with me EVERYWHERE for like 20 years now.....and it's NOW just recently dead (scrambled ROM...gave the board away and built a decent MAME machine in it). I miss the original board, but the MAME machine has been going strong for more than five years.....and it's nice to have ONE machine in the 2 bedroom apartment that will do it all (I did have to build a new CP to play things like Crazy Climber). The Frogger and Galaga machine still run. They are at my parent's house up in LA. The Frogger seems to ALWAYS require playing with edge-card connectors.

If I had the room, I would likely ALSO have an arcade collection. I joined up because I do now have a collection of "micro" TV sets, and recently got a couple sets that officially would take me into "restoration". You can see my intro a bit further up in this category.