Arcadeshop.com no longer carrying 19'' CGA CRT's ?

GunSmoke Guy

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I just recently browsed Arcade Shops web site and noticed that they are no longer carrying those 19'' CGA CRT's at 199. I didn't call them but just noticed it wasn't listed on their website.

I saw ebay a few members have used / new ones along with 8 liners but they are getting tougher and tougher to find. I really wish HAPP would convince samsung or whoever to reproduce them again.
 
I'm totally ignorant about what you guys are talking about. Can you guys provide some info/links? Someone said banned?

The glass in CRTs usually (always?) contains lead (this is partly as a radiation shield). Lead, as you know, can cause lead poisoning, and much of the world is banning it's use in new stuff, and/or making it illegal to transport across borders (see the European ROHS regulations). Since CRTs are for most purposes easily replaced by LCDs (which never used lead for anything except solder), there's very little incentive to re-engineer CRTs so that they could be easily manufactured in the current regulatory environment.

There are a few, dwindling, sources, but for them to make a buck they need to charge serious money for their products, and hobbyists can't always afford that. Which costs them yet more business, until they give up and go do something else.

This leaves those of us who depend on CRTs in quite a pickle - you CAN put an LCD into an older raster game, but it really doesn't look the same (try out a 60-in-1 hooked to an LCD at the next show you go to. It's DIFFERENT. And when you're used to the look of Pac-Man, seeing it on an LCD is really jarring.).

The vector monitor users are even worse off, as those went out of fashion long before CRTs died, making it even harder to find parts.

I don't know what the long-term solution is. For now we're keeping the old monitors going and some folk are salvaging tubes from TVs to replace ones that have too much burn or whose guns are dead or dying (the electron guns are part of the tube and can't be replaced).

There's a few being produced, but that supply WILL dry up fairly shortly, leaving us to keep the old ones going as best we can, switching to LCDs where we must, because it's still better with an LCD than with nothing at all.
 
Eventually modern display will be able to emulate raster and vector CRT displays, but as far as I can tell, we aren't there yet. :(
 
8liners.com or atlas amusements does not have any new 19" cga monitors, they have only used with burn in......just learned that today when me and my client tried to order a replacement for his galaga since the 4600 has went out of focus
 
Eventually modern display will be able to emulate raster and vector CRT displays, but as far as I can tell, we aren't there yet. :(

It might be feasable to emulate the 'fuzziness' of an analog tube if you have a sufficiently high resolution LCD (like Apple's retina display DPIs or even better), but they don't build anything with a curve. I suppose a lens might suffice to mimic that, but who knows?
 
They talk about lead like it's the most poisonous thing in the world.....seriously....

You want to know what's poisonous? Mercury...most persistent poison in our environment.
We use it light bulbs (still to this day), thermometers, thermostats, old fashioned AC/DC rectifiers.......I mean we consume a lot of mercury from FISH!!!! It's not like we filet the picture tubes, cook them, then eat them!? And you want to stop making them world?!
 
While I understand the reasoning for the lead ban, it seems counter-intuitive to ramp up production of compact CFL's with elemental mercury in them.

The risk of mercury exposure in typical household CFL usage is tremendous, not only by direct contact but by vapor inhalation. And you're much more likely to break a light bulb, than a CRT ;-)
 
There are still NIB CGA monitors out there.

But be prepared to pay anywhere from $250-$400 for them.

And thats before taxes and/or shipping.
 
Main thing is, CRT monitors are obsolete, other than for a few collectible purposes, such as vintage television and arcade game restoration. It wouldn't make business sense to produce them these days for the extremely small numbers that would sell. Kinda sucks for the future of these hobbies.. wish there were a lot more NOS tubes out there, but I guess the 90s TVs will have to do for a tube source.
 
Does anyone know what the life time of the electon guns in a tube are?

I would think thats going to be the limiting factor. 20 yrs? 30 yrs? 40 yrs?

I'm sure its all based on usage.. but can anyone estimate say a game from the 80's how much life our monitors have left?

Does reguving them ultimatly rob them of years of life?
 
Does anyone know what the life time of the electon guns in a tube are?

I would think thats going to be the limiting factor. 20 yrs? 30 yrs? 40 yrs?

No clue but I'll put money down that most of the tubes/monitors from the 80's out last the newer ones that used to be available.
 
8liners.com or atlas amusements does not have any new 19" cga monitors, they have only used with burn in......just learned that today when me and my client tried to order a replacement for his galaga since the 4600 has went out of focus

That's why you just buy the universal chassis and pair it with a tube from a cheap TV from a thrift store or CL....
 
While I understand the reasoning for the lead ban, it seems counter-intuitive to ramp up production of compact CFL's with elemental mercury in them.

The risk of mercury exposure in typical household CFL usage is tremendous, not only by direct contact but by vapor inhalation. And you're much more likely to break a light bulb, than a CRT ;-)

> The risk of mercury exposure in typical household CFL usage is tremendous, not only by direct contact but by vapor inhalation.

Not from what I've read recently. It's actually a very small amount and only an issue if you break it and you're supposed to just wash your hands and ideally open a window in the room if you can.
 
> The risk of mercury exposure in typical household CFL usage is tremendous, not only by direct contact but by vapor inhalation.

Not from what I've read recently. It's actually a very small amount and only an issue if you break it and you're supposed to just wash your hands and ideally open a window in the room if you can.

Actually the evidence is exactly the opposite, a study performed by the Maine Bureau of Remediation & Waste Management found levels of elemental mercury above the threshold of 300 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3). Levels monitored were noted as having: "short excursions over 25,000 ng/m3, sometimes over 50,000 ng/m3, and possibly over 100,000 ng/m3 from the breakage of a single compact fluorescent lamp."

Source: EPA.gov, direct link: http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/cflreport.htm

Somewhat dry reading, but good info to know if you're going to use CFLs.
 
IMHO, the EPA is intentionally trying to downplay the risk of CFLs. They publish in bold at the top of their page;

"CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury -- less than 1/100th of the amount in a mercury thermometer."

But here is what they left out:
When ingested, only 0.01% of liquid mercury (thermometer) is absorbed by the body, while 80% of inhaled mercury vapor (i.e. broken CFL bulbs) is absorbed by the body. THAT'S A DIFFERENCE OF *8000x*, hardly the "1/100th of the amount" cited.

They also left out:
A CFL bulb contains 4-5mg of mercury. The OSHA exposure limits for organic mercury vapor is 0.05 mg/m³. A single CFL bulb broken in a 10x10 room is 0.221mg/m³, over 4x the OSHA exposure limit.

Which begs the question; Why are they trying to minimize the danger of CFL breakage?

Not from what I've read recently. It's actually a very small amount and only an issue if you break it and you're supposed to just wash your hands and ideally open a window in the room if you can.

In simple terms, the risk posed by breaking a CFL bulb is much more like breaking 64 mercury thermometers. Does 64 broken thermometers in your child's room sound like "a very small amount of mercury"??

And if it's such a negligible risk, why does the EPA recommend these actions;

* Open a window or door to the outdoors and leave the room

* Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning

* Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements

* leave the heating and AC system shut off for several hours

* The next several times you vacuum, shut off the HVAC system, close the doors to other rooms, and open a window or door to the outside.

http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup-detailed.html
 
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