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Mini CRT for a Prop or whatever — Parallax Forums

Mini CRT for a Prop or whatever

Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
edited 2011-07-26 07:28 in General Discussion
I was handed a OLD VHS based broken Vid Cam .

I did how ever let it live on as parts .

Most of those older Vid cams use a CRT for a viewfinder and 99% of them are NTSC in and are ~ 5V or so run ..

Its a simple hack really .

1) Look for a Coax based cable on the main cable bundle . Is most likely the Video input .

2) Look for some power wires . In My case there area 4 other wires that were not used for the CRT but for the REC ( tallly ) lamp and one for a 2 wires .

You may need to have some cutting with a pare of Diag cutters to see what is needed for it to run .

3) You will need a LM7805 to run it ( SMPS is ok too ) remember the caps on the Output ! and Input .

4) a RCA jack or your desired Input method .

5) patience !



. Ok .. how I made mine .


I used the cable that was IN the camcorder to read the wires . ( it was VERY obvious where they went ! ) I traced them to the inside the viewfinder and that was really it .



IF you are BOLD you can tinker with t the yoke wires to fip the CRT and use it under a baseball cap as a heads mounted display ( I did this in 9th grade to watch " a bugs life in Physics class as my IBOOK had NTSC output )



Have fun and remember it IS a CRT there is HV on parts Mind its NO where near as bad as a 30 trnitron ( OWCH !)


Attachment not found.

Now here is the use for it . HMD for a robot and use it with a PROP to use as a data overlay for robot health .

Enjoy !

Comments

  • edited 2011-07-26 07:28
    Peter,

    This is pretty clever. It is actually amazing.

    I'm not sure I want to scrap my old broken VHS-C camcorder because I think it just needs a new battery.

    Chuck
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