monitor modding

It's been asked before, but I need reassurance. I'm looking to paint my monitor and put a window in it with a USB-powered LED. I have the design all worked out, but I'm gun-shy about opening the case. It's been sitting powered off overnight. It's one of those monitors where the circuit board is in a slot and you have to pull it out. I've had a monitor similar to this apart before, but I didn't even know the dangers a monitor could pose then. . I need reassurance/some easy safety tips, as in "you'll be fine as long as you don't touch X."

the big caps are what your worried about, you can drain them with a sandbar resistor across the poles.

i'm a beginner in the world of high-voltage electronics...

exactly where would i get one of these sandbar resistors, and how would i go about using it?

thanks

There should also be a big suction cup looking thing with a wire coming out of it near the actual CRT. You really dont want to touch that, it carries a lot of voltage.

my 2 cents is this



push the power button on and off a few times, that should drain the caps

get it professionally done.. take it to an elecronics shop/tv repair shop and have them de-power it for you.... you REALLY dont want to get zapped... my arm hurt for 2 days the last time i got whacked

yea, let a pro disassemble it for you and then after you are done let him reassemble it..shouldn't cost anything more than 10 bucks and will be the safest/easiest sollution...

it's too late. the monitor's already apart and painted. i haven't been zapped yet, so hopefully i wont whilst putting it back together

the zap wans't that bad for me
i wanna see pics when ur done

believe me, i will post pics. however i didn't take the whole thing apart, i merely took the back off and plastic bagged/masked the important parts. hence i couldn't paint the buttons, and without those painted i decided against painting the whole button section, and without that painted i decided against painting the base. still looks dope IMHO, but it will look better when i'm done putting a USB-powered LED in it. i painted it blue, cut the nuclear trifoil symbol on the side, and with the yellow LED in it i think it will look cool. as i said, pics when i'm done (which will be the day i get the light in the mail, which will be monday probably.)

Here man, I'm an electrician and I run one of my computers without any case at all, including the monitor ...

There's no serious danger as long as its not plugged into the wall. Alternating current is what you should NOT get in the way of in a monitor (imagine, 10,000 volts AC, and that's what monitors run on). However, capacitors cary DC voltage which is not alternating. You really have nothing to worry about as for getting shocked and all when its open as long as its unplugged. But if the cap has a lot of voltage and it you might get burned but it's unlikely.

If it'll make you feel safer, you can empty the caps. They're the big round pieces, usually in clusters around the mainboard. Use a resistor and put it across the two terminals of the caps. If you don't have a resistor, you can make one out of the graphite of a pencil. Chop off about a one inch section of your pencil and shave it so the graphite is showing. Then use the exposed graphite to short the caps by touching the terminals of the caps to the graphite on the pencil for about three seconds. Piece of cake.

not trying to leave topic or anything but hey pummer did you try to copy my avatar?

nope. hope it didn't come off that way, i'm working on a new av anyway

nah I'm just kiddin ya man I just noticed the similarity and I thought hey this is something for me to talk about

Cant waite to see it pummer. I think I got a good mental pic from what you are saying, cant waite. I hope it all goes well!

awsome pencil idea orange400. That is the kinda stuff i like to see, cheap, made at home. Save $$$$$$$$$