How to discharge a CRT?

[Cyberwiz01]

Ok, I have an old CRT sitting here and would like to take a peek inside to see what might be able to be done with it. But after hearing and reading many horror stories, I am afraid to even look upon the high voltage innards of a CRT. So I figured if anyone on the forums would know how to discharge a CRT, it would be you guys here in Alternative Modding. So how would I go about discharging a CRT so that I dont fry any limbs on it?
Thanks guys.

 

[Chris_F]

Don't take my word on this. I heard you should let it sit for maybe 24hours. Then take a grounded screwdriver to the supercaps.

 

[Robrules18]

well im by no means an electrican so dont do anything i say... but if its old and not been plugged in for a while it shouldnt be charged, and wearing rubber gloves on a wood or vinyl floor should help.

 

[Cyberwiz01]

well it still works and was running fine yesterday, so it probably still has a charge. I heard that the charge could stay for weeks or even months. Is that true? And which ones are the supercaps? I see a lot of really big capacitors, do i need to take a screwdriver to all of them, or just one. Can someone please give me a detailed step by step procedureOr a link to a site that shows how to do it. I dont want "Killed by a monitor" on my tombstone. I ran a search here and on google and I didnt really have time to go through pages of results so i couldnt really find anything.

 

[seadave77]

You can discharge it by putting a screwdriver to the power plug in the back. Touch the middle prong to one of the other ones. Don't be supprised if you melt your screwdriver. That being said, I still wouldn't mess with it.

 

[NcBaller1985]

Whatever you do...DISCHARGE THE MONITOR COMPLETELY!!!!

I speak from a personal bad experience...my hand hit something it wasn't supposed too...pain...hospital. VERY bad experience! If you have been on here for a while, you'll remember this...lol.

 

[Robrules18]

make sure you use a RUBBER HANDLE SCREWDRIVER, r you might melt too,

 

[PhoenixMDM]

Leave it to sit for a week. Might be overkill, but can't hurt any. Screwdriver to the caps is a good idea, but after a week the charges should be completely gone from that. Just steer clear of the HV output, it's a little suction cup thingy on the CRT tube itself. I stuck a screwdriver under the cup once, and flew back a good 4 or 5 feet from the shock. It was a TV, and it had been sitting for well over a month. Ever since, I pull those off (of dead CRT's) using a 5-ft pole of thin PVC tubing with a metal eyehook screwed into the cap. I call it my "chicken stick" because i'm too chicken to use a screwdriver again!

 

[da-gokesta]

we have a tool at school that plugs into the ground socket of a household outlet, then you remove the outside cover of th monito, and on the top of the tube there is a rubber thing that looks a lot like a suction cup. under than you touch the contacts under than and it should get drained enough to be safe. i know we did it and were able to work on it within a minute of discharging it. its the same concept as the screwdriver, except that its grounded in rubber, has a rubber handle and a well insulate wire leading directly to a household ground outlet

 

[Crash893]

speaking from personal experince

my brother and i found a dumpster full of old monitors ( like 3 months old in the rain and snow for 1 week)


so we did what any red blooded americans would do

we went home got are pick axes and started to go to work on them

the peak was when i had one by the vga cord swing it in big round circles and my brother hit it with the pick axe and a huge 3-4 foot spark came out


we managed to get a few 1-2 feet spakes out of some of the others


moral of the story the monitors keep there juice for a long long time

 

[Chris_F]

Whatever you do...DISCHARGE THE MONITOR COMPLETELY!!!!

I speak from a personal bad experience...my hand hit something it wasn't supposed too...pain...hospital. VERY bad experience! If you have been on here for a while, you'll remember this...lol.

^^^ He knows what he is talking about. The doc said he was very lucky.

 

[matrixzen]

I've heard to many horror stories about people and monitors. I rather leave mine alone unless I had a TV repair man or someone who worked for viewsonic RMA or something there beside me doing the work.

 

[GOD Macktruck]

Finally, a use for homeless people

: ) :

 

[bubba gump]

What I have asked some people I know and this is what one of them said.

Originally said by macaddict311
take a long screwdriver, ground it to something with an aligator clip. slide the screwdriver underneath the suction cup and discharge the caps with that.

And then a buddy (dz) in reply to that who is majoring in some sort of electronic related field had told me this would work...thanks you two

Fold and Frag on
Brian

 

[Cyberwiz01]

Thanks for all your help everyone, is there any online guides that will show me pics of what all these components look like? BTW I remember your ordeal, NCBaller I'm glad you are ok, and modding on, ive seen some of your more recent work, looks nice.

 

[Crash893]

is ncballer the one that shocked the "poo" out of himself and then started a new thread about it BEFORE going to the doctor

 

[k3nshin]

yeh i think that was him.....

 

[creepy]

is ncballer the one that shocked the "poo" out of himself and then started a new thread about it BEFORE going to the doctor

You (ncballer) get props from me for doing that.

 

[NcBaller1985]

is ncballer the one that shocked the "poo" out of himself and then started a new thread about it BEFORE going to the doctor

yep....that was me...lol. I asked you guys if I should go the hospital or not. Let me rumage through some old threads and see if I can find it..lmao.

*edit*
Found it!!!

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=221409

 

[Cyberwiz01]

so, NCBaller, from your firsthand experience, is there anything in particular that I should avoid doing, touching, or messing with to avoid repeating your mistake?