Still miss the old CRT monitors for working on circuit boards

I was fixing a power supply board last night under my LED bench light and kept having to tilt the board to see the solder joints... made me think back to the early 2000s when I had a big 19 inch CRT on my bench. The way the natural warm glow from the tube would light up the board from the side made tiny cracks and cold joints pop right out. Plus you could set a schematic printout right on top of the monitor and it held flat without curling up. These new flat panel LEDs are great for text but they cast this harsh direct light that washes everything out. I actually kept an old Dell Trinitron in storage until 2018 just for soldering work. Anybody else miss having a CRT around for bench work?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandraf841d ago

I can't cosign the CRT desk lamp idea at all. That warm glow you're describing actually masks flux residue and oxidized pads because it blends everything into a soft amber haze. LED strip lights with a diffuser cost like 15 bucks and give you actual color temperature control so you see the true state of your solder joints, not some romanticized version through tinted glass. And the Trinitron thing? Those things run hot enough to fry eggs, which means they warp thin PCB layers over extended sessions. Plus the constant degaussing hum drives me nuts when I'm trying to hear if a cap is hissing. Keep the 19 inch monster in the nostalgia bin where it belongs.

taylor.betty1d ago

Funny enough I actually tried the CRT lamp thing once back in college. Ended up using it as a space heater more than a light source. My solder joints looked great until I realized I was just blinded by nostalgia and a warm glow.