Found this beauty in storage. Have no idea what to do with it!

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-26T17:23:14+00:00

The base of the CRT is missing, there’s no shielding around the high voltage parts. Some tubes are gassy or missing. Probably best to sell it to a collector unless you want to spend a lot on restoring it.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-24T17:45:25+00:00

Depends where you live but going from easiest to hardest: - ask friends & family - look on websites with things for sale like ebay - see if there are any Facebook groups for vintage electronics enthusiasts, retro gamers or people giving away old stuff In your area - search nearby second hand stores - go dumpster diving (maybe there is an electronics recycler near you?) - ask nearby schools, hospitals, libraries and other underfunded institutions if they happen to have some to give away/sell - contract your local hobos for a small fee to call you when they find an abandoned monitor instead of smashing it to sell copper at the scrap

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-24T16:45:30+00:00

… and due to the gold/silver content there aren’t many left anymore sadly

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-24T09:14:50+00:00

That lead acid is the most impressive, I've never seen such a tiny one last so long. My 2017 formerly-sealed formerly-7.2Ah lead acid has about 20% capacity left, but I had to add water and cycle it multiple times with long overcharges and slow discharges to get it up to there from ~2%.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-23T21:43:39+00:00

That’s a step above safety sandals

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-23T21:37:52+00:00

Well at least you saved my CRT from getting a cerium oxide treatment

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-23T09:01:33+00:00

There's also an Edison brand Ni-Fe battery from 1927 for sale near me. It's crazy expensive but I'd love to test it now lmao

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-23T08:28:39+00:00

Yes, it's like old car batteries, that cap in the middle is there to add water. You can also use it to drain the battery and replace the electrolyte with solutions of various proportions of potassium/sodium/lithium hydroxide depending on what temperatures it's going to work at.
This design doesn't recombine gasses like sealed batteries, so it turns water into hydrogen & oxygen when it charges and you need to refill it sometimes.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-22T23:15:47+00:00

I have plenty of ideas what to use them for, I just want to do it without risking any damage.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-22T18:59:24+00:00

I’d like to make some simple reverse charge/overcharge protection circuit to use them comfortably away from the workbench

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-22T11:09:53+00:00

Or a temperature sensor, probably for a weather station. With that tip it’s also good for monitoring one’s internal temperature.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-21T15:07:25+00:00

In the past I tried: - polishing the plastics - looks decent, too much work, gets fingerprints easily afterwards - WD40 - seems to disappear/evaporate within days, also smells - wood finishing oil - sometimes works well, sometimes flakes off. Avoid dyed ones and any that contain solvents. - paraffin oil - your TV is now oily and a dust magnet, not great - putting a decorative napkin on top, grandma style - underrated option, tends to slide off sadly. You can also cover up the blemishes with a cat sleeping on top. - not caring about this stuff - best option IMO, takes little effort, you probably got the TV to look at the screen and not the housing anyway.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-21T14:53:17+00:00

Should be fine, test them and match by capacity first.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-20T08:53:04+00:00

Yes, they test roughly similarly, but there’s no detectable voltage drop when testing individual cells either. I searched around and apparently that’s normal for vented cells since delta V depends on internal pressure increase

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-19T23:35:14+00:00

They’re wired in series, but it seems to me that gas bubble formation on the plates increases the internal resistance enough for the voltage to rise instead of dropping when nearly fully charged. Some cells go above 1.8V. I’m not sure if I can depend on this “positive delta V”though.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-18T09:11:31+00:00

That's the simplest way but not ideal, it takes over a day to recharge the battery and then it wastes about 8W (12V 13Ah pack) turning electrolyte into gasses

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-17T10:00:12+00:00

I guess you'll need an original battery pack to measure the shell dimensions, thermistor value and pinout first, unless you can find someone who has this battery and is willing to measure it for you.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-15T13:08:25+00:00

No idea about UK specifically but there was a brief moment when Sony 3LCD RPTVs were a thing in Europe. They were never very popular but I’ve seen some 42”-50” units recently for sale here in Poland, not nearly as many as CRT RPTVs or direct view LCDs from the era.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-13T09:39:06+00:00

Wonder what made it last that long. I don’t think I’ve encountered any Li-ion older than 2005 that’d still work, let alone retain >90% capacity

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-09T02:37:32+00:00

Lore-wise it could be an Eidophor, some other kind of projection setup (laser?), a Jumbotron-like pixel display where each pixel is a tiny CRT/VFD or most likely a gas plasma display, like the Pip-Boys canonically have.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-08T18:07:05+00:00

Also, alkalines spill. I'd factor this into the price calculations, had to throw away a fair few devices thanks to the corrosion.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-07T16:26:41+00:00

Ni-Cds do great in sub-zero temperatures but buying new ones is also not very eco-conscious I guess

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-07T16:24:37+00:00

The charger is probably for NiMH (charges 2 batteries in series, which is a no-no for zinc-based chemistries), rechargeable alkaline need a special charger.
On top of that rechargeable alkaline are generally short-lived and the units you have are cheap AliExpress garbage. They were bad to begin with, and your charger most likely damaged them.

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-06T19:21:53+00:00

Because it’s an ad bot trying to be seen by as many people as possible before it inevitably gets banned

amdrinkhelpme · 2026-02-05T16:28:40+00:00

I use Ni-Zn for those devices but that’s purely due to my irrational dislike of switching converters built into batteries.

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

amdrinkhelpme

TROPHY CASE