VT100 and/or VT105 rescued from scrap

Ian Primus ian.primus.ccmp at gmail.com
Tue Oct 20 16:12:18 CDT 2015


I can't seem to get the link to work with the pictures, so I don't
know what the tube looks like, but sticky fluid is NOT an indication
of a problem with the tube. Some tubes used a bonded safety glass, and
that goo leaks out over time. But I've never seen a VT100 with such a
tube installed. The most common cause of goo on the tube is going to
be goo surrounding the 2nd anode connection (the suction cup). This is
the plasticizers leeching out of the anode wiring, and gooing up the
tube. The cable will be all sticky too. You can clean it off, I find
that brake cleaner will dissolve it nicely. Just clean the area around
the connection, don't clean the graphite coating off the main parts of
the back of the tube - scrub only the clear glass areas.

Without knowing what parts you have, I can't really tell you more than
that, but, in general, I find that VT100's tend to work fine. There's
nothing special I would do, just hook everything up and try it out.
You're not going to blow anything up, assuming you've got parts
connected properly.

-Ian

On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Lukas Kaminski
<lukas.kaminski at krankikom.de> wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> i got hands on several VT100 and VT105 parts. It SEEMS (at least to me)
> to be one complete terminal without a power supply and some additional
> parts. I took pictures of everything, which can be seen here:
> https://antares.krankikom.de/index.php/s/vcIZuHbpsn3lSoL
> (sorry for the self-signed certificate)
>
> I already found this interesting page:
> https://github.com/bbenchoff/VT100Adapter, so i guess i have everything
> to try to repair the VT100.
>
> But i never tried something like that, and i fear to break something as
> soon i connect anything to power.
>
> How should i start? I especially don't know how to clean the boards,
> check the eproms and i'm afraid that the CRT is broken, since it has a
> sticky fluid on it.
>
> Bye,
>
> Lukas Kaminski


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