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NOS VT220 CRTs for $25 including shipping

jackrubin

jackrubin

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Mar 12, 2004
Messages
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Location
Chicago, IL and Buchanan, MI
EMI Solutions is going out of business and is clearing stock. They've offered to sell these tubes - DEC P/N 70-19578 VT220 TUBE & CRT ASSEMBLY - for $25 each _including shipping_ if I can put together at least 10 sales. USA delivery only.

I've already purchased 2 of these and will buying 2 more. They are as advertised, new-old-stock, shipped in the original carton with foamed-in-place support. The part number actually crosses to a VR201 CRT + bezel assembly but the bezel is easily removed by loosening a single screw. The VT220 and VR201 CRTs themselves are interchangeable. Phosphor colors are white, green and amber, subject to availability.

If you want in on this, funds must be in my PayPal account by next Thursday, November 14, 2013. I will place the order on Friday, November 15 and the tubes will be shipped directly to you from EMI. If you have a phosphor color preference, let me know and I'll forward that to EMI, but no guarantees as to color or anything else.

Usual disclaimer - I have no financial interest in this transaction or in EMI Solutions - I'm just trying to save these tubes from being scrapped.

Jack Rubin
PayPal to j@ckrubin.us
 
Do you know if these are used in any other DEC terminals? No chance these are also for VT100 is there? Count me in for 2 of them regardless, I just have to decide on the color based on what else I might be able to use them for.
 
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Sorry, I don't know what other devices might have used these tubes. From the print at bitsavers, it looks like the actual tube part number (vs the assembly) is 1219593 but if you're going beyond VR201/VT220, you're in unknown territory.

Jack
 
Well, put me down for a White and an Amber with a note that any color is fine if they don't have those. Shall I pay you right now or wait until you have a 10 tube commitment?
 
Anyone know how to interpret the part #s for color codes? The part number on the assemblies is 70-19578 with a suffix of either -03 or -04. The VT220 service guide lists tubes with suffixes of -00, -01 and -02, indicating color. I'm guessing these are a later rev and therefore use different codes but I can't find them listed in any docs.

EFI's old ebay listing for the part says they have only green and white tubes, so that may be but 03 and 04 represent.
 
I'm not certain, but I believe the 31 or 4 in the tube number represents either green or white in that it represents the phosphor color. For example, the one on the ebay listing says, W12H31 on the end, which would imply green. But, I'm not an expert. However this might be a useful cross check.
 
Just to add some useless but authoritative information, the VR201 printset (on Bitsavers) lists 70-19578-00, 01, 02 as white, green and amber, respectively. The Spares Price Book includes listings for 70-19578-03 ,04, 05 but describes all three simply as "bezel assembly". Chris Elmquist has actually installed one of these with white phosphor; I'll ask him for the part number and report back.

Jack
 
If I were a betting man, and I am, I'd bet -03 is white. I only say this because I purchased a tube from them before the special deals. I asked for a white one from them and the box it came in has a -03 on it. They had, at the time, confirmed it to be white. I have not installed it yet to verify. Any color is fine by me in reality. I just opened it and the tube number is what I would expect for white. That is it contains "W12H4".

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphor
 
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If Marmot's 03 was white, then it may be a fair bet that 3/4/5/ map to 0/1/2, making 03 white, 04 green and 05 amber. Makes sense also that the amber tubes may have been sold out already, if they are (?) the most desirable color.
 
do you think one of there tubes would be good to build a clone of a VT05, as the VT05 looks so cool but are hard to find and expensive, the cheapest I have found it £1500!
 
If you're just starting with a CRT, I guess one of these would be as good a starting point as any other though it would probably make a lot more sense to just get a working terminal and build a new housing for it. Regardless, these particular tubes are all gone. They sold out withing 10 hours of my original post.

Good luck with your projects - you've certainly set some ambitious goals.

best,
Jack
 
Ya, i'd start with any terminal or even some old computer with a built in CRT. Write new software for it and when it's working and emulating what you want, then fashion a new housing for it and move the guts over.
 
I think it would be too easy to put a newer terminal or computer innards into a VT05 clone case, I was thinking about copying the VT05 pcb and using adapters for any hard to get parts, but I wont to get the pdp8 finished first, but it would be good to get parts for the project for later, maybe an old crt tv tube and could be used? and I could reuse some of the other parts? a black and white tv tube would probably give me a sharper text, but maybe a color tube can be rigged for green? what size is the screen? it looks close to 12 inches?

an easy way to build a clone VT05 would be a 12 inch color crt and a Raspberry Pi to emulate the VT05, and put the lot into a clone VT05 case, but the Raspberry Pi would be so much more powerful than the pdp8 it would be funny, lol

http://www.vt100.net/vt05.html
crt 12.7 inches I was very close!
 
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I unfortunately have a vt-220 with a broken CRT (long story short, the person who shipped it to me didn't pad the bottom of the box! CRT shattered), I've been looking for a replacement for it for a while with no luck and was horrified to see i missed the sell off of old stock.
Has anyone got one of these they can pass along? I was primarily looking for an amber CRT but beggars can't be choosers.
I'm in the UK and could really do with some help finding one of these.

Thanks
Adam
 
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