We can discuss this but sorry op to semi steal your thread. I don't know what it is specifically about CRT rejuvenation that there is so much bad information floating around. Seems consistent with all arcade collectors on forum or in meetup. It seems on lots of posts or people talking about colour issue responses just "hit it with the rejuvenator", "needs to be rejuv", etc instead of "test it with the analyzer, make sure it's good". Not specifically you guys...but it wouldn't surprise me judging by what you are saying
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To me it's similar to a post about a PCB issue and just non stop replies "crank the voltage", "see the little knob on the PSU, turn that" etc.... Hold on... Shouldn't we check it first? Measure what the voltage is and then decide what to do? What if it's already at 6v? What if it's at 5.1V? I mean there is a device (voltmeter) that will easily tell you exactly what it's at and if it's even a problem. Sure you might get lucky and just taking a (poorly) educated guess that turning the 5v knob fix the problem... but at the very least it's bad practice and very bad advice to give. If you measure it and decide to see what happens if you go above normal or whatever then fine, but to say that's the way to go about it is not good imo. People seem to get that concept but not the other for some reason. Just guessing anything regarding electronic measurement is awful practice.
I don't even understand the logic of not wanting to use the meter. In basically every device I can think of its even in the same unit. In a 467/490 (probably others) you literally have to skip over the test function to hit restore function lol. If your meter is no good or inaccurate then - yes obviously repair or replace. Same would apply to any electronic measure device though: voltmeter, ohm meter, esr meter, whatever. The emissions test is an electronic measurement same as the others. It's basic math, there's not a lot of wiggle room for guess work. To say you guys are eyeballing how many microamp the cathode is going to draw on a non running tube is absurd...there's just no way. If you are basing your judgement on how the tube is displaying an image than that is also (semi) wrong... anytime you are displaying an image there are many other chassis components that are also causing variation (pots,caps, etc). It's not an accurate representation of the bare tube health which is what you are trying to test.
I can't guess what the ESR value of a cap is just by looking at it (without a meter).
I can't guess what the 5v rail of a psu is outputting just by looking at it (without a meter).
I can't guess what the emissions level of the green cathode inside a vacuum tube is just by looking at it (without a meter).
Neither can any of you.
Does anyone have a valid reason why they aren't using the meter designed specifically to show them what they are trying to guess? ...other than "sometimes it just works"
. Out of all the tube I have hooked up I can't think of any time the tube has shown something working (or not working) that the meter hasn't been able to read... emissions, cuts, tracking, shorts, have all been accurate from my experience... There's really no other function of the tube. If your meters are garbage get a new one but don't give bad advice to just not use it.