GoKawiilHobbyist Drives Electrostatic Radar CRT with Tiny TV Mark 2 Board
A retro electronics builder documents connecting a Tiny TV Mark 2 video rasterizer board to a custom three-board CRT driver circuit designed by Eric Schlaepfer, aiming to display television images on a small 3JP7 radar display tube. The tube uses electrostatic deflection plates that require thousands of volts, so the driver boards step up low-voltage signals from Tiny TV into the high voltages needed to steer the electron beam. The setup includes a 60-volt bias board, a deflection and video driver board, and a 1,200-volt power supply, all synchronized with horizontal, vertical and video timing signals.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
This project illustrates the painstaking engineering required to interface modern low-voltage video electronics with vintage high-voltage vacuum tube displays. It preserves and demonstrates obsolete electrostatic deflection technology, a method distinct from the magnetic deflection used in most classic television sets. Such hands-on documentation helps keep alive practical knowledge of CRT circuitry that is increasingly rare as tube-based displays disappear.
- Tiny TV Mark 2 supplies gamma-corrected video and scanning ramp signals to drive the CRT.
- Eric Schlaepfer's three-board driver set converts low voltage into thousands of volts for electrostatic deflection.
- The project targets a 3JP7 radar display tube, showcasing a less common electrostatic deflection method.
Hantek DSO2D10 Digital Oscilloscope — Poking around high-voltage CRT deflection circuits goes a lot better when you can actually see the waveforms, and a benchtop digital scope with a built-in signal generator makes tracing video and sweep signals straightforward. It's a natural companion for anyone recreating LabGuy's electrostatic CRT driver builds or debugging their own rasterizer board.
See Hantek DSO2D10 Digital Oscilloscope on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: labguysworld.com — Richard N. Diehl, 2026-09-08
Published there as: “Electrostatic Cathode Ray Tube Project 1 (2014)”
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