2018
XY(Z) Display
I recently moved, and while doing so I threw my only TV away (I'm one of those that rarely watch TV at all). That was both good and stupid as as I cannot continue the completion of my TV Tennis game console game console now...
So I was thinking about building my own XY display for viewing composite or VGA video signals. Shouldn't be too hard by using a CRO tube. The X and Y deflection plates will be driven by transitron / phantastron circuitry, ECF80 should do the work well I think. I have already made the HV supply for the CRO tube and deflection circuit. Though I'm having trouble creating a ramp voltage with a fast enough fly-back time. The single pentode phantastron is not good enough so I will have to use a pentode-triode circuit which is why I think the ECF80 will suit the purpose. Once I have the ramp generators working satisfactorily with sufficient gain and all, I will start working on the composite video sync stripper and local oscillator. The trick is to make the incoming sync signals trigger the local oscillators so that the oscillators are in sync with the incoming video signal. I could use 555 timers, but what fun is that? Tubes are more awesome and looks better! So why not tubes? Lets use tubes! (What am I getting my self into now?)