Project - Retropie CRT

[Capeman]

Hey guys! Starting a little project.

Disclaimer: don’t screw around inside a CRT unless you know what you’re doing. CRTs can bite.

I’ll post updates as I go.

[lilbud]

Okay, I've seen that soldering iron everywhere, but I can't find it online. What type is it?

[Capeman]

@lilbud it’s the Hakko FX-888d, and I highly recommend it. It’s the best hobbyist iron out there without getting into professional grade gear. Heats up to full power in about 15 seconds.

[DorkVonWaterfall]

wow...speakers so close to the tube? doesn`t it make trouble?

[lilbud]

@capeman I'll remember that for when I save enough to get one. $100 is a little too pricey at the moment. I just need a new iron, my current one works but doesn't have a proper stand (just a piece of scrap wood) and takes a very long time to heat up (probably 2 min.)

[Capeman]

@dorkvonwaterfall that’s how it came from the factory, I didn’t mess with the speaker location. Doesn’t seem to cause any issue.

[Capeman]

This is coming along nicely.

I've split the mains line in and connected it to a 5v 3a internal shielded powerbrick. The back of the tv panel (not shown) has mounting holes for it that keeps it about 3 inches away from the yolk, and i've confirmed it does not give any interference (phew!).

The power lines run to the powerblock chip that is mounted to the pi. The pi is mounted with plastic standoffs. The power button and LED will be mounted on the tv's back panel (not shown).

The audio video goes to a TRRS breakout and the lines run across the tv's pcb and are soldered to the bottom mounts of the AV ports on the front of the tv, which makes the ports still usable if the pi is switched off.

Just waiting for my panel mount USB ports to come in from china and i can close this thing up. All i have to do after that is update the configs for 240p output from the av line and modify the theme to look good at low rez and i can bring this to parties, haha!

I'll post alot of pictures when this is complete.

[vaportrail]

@dorkvonwaterfall said in Project - Retropie CRT:

wow...speakers so close to the tube? doesn`t it make trouble?

Those metal "cups" over the magnets of the speakers shield the screen from the magnetic field. If they were unshielded then you would get distortion in the colors on the screen.

[vaportrail]

Cool project BTW!

[DeadStretch]

DUDE! You forgot one of the more important details. What Make and Model is the TV unit?

Excited to see how it turns out. I wonder what are you aim to use it for? Any games/systems that aren't 4:3?

[Edit] Uhh duh. Make and model was already answered. I missed that post somehow [E2] ...err that's a Soldering gun... I promise I can read. :D

[caver01]

@capeman Yeah, cool project! Some day I'd like to do a CRT build.

@lilbud check out online reviews of the TS100. Might be just the ticket for a slightly smaller budget iron. It is the one I have my eye on ATM.