Panelview 1200 revisited

I searched all posts, but did not see what I am looking for. We hae 2 PV1200 in house. (3 including one spare tired unit.) My spare and one in service are rather dim and some color combos are almost impossible to read.

When these units loose their contrast, what goes out. Is it the CRT itself and/or other electronics that drives the CRT? Has anyone had one of these animals apart? Would a new CRT tube bring these back at least part way?

I see another post on a 1400 unit, where someone plugged in a std VGA monitor. Does anyone know if the 1200 might have a similar VGA connector inside?

I'm thinking about discecting our spare unit. (In my spare time of course.)

Thanks,
Dale

Open up the back and find the course brightness adjustment(on the board below the back of the CRT). Allen Bradley is very conservative in it's factory settings (I'm sure its because they don't want the screen to burn in). There should be alot of adjustment left on the brightness. It might be enough to give you a few more years. I can't tell you how many times I have done this...

HLeap,

Thanks for that info. I will open up our spare ASAP and see if I can find that adjustment and see if that helps. I know, as the years went on and I turned up the one on the outside of the box, I eventually thought that it would be nice if there were more turns left in that one. ANother adt inside is just about as good.

Thanks again,
Dale

Anyone else know about possible internal VGA connector or what actually goes out, causing these PV1200s to loose contrast/brightness?

Leap, Can you narrow down the location of this pot/adjustment? I looked in the back of the unit in service and see a couple possibilies. There are 2 on the RH side of the HV transformer, which is hooked to the side of the CRT, another about 2" in from this side of the bottom circuit board, just slightly right of dead center under the CRT. (Screw driver slot facing up.) and I see 2 way back in underneith, what would be the front side of the CRT. (Also facing up.)

Thanks.