Thanks very much bandersen, really useful to know. I'll definitely be buying some hook clips so I can easily connect my DMM to the CRT pins.
I'll try the anti-static dryer sheet idea and will report back.
If I may, there's another area that I'm having problems understanding, and this concerns the way that trinitron CRTs are driven.
In the CR70 manual, it says that the when measuring emission, it applies no bias voltage to G1, thus simulating the conditions of sending a white level signal to the tube.
However, a few years ago, I had a discussion with a person who used to be a CRT service technician, and they said that trinitrons only have one G1, and so the tubes are driven at each of the three cathodes. If this is true, then removing the bias at G1 will not produce any beam current. One would have to change the voltage at the relevant cathode. And if this is true, this might explain why when I did my emissions testing, the needle didn't budge at all for any of the three guns.
Another wrinkle to this is in the schematics for the FW900. There are three G1s listed. When I tested my tube, hooking the G1 lead of the universal adaptor to pin 3 didn't seem to work, but it did work for pin 6. I was testing the red gun too, whose cathode is connected to pin 7.
So it could be that this person I was talking to was mistaken, but I'm not sure. I'll be testing a Sony CPD G520P tube next, whose pin setup is identical to the FW900, and I'll see if I can figure anything out from that.
But does anyone know whether it makes sense for a trinitron to only have a single G1?
Finally (last one!). Is it possible to measure the filament voltage of my CRT when it's under normal operation? I cannot for the life of me figure out what the correct filament voltage is (It could well be 6.3V, but I've heard of at least one other person measuring their trinitron filament voltage at 5V).
Here's what my CRT looks like when its connected normally. I'm not sure if I could connect a DMM to the pins while the white plastic circular thing is attached to the pins. Would I have to directly probe the appropriate points in the circuit board above?
