Are these things I should consider bad

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by TinCanAlley

This is where my lack of knowledge comes in. Take a look at the pics in this post:

http://videokarma.org/showpost.php?p...22&postcount=3

The schematic of the tripler with the brightness limiter and zener makes my head spin. If I'm reading it correctly, the zener is connected to the ground of the tripler and chassis ground. There's also a spark gap going across those two points. I can't seem to figure out how the zener gets its 7.5V for operation connected to two grounds.

The Zener is not connected to two grounds, because the spark gap is an open circuit until the voltage gets very high and causes a spark. It is there probably to protect the Zener from being killed in case of a CRT arc.

I don't know if the Zener is supposed to be always regulating at 7.5 volts, or just limiting the voltage to 7.5 volts if it tries to go higher. You can find out by measuring the voltage from the top of the Zener to ground (or scoping the top) to see if it is 7.5 volts, or if it is less.