When did CRT technology advance to no convergence required?

[Username1]

Well I never knew a set that had built in pattern generators, The only set I have seen advertised to have it was Heath Kit Later GR series tv kits.... I would like to know which sets have built in gens, I know projection sets have them, I mean 30" or less direct view tubes... Do they have them...?

All color CRT sets had convergence adjustments. Newer sets have less circuitry involved in the process.... Old delta tubes had many coils and capacitors and many adjustments both mechanical, and electronic involved, each with tolerances that could allow it go go out of wack. Also the fact that the yoke assembly and convergence magnets were quite heavy meant that a slight bump would easily set those weighty objects into movement.

Newer sets don't have complex convergence circuitry with individual components that go out of tolerance. The light weight magnets are often bonded with some type of glue to the tube. Yokes are often also glued, and as stated have rubber wedges to keep them from moving during any movement.

Convergence is an art, one in which you need to follow steps, and also often jump around those steps as you see that you are doing too much work to get one part of the tube to line up, while another part is going out of convergence....

The inline guns require different steps, and you have to disconnect from delta's completely to follow a different set of steps for the inline's. And the inline guns are capable of much more perfect convergence than the delta's, even if anyone feels the process is more difficult, or less intuitive. They are by and large a better tube, built with better and more controlled tolerances, and produce a more sharp picture on average than the same number of delta's on average. Part of the reason field adjustments of convergence on inline tube is not very common.

Proper picture tube alignment ends with convergence alignment, often people here take a wack at convergence while other problems are not yet solved.

And you have to know yourself as well, I have found that the dots are much more harder to work with than the tic-tac-toe cross hatch pattern, so I don't use the dots at all, even if called for.