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While searching, I found CRTs that run at 5V-12V.

These CRTs can run with very low power but is it risky to touch them?

You can power these CRTs with 9V batteries but if you lick 9V batteries it doesn't kill you.

Even running with Arduino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Lt9f1ykxc.

JRE
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IWantJustBasicCollisions
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    Touching a 6V battery doesn't kill you either, but being drilled in the head by a 6V battery drill will. This question isn't well-researched, since it betrays you haven't even looked into how CRTs are driven (hint: it involves high voltages). – Marcus Müller May 08 '20 at 13:45
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    There can be high voltage present. There are also other reasons not to touch and lick CRTs, such as chemicals and the glass has lead in it. – Justme May 08 '20 at 14:02
  • Some crt's can run at low voltage 0.5 inch camcorder crt. https://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-Camcorder-CRT-Viewfinders/ .I was not mentioning crts 20inch 40kg ones. I just mentioning very small viewfinder crts that operates 5v or higher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PkXKJ4M_Os – IWantJustBasicCollisions May 08 '20 at 14:20
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    @IWantJustBasicCollisions What is the voltage between the cathode and the anode of the CRT when it's turned on, though? I assure you it's more than 6 V. Some of that circuit attached to the CRT in the video you link is going to be some sort of boost converter to get the several hundred volts needed for operation. – Hearth May 08 '20 at 14:47

1 Answers1

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No, it is not safe. A CRT is fundamentally a high-voltage device, and as such the operation of one requires circuitry to boost the external supply voltage to the orders of magnitude higher voltage required to actually accelerate electrons through the tube. In a properly engineered consumer product, all high voltage parts are safely out of reach inside, but in a surplus part used for experimentation that is not necessarily the case. Working with such requires orders of magnitude more awareness and expertise than demonstrated in the question.

For Arduino projects there are many inexpensive, compact, simple to apply OLED and LCD displays available. In contrast to a video display requiring rapidly and precisely timed repeating analog output, many have simple asynchronous digital interfaces such that you can draw your pixels once with I2C or SPI operations and they then continue to display while your code does something else.

If you really want to play with video generation circuitry, find a fully enclosed productized TV or ancient (Apple/Commodore/Atari style) monitor with composite RGB input, a VGA monitor with analog RGB input, or an oscilloscope with a Z axis input on the back and interact with it only via the provided input connectors without opening the case.

Chris Stratton
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