I noticed that one of my three 951’s has a dim display.
Is this something that can be adjusted via a pot on the PCB or is it due to a capacitor going bad?
A dim VFD display is usually a sign that something is wrong with the power supply, particularly the negative DC voltage supply to the display. It’s called VFTD in the schematics and should be -32V.
===Jac
If the -32V measures correctly, replacing the display could help.
I once had a display that was dimmed in the middle of the characters, and the voltage measured correctly at -32V. So it seemed it was actually worn, and when I replaced it with another display it was bright again.
Good luck,
Henrie
And don’t throw your recorder away if the display doesn’t work anymore. I’m “working” on a project to replace the screen of the 730 and 951 with a color TFT screen. It will take a long time to get finished though…
===Jac
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Yes, the displays Philips used in the 900 series are prone to this wear.
My CD950 shows intermitting dimmed segments when text is scrolling: the segments that are used most are the weakest.
Bound to happen with anything over 30 years not just Philips . Lucky mine are mostly good .