Soldering near CRT Monitor

[DigiTan]

I few nights ago, I was resoldering a desk drill in front of my computer and happended to move the soldering iron within a few inches of the CRT monitor without looking. I started to hear a distinct hissing sound coming from the soldering needle and quickly pulled the iron away.

The monitor was not damaged, no weird patterns, no discoloration; but I can't help but wonder what exactly happened there. In any case, I'm careful to turn the monitor off whenever it's that close now. Would this happen with any grounded object?

 

[akg]

I few nights ago, I was resoldering a desk drill in front of my computer and happended to move the soldering iron within a few inches of the CRT monitor without looking. I started to hear a distinct hissing sound coming from the soldering needle and quickly pulled the iron away.

The monitor was not damaged, no weird patterns, no discoloration; but I can't help but wonder what exactly happened there. In any case, I'm careful to turn the monitor off whenever it's that close now. Would this happen with any grounded object?

i feel the hissing sound is generated during the discharging of the high voltage, which used as the accelaration voltage in the CRT

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I few nights ago, I was resoldering a desk drill in front of my computer and happended to move the soldering iron within a few inches of the CRT monitor without looking. I started to hear a distinct hissing sound coming from the soldering needle and quickly pulled the iron away.

The monitor was not damaged, no weird patterns, no discoloration; but I can't help but wonder what exactly happened there. In any case, I'm careful to turn the monitor off whenever it's that close now. Would this happen with any grounded object?

I would suggest it's just static from the front of the CRT, this is perfectly normal! - if you place the back of your hand just in front of the glass you will feel it (this is a VERY common service technique to check if the EHT is working).

It's completely harmless! - except perhaps to ungrounded CMOS chips?.

 

[windozeuser]

This is nice to know. I always use my computer desk as a soldering station sometimes, and I never had that effect. Now, if it happens I won't need a new pair of pants. :lol:


I know my 125 Watt soldering gun will discolor the monitor, probably from the electromagnetic field of the heating element. Also, probably explains why my floppy disks were always becoming currupted for no reason. :roll:

 

[akg]

This is nice to know. I always use my computer desk as a soldering station sometimes, and I never had that effect. Now, if it happens I won't need a new pair of pants. :lol:


I know my 125 Watt soldering gun will discolor the monitor, probably from the electromagnetic field of the heating element. Also, probably explains why my floppy disks were always becoming currupted for no reason. :roll:

the discoloration may be due to the iron body , rather than due to magnetic field from the heating element

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I know my 125 Watt soldering gun will discolor the monitor, probably from the electromagnetic field of the heating element. Also, probably explains why my floppy disks were always becoming currupted for no reason. :roll:

It's not the heating 'element', it's the mains transformer in the soldering gun. A soldering gun is normally just a very low voltage (and thus high current) mains transformer, with a copper wire as a bit - the high current through the wire makes it get hot.

You can use a soldering gun as a simple deguassing coil, for deguassing your TV or monitor - it doesn't have the power of a proper one, but it's often strong enough (old TV engineers trick, when too lazy to walk back to the van 8) )

 

[windozeuser]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up Nigel. Nice Tip Also!