thats one of the reasons why its not a good idea to shut a tv off on standby all the while... 😉

that only works for crts

@@WELLINGTON20 Yes I know

@@WELLINGTON20 exactly why he mentioned it

And degaussing makes a lot of noise in a CRT.

yes, earlier circuits used a single ptc from the mains, then 680 ohm resistor to ground, degauss coil fed in series with a varistor from the ptc and 680 junction, and ground, then they went to dual ptc in one unit, with the second ptc across the mains(but a higher resistance type), then seemed to go to just a single ptc...

airplanes mechanic detected. ;)

Many of the later CRT degaussers used a relay that turned on and sent power to the coil for a few seconds at switch on, and then turned the relay back off. You could hear the click every time those were tuned on, and then a click again a few seconds later. I once had a CRT computer monitor like this, and it also had a manual degauss button that would energize the relay for a few seconds when pressed. It was always weird to watch the display suddenly bounce back and forth, all over the place, when you pushed the manual degauss button.

Sounds like throwing a thermistor in this demagnetizer could make it automatic... #badideas.

AnthonyH That gets the electrons going again, i have heard of the effect!

Eviltech Nothing quite like waking up those lazy pixies!

+AnthonyH Yes. That always worked for me. Whacking a screwdriver on a hard metal surface works wonders for taking away the mag field.

Heating things beyond their Curie point works too, then quenching them rapidly. You can also magnetise a steel bar by lining it up with the Earth's magnetic field and hitting it repeatedly with a hammer.

Yeah, try that on a mechanical watch or a CRT.

Wow, that is a great idea, have a few of those around; never thought of that, thanks.

Most CRT's such as an old TV would go through a degauss cycle when powering up and later models especially computer Trinitron monitors had a degauss cycle you could select. At one seismic data processing company, a user thought he would be a smart ass and said "You want to see something neat" and he put a company fridge magnet onto the screen pulling all the electron beams to it. He thought it was really cool till the degauss cycle wasn't enough to remove the distortion completely, once he resigned himself to living with a screwed up screen due to his immaturity, I took the powerful magnetic fridge magnet and carefully waved it across the screen at various distances and locations to skillfully stretch out the screen back to a reasonable display and told him not to do that ever again (hopefully the degauss cycles will even out whatever wavering remained over time). Everything the degauss does can be done by hand with a powerful magnet but it takes time and skill, the demagnetizer is just a simple way of doing it and these watch demagnetizers are dirt cheap, about $15, $25 wth a quality compass to test if the watch is magnetized. If you still have a mechanical watch, these demagnetizers are worthwhile for whenever they start to run a little fast as it means the balance beam is getting magnetized perhaps by standing too close to a washing machine for too long or just walking past a transformer (mind you skillfully waving the watch around the transformer will also degauss it). Any magnetism tends to speed up the watch or even freeze it because the effect on the magnetism on the balance beam is to have it act as a shorter beam, you can see if the compass is magnetized by moving it near a compass to see if it reflects, not all of the compass apps on smart phones are sensitive enough to pick up the deflection though one of three I've tried has picked up on my fast running watch, best to use a quality mechanical compass. Used to be the first thing a jeweler would try if you complained of a fast running watch is to test it with a compass and degauss it with these cheap degaussers but now with so many quartz electronic watches, few even carry the degaussers now and would just ignore a fast running me handicap watch or charge you $200 for an overhaul which usually means sending it to a factory for six weeks. There used to be mechanical degaussers that used a strong permanent magnet which did not need to be plugged in but they were were heavy due to the shielding needed, they were mechanical as sometimes you had to spin the magnet to alternate the field. You can buy permanent magnets that you use to magnetize or demagnetize screwdrivers with, same concept, you'll trying to neutralize any magnetism that's there by applying varying magnetism to the object.

@@johnwang9914 The CRT would have eventually come back to normal without all the fuckery...

@@johnwang9914 Just so you are aware, a mechanical watch WILL start to run faster when it's internal lubrication drys out or ends up slung out of all the bearing points. The lubrication actually puts a drag on the internal parts, and slows the watch down, to which the speed is set to at the factory. A fast running watch usually means it's time for a lubrication service.

@@davelowets I have no doubt that a mechanical watch works better with oil and will eventually need more oil. I'm just saying that Seiko actually has several types of oil and grease and it's easy to over apply the oil with unpredictable results. Just look at the Seiko maintenance manual, portions of which are posted at the Seiko US website. Geesh, people's know it all egos... (Of course oil makes mechanical watches work better)

Been there, some that, have the t-shirt

Kids today will never know the joy of seeing the picture on a crt go all wonkified and then the panic when it doesn't return to normal 😂

Shake Hands with Danger. Beautifully crafted and finished Danger. Love those old tools where safety was "just don't touch that part"!

Thank you. I was about to elaborate the same observation, but you beat me to it.

Simon Johnson mothballs are traditionally made out of camphor. Camphor is also the oldest plasticiser for artificial plastics and was originally used with cellulose - otherwise, photographic film for example would have been impossible. The toxicity of camphor is rather low, and as long as the lethal dose is not reached, it will likely increase the Chinese worker's perceived quality of life, it works a bit like laughing gas. And it's available from cheap natural sources, they probably just grow the trees in their back yard. It is also used as a spice in cooking in numerous countries. Nah, that was just a load of bullshit. They really just need a lot of mothballs to protect the factories and storage areas from attack of the giant, nearly human-sized moths, and end up encasing some of the smell in the product. "China insect problem" gives over 3 million results on Google, so i must be onto something!

Awwwww yes the unforgettable smell of chinesium

Thank you for your comment. Most times I learn from the comment section. For a deeper understanding of the magnetic field influence on rotating assemblies within the Either, I’d suggest educating oneself on “The Law of Hysteresis.” Things are not as complicated as we’ve been taught. Again, thank you.

I wouldn't expect a degausser to affect a chip card much. Those are just a buried microcontroller with some pads like a SIM, there's no long leads to act as an antenna. RFID cards would probably be a different matter, though; those have a long coil inside the card that the MCU both takes power off and modulates for signaling, and I bet a degausser would induce enough current to fry their tiny little brains.

yep, remove part of the core, so the poles are 'open'...

DEGAUSS

And when they had not. A simple magnet destroyed the image unless you knew it could be undone.

paul taplin I think that may actually be one of the advertised uses for this particular degausser.

Brian Ullmark You get the same problem with sheet metal guillotines. Cutting steel gradually magnetises the blades and cut parts eventually start sticking to them. But you need a much bigger demagnetiser/degausser than this one.

Graham Langley There are 2 wire thermistors, designed so the coil current when hot was very low. Basically now common as a polyfuse.

SeanBZA With a single PTC device you still have to have a current through it in order to keep it hot and high resistance, and this current would have to go through the coil. Adding a thermally-coupled NTC shunt device across the coil diverts this current and eliminates any picture disturbance.

Graham Langley True, but they made some hyperabrupt 2 wire PTC units that when hot stayed hot with only around 10mA of current, and then in some sets they had a very high value damping resistor across the coil as well to reduce the current further. The 3 terminal ones did do a better job, but many sets only used the 2 wire arrangement, though they did go up nicely when they failed. Still would rattle like a castanet when failed.

SeanBZA I've not not come across those, but then I've only pulled my own TVs apart to fix and I've not had to do that for many years. Last one was a neighbour's curved widescreen Toshiba with '99 batch codes that we were taking to the dump earlier this year and that had a three-terminal PTC+NTC one.

Graham Langley My monitor had one connected with a relay and sensing circuit to completely disconnect the PTC/coil assembly when the current dropped enough.

Yes but it is a lot more work (Heat works wonders, just get the neodymium to like, 1000C

of course, in many ways. t

@Schwalbe262 that was an invitation to google the stuff, he could have lie to you with "no"😁

@Schwalbe262 i won't bother google that

I've actually used those very buttons in all sorts of projects and I've never had one fail yet.

+paxmowa I've had them stick with too much amperage, over too long a time span.

+BILS yeah you're right, that degauser probably pushes a few amps through it, poor thing doesn't stand a chance.

I would say no more than a couple minutes definitely after you start to feel it heating up. Also you could always put an on/off switch yourself.

propfella Also can be used to destroy HDD.

WOW, I never knew that, next thing you'll be telling me they also wreck floppy disks, yer right :-)

nope they chop up the ac waveform, not reduce it 'linearly'..

There is linear potentiometers

Or just use a variac - we know Clive has one of those...

+Derrick Blackburn There's a metal shadow-mask behind that makes sure each electron gun only hits its specific colour of phosphor. The residual magnetic field can be removed with either an external or built-in degausser.

It's great because it's so cheap you don't really care if you use it once or twice and then it stays stored in the garage since you really don't have your watch magnetized very often

Thanks for that :-)

SeanBZA Careful - without anything to complete the magnetic circuit the inductance will be a lot less and it'll get quite hot very quickly. If it's got a one-shot thermal safety cut-out embedded in the winding you'll only get one go at finding out how quickly. A core designed to go in a demagnetiser will be wound differently, although it'll still only be rated for intermittent use.

Graham Langley It is open, with only a ferrite magnet waving in the breeze....... They did look very crispy though after a few years moving that rubber diaphragm though. not helped by them all seemingly to be made with the core cover being ordinary painters masking tape. That almost always was a few brown crumbles inside the bottom of the rubber base when you opened it, along with the black rubber crumb from the pump diaphragm falling to bits.

SeanBZA My baby degausser is the coil from a defunct hair trimmer. It's an E-core and drove a magnet that oscillated back and forth between the open legs of the core - there wasn't much coupling. But without it 30 seconds is as long I reckon it's safe to run it for.

They don't tend to leak enough magnetic field to be useful for that.

+PongoXBongo If you just jab the button while the tool is on the surface it will leave it with a random magnetic polarity and strength.

Seán Byrne Until it lets out the magic smoke and the breaker flips :)

DO NOT DO THIS ON YOUR MAIN TV

if you have a CRT television AKA a tube TV