Yes, it is a negative voltage. I measured this by attaching the ground lead to the ground connection on the 74S299.
The DC011 that is producing the CLK signal is socketed, but the one on my VT102 isn’t. I would try swapping them to see what happens, but I don’t really want to touch a fully working board. Thanks Rob From: Doug Jackson <[email protected]> Sent: 28 November 2025 22:59 To: [email protected] Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: Hot Video Shift Register on VT100 Is that a negative excursion at the bottom of the waveform? now low - looks like -0.3v to me - With '"logic, that will likely turn on the protection diodes on the inputs, making them warm. Double check where the ground actually is on the CRO display. It's also interesting that the input doesn't even reach 4v, let alone 5v. Whats driving that? Kindest regards, Doug Jackson em: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ph: 0414 986878 On Sat, 29 Nov 2025 at 08:52, Rob Jarratt <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I checked the CLK input for the 74S299 with the 74S299 removed and the signal is still spiky and looks like this: https://rjarratt.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/vt102-74s299-clk-signal.png I removed the other load on this signal, the DC012, and the CLK signal still looked spiky. I also put back the 74S299 (now socketed) with DC012 removed and it still gets hot. I tried another new 74S299 just in case I had a bad one and that also got hot without a load on the output. I am thinking that it is either the spiky input or it is just expected to get this hot. Regards Rob From: Doug Jackson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: 25 November 2025 01:15 To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: Hot Video Shift Register on VT100 The oscilloscope will show you the actual driving waveform. You can then see the level of the spikes Kindest regards, Doug Jackson em: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ph: 0414 986878 On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 at 10:48, Rob Jarratt <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: Doug Jackson via cctalk <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > > Sent: 24 November 2025 23:04 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > > Cc: Doug Jackson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Hot Video Shift Register on VT100 > > Another test would be to disconnect the output and see if that runs the > device cooler. Maybe the load, while not a short, is simply too great for the > device. I think I can try this, the DC012 it drives is socketed. > > But I am leaning towards the inputs containing spikes that need to be > dissipated as heat in clamping diodes. A decent CRO on the device input pins > while it is out of circuit will show that as well. I guess CRO means Cathode Ray Oscilloscope? Not sure what you are suggesting I try here? > > Kindest regards, > > Doug Jackson > > em: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > ph: 0414 986878 > > > > > On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 at 09:52, Peter Coghlan via cctalk < > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > > Sorry if I wasn't clear in my earlier reply, but there were some > > > answers inline. The summary is that Vcc looks fine, there does not > > > seem to be any short on the outputs of the shift register and the > > > chip seems to be > > working > > > correctly. It just gets hot and I wonder if this could be due to the > > > CLK input being a bit spikier on the VT100 than on my VT102? Could > > > this be > > why > > > later revisions of the VT100 introduced an inductor on the DOT CLK > > > output from the DC011? > > > > > > > Perhaps one way to test the hypothesis would be to insert an inductor > > like those used on the later revisions in the DOT CLK output and check > > whether > > a) everything still works and b) the shift register runs cooler? > > > > Regards, > > Peter Coghlan. > >
