exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hey guys,

Not sure why I enjoy doing this kind of thing so much... but whatever, I managed to score a WY-120 Amber phosphor terminal and am doing a full restoration. Tear down, full clean of components, pcb, casing, crt, replace capacitors & transistors.

My plan is to use it for various things... connecting to Atari diagnostics, also attaching a Raspberry Pi to it via serial & using it as it's own terminal system & also having the ability to SSH into my various machines.

Here are some photos of the process so far. I've ordered & replaced the old tired transistors with fresh NOS ones, I've also written down and ordered all the capacitors but I'm still waiting for them to arrive. The casing has had a good clean too.

FYI I *have* researched lots of safety videos on CRT discharging etc & am taking all precautions. First time I've worked on a CRT so I'm taking it slow.

Edit: added some maintenance documents I found, for preservation.

I saw an amber monitor in a repair video recently. They look really nice!

Always handy having a real serial terminal around. They just work.

Sorry to necro this thread but...
How on earth did you get the top cover off your WY-120? The instructions say to "slap" the case on either side. We tried that with enough force that we were both concerned we'd shatter the 32 year old plastics.

I'm going to try a "mac cracker" next but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them...

Cheers!

Chesh

Cheshire Noir wrote: 12 Mar 2026 07:34 The instructions say to "slap" the case on either side.

Definitely not a "wise" solution...

I can't remember very well, but I think it's mainly about getting the tabs on the very top released. Perhaps just put some pressure around the tab area.

Aside from being a bit dusty, it seems quite clean and not sooty like some high hours devices. Any idea what the phosphor is like, any evidence of burn in?

It had only the faintest burn in from memory... but fyi this is a necro post, not something I'm currently working on.

Steve wrote: 12 Mar 2026 10:07 It had only the faintest burn in from memory... but fyi this is a necro post, not something I'm currently working on.

Lol I didn't notice, but necro threads do have a habit of coming back to life :)

Thanks Steve. Much appreciated.
I'll go at the front clips with some plastic spudgers and see how we go.

Cheers!

Chesh