Can I rotate a computer monitor?

[monkeybomb]

This is probably a noob question, but I didn't find an answer when I looked. 

I tried to turn my computer monitor sideways and the colors  got messed up.  There was green on the lower third and bluriness of that nature.  Can I make a verticle bartop with a regular computer moniter?  Is it just mine that acted up? or do I need a flat pannel monitor?  or a small arcade monitor?

[menace]

so long as you leave it in the position you rotate it to , the color weirdness should go away with a few good shots from the built in de-gauss coil.  if you are rotating back and forth you will have an ongoing color problem.

[monkeybomb]

Okay (huge sigh) that makes sense.  Thanks

[Silver]

The colour problem should go away with a degauss - I assume you rotated with the monitor switched on?

Try rotating, and then power the monitor on-off - it should solve the problem. Most people who build cabs with a rotating monitor have to deguass on each rotation, and most monitors will degauss on each powerup....

[monkeybomb]

The colour problem should go away with a degauss - I assume you rotated with the monitor switched on?

Try rotating, and then power the monitor on-off - it should solve the problem. Most people who build cabs with a rotating monitor have to deguass on each rotation, and most monitors will degauss on each powerup....

LOL, yeah, I did.  In hindsight it was pretty dumb.  I was playing games and I thought  - Tron would be better vertical - Next thing I did was tip the monitor - no power off or anything.  Then I didn't get why the colors were funny.

I've done brighter things...really

[tommy]

We have all done dumb things, i tryed to beat arkanoid with a joystick.

[telengard]

You can definitely rotate it.  I have a rotating monitor.  Like others have said you need to degauss after rotating.  The other thing you have to watch for (this happened in my cabinet) is that sometimes the power cord would inch out enough to loose power while rotating.  I put a little masking tape around the outside of the plug to help it sit more snug in the receptacle.

~telengard

[paigeoliver]

I remember the first time I ever rotated a monitor. It was back when Callus was hotter than Mame. I rotated it to play Mercs, and I was scared to death something was going to screw up in the monitor because the Callus docs specifically said not to rotate monitors that weren't designed for it.

Since then I have wised up, monitors don't mind being rotated at all.

[danny_galaga]

mine is set up so that when it rotates, it switches off. when it has stopped rotating, it switches back on and the in-built degauss does its thing. that normally keeps it clean.

if we have a bit of a session with lots of different games being played some discolouration creeps in. if it was a big problem i could always install a hidden momentary off switch to straighten it up again. but i dunno, it kinda looks more realisic with a spot of purple in the corner, just like the busted up real ones i used to play (",)

[coasternuts]

On average how long is it supposed to take before the monitor degausses?  I have a monitor I rotated and it gradually got more purple.  I didn't leave it on long enough to find out what was going to happen when it got full purple.

I did rotate it with the power off.

[danny_galaga]

i think its more a matter of how long the degauss is ON rather than how long the monitor is off. it certainly does effect it since if you had no degauss at all and left the monitor off for some time it will be normal again. but the degaussing is a set amount of time (if the monitor has an auto-degauss). when the monitor is switched on, a relay ( i think) switches on the degauss and the image will shimmer like crazy for a second or two and then youll hear a click (im assuming the same relay) and then the degauss is off and the image is back to normal.

[dabone]

Most automatic degauss circuits have a thermal cutoff.

Turn on the tv, degauss kicks in until the thermal cut off kills the circuit.


You then have to wait until it cools back down to reset the circuit before it will degauss again.


And even with manual coils, they have like a 1 min on, 30 mins off rating for the smaller ones.
(You could run it continously, but it would melt and short out)

This is to keep the coil from cooking.


Later,
dabone