Rotate monitor

[DaOld Man]

I cant seem to find a lot of information on here about rotating the monitor.
I tried rotating my desktop monitor and playing some games.
Galaga 88 and several others play a lot better with a vertical screen, but a lot of games I have look better on horizontal screen.
I am thinking of making a rotating monitor mount.
Perhaps use a small motor to turn it with the flip of a switch, or it would be even better if Mame or a frontend could automatically rotate it to the angle best suited for each game.
Have any of you guys tried this, it might save me loads of research and design work.

[Jouster]

I know there are multiple threads on here on this topic...just search for it...not too many people have done it though.  But there are some good ideas in the threads if I remember correctly.

Jouster

[Green Giant]

Someone recently made exactly what you are describing.  It had a motor and some cutoff relays so you would hit a switch and it would rotate and stop automatically.  I don't think they found a way to automatically rotate it though. 

Is there a reason you wouldn't just put a big tv in your cab?  Sure it won't rotate, but a 27" tv should play vertical games on a screen bigger than most vertically mounted computer monitors.  Then you can just cover it with a piece of smoked glass so it looks like the screen is vertically mounted.

The rotation should require an lcd.  If you have one laying around, great, otherwise you are looking at a chunk of change.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the replies.
Maybe I should post this in the monitor section?
Anyway:

>Is there a reason you wouldn't just put a big tv in your cab?  Sure it won't rotate, but a 27" tv should play vertical games on a screen bigger than most vertically mounted computer monitors.<

I have a 21" crt monitor, also a 17" LCD.
On both monitors, when a game, such as Galaga88, is run with monitor horizontal, there are "bands" of unused monitor space on both sides on the game display.
But in vertical mode, the game fills the whole screen, and looks more like the original game.
I take it that a TV would display the same way?
If not, then a TV may be the way I need to go.

[Stobe]

Yes, the TV will act the same way, as will any type of display with a similar aspect ratio.

-Stobe

[Green Giant]

But in vertical mode, the game fills the whole screen, and looks more like the original game.
I take it that a TV would display the same way?
If not, then a TV may be the way I need to go.

Yeah, a tv would display the same way, but the size of a 27", which you can get pretty cheap, would allow the screen to look just as big as a 21" vertical.

Assuming this is a 4:3 ratio crt, at 21" it should have a viewing angle on the horizontal of 16.8".  When in vertical mode rotated that is what you would see for galaga.  On a 27" tv sitting normal, if you played Galaga the screen would have black on the side but still be 16.2" tall.

You would have a little bit taller screen using a 21" monitor that rotates, but I don't know if you could use a crt.  You would have to degauss it every time you rotated it because of the change in the magnetic field.  Also the weight would be a big issue in rotating a crt.

Using the 17" screen would only give you a vertical monitor 13.6" high.  A tv would offer more screen to watch.

If you don't want to see the black sides on the monitor, look up smoked plexi or smoked glass on this forum.  You will see that the image just floats in the glass.

[DaOld Man]

Again, thanks for the input. This is what I like about this forum, people share their thoughts and experience.

I may try a TV, but I will need a TV out card. Whats the best card, in your opinion?

[Green Giant]

Your best option is to find a tv with component inputs.  Check craigslist for that.  Then get the dvi to component dongle.  Something like this:  http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041901&p_id=2398&seq=1&format=2&style=

Bookmark that site, the best deals on cabling around.  The products are high quality.  I was worried about buying a $6 HDMI cable, but damn it if it doesn't look amazing on a 50" plasma.

As for the video card, I am pretty sure ATI cards handle output to tv's the best.  Someone else can verify this but an older 256 or 512MB ATI video card is a good option.  I think I used a 256 ATI for my cab.  Just make sure the dongle is compatible with the video card you get.

[telengard]

Someone recently made exactly what you are describing.  It had a motor and some cutoff relays so you would hit a switch and it would rotate and stop automatically.  I don't think they found a way to automatically rotate it though. 

Is there a reason you wouldn't just put a big tv in your cab?  Sure it won't rotate, but a 27" tv should play vertical games on a screen bigger than most vertically mounted computer monitors.  Then you can just cover it with a piece of smoked glass so it looks like the screen is vertically mounted.

The rotation should require an lcd.  If you have one laying around, great, otherwise you are looking at a chunk of change.

Hehe, all that electronics is the hard part for me.  The automatic part seems like it'd be way easier.  HW -vs- SW.

It seems a lot of people are controlling their rotation via the parallel port.  It's not too difficult to talk to the parallel port driver under windows but you would have to patch mame.  Advancemenu actually has support built in for doing this kinda stuff.

I would love to get this going with the new D9500 I have coming.  Once I get it integrated this could be my next project.

~telengard

[danny_galaga]

there is a section in byoac.com about rotating monitors. it hasnt been updated in a while but there are some useful links etc. mine uses a 15" pc monitor (cockail) and has microswitches to stop rotation. it also turns the monitor off while rotating to help it degauss...