Need help with monitor ID and breakout cable questions

[Dragonman73]

First, I have a arcadevga PCI card in my system....wanted to point that out

I bought this converted 25" CRT arcade monitor off eBay, the seller listed it as "new" but it obviously has a used (circa 1997) tube. From what I can tell this was professionally converted in 2007. Anyone know anything about these?







I had a wei-ya converted TV I did myself but wasn't happy with the adjustments. I bought one of Andy's break-out cables and soldered my wei-ya plug in place of the one that came on the cable...and it's been a while.

I think the plug that came with the new monitor is the std plug Andy puts on his....so I am going to get a new cable instead of re-splicing mine. But I had some questions....All of the wiring looks the same except there is a yellow wire on the new monitor.....what does this go to, or is it part of Andy's cables...and I don't need to worry with it?



I tested the monitor with the wires on my old plug (less the yellow) and the monitor powered up fine, but really really dark with no adjustments available in the brightness, it was maxed out.



Any ideas or direction?

Thanks in advance

[Rickn]

The nameplate has a phone number, did you try calling it?

My guess is that this is a monitor that has been "put together" by one more of a few companies that managed to find boards that were left in circulation when Pentranic USA closed? ALS, Budget tubes, who knows, the black metal frame suggests that any way?

It uses a CH288 switchable chassis originally made by Rodotron, but may be a copy as for the past number of years we are the only company in North America Rodotron would sell to.
No matter, back to your questions:
-red, green, blue self explanatory ... color signals
- black is ground
- yellow is Horizonatal sync if separate sync is used, composite sync (Vertical and horizontal) otherwise
- white is vertical sync if separate sync is used
As it appears IC1 is installed to the board this monitor "should" accept either separate or composite sync.
BTW if using AVGA for mame at "standard resolution" be sure the jumper on the stand-up board on the heat sink is set to 15k. Do not move it with power on.
Hope that helps.

Good Luck

Rick Nieman
President Nieman Video Displays

[Dragonman73]

Thanks that helps a lot, I may call that number,  I tried googling the name of the company and nothing came back. I got this off eBay and figure it was surplus left over and the company that built it is out of business....they had four to sell.

Either way your info is very helpful - Thanks again

[Dragonman73]

I went ahead and purchased one of ultimarcs arcade VGA Arcade Monitor Video Amplifiers, not sure if it was needed....but can't hurt since the screen was so dark I guess?

[Rickn]

Let us know how you make out with the phone call, I did some checking/ google... leads to Budget Tubes, ALS....
I noticed some issues with the setting on the controls on the neckboard and hate to say it, but be prepared for some more issues. Good news it fired up.
Re-wire it using the yellow wire not the white and hopefully it will sync up and the rest of the issues will be set-up. I will be happy to try to help.

Good luck

I hate when some of these "companies" enter the market pricing, sub-standard product and no support!!

Feel free to e-mail me if needed.
Rick@niemandisplays.com

[Dragonman73]

Ok, I got my VGA amplifier from ultimarc and wired this up, I tried using just the yellow wire first. It looks better but still really dark. The colors aren't vibrant.

I was under the impression the arcadevga 3000 card has the 5volt output on pin 9, so this "should" work. I wonder if there is something i am missing on this board to crank up the brightness? I turned all the normal stuff but am trying not to do too much until I sort this out for fear of throwing it out of wack.

There is a "sub bright" knob on the neck board, is there anything else I need to look for?

Here's what I am dealing with

New monitor



Here's my old one, it's a converted tv tube with a wei-ya chassis, I never could get the skewing out of it and it and had some other issues with fitting the screen correctly, picture was perfect and colors looked good....but I wasn't happy with the adjustments. If I got it to fit halfway decent and the skew out....portions of the screen was chopped off. My new monitor fits WAY better around the screen....just need to get the color / brightness sorted out

[Dragonman73]

Man......I'm really bummed out right now

I am having a huge amount of trouble getting this to look right and am feeling like I got a dud, it shouldn't be this difficult to set up. I was hoping it would be more plug and play with minor adjustments. My picture is even "cocked" on the screen which I think is because the yoke is at an angle in relation with the board on the yoke.

I had a decent converted monitor (one in pics above) but sold it on craigslist and am stuck with this one now. 

Not really sure what to do now as I shelled out $410 shipped for it from this place  http://www.ebay.com/itm/200842745363?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

The seller advertises as "New" and it's obvious this isn't the case...at least with the tube. I don't want to ask for a refund or file a chargeback until I am 100% sure that the unit isn't defective, I just feel like I got screwed on this deal.  It's just not as near as bright as the other monitor and the colors aren't as vibrant either.

Anyone have any info on setting one of these up and maybe I can try that before contacting the seller......thanks

[grantspain]

i had a clone chinese made chassis same as this,could not get the colours/brightness right
came to the conclusion it was to do with mismatch to tube-possibly heater voltage
i use that chassis now as spare parts

[Dragonman73]

i had a clone chinese made chassis same as this,could not get the colours/brightness right
came to the conclusion it was to do with mismatch to tube-possibly heater voltage
i use that chassis now as spare parts

I fear thats what I may be doing and getting another wei-ja chassis or something. I'm going to give the seller time to make it right, even if they give me a $200 partial refund, that will be enough for me to locate another chassis and isolation transformer (if needed) to fix this

[lilshawn]

if the first post pic is accurate, it appears the drive is cranked up.

the chassis are decent... Does this tube look new or does it look like it's been pulled from something (old TV etc) a tube can be old as dirt, but if it's been sitting around doing nothing it could be okay. they stopped making CRT tubes quite some time ago, you aren't going to find a tube with a 2012 date on it.

i'd suspect the heater voltage is mismatched or the tube is really worn down.

i'd check the heater voltage...you might luck out and find it's low causing this problem. if not... 

[Dragonman73]

The tube is from a 1997 RCA TV according to the label, but it def looks old. Whats the drive?

How do I check the heater voltage?

Sorry for the newbie questions, just trying to learn as I go

[lilshawn]

sorry,

RCA makes tubes. (made) you say it looks old...like grimy dirty? or that it just has a tag that says 97 on it.

the drive is the voltage applied to the guns (red green and blue) more drive = more voltage = more color (in a sense)

if they are cranked way up its either because:

1: the guns are worn out and need more voltage to get the "color out" (abused tube)

2: the heater is not hot enough. (misconfigured)

3:the phosphor on the front of the tube is worn out. (tube is old)

We are basically trying to figure out which of these is the issue.

there is a few spots on the neck board that you can probe with a volt meter to check what the voltage of the heater is... but you must exercise caution though, there are some pretty high voltages present that can eff you up in a real hurry...let's learn a bit first so you can see what your getting into
 

it kinda goes like this,

there is a high voltage on the front face of the tube (1000's of volts) . a lower voltage (10's of volts) applied to the guns back neck of the tube will cause a small stream of electrons to flow from the guns towards the front.

you see, electricity likes to flow from low voltage areas to high voltage areas...it's where the party is.

in order for the guns to put out a nice strong beam they need to be hot. the small stream coming out of the gun passes through the heater...which usually has somewhere between 5 and 8 volts (and because again, lower voltage like to go towards high voltage) the small stream picks up some more electrons from the heater on the way through.

if the heater voltage is low, the small stream doesn't pick up many electrons and when the beam strikes the tiny phosphor dots on the front of the tube, they don't light up much.

<endlesson>

because we can't see for sure if the phosphors are worn out (highly unlikely) or what the state of the guns are (sealed away and needs special equipment to test)...the easiest thing in this case is to check is the heater voltage. If it's proper, there is likely something wrong with the tube, or possibly the high voltage.

[Dragonman73]

Thanks for the advice, I'll check that in a little bit,

Here's the label off the tube

Date etched on tube itself 03/05/97



Label

[lilshawn]

WOW... hey rick, check this out... http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/part-number/A63ABG27X/0057/060

was just gooling the tube number to confirm the heater voltage and bam, sears parts direct has them still. 

EDIT:

oh yeah, the heater voltage i have confirmed should read 6.3 volts. It's a CR23 socket so it should have the heater on pins 9+10

sometime printed on the solder side of the neck board there will be some letters designating the pins. (G1 gnd etc) You are basically looking for "H"... i ripped this pic just as an example...it's not the same but it's similar.



if you power on the monitor and read the DC voltage on the 2 pins  it should be 6.3 (or very close to...I would say 6.0-7.0 would be acceptable) use caution when poking around the back...there are nasty voltages that can kill you dead if you start getting all poke happy.

[Dragonman73]

Thanks guys, I pretty much gave up on this POS monitor. It won't even come on now, and I'm not sure whats going on as I didn't do anything for this to change...it was working one minute and quit the next.

Giving up on even trying to troubleshoot it at this point because I feel like after spending the cash for a "new" monitor I shouldn't even be digging into it like this. And I already sold my other monitor that was actually the better one looking back now, at least it powered up and worked 

I've already messaged the seller that I am unhappy with this, was hardly "new" as described in the auction and want a full refund. I also started the ebay resolution process, and last step is a charge back with my credit card company if all else fails.

ugh!

Thanks for everyones help to try and get this going though, I really appriciate it