old monitor degauss

[crashwg]

Do old monitors have a degauss?  I have an old 13" monitor that I'm thinking about putting into a mini cab and I want to make it rotate, mainly because vertical games are 9

[crashwg]

>>Update<<

I tried dissconnecting and recconecting the thing that looks like a degaussing coil while the monitor was on, and still I get nothing.

[Nailz]

You will probably just need to buy yourself a degaussing coil, I had to do that with my monitor as well.

[crashwg]

I'm realy looking for a fully contained option.

Oh, and >>update<<

Hooked up 4v 13

[crashwg]

I think I may have just ruined the monitor...
I hooked the degaussing coil up to a 110v outlet with a switch.  When I turned it on, for about half a second,  it made a buzzing sound and turned my screen into a spiral.  As soon as I turned the power off it was strait again, but it now has alot of realy bad colorful spots.  Oh and the degaussing coil is abou 150

[Nailz]

Fully contained, not sure I understand what you mean....

A degaussing coil is so simple, I waved mine around the monitor, it's degaussed, I am done.  Haven't had to do it again in the last 2 years.

Unless you really want to make it harder than that.  

[Ken Layton]

All monitors and tv sets have degaussing coils looped around the picture tube. They automatically activate for 2 seconds when you first turn the power on when the set has been off for at least 30 minutes.

Degaussing coils are AC powered (usually 120 volts AC) and are intermittent duty cycle. Even the manual degaussing coils you buy are only rated for intermittent use and should never be energized for more than  60 seconds or you'll burn it up!

[crashwg]

Woohoo, I left the monitor off for 30min or so, plugged it back in and it looks normal again!  So I guess I'm still looking for a way to hook up a button or something to the degauss...

Fully contained, not sure I understand what you mean....

A degaussing coil is so simple, I waved mine around the monitor, it's degaussed, I am done.  Haven't had to do it again in the last 2 years.

Unless you really want to make it harder than that.  

I'm planing on making the monitor rotatable on a game by game basis.  So when I'm done playing DigDug, I can rotate the monitor and start up Metal ---stingray--- (left that in there cuz it's a pretty funny typo...), therefore, by fully contained I mean just that, everything inside the cab.

[crashwg]

All monitors and tv sets have degaussing coils looped around the picture tube. They automatically activate for 2 seconds when you first turn the power on when the set has been off for at least 30 minutes.

Degaussing coils are AC powered (usually 120 volts AC) and are intermittent duty cycle. Even the manual degaussing coils you buy are only rated for intermittent use and should never be energized for more than  60 seconds or you'll burn it up!

So, how do I hook up 120 volts AC intermittently to my degaussing coil?  Plugging it dirrectly into the wall deffinitly didn't work!

Oh, and I can verify that it is 120v that is powering the degauss coil, at least it sure felt like 120v   and also with this video... http://www.geocities.com/crashwg/degauass.mpg

[SirPeale]

crashwg: stop what you're doing before you hurt yourself or others.

Turn the monitor in the orientation that you want it.  Turn it on.  Play your game.  When you're done, turn it off and walk away.  Keep doing this, and eventually the colors will be correct again.

What I did: take an old hard drive magnet and rotate it around the monitor about 12" from it.  Here's the tricky part: you have to keep the magnetic poles aligned.  So when you have the magnet on the right side of the monitor, and you move it in a circle around the monitor, don't rotate the magnet.  

IE on the right side of the monitor the left hand side of the magnet is facing it, and when you move towards the top of the monitor the bottom of the magnet is facing the top.

I'm not sure I'm making this clear, if someone knows what I'm talking about can shed some light on this?

[crashwg]

Thanks for the advice peale, but i've shocked myself before, and I'll probably do it again, I'm not too woried about it exept when it comes to the suction cup thing, that thing sounds dangerous.

As for what I want to accomplish, I'm not sure how much more I can explain it.

On my newer monitor (emachines) I can rotate the monitor, go into the onscreen menu, and degauss it.
On my older monitor (mgc), which has no buttons except for power, I wan't to be able to do basicly the same thing.  It has a degauss coil in it, it does it's thing when I turn the monitor on, but after that I have no way of activating it again.  There has to be some way that I can send the appropriate electrical current to the coil when I rotate the monitor.

[SirPeale]

crashwg: yeah, I get that.  I'm not too worried about you shocking yourself, but I am worried about you toasting your components.

Are you going to be rotating your monitor constantly, or are you going to have it vertical forever?

If the latter is the case, do what I recommended.  Conversely, you can use an electric drill instead of a soldering gun.

[crashwg]

My plan is to hopefully have it be rotated back and forth between the two positions for the types of games being played, otherwise I will have a 9

[SirPeale]

You can use an electric drill to degauss your monitor much in the same way you can use a soldering gun to.  Not a soldering pencil, one of those big guns that weigh five pounds.  The drill has to be corded, not cordless.

[crashwg]

Oh.

[SirPeale]

As for the rotation, I don't think this is the monitor you want to use for this application.

[crashwg]

As for the rotation, I don't think this is the monitor you want to use for this application.

Any particular reason?
It is small.  I'm building a mini, so that works pretty well.
It's old, so the resolution is alot closer looking to a real arcade (at least I think so).

Does anyone know of another 14" monitor that has digital controls?  I can't say I've ever seen one...

[SirPeale]

Because you're planning on rotating it back and forth for each game type.  That's why it won't work.  Once you get it degaussed, it will stay that way until you rotate it again.  Since  there is no easy way to degauss it (ie button press) you should pick the way you want the monitor and keep it that way.

[crashwg]

I don't mean to be argumentative Peale, but adding a button to the existing degaussing coil is what I started this post for.  I completely understand what your saying about not wanting to use a monitor without access to the degauss feature.

[menace]

seems straight forward enough..add a momentary contact switch on one lead of the standard degauss coil, plug it in and away you go--when you rotate give the button a 2 second push and release.  it may not work as well as you think though since the monitor may acquire discoloration that only a fixed magnetic field can fix--i.e. one orientation--but what the hell 14" monitors are cheap --post with results please, I know someone else who wants to rotate on a mini-cab..

[SirPeale]

Ah, now I see.  Sorry about that.

I suppose it would be easy enough to wire a switch inline with the wire on the degauss.  Problem is, where do you plug it in to get power?  I suppose you could wire it right to the AC coming in.

[crashwg]

Hooked up 4v 13

[Beley]

Here is an idea, hook up a dimmer switch. and a light bulb in series with the coil to keep the current down.  Just switch it on and slowly turn the dimmer down unitl it goes off.

on second thought, i seem to recal that some(all?) light dimmers dont produce a proper output(ie not a sine wave) this could be a problem but it still might be worth a shot

[crashwg]

Beley, you sound like you know alot about this sort of thing.  Is my degaussing coil acting like it should with the 120v?  If so, it's just a mater of bringing down the wattage?  Am I on the right track?