monitor in motion?

[Major Rock Hardy]

To all monitor gurus (or non-gurus who have actually tried this):

I have read on this board that having a rotating monitor (i.e. yoke always points in the same direction but screen goes from vertical to horizontal) sometimes means you need to degauss it often.

Is there any reason not to do a monitor tilt feature (i.e. screen faces straight up "cocktail-style" then tilts more towards one side)?  This would still move the electric field of the monitor with respect to earth's magnetic field so possibly the same degaussing issues?  Would the size of the monitor matter?

I have invested some time in artistry to come up with the following illustration of my idea:

[Major Rock Hardy]

so in other words: I want to do the bottom rotation (Side-Axis Rotation), not the Yoke-Axis Rotation.

[modessitt]

First of all, what are you trying to acccomplish?  Are you trying to get the monitor to tilt one direction, then the other, to allow players a better view?  Either way, the orientation would stay the same.

Magnetic interference can be caused by moving the monitor - period.  It doesn't always happen.  You are more likely to have it happen on an older monitor than a newer monitor.  If you are using a computer monitor, it may never happen.  Older G07's are the biggest culprits of this, I've found.

Some monitors have their own degauss buttons installed, and it's quite simple to wire it up to an external button for degaussing if needed after tilting.

Certain cocktails like Centipede had a small tilt motion built in.  The entire cab would tilt while the legs stayed still.  This is probably the best way, as all the electrical and electronic parts inside move together and remain the same distance from the yoke throughout.  Tilting the monitor alone will cause the yoke to move closer, then farther from internal components, increasing the chances of interference.

Hell, just go read the post in "Main" on how to build a Joust cocktail cab, with both players on the same side and the screen tilted a bit automatically.  Be much easier.....

[Angry_Radish]

There was a post somewhere (searching for it now), where a guy built an assembly where the monitor would power off momentarily while the monitor was in motion, then come back on after it stopped moving, seemed pretty slick...

**edit** nevermind, now that I actually looked the picture, I see you are trying to do something else
But just becasue I found the site (though not the post), here's the other solution: http://cornchiparcadeproject.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

[shorthair]

I don't know why people are worried about degaussing. From what I gather, it doesn't at all hurt the monitor, and is sometimes good to do just to 'clean out the cobwebs'. (Maybe I'm wrong, here?)

[modessitt]

I don't think they're worried about degaussing, but worried about "not degaussing".   It's not a simple job of "cleaning out the cobwebs".  When some monitors are moved, they will exhibit color problems.  One corner (sometimes the entire screen) will look like someone has an unshielded stero speaker too close to it.  Degaussing will fix this problem and make the colors normal and uniform again.

[Major Rock Hardy]

FYI, what I was concerned about was needing to degauss in such a manner that the built-in degaussing function of the monitor would not be sufficient and I would need to get a hand coil and use that every time I tilted the monitor.  I thought I had read that on this forum somewhere at some time.  Sounds like it's not such a big deal after all.  Guess I was confused.

Thanks for all the replies!

MRH

[shorthair]

Yeah, Maj, if the monitor has one, that's what it's for. They're plenty capable. Multi-syncs have them, too. I think any monitor that does, automatically degausses on power-up, hence, not only is that cornchip dude putting undue wear on his monitor by powering off and on, continually, but he's degaussing, anyway.

[danny_galaga]

the rotating monitor in my cab powers off on rotation too. you dont tend to rotate it THAT often. it still seemed fine after about 3 years...