5 Aug
1998
5 Aug
'98
11:02 a.m.
Tony,
At 06:45 PM 8/4/98 +0100, you wrote:
> Unfortunately I know little about monitors. Is
there a good source for
info on
What do you want to know?
No, I don't fool with repairing them very often. I just need to be able
to find their specs so I can match them up with the right video boards.
If it's about repairing them, then I've found
the best references to be the 2 volumes of Mauritron
Computer Monitor
Circuits that were published on paper (the CD-ROM versions are nowhere
near as useful). Each book costs about \pounds 50.00, and includes about
Those sound usefull. Do you know if they're they available here in the US
and where?
50 monitor circuit diagrams. Even if the monitor you
have isn't
included, you'll probably find a circuit fragment which matches the one
you're working on.
That's why the book is a lot more use than the CD-ROM. It's a lot easier
to flip through the book.
Yes, and I don't have to drag a computer around to read them! AND they
usually leave a lot of the pictures and drawings out of the CD ROMs.
I also have a few monitor service manuals. Some of them I have because I
have the monitor, others because they contain 'generic' circuits that are
used all over the place.
Also, of course, books on TV servicing are useful.
Uggg! I used to work on TVs but no more! Unless it's something special
it's not worth the time or parts that it would cost to fix it. Or course,
most of the stuff built in the last 15 years has special parts that you
can't get anyway.
If you want info on using the monitors, then I can't think of anything.
In my experience the customer controls and connections are pretty obvious
(or can be obviously traced if you pull the cover).
I suppose all that's left is finding out what the scan rates are. For old
single-frequency monitors, without those silly power-saving features,
the best way to find the horizontal scan rate (at least approximately) is
to power it up without sync, and look for the main frequency in the
random electromagnetic emissions. Sometimes just holding a scope probe or
counter probe near the monitor will do it. Sometimes a very loose
coupling to the flyback (a couple of turns round the core) will do it.
I hadn't thought of that.
Vertical scan rates are a lot easier to modify, so
those don't bother me
so much.
Have you done much of that? How successfull were you?
Joe
-tony