jmacz
Well-known member
In January I picked up an Apple Macintosh 16" Color Display from a junkyard. It powered up and displayed an image but there were a lot of gremlins causing issues ranging from strange artifacts on the screen, very visible noise, unexplained behavior. I ended up tearing it apart and recapping it. That fixed all the issues except for one, sharpness. It was ok but not great. I tried all the pots inside the monitor but it only helped to a certain point. Eventually, it was clear it was the tube/age. I dealt with it but the tube kept deteriorating where the sharpness finally was unusable. RIP. So I decided to have some fun.
Meet my 16" Color Display:
![IMG_4817.jpg IMG_4817.jpg](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60104-59ace1156daec706e2c00e8042306ff7.jpg)
Woah... that's not 832x624.
And what's going on here -->
![IMG_4819.JPG IMG_4819.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60105-8d9aa662dbd1429e65608514b68d873e.jpg)
and here -->
![IMG_4820.JPG IMG_4820.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60106-afee5effce94c000980956c0c69561e0.jpg)
Yeah... I gutted the monitor and put in a Samsung 512N LCD inside. Why take a small LCD and put it inside a desk space hogging CRT case? Dunno. Did it for fun. The display is crisp and running at 1024x768 with no fuzziness. I didn't want to deal with fuzzy scaling so I invested in some SuperMac Spectrum video cards capable of running 24bit at 1024x768 at 60/75Hz, and this Samsung 512N is native 1024x768 at both 60/75Hz.
First I gutted the monitor:
![IMG_4762.JPG IMG_4762.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60107-4d6265c3bbf0f8e83977668360bc14d0.jpg)
Reused the power plugs, the front power switch and LED. But everything else is gone inside. Next step was the front glass.
![IMG_4761.jpg IMG_4761.jpg](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60108-574a3b56013f83c7c9e75a2a98a28cdf.jpg)
It's 1/8" thick acrylic plexi-glass. I made a jig to carefully bend the plexi-glass evenly (using a heat gun) to match the contour of the display front. Then fixed it in place with epoxy. Then 3d printed a mount for the LCD bezel controls. Also printed buttons for it and drilled holes into the side of the monitor case for the buttons.
![IMG_4767.JPG IMG_4767.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60109-ca286efa9c42583dea574c0120f12fde.jpg)
Then 3d printed some new mounts for the panel itself. I was going to machine the mount out of aluminum but the plastic prototype I 3d printed worked really well so just went with that.
![IMG_4768.JPG IMG_4768.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60110-dcc45d5f84558a754aeef6990c93d51c.jpg)
The VGA cable just extends out of the back of the case. For the power, I wanted the power button to work so I reused the exterior power plug and then inside, I wired it into the existing switch and used one end of a power cable to allow me to easily plug it into the LCD panel. The monitor LED I reused and tied it into the existing panel LED on the control panel.
Works great and looks 95% clean. Given the panel is flat and the monitor is horizontally curved, I had to make black "barn door" shields out of mylar so that there's no gaps between the panel and the edges of the glass. I say 95% because you can barely make out the edges of these shields but it's not bad.
So now I have a huge 16" monitor with an LCD inside. Yes, it takes up more room on the desk, but hey it looks cool![Cool :cool: :cool:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Meet my 16" Color Display:
![IMG_4817.jpg IMG_4817.jpg](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60104-59ace1156daec706e2c00e8042306ff7.jpg)
Woah... that's not 832x624.
![Zany face :zany_face: 🤪](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f92a.png)
And what's going on here -->
![IMG_4819.JPG IMG_4819.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60105-8d9aa662dbd1429e65608514b68d873e.jpg)
and here -->
![IMG_4820.JPG IMG_4820.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60106-afee5effce94c000980956c0c69561e0.jpg)
Yeah... I gutted the monitor and put in a Samsung 512N LCD inside. Why take a small LCD and put it inside a desk space hogging CRT case? Dunno. Did it for fun. The display is crisp and running at 1024x768 with no fuzziness. I didn't want to deal with fuzzy scaling so I invested in some SuperMac Spectrum video cards capable of running 24bit at 1024x768 at 60/75Hz, and this Samsung 512N is native 1024x768 at both 60/75Hz.
First I gutted the monitor:
![IMG_4762.JPG IMG_4762.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60107-4d6265c3bbf0f8e83977668360bc14d0.jpg)
Reused the power plugs, the front power switch and LED. But everything else is gone inside. Next step was the front glass.
![IMG_4761.jpg IMG_4761.jpg](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60108-574a3b56013f83c7c9e75a2a98a28cdf.jpg)
It's 1/8" thick acrylic plexi-glass. I made a jig to carefully bend the plexi-glass evenly (using a heat gun) to match the contour of the display front. Then fixed it in place with epoxy. Then 3d printed a mount for the LCD bezel controls. Also printed buttons for it and drilled holes into the side of the monitor case for the buttons.
![IMG_4767.JPG IMG_4767.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60109-ca286efa9c42583dea574c0120f12fde.jpg)
Then 3d printed some new mounts for the panel itself. I was going to machine the mount out of aluminum but the plastic prototype I 3d printed worked really well so just went with that.
![IMG_4768.JPG IMG_4768.JPG](https://forumbucket.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/data/attachments/60/60110-dcc45d5f84558a754aeef6990c93d51c.jpg)
The VGA cable just extends out of the back of the case. For the power, I wanted the power button to work so I reused the exterior power plug and then inside, I wired it into the existing switch and used one end of a power cable to allow me to easily plug it into the LCD panel. The monitor LED I reused and tied it into the existing panel LED on the control panel.
Works great and looks 95% clean. Given the panel is flat and the monitor is horizontally curved, I had to make black "barn door" shields out of mylar so that there's no gaps between the panel and the edges of the glass. I say 95% because you can barely make out the edges of these shields but it's not bad.
So now I have a huge 16" monitor with an LCD inside. Yes, it takes up more room on the desk, but hey it looks cool