New 9" SVGA monochrome monitors $70 [eBay]

[MinerAl]

Got it today. Haven't had time to decase it yet, but it is certainly very similar to a stock Mac compact tube from the front.

Nice sharp bright little monitor. It looks good at 800x600@60, better at 640x480@60, best at 640x480@59. The stock video on the dell 760 I was testing it with had the option of 848x480@60. Looked pretty nice at that. As good as 640x489@60. Don't think a Mac will output that res tho.

It will not do 1024x768@60, nor any of the above at the other frequencies offered by the vid card I was using (72, 73, 75). It looked great at 32 bit color, the same at 16 bit, and the way Windows 7 acts at 256 colors made it look like crap.

 

[MinerAl]

Pics.

The monitor looked great in person at 640x480@59Hz, but my camera made it dim.



Looked great at 800x600@60Hz too.



When I took the case off this was the tube inside:







I haven't checked the tube's pins to see if they match a compact Mac's.  I hate to mess with yokes; everything seems so fragile and pointy and shocky in there.

It looked like it would bolt right into a tubeless Classic body I had handy...



So I popped it in there!



It fits perfectly. No gaps in the bezel or anything.

I hooked it up to an LC475 at 800x600@56Hz and it looks very nice. 



I need to fiddle with the contrast and brightness a bit, but those knobs were on the front, so it'll take some screw-driving to tune it now.

All-in-all a fairly easy and successful procedure

 

[CC_333]

So, that's in grayscale, and not monochrome?

Neat!

c

 

[MinerAl]

Yes. "Millions" of grays

 

[olePigeon]

It looks nearly identical to a regular Compact CRT.

 

[CC_333]

"Millions" of grays, huh?

This has likely been discussed elsewhere, but I wonder if you could somehow modify the Classic to output some kind of grayscale to the monitors analog board?

c

 

[MinerAl]

There were video cards with adaptors to output more than 1-bit to compact internal screens.

There isn't much difference between thousands and millions of colors output-ed to these grayscale monitors, but 256 colors is noticeably less smooth in gradients and photos than either higher setting.

 

[uniserver]

ok haha… at first i was kinda like,  who cares….

and now after i see your pictures, it hit me!!

cool!!!  hahahahahahhahaah

 

[uniserver]

if this isn't enough to get the mod wheels turning … i don't know what else could …..    

 

[techknight]

Greyscale SE/30 I assume? Hell if you did that with this, technically you could run up to 800x600. 

 

[MinerAl]

Eventually, the idea is to run an 040 (LC x75) logic board completely inside a compact shell with this as the monitor.

This setup could probably run a modern Mac mini internally at 800x600. I'd just have to remove the metal frame.

 

[Elfen]

Now that's an idea!

 

[Paralel]

Do we know yet if it is pin compatible with the compact macs?

 

[techknight]

The CRT itself? Is going to be.. most if not all black and white tubes of a certain size, and certain era are all pin-compatible. 

Voltage compatible might be slightly different. 

I noticed that CRT is more of a warm-white instead of a cool white. 

 

[MinerAl]

Could be my camera. I'll see if I can get a shot of it next to an actual compact for A-B comparing.

 

[Bunsen]

It looks good at 800x600@60 / It will not do 1024x768@60

Will it do 832 x 624?  That was the next step up from 640x480 for Macs around the Quadra / early PPC era.  Probably need a period Mac to drive it at that rez.

 

[MinerAl]

I have a different vga->Mac video adaptor that I can try 832x624. Wasn't that @67Hz though? It hasn't liked any resolution at higher than 60Hz yet.

 

[Bunsen]

I don't recall offhand.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I have a different vga->Mac video adaptor that I can try 832x624. Wasn't that @67Hz though? It hasn't liked any resolution at higher than 60Hz yet.

In that case it's bog standard 60 Hz VGA. AFAIK, you'll only get that out of the Quadra 630 and up off built-in video. NuBus Card time, can't think of a PDS card that will output 60Hz at any res offhand.

I'd check the LCD/Mac Compatibility thread for details on what's already been tried with what results.

Short Bed TAKKY Hack gone Quadra 630 + (external )Analog Conversion Box = Digital B&W TV for your SmoochyMacHack too! Video Connector I/O Board is perfect for internalizing your connection, there's plenty of cubic and that clears the backplane DA-15 punchout for your stalled KVM setup as well.

p.s. I know somebody who has everything but a spare Classic Chassis to mod the @$$ end and a spare RoadApple PPC to use as packing to ship a certain Video Cable your way as well. He owes you big time. :I

 

[MinerAl]

Heh.

The pics earlier in the thread (with the tube installed in the Classic) are being driven by built-in video of a 475. 800x600@56Hz and it also does 640x480@60Hz I think. We'll see what the 575 will do as soon as a certain cable makes it to its destination