Other analog board alternatives for CCs....

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Other analog board alternatives for CCs....

OK, I have read the old forums and think I have found most of what there is to know about the MCD (Mac Color Display) and the ability to run a CC 10" tube on it. I am building a Pentium 4 shuttle Color Classic and want to use the stock tube instead of an LCD. I want to run 640 and 800 modes on this tube and wonder if there are any Sony monitors with analog boards other than the Macintosh Color Display that will run the CC 10 inch tube. I may settle for 640 mode only if I have to. If any of you can expand on alternate analog boards, could you please?? I really need info here to get going. I simply don't have the $$$ to build an 8.4" LCD equiped CC. Thanks.

Scott

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Well, I can't give definitive

Well, I can't give definitive information, i.e. specific model numbers, but I can offer the following observations:

(1) Because the CC's CRT is a Trinitron, I would think almost any analog board from a monitor that uses a Trinitron CRT would work, at least electrically.

(2) Size is another matter altogether. The first thing to be aware of is the size of the video board -- the metal-encased thing that goes on the end of the CRT neck. Even the video board assembly of a MCD is a little bigger than the CC's stock one. This requires removing some of the plastic guide that holds the CC's case fan (which is no big deal since there are other ways to mount a fan in the case once you do away with the CC's stock analog board). But while the MCD's video board box is wider than the CC's, it's not deeper (or at least not much deeper). A video board that was deeper/thicker would require you to butcher the rear of the CC's case, leaving a hole in the back.

(3) Another size-related consideration is the size of your donor monitor. The MCD is only a 13" monitor, but even then you have to use its yoke, as the CC's yoke will produce an unacceptably small image, with large black bars on the sides (and on top and bottom). When you put on the larger yoke, you have to move it up on the CRT neck to get a proper picture. I imagine if you used a large donor monitor, you wouldn't be able to fit its yoke onto the CC's CRT neck properly. There's also height to consider -- a too-large yoke will interfere with the analog board that's underneath it, forcing you to relocate its location, which will in turn require some significant hacking of the CC's inner chassis. But this can cause complications with --

(4) The final size issue. The donor monitor's analog board needs to fit inside the CC case, of course. But more important than that, the wires that connect the main analog board to the video board assembly have to be long enough. The MCD, for example, has shorter wires than the CC, which makes it impossible to mount its analog board in the exact location where the CC's stock analog board is. Lengthening these wires is certainly possible, but some of the are really, really thin.

So I would say that if you can find a multiscan Trinitron monitor in the 12"-14" size range, you're good to go -- or you at least have a fighting chance. If you could manage to find a 10" monitor, of course, you could just swap the whole thing in. However, I've never seen a 10" multiscan trinitron monitor.

Good luck!

Matt

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I think the main issue is one

I think the main issue is one of size. Other than specialized Point-Of-Sale monitors like the one Greg Younk used ($$$), any Sony you can find is probably going to be bigger than 10 inches. Which means you are still going to have to deal with the same issues as an MCD or LC575 transplant.

The 575 can get SVGA, and I imagine that the MCD *probably* could, with the same sense-line modification. I noticed that the LC575 and MCD have exactly the same model Trinitron tube, so the a/boards are probably very similar. In fact, on the LC575/SVGA site, I wonder if the "13 inch RGB" they refer to is the MCD, referring not to the 14 inch size but the 13 inch viewing area. Unfortunately I wasn't able to try this out before the a/b blew on my MCD/CC set up.

EDIT: Ooooh, simultaneous posting...

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OMG... I had no idea I would

OMG... I had no idea I would have to do a yoke swap too. That sounds like a lot of work. I really do think that I am gonna look for a multisync 10" monitor that will do. Thanks for the suggs.

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Swapping a yoke isn't really

Swapping a yoke isn't really that much work, in my opinion. There's just one plug to the a/b, and the only thing that's even slightly tricky is knowing how much force to use to get the yoke to move. There's usually adhesive, and one has to free the yoke without breaking the neck of the tube. But it's not too hard.

If you're looking for a 10" monitor to swap in, be aware that, as far as I know, most are not going to easily fit. I'm swapping in a Viewmagic CD-1038 and although it is a 10" it actually is physically larger, and requires much dremel destruction inside the front plate; in fact it's only hanging by the top two screws, as the bottom screw holes had to be removed. And the face is more rounded, so there are gaps where the CRT would normally lay flat against the aperture. I don't know for sure, but I imagine similar issues would arise with other brands. There are bunches of these little 10" PC monitors on ebay, but they look like they have the same rounded screen and it's not an easy swap.

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