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9" Chinese SVGA mono monitors

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2icebitn

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Are these things any good? Exceptional clarity, but you have to be doing something awfully wrong to screw up a b & w display. Anyone use one regularly? In case you don't know what I'm talking about, these we're common on eBay 3-4 years ago, we're under 30$, maybe shipped (or maybe not). I snagged one, it's been sitting until now. Adorable as all get out. An actual vintage crt would obviously be more desirable though. Was wondering if they hold up with time.
 
offensive_Jerk said:
You have a pic of it?
Click to expand...

It is probably Miracle brand, they sold tons to replace old point of sale monitors. They do still show up on eBay but not at reasonable prices (literally went up 3x in price in two years).

I was going to try and fit one into a compact Mac shelved that project.
 
I was offered one for free with green phosphorus from a CNC machine. I declined the offer. The phosphorus was so badly burnt, I could clearly read the letters and symbols having it unconnected on the table.
 
I know I mentioned this in a different thread, but I really want one. I think I could make the hackintosh project work, and it would be cool anyway. But if it's easy to burn the phosphor, then it's probably poor quality.

I'm watching that same model on ebay right now for $100. I wish it cost a bit less, but they're not super common as far as I can find.
 
These were made by numerous companies including something like "TVS", mostly for PoS systems. 90% of these which I encounter have phosphor burns as it bright point of sale (>500lx) it was needed to crank the brightness up and they were continuously on for decade or so. As it was mass/cheap production don't expect high-quality electronics, everything is crammed inside and wires are covering the board in larger extent than typical CRT.
Summing up, keep it cool, don't stress it and it'll be OK.
 
I've got one of the "Miracle" brand that is TTL MDA/CGA. It appeared to be brand new when I got it. It does the job, but the quality isn't great. I think it was $99 shipped, which for a CRT doesn't seem to be too expensive to me.
 
Old CRT security monitors are a good source of monochrome composite video displays. I pointed out that one could get a whole system for less than $50 at Harbor Freight years ago. Don't know if anyone ever took me up on that, but the monitors were 9".
 
Crap. Looks like Harbor Freight only has the LCD panels now.

I recently bought a Karaoke machine that had a small B&W crt in it thinking I could put it in a custom box with an old computer or Raspberry PI as kind of a "luggable" type computer just to play with. Turns out the PCB for the monitor is proprietary with circuitry for the other functions of the unit. It was surprising they integrated the other features into the board that the CRT plugs into. I was hoping it would just be a monitor inside.

I did hook my IBM PCjr up to the external composite connectors and the display was more crisp than I was expecting. Although, the width needed to be adjusted to show the characters that were off to the left side of the screen.
 
"Crispiness" should be excellent until the capacitors get old. Many times over the years I've gotten into heated arguments with people who think nothing is as good as modern technology: monochrome CRTs are capable of far higher resolution ("definition") than any 4K or 16K TV.
 
I doubt there is anything as good as the most modern technology ( ok prior to proof reading, the prior amended sentence was arbitrarily and rather scurrilously put down as this by my phone - I don't be anything hung is as good as the most modern technology). As long as a product is actually using it. The last CRTs that rolled off the assembly line were far and away the best. I realize you're stating that by modern you mean tech that replaced other forms. While they certainly have immense benefits (lcd's) - size, power draw, certain image characteristics, they're not necessarily superior in every way. People are just sheep and get caught up in the whole new thang. I personally love a good newish crispy CRT, mono or color. But it is hard to overlook the benefits of lcd's.
 
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