Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
User avatar
donluca
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:51 pm
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by donluca »

Eh, sounds like my Sony BVM 14M4DE. It needs a recap as the image takes forever to get the correct geometry on startup and after an hour the image turns green.

Plus it has the 3 RGB lines on the top part of the screen. All minor annoyances, but one day I'll have to service this thing for good and then it'll probably work for another 20 years without issues.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

donluca wrote:Eh, sounds like my Sony BVM 14M4DE. It needs a recap as the image takes forever to get the correct geometry on startup and after an hour the image turns green.

Plus it has the 3 RGB lines on the top part of the screen. All minor annoyances, but one day I'll have to service this thing for good and then it'll probably work for another 20 years without issues.
Yup - that's the issue. I say "one day" about a lot of things but the reality is that I have limited time and I rarely want to spend it soldering or sticking my head inside a crt monitor.
User avatar
donluca
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:51 pm
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by donluca »

Ditto.

I absolutely hate working with CRT monitors. I recapped the huge 29" Nanao monitor in my Astro City because I wanted it to last another good 20 years but it was a nightmare. Never again.

Now the idea of doing even my small 14" BVM nauseates me.
nmalinoski
Posts: 1974
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:52 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by nmalinoski »

Betson still hasn't gotten back to me. Does anyone here have experience buying from them? Do they normally dodge emails?
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

nmalinoski wrote:Betson still hasn't gotten back to me. Does anyone here have experience buying from them? Do they normally dodge emails?
I have only ever ordered small stuff from their website. They are one of the largest and most respected sellers in this space though.

If you have questions and they are not responsive to email, maybe just call them. Some companies are just bad at keeping up with email traffic.
Brad251
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:06 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Brad251 »

donluca wrote:I absolutely hate working with CRT monitors. I recapped the huge 29" Nanao monitor in my Astro City because I wanted it to last another good 20 years but it was a nightmare. Never again.
Why was it a nightmare? I ask because I plan on recapping my CRT. I do have to learn how to solder but I plan on getting a nice soldering station and a desoldering pump. I might even get a desoldering gun to make it easier but I will have to see.
User avatar
donluca
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:51 pm
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by donluca »

We're dealing with 100+ caps to replace to do a proper job, and the solder in there is very old and hard to remove and, on top of it all, you have to be careful not to lift traces in the process.
This, x100 times.

Plus, you're dealing with very high voltage which can (and will) potentially kill you on the spot, so you have to be super careful in discharging properly the tube *AND* the caps around the EAT transformer (people often forget about this one).

It's a very, very stressful job, extremely tedious and dangerous, especially if you're dealing with big monitors.

EDIT: found the spreadsheet I did years ago for my BVM 14M4DE. Almost 140 caps. Ugh.

Image
Taiyaki
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:31 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Taiyaki »

Is there any point in changing them all (just peace of mind maybe)? Just checking the readings on them and just replace the failing ones would be sufficient I think. Maybe it's just me but out of all the crt's I've gathered in my life I've only ever had one with a capacitor failing and it was a bvm. The other time I had a problem it was a chip sadly.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

Given that CRTs are not made any more, with enough time, we'll all experience issues with them eventually. Buying new is one way to prolong my grace period. I know that problems are in the mail though. They'll arrive one day without warning and screw up my day.

My understanding of caps is that they are similar to batteries in that they can eventually fail due to age, even without regular use. We've all seen what happens when you leave batteries in old electronics. They leak and break them...

The good news is that if you prevent burn-in, most other parts of a crt monitor can still be fixed or replaced. You just have to protect your tubes.
Brad251
Posts: 270
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:06 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Brad251 »

Taiyaki wrote:Is there any point in changing them all (just peace of mind maybe)? Just checking the readings on them and just replace the failing ones would be sufficient I think. Maybe it's just me but out of all the crt's I've gathered in my life I've only ever had one with a capacitor failing and it was a bvm. The other time I had a problem it was a chip sadly.
You don't necessarily have to change them all but it doesn't hurt since the average life of a capacitor is 20-30 years and sometimes shorter than that. Also keep in mind that there are different ways to test capacitors. Many people use a digital multimeter but those only tell you if the cap is dead. Proper testing of capacitors involves more than just using the digital multimeter. Digital multimeters don't do a good job of telling you if the cap is close to failure. Sometimes you can test a cap in circuit and it gives a normal reading and then if you take it out of circuit and test it, you find out it's not dead but gives a reading where it's close to failure. Replacing all the capacitors on an old set could save you a bunch of headaches and time down the road because with every cap that fails, a new problem will arise and you may have to do a bunch of testing to figure out what's going on.
Last edited by Brad251 on Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
donluca
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:51 pm
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by donluca »

Taiyaki wrote:Is there any point in changing them all (just peace of mind maybe)? Just checking the readings on them and just replace the failing ones would be sufficient I think. Maybe it's just me but out of all the crt's I've gathered in my life I've only ever had one with a capacitor failing and it was a bvm. The other time I had a problem it was a chip sadly.
Don't know about you, but I don't like opening, discharging and constantly checking everything.

If I open something, it's because I don't want to get my hands into it for the foreseeable future.

So when I'm at it I'll do any and all kind of maintenance possible so that it will work without issues for the longest time possible.
Taiyaki
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:31 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Taiyaki »

Brad251 wrote:
Taiyaki wrote:Is there any point in changing them all (just peace of mind maybe)? Just checking the readings on them and just replace the failing ones would be sufficient I think. Maybe it's just me but out of all the crt's I've gathered in my life I've only ever had one with a capacitor failing and it was a bvm. The other time I had a problem it was a chip sadly.
You don't necessarily have to change them all but it doesn't hurt since the average life of a capacitor is 20-30 years and sometimes shorter than that. Also keep in mind that there are different ways to test capacitors. Many people use a digital multimeter but those only tell you if the cap is dead. Proper testing of capacitors is more involved than just using the digital multimeter. They don't do a good job of telling you if the cap is close to failure. Sometimes you can test a cap in circuit and it gives a normal reading and then if you take it out of circuit and test it, you find out it's not dead but gives a reading where it's close to failure. Replacing all the capacitors on an old set could save you a bunch of headaches and time down the road because with every cap that fails, a new problem will arise and you may have to do a bunch of testing to figure out what's going on.
Not too sure what a digital multimeter is like but the ones I use always give me a power rating. If a cap is anywhere close to failure then yes it should pre emptively be replaced. With Sony sets the only instance of a bad capacitor I had was on a 20k+ hours BVM (which is surprisingly low normally) and it was on the power board (forgot the board name as it was years ago). My guess is probably it was stashed into one of those units tv networks stack them into and it just got too hot. I don't think those life span estimates are to be taken too literally. If a device is on a lot and in hot environments it could die in even just a few years (I've had this happen on an amplifier).

I agree with what classicgamer said about buying new. With crt's it's increasingly difficult unfortunately, but if you're really patient and don't mind going out for a long drive it might be worth checking nearby states too and with enough time you might still find a new in box unit somewhere.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

I don't do long drives to pick up monitors (or anything else). Happ shipped a new 100lb 27" Makvision crt from Chicago to NY for around $80.

The guy that bought my XM29 drove over 19 hours to pick it up. I considered that to be a form of madness. If they don't ship, I don't buy.Every CRT I own except my Sony Trinitron Tv has been shipped to me.

Anyway, as far as I know, the only places in America that still have new CRT gaming monitors are Happ and Betson. There are a few ebay sellers who have bought up the last of the new old stock but they are mostly over-priced to the point of not being worth it.
Taiyaki
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:31 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Taiyaki »

Classicgamer wrote:I don't do long drives to pick up monitors (or anything else). Happ shipped a new 100lb 27" Makvision crt from Chicago to NY for around $80.

The guy that bought my XM29 drove over 19 hours to pick it up. I considered that to be a form of madness. If they don't ship, I don't buy.Every CRT I own except my Sony Trinitron Tv has been shipped to me.

Anyway, as far as I know, the only places in America that still have new CRT gaming monitors are Happ and Betson. There are a few ebay sellers who have bought up the last of the new old stock but they are mostly over-priced to the point of not being worth it.
Yes some people do very long drives for these. Personally the furthest I ever went was around 40 min away. Back when I used to pick up crt's they were more plentiful (up till around 2015).
User avatar
cr4zymanz0r
Posts: 356
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 6:36 am

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by cr4zymanz0r »

I originally got one of the monitors back when it was on sale around Thanksgiving, tested it for an hour or so, then it sat in a corner until recently. I Finally got around to getting some help with wood working and such to get a case made for mine: https://imgur.com/a/E35dtOR

I wired up a mounted power jack to the back so I can have a power switch and just plug in any standard 3 prong PC power cord. I was going to mount a VGA port on the back as well but i couldn't really find much that seemed like it'd work well for mounting to wood that wasn't some giant wall plate, so I ended up just cutting a rectangular hole just big enough to put the hardwired VGA cable through

Just waiting for a VGA to BNC cable to come in so I can cleanly integrate it into my setup. It's essentially replacing my 27" consumer Trinitron.
Taiyaki
Posts: 1050
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:31 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Taiyaki »

cr4zymanz0r wrote:I originally got one of the monitors back when it was on sale around Thanksgiving, tested it for an hour or so, then it sat in a corner until recently. I Finally got around to getting some help with wood working and such to get a case made for mine: https://imgur.com/a/E35dtOR

I wired up a mounted power jack to the back so I can have a power switch and just plug in any standard 3 prong PC power cord. I was going to mount a VGA port on the back as well but i couldn't really find much that seemed like it'd work well for mounting to wood that wasn't some giant wall plate, so I ended up just cutting a rectangular hole just big enough to put the hardwired VGA cable through

Just waiting for a VGA to BNC cable to come in so I can cleanly integrate it into my setup. It's essentially replacing my 27" consumer Trinitron.
That looks really nice, how's the airflow in that case though? Based on the pictures looks like it's a bit light on holes, no problems of it getting a little bit too hot in there?
User avatar
cr4zymanz0r
Posts: 356
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 6:36 am

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by cr4zymanz0r »

there's big holes for your hands cut in the sides for lifting it that also double as big open vents. I also drilled some vent holes up high in the back panel.
SuperSpongo
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 2:49 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by SuperSpongo »

This looks really cool! Can you post a couple of pictures of your connectors (presumably in the back?) ?
User avatar
cr4zymanz0r
Posts: 356
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 6:36 am

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by cr4zymanz0r »

SuperSpongo wrote:This looks really cool! Can you post a couple of pictures of your connectors (presumably in the back?) ?
The first picture in the album I linked shows it, but it's not close up.
The power connector/switch is one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FREPYRM/
The other part is just a small rectangular hole for the existing hardwired VGA cord of the monitor to come out.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

cr4zymanz0r wrote:I originally got one of the monitors back when it was on sale around Thanksgiving, tested it for an hour or so, then it sat in a corner until recently. I Finally got around to getting some help with wood working and such to get a case made for mine: https://imgur.com/a/E35dtOR

I wired up a mounted power jack to the back so I can have a power switch and just plug in any standard 3 prong PC power cord. I was going to mount a VGA port on the back as well but i couldn't really find much that seemed like it'd work well for mounting to wood that wasn't some giant wall plate, so I ended up just cutting a rectangular hole just big enough to put the hardwired VGA cable through

Just waiting for a VGA to BNC cable to come in so I can cleanly integrate it into my setup. It's essentially replacing my 27" consumer Trinitron.

Nice work on the case. I have been trying to persuade my parents in the UK to ship a monitor back from a net city cab to me but no luck so far.

Once you put a bezel on that, it will look almost OEM. I need to take a leaf out of your book and actually make my case.
No Onions
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 6:01 pm
Location: MN, USA

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by No Onions »

cr4zymanz0r wrote:I originally got one of the monitors back when it was on sale around Thanksgiving, tested it for an hour or so, then it sat in a corner until recently. I Finally got around to getting some help with wood working and such to get a case made for mine: https://imgur.com/a/E35dtOR

I wired up a mounted power jack to the back so I can have a power switch and just plug in any standard 3 prong PC power cord. I was going to mount a VGA port on the back as well but i couldn't really find much that seemed like it'd work well for mounting to wood that wasn't some giant wall plate, so I ended up just cutting a rectangular hole just big enough to put the hardwired VGA cable through

Just waiting for a VGA to BNC cable to come in so I can cleanly integrate it into my setup. It's essentially replacing my 27" consumer Trinitron.
Nice job, I need to do that for mine. Its been too cold to do any work in the garage though. I like the flip up panel for the adjustment controls.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

For some reason it makes me happy to see other members playing on these tri-sync arcade monitors.

It's nice to see fellow enthusiasts who appreciate the value of being able to play every old game the way it was meant to be played.
User avatar
Pasky
Posts: 694
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:58 am

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Pasky »

Mine just got delivered this afternoon, the mounts don't fit a blast city cabinet at all, gonna have to modify the bracket. If anyone has put one of these in a Blast before, would appreciate any advice, google doesn't really find anything other than people asking like myself.
Classicgamer
Posts: 873
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:37 pm

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by Classicgamer »

Which part doesn't fit?

The frame and mounts can all unscrew from the monitor. I was looking at mine yesterday to see how easy it would be to switch it to a vertical frame mount.

If it is just the frame that doesn't fit, it might be worth seeing if it is possible to mod your old mount to use with this monitor. The frame / mount that comes with these Happ monitors is not that great so I would have no issue ditching it if I had a better option.
DRC
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:43 am

Re: Happ down to last two new CRT monitors (maybe ever)

Post by DRC »

Pasky wrote:Mine just got delivered this afternoon, the mounts don't fit a blast city cabinet at all, gonna have to modify the bracket. If anyone has put one of these in a Blast before, would appreciate any advice, google doesn't really find anything other than people asking like myself.
Swap the monitor into the old monitor's frame.
Post Reply