Samtron 6" monitor for bench test

PrairieDillo

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ok I finaly got all of the parts and thought out how to go about converting the 4 of these monitors I had bought since they were pretty cheap.

Link to timeline:
http://www.timeline-inc.com/blowout.html

resources followed.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/minimon/Samtron_5inch_CGA_to_Arcade.txt
http://arcade.oxidy.com/info.asp?key=CGA2RGB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/minimon/minimon.htm
our own thread
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=116831&highlight=samtron+monitor
cdjumps circut (this was a great resource)
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=26513&d=1266279290


Here's the results:

First I mounted up the monitor so that I could work on it. I built this small frame so that I could work on the chassis easily.

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Even though no one did a a formal guide, it wasn't TOO technical. I followed the bread crumbs and built all of the components onto a circuit.

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I went about it differently cause I mounted a 10 pin connector on the bottom of my board and used it so that this little board would sit on the 10 pin header as a plug in solution.
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Shown here w/ no chips but mounted. I did it this way that way I could produce nearly plug in kits. It's a bit of work however.

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I was out of blue wire in this size... had to go w/ yellow.
 
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continued....

Here it is all together with wiring connectors. 12v, 5v and ground also are left bare.

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Here are the results

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and a closeup of the tube.

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I did not hookup the contrast pot and still need to do that. (need to get the pot first) I wanted to see if I could light up the monitor first.

I have 4 to produce finished converted monitors and I may get into producing the kit for this one.
 
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I'm between jobs so yes I probably want to sell off 3 of them. I can bring them to CAX.
It took me a couple of hours to do this one and figure out the best way to build my plug in board.
The rest will go faster and be more clean since I can clone it now.
 
If you put together some kind of all in one bench tester (I'm assuming that's what this is), I'd probably be interested.
 
Wow this looks perfect.. will you sell your mod kit and I pickup the surplus monitor? which appear to be still avaliable.. Or do I have to pickjup the
whole thing from you?

Will your design handle older non jamma boards with composite or seperate
h and v sync?
 
first things first.

No way would I take credit. If you look at the resources I listed, you can see guys that have done it before. There are a few pages where guys built test bench monitors from this. One guy did a crazy build where his encased monitor will run ANYTHING you throw at it.

a couple guys here have listed the current sync splitter chip I used because it's a cheaper chip.

I probably will offer this in three flavors.

1) parts kit. I think i'm in the neighborhood of $15

2) drop in board. I have to build another to clone my first one and see if I can get my build times down. This will govern the final price but I think that it's around $45

3) finished monitors. It's a big hassle to deal with timeline and they don't always respond to emails. They didn't get back to me after i informed them that one of the monitors they sent me was broken. I am now working on repairing it. These monitors will have a header to take a 10 pin connector like one off your standard JAMMA game. It also will have leads for the +5V, +12V and ground. I'm probably looking at $80 for these puppies but I'm not sure on final prices.

This is wired for a normal standard rez monitor. I don't know enough to set it up as a Nintendo type monitor.

Also if I was going to build these out as test stations like my LCD one, it'll probably be in the neighborhood of $250. It's probably not worth my time. I think that others should do like what I did and build one out of spare parts that are hacked out of an arcade cab.
 
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I have tried to buy some of those monitors, but get no response when I send an email to the link on the website. How long ago did you get the monitors?
 
I'd be interested in a couple parts kits. As far as I know, timeline sold out of these awhile ago. Why they haven't pulled them from the site, I dunno.
 
PM me to get on the list for kits. I have a FS thread also on these.

I'm trying to get ahold of timeline one last time to make sure that they are out.

I also got a lead on someone's set of monitors that they never converted or used. Hopefully I can get them.
 
i bought 4 more extras about a month or so ago from timeline. I called them, and left them a number to call me back. They did, about 3 or 4 days later. The monitors arrived about a week after that.
 
I bought a couple of these monitors a LONG time ago. I called Timeline, they eventually called me back and I bought a couple - they arrived pretty quickly afterwards.

-Ian
 
Thanks for the update cdjump... it's your diagram that got me this far.

I've updated my drop in board design with the contrast pot now.
It's pretty sweet.
 
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I've had one of these for years and never got around to building the interface. Are you planning to sell the kits for sure? I want one if priced decent!
 
I'd love to get a smaller workbench monitor! Really was planning to spend like $80 on this chassis to turn my 13" old TV tube into my CGA workbench monitor...but this sounds cheaper! Plus I'd rather not take a whole lot of my available space on my actual workbench table.

Are any of those monitors still available? besides the parts kits
 
Updated diagram on the kit

I took the time to redraw the cdjump's diagram into something useful for the less technically inclined like myself.

See it here in the Prairied1ll0's FS Thread.

Hope it helps others.
 
Update

I finally got around to testing this out and it works out OK.
 

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Quick Test rig

I threw the parts on a piece of driftwood and used some tape to hold her down. Kidding

I fixed the bits and pieces to a piece of wood so I could test and refine more. I have a vision of what the test rig should look like and be able to do. It wont be huge, but its not tiny either. Can be used to test boards, monitors and cabinets with the right pieces installed and a few cables.

Let me know if someone sees something wrong with the setup. I will be making a few of these just to practice and experiment with the process. The end result will be much prettier though.
 

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