24" Widescreen CRT (FW900) From Ebay arrived,Comments.

Vito described a method to estimate remaining tube life, based on how much you would need to bump up a slider to achieve a target luminance during one of the winDAS WPB steps.

I'm not sure how reliable this method is, and whether/how it interacts with how low you set the G2 voltage.

Details here (in your post!)
 
yes i remember the c_max_b_max thing

are there some ways to maximize tube life? for instance i suppose viewing darker content leads to less wear than brighter content. i remember Vito recommending to turn off monitors rather than using sleep mode, but i was never very convinced about how much this affects thing

(i am not convinced that we'll have high Hz oled/emissive displays at reasonable prices anytime soon)
 
spacediver said:
Vito described a method to estimate remaining tube life, based on how much you would need to bump up a slider to achieve a target luminance during one of the winDAS WPB steps.

I'm not sure how reliable this method is, and whether/how it interacts with how low you set the G2 voltage.

Details here (in your post!)
Click to expand...

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. If you're pushing the slider to near max just to get emissions enough to hit target then maybe you should worry? Otherwise, just hit the target and keep on truckin. I believe the range was this:

If you only need to reach within the first 1/3 of the slider to hit target then you've pretty much got an unused/well-taken-care-of tube
First 1/3 - 2/3 is where most monitors fall. Used tube, plenty of life left - don't sweat it.
After the 2/3 area is when you should start being concerned.

Honestly, if your monitor hits target, retains a decent black level, has good enough focus for text legibility in Prime mode then I'd say you're good (even if you have to go a little past 2/3). It's not like those cathodes are on their way to being used up in the next week or so.

For reference, my old FW-900 only needed to slide up to 58 (out of 255?) to hit luminance target for 6500K. That was with the G2 set for black in a black room and no anti-glare coating. :)
 
flod said:
i remember Vito recommending to turn off monitors rather than using sleep mode, but i was never very convinced about how much this affects thing
Click to expand...

He also claimed he had several units that he kept running 24/7. And claimed to have a 24 inch prototype of the GDM-C520 Artisan (and never shared a photo when requested to), so I take some of his stuff with a grain of salt :p
 
Got my Delock 87685 in the mail today, only using it on my 1600x1200 75hz 21" Trinitron but it's working perfectly so far. Wish I had a more high end monitor to test it out on.
 
hmm so image restoration decreased my black level (0.064 to 0.048) a little bit


anyway now i'll do a wpb. good thing i saved all my old files and a copy of windas in google drive :D
 
halp...
i got windas mostly working but during wpb, the sliders after the step to adjust G2 do nothing...

edit:
k did an MPU
now the sliders work.... wtf....
 
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flod said:
how do you know the hours of usage? just estimates or is there somewhere to check?
Click to expand...
Dell P1130: Select an unused input and long press "-" button
GDM-F520: Select an unused input and long press the "joystick" button.

See the attached pics. Last row represents the usage hours.
 

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ohhhh now thats interesting.

i cant figure out the equivalent on fw900.

holding the joystick-> completely white screen
left -> big white square
right -> model, serial number, manufacture date but no hours count

and... i held down reset which wiped the manufactured date (which was 2003-43)
 
did an MPU and rushed through the WPB process. this monitor's 9300K C_MAX_B_MAX is 105 (note: this is with the antiglare film). average i guess

i then loaded the original dat file that i saved before doing any adjustments and tried wpb again. again, nothing after the g2 slider works!!!

my guess right now is that the monitor's data/firmware is stored in a way that's incompatible with my version of windas. (but if i do an MPU and wipe the data, it does become compatible)
given that this monitor is from late 2003, i suppose this means that my copy of windas is not the latest version



question: what is the Aging mode (maintenence -> Aging ON). maybe this toggles tracking the hours?
edit: nvm, probably it's similar to this https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/uk.tech.misc/OssA_AnfNKg
 
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flod said:
ohhhh now thats interesting.

i cant figure out the equivalent on fw900.

holding the joystick-> completely white screen
left -> big white square
right -> model, serial number, manufacture date but no hours count

and... i held down reset which wiped the manufactured date (which was 2003-43)
Click to expand...
There's no equivalent on the FW900, the function is just not there (just as on the 21" of the same generation). The hour count is registered only on the G520/F520 screens or clones.
 
Yea, I think best not to mess with aging mode (although perhaps it could be used to fix a dirty cathode?
 
flod said:
i then loaded the original dat file that i saved before doing any adjustments and tried wpb again. again, nothing after the g2 slider works!!!

my guess right now is that the monitor's data/firmware is stored in a way that's incompatible with my version of windas. (but if i do an MPU and wipe the data, it does become compatible)
given that this monitor is from late 2003, i suppose this means that my copy of windas is not the latest version
Click to expand...

Or it might just be a general flaw with the firmware system in the FW900.

I seem to remember wonkiness (either myself, or reported) when trying to load in a dat file. Didn't seem to save the settings.
 
marvin5881 said:
I'm using the Sun Microsystems GDM-5010 PT, specs online say 1600x1200 75hz is as far as it goes, maybe I just haven't pushed it enough.
Click to expand...

I just looked at the specs, it must be an older monitor because it tops out at only 96kHz. For comparison, my 21" LaCie can hit 140kHz, which means 1600x1200@110hz.
 
well guess i need to either go with
not doing a WPB but keeping most of the stock parameters
or
MPUing and having to go through all the geometry adjustments

was the geometry guide ever posted?
 
cool, thanks

i don't have a ruler with me.
does anyone know the dimensions of the viewable portion of the fw900?

my plan is to draw some pictures with carefully placed lines to eyeball the amount of unlit display at the borders
for example, if the viewable width is 500mm and I want to achieve 474mm displayed width, there should be (500-474)/2 = 13mm borders on the sides. so i would go to gimp and make a 1920x1200 image with something that is (13/474)*1920 pixels wide. then adjust the screen until the unlit part is the same size
 
If I'm understanding you correctly, you'd want the border in your custom image to be a color that is distinguishable from black (e.g. red), right? That way you can adjust the screen until the red border of the image looks the same width as the black border of the screen.
 
The FW900 manual reports a viewable width of "approximately" 482.1 mm, which matches a measurement I just took of my own screen.
 
flod said:
well guess i need to either go with
not doing a WPB but keeping most of the stock parameters
or
MPUing and having to go through all the geometry adjustments

was the geometry guide ever posted?
Click to expand...
You can try MPU and just reload original parameters if something goes wrong.

But be warned that geometry setting is a real pain in the ass, and some adjustments have to be done on exotic resolutions (I did calculate and write down the correct resolution settings for CRU if you need them). I personaly made soft cardboard rulers with the exact width/height dimensions to ease the process, but some mesurements have to be done with a measuring tape displaying a crosshair, no other way. Plus there is the parallax issue.
MPU doesn't only mean geometry, you'll also have to go through the entire procedure list + dynamic convergence.
 
thanks for the advice

i ordered a 60cm ruler from amazon as i figured there's no way i'd be able to hack together enough things to do geometry accurately

by the way for convergence, i think it might be better to use rgb colors like 100,0,255 because blue is harder to see than red with 255,0,255. has anyone tried this before?
 
Interesting idea. I'm gonna be rotating in a different fw900 soon, the one i'm on has bad focus on edges. When I do that, I'll experiment with the dynamic convergence with your suggestion.
 
why exactly do old crts have worse focus?
my understanding is that with use, the cathode gets crap on it and becomes less emissive.

so somehow the voltages are adjusted to compensate, and this leads to a broader spot between g1 and g2 that cannot be focused onto the screen well?
 
Well, actually I do not think spacediver's issue is really bad focus, rather bad convergence making the display less accurate. I've quite a bunch of trinitrons and I've yet to see any with focus problems in any area of the display, dynamic focus is absolutely excellent on these. On contrary focus seems to often get bad in the corners on Mitsubishi / Iiyama screens when they age.
 
Yea, might be related to convergence, will have to test more carefully. I did improve things with the focus knobs but boy are they tetchy.

This particular unit has been flashing red upon turning on for years now. I have kept things in check by making sure I turn the monitor off before the flashes get bad, and then turning it back on. After 2 - 3 off and on's, things are fine.

The focus pop issue also sometimes rears its head - again, been doing it for years, but only rarely. Nowadays, when it loses focus, I can fix it by turning unit off and on, without having to wait for it to pop.

Not sure if this is related, but when AC in room below me starts drawing extra power, my room lights go dim and the CRT screen becomes a bit jiggly. (I *think* it's AC, might be a powertool that the guy is using for a project, will have to check next time I see him). I wonder if this has caused damage.
 
flod said:
why exactly do old crts have worse focus?
my understanding is that with use, the cathode gets crap on it and becomes less emissive.

so somehow the voltages are adjusted to compensate, and this leads to a broader spot between g1 and g2 that cannot be focused onto the screen well?
Click to expand...

That sounds plausible. Wish I could find my copy of this book, seem to have misplaced it. I think it may have offered some insight.
 
Hey there guys,

I'm trying to set an interlaced resolution within the monitors range but it's not working. I have followed guides perfectly and still I get an error message that my monitor does not support the resolution.

I have set the resolution (1600x1200i, 140Hz) in CRU and tried to set the same resolution custom resolution in Nvidia Control Panel but I get an error saying that the custom res is not supported and that's about as far as I can go. Has anyone found a work around for Nvidia GPUs? (I know interlaced works better on AMD GPUs but I don't have one)

YouTube Video:
 
marvin5881 said:
Hey there guys,

I'm trying to set an interlaced resolution within the monitors range but it's not working. I have followed guides perfectly and still I get an error message that my monitor does not support the resolution.

I have set the resolution (1600x1200i, 140Hz) in CRU and tried to set the same resolution custom resolution in Nvidia Control Panel but I get an error saying that the custom res is not supported and that's about as far as I can go. Has anyone found a work around for Nvidia GPUs? (I know interlaced works better on AMD GPUs but I don't have one)
Click to expand...

Are you using a displayport adapter? I think only HDMI and VGA support interlaced
 
What monitor do you have? And did you use the exact same numbers as in the video?

nm, just re-read your post, you're using a diff resolution from the video's (so that's not your problem).
 
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I'm using a Delock 87685 display port adapter. I also tried my plugable VGA to USB-C and I had the same exact results.
 
marvin5881 said:
I'm using a Delock 87685 display port adapter. I also tried my plugable VGA to USB-C and I had the same exact results.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the problem is displayport, I think USB-C uses the displayport protocol too. You'll have to do it with an HDMI adapter like the HD Fury Nano GX, I know it could do 1600x1200 at 140hz interlaced.

And according to HD Fury they're still developing the HD Fury 5, which will at least be HDMI 2.0. I won't believe it until I see it though.
 
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So I finally got my PC booting with the
delock 62967 and its amazing. But there's a problem, I downloaded Black Ops 1 to test it out and I found myself unable to pick 144hz in the graphic options, the highest only being 85hz. Is this going to be a common occurrence from now on or is there a solution?
 
BanjoKazooie said:
So I finally got my PC booting with the
delock 62967 and its amazing. But there's a problem, I downloaded Black Ops 1 to test it out and I found myself unable to pick 144hz in the graphic options, the highest only being 85hz. Is this going to be a common occurrence from now on or is there a solution?
Click to expand...

What resolution are you trying to do? I think most games are typically going to be limited to letting you pick resolutions that your computer/graphics/driver is aware of. If you create custom resolutions (say 1792x1344 - I used that one a lot on my old Artisan) then the game should recognize it. You may need to reboot after creating it though.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
What resolution are you trying to do? I think most games are typically going to be limited to letting you pick resolutions that your computer/graphics/driver is aware of. If you create custom resolutions (say 1792x1344 - I used that one a lot on my old Artisan) then the game should recognize it. You may need to reboot after creating it though.
Click to expand...
Well I was just trying to play the game at 800x600 at 144hz, which worked before when I had the 980ti. But I guess the converter and the game dont believe the "lcd vga" could possibly rin at that hz?
 
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