I live in Wichita, KS, home to the manufacturing plants of both Spirit Aero (formerly Boeing) and Cessna Aircraft and a bunch of others. Spirit has a surplus store open Fridays. They sell all sorts of random junk, most notably computer stuff and used tools. I've seen a fair share of old monitors with this connection/cable used. ...and since they're all really old, they're really cheap. Like 5 bucks each, sometimes there's some big ones there, too. Now, when it says RGB, does that mean RGB? What use are these BNC-connector monitors to hooking up home-made arcades? I can't find too much info on them, and what little I know about the VGA connector makes me think there's no point to grabbing one of these. So?
It means RGB, but chances are the monitor will display 30-60 kHz video only and might not support composite sync.
So, AFAIK the black and white lines are V and H sync, correct? I've seen 4-BNC cables/monitors as well, is that what would be necessary for some plug-n-play action? EDIT: Alternatively, a 13W3 (<-link), which I have seen on some displays, supposedly has a pin for comositie sync. Again, with my ignorace of actual usage, I assume perhaps not all monitors would even use this pin? (Edit again, "Many monitors with 13W3 connectors do not support separate sync")
Yes - although I'm not sure which way around they go. I had a great 21" Sony Trinitron CRT monitor which used the same connectors. The back of the monitor listed them as: "Red", "Green", "Blue", "H-Sync" and "Y-Sync". I'd take pictures, but sadly the monitor died last year and has since been disposed of.
Yeah they're H and V sync. 4 BNCs would mean composite sync, but that doesn't mean the monitor will display 15 kHz video. A lot of monitors will allow you to use composite sync over the H sync line, even if it's not clearly documented. If they have that connector they probably will use it, but it doesn't really matter if it can't display 15 kHz, that's the real issue. Most 30 kHz games will also output separate H and V sync, so if you're looking to play one of those, you don't need an exotic connection, just plain VGA.
The majority of PC monitors like that were fixed 31kHz and wouldn't sync down to 15kHz. Also, they were often sync on green. In short, it isn't for arcade games. You're better off looking for a broadcast monitor such as the Sony PVM range. That, or an old Amiga monitor like the Commodore 1084. Incidentally, look out for a Yamaha CDE-100 for me ;-) It's an external caddy-loading SCSI CD rewriter. If they have old PC gear, you never know!!
Hold up, hold up...don't count them out yet. I'd at least see what models they are and look them up. Or take a picture of the monitor and show it to us. If they come with a BNC to 15 pin cable...I'd be willing to wager that they ARE 15kHZ capable RGB monitors. It wouldn't surprise me that a company like that would have some. Lots of professional quality video equipment that I've seen does RGB via BNC.
I did pick up a couple for a friend, since they were only 5 bucks. they ARE computer workstation monitors, not specialty-looking things. I'll text my friend and ask him what the model number is, since the surplus shop is only open Fridays.
Professional video equipment, yes (which is what I said - broadcast = professional, no? ;-)). PC equipment, not so much. Sure there were a few. Sure it's worth checking, but don't hold your breath. Just because it has BNC with RGB, don't assume it syncs down to 15kHz. If it does, great! :icon_bigg
GDM-17SE1 is the 17-inch model I picked up for my friend. It does take composite sync, but the internets tell me it only goes down to 31khz. Not surprising. I'll keep my eyes peeled for interesting things. I assume displays generally don't have the sync listed on the back, so when I'm out and about, I probably have to google the models on my phone, etc?
A shame, but like you said, not that surprising. 15kHz monitors always were somewhat rare. Well, those that have 15kHz may want to show that off on the product itself, but you're best off Googling. Does the surplus place not have any broadcast monitors?
A few years ago, they might have. A lot of the old "junk" (or junk-looking-stuff) is long-gone. There used to be gold, there, in that warehouse. Now, it's mostly just old Latitude laptops and 21" flatscreen monitors. I'll definitely be looking for that sort of stuff more intently, now, especially after seeing the price on some of those monitors.
I use one of those cables for my RGB monitor (Sony PVM). I wired my own 15pin 3 row DSub (VGA style) connector that the cable plugs into to feed RGB and CSync into the BNC connectors on the back of the monitor. The VGA connector I have one wired to a RGB SCART box so I can directly plug in Euro SCART RGB cables to my adapter box that runs to the monitor using this cable (plus RCA audio phono jacks) as well as another VGA connector on my Supergun box for RGB video out. Infact thanks to my RGB monitor I never did put the JROK RGB to NTSC encoder in my Supergun. Someday I might though.
You bought a JROK and never used it? Wow! Mind you, there's not much point if you have an RGB monitor! :nod:
