John 2002-04-18 05:57
Hello everyone,
Great site this one. Yet I am not the lucky owner of a multiple monitor set-up (not counting my laptop next to the CRT ;-)) but I am planning to build one very soon. So here goes my current plans:
I have 3 Compaq S710 monitors laying around which are not very good but as regular 17" CRT's will do fine. I scanned through a lot of the set-ups on the site and it seems everyone has their monitors just standing next to each other and just take the fat plastic edges and quite a gap between them for granted. Now I was thinking how close can we get those CRT's next to each other?
I took off the cover of one of my CRT's and hey, surprise, surprise, the fat plastic edge around it is totally empty! So what if I disassembled all three of them and put them really close next to eachother? Just a tiny rubber strip for protection and insulation inbetween and they will stand next to eachother almost seamlessly, I think.
What do you lot think of this?
Anyone any experience with pairing up a couple of CRT this close? Any interference problems or something?
Cheers,
John
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Nite 2002-04-18 19:22
you're gonna experience some _weird_ colors and shapes if you do that :D CRTs tend to get tacky about each other even without any disassembling, let alonet with that. My 15" digital doesn't want to be anywhere nearer tha 10cm from my 20" Hitachi.. both of them are very old, but...
Well, If you want to have an experience, try it :)
\Nite - "can't rain all the time"
Multi-Monitor Gaming Web
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John 2002-04-19 09:25
Thanks for the advice Nite. Any permanent damage to be expected or just interference?
Because you mention you run old CRT's, does that mean that current CRT's are better protected and shielded perhaps? When looking at the photographs of the various set-ups here at the site, some CRT's are standing really close side by side without any obvious trouble. Anyone else any experience if you close the gap from screen to screen to a centimeter or so? Any shielding measurements known?
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Nite 2002-04-19 19:44
Yep, new CRTs are much better. My wife's 15" CRT while newer than mine (about 5 years old) doesn't appear to present any colorization or other funny effects, while standing edge to edge to my 15" (which is about 7 years old). A simple metal plate between the monitors usually does the trick, if any interference is shown.
\Nite - "can't rain all the time"
Multi-Monitor Gaming Web
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John 2002-05-03 00:58
Bummer. Even with their casing on, sitting two of these CRT's next to eachother results in interference. A line rolling up on one, and down on the other.
Any proven solutions out there?
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Nite 2002-05-03 03:39
Try changing the refresh rate. having the both relatively close, like 72Hz and 75Hz is a sure way to get the lines, but if you can, try something like 72Hz and 100Hz?
\Nite - "can't rain all the time"
Multi-Monitor Gaming Web
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John 2002-05-05 05:45
OK. I'll try that tomorrow. I got the Matrox G450 PCI card now and I've noticed it can run the CRT's at different frequencies so I hope it works.
If that doesn't work, does anyone now anything about shielding the CRT's? I have noticed they are equipped with a sheet metal box around them. Should that be grounded or something?
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John 2002-07-09 03:13
Hmmz, works perfect although, they are interfering quite badly. Perhaps another make in the middle would work better? I'll try that shortly.
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Tony 2002-07-09 09:38
you could disasemble the cases, and try to shield the tubes from each other with an alloy called NU Metal(I think). If I remember correctly, someone posted about that in the forums a while back, not sure if that was here though.
Tony.
Heli - Boarder
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Mesh 2002-08-14 03:06
Just a little comparison, 1989 13" Syncmaster3 monitor has about 20-30cm 'radiation' range, it affects any other monitors too close
My 2 ttx monitors however can be right next to each other without any problems, older is about 3 years old and the other less then a year,
Shows that monitors have improved quite a bit in quality over time.
Mesh
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Matt 2002-08-20 04:14
I was discussing doing something like this with someone before and they warned me to be very careful when playing around inside the monitor case. He said if you don't know what you're doing there's a good chance of electrocuting yourself, even when the monitor is unplugged.
Just thought I'd pass that along.
Matt
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Stu 2002-08-21 22:56
How do you electrocute yourself by touching something not connected to a power source. Unless it's got a BIG ASS capacitor in there...
Anyway, the interference you'll get by putting CRTs next to each other is electromagnetic. Exactly the same as if you put an unshielded speaker on your monitor. The only real option if you want to stack 3 monitors side by side is to get a mu-metal insulating shield - but it's very expensive.
The only other option is to get LCD screens, which don't create the interference (hence those massive multi-lcd screen displays you can get) - but I guess the whole point was to use your existing displays.
So, in short, it can't be done without a lot of time and expense. Sorry.
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Malibujack 2002-10-25 04:51
Even with a CRT Unplugged, there is residual voltage in the Tube, it basically is one big capacitor. Just so you know, its the "Yoke" of the CRT that causes the interference, the yoke is what controls the direction that the electrons in the "gun" are fired against the face of the tube. The front edges can be fairly close, but the coils at the rear must be cept pretty far apart, or insulated, Interestingly enough, a thick metal plate (INSULATE EVERYTHING!) is enough to keep the radiation from affecting anything. I used to have two monitors which caused interference, I placed a metal sheet between them and the problem went away. (the cases of the monitors were still on them!!) If your interested in creating multimonitor displays, play with LCD Screens, they are less prone to interference and are fairly safe to work with, just be careful of the transformer used for the backlight (Cold Cathode Tube, Flourescent light)
Just a little word to the wise.. Discharging a CRT Tube is DANGEROUS and it hurts if you get zapped, not to mention it could stop your heart.
Jack
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Rob 2002-11-20 13:21
John:
You can put a thin shield between monitors to stop interference. The shield material is about as thick as sheet metal. You should be able to seach for and find it on the web
rob
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