Case designs (was: New Definiton REQUIRED)

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_odin.phy.bris.ac.uk>
Date: Wed Nov 19 10:11:20 1997

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Allison J Parent wrote:

>
> <They're still going. Their modern stuff is not _as good_, but it's still
> <very well built. Oh, and the electronic design is up to the same high
> <standards.
>
> there is some truth and a fair amount of fiction. Some of the older
> stuff was overbuilt and it cost. The Barco had everything out front
> for a reason, when was the last time you have to converge a new monitor?

The last time I successfully converged a new monitor is never (What? Rock
the yoke and wedge it in place with wedges with the power on??? Not me!).
The last time I saw a modern SVGA monitor on a PC that had such bad
converegence that it gave me eye strain was 2 days ago. Had that been my
Barco I'd have pulled out the drawer and had it working again in a couple
of minutes. Yes, it's overengineered, but I don't see a problem in that.

This particular Barco is ex-TV studio (actually, AFAIK it's off the BBC's
weather satellite display system). It came to me in very poor condition -
kludged to hell, but it just about worked. Fixing it as per the manual got
it back to rights - and for all it's 15 years old there are few modern
monitors that I would swap it for.

> Some of the older stuff that was a fairly common adjustment. Alos how

Sure, on a delta-gun CRT (which this is) you have to converge it in the
position that it has to be used.

> much of the stuff made before say 1983/4 would pass FCC/DOC/TUV RF
> radiation requiments.

I think this monitor would. But I'd not want to have to get an RK11-C or a
DX11 through any EMC tests - an uncased flip-chip backplane will (I
suspect) radiate like mad.

> In addition you pay for weight, in shipping, cost of materials and
> sometimes time to produce.

Hmmm... I am prepared to pay that price for better build quality. Weight
(of a fixed machine) is no problem at all. As as regards the cost, I for
one would gladly spend a few hundred dollars/pounds more to get quality. I
am fed up with designs that have saved <$1 of parts (so say $10 by the
time you've included the extra production costs) that don't work properly.
I generally have to redesign it in the end anyway.


> Allison

-tony
Received on Wed Nov 19 1997 - 10:11:20 GMT