Wally Dug's Hard Cases6: Multi-sync Monitor

Is your television picture not worth tuppence? Wally Dug shows you how to build your own monitor for tuppence!

When the Amiga was first released, everybody was amazed at the quality of the graphics now available to the home user. Some people stuck with their trusty old television set that had done them from their humble ZX81 days through past the superficially stupendous Commodore 64 and then onto the astonishingly amazing Amiga. Others decided to opt for the Commodore 1702 colour monitor - take an A1000 and an A1702 and boy did you have something!

In those pioneering days, this was the ideal combination for the computer hobbyist - it could certainly beat that old television in terms of elegance and quality - as one supported the other perfectly.

If we come a few years further up the road, we see that things they are a-changing in the Amiga community. Along with the various new screen display resolutions offered in Workbench 2.0 and Workbench 3.0 (and also Workbench 4.0, but I'm not allowed to tell you about that), many people are now using the killer applications such as desktop publishers, video goodie-boxes and, of course, the high-end 24-bit colour graphics packages.

The 1702 (and similar) monitors could still be used in these cases, but the quality is pretty dreadful. To give you a comparison, cast your mind back to when you first got your own monitor. Everything was so much clearer, brighter and sharper than it was with the old telly. In fact, I'll bet that you saw things that you didn't even know existed in games. Well, the monitors that were so good for you in the past are now just like those old television sets that you gave up long ago - absolutely abysmal.

But, do not despair - there is a solution.

A multi-sync monitor is a monitor which can accept a variety of video frequencies from a computer and subsequently display higher resolutions than ordinary monitors and they are perfect for the new Amiga screen displays that the high-powered computing of today demands.

However, now is the time to despair - these multi-sync monitors cost an arm and a leg (at least, a Dutch Amiga artist cut off his arm and leg to sell so that he could afford such a monitor - Van Rokerogh I think he was called) and so are out of reach to the average Amigan.

But (cue fanfare and an image of a knight in shining armour approaching with great speed in his new Volvo springs instantly to mind), Wally Dug yet again can exclusively offer JAM readers the chance to own (and build) an expensive piece of hardware that they wouldn't normally have the chance to own (or build). So by following the following, you too can own (and build) your very own multi-sync monitor.

The usual words of warning apply - unless you are very careful with the connections, you will never be able to own (or build) this monitor and you will be in a permanent horizontal hold.

 

Required:

Television set with video in connector
Commodore A520 television modulator
2 Hi-fi connecting cables (Tandy ref. HI-FI CONNECTING CABLE)
Some Plasticine
Glass bottle of Irn Bru
Wooden box
Matt black paint
Photon gun (Tandy ref. PHOTON GUN)
Photon capture () (Tandy ref. PHOTON CAPTURE ())

 

Method:

  1. Drink the Irn Bru, wash the bottle thoroughly and let it dry completely.
  2. Construct the wooden box with length 35 centimetres, height 10 centimetres and width 10 centimetres (see Figure 1).
  3. Drill a tiny hole (big enough for the hi-fi connecting cable) in the centre of each end of the wooden box (see Figure 2).
  4. Paint the inside of the box completely (it may need more than one coat).
  5. What do you mean "I haven't got a paint brush"? Surely when you saw that you needed paint, it would have dawned on you that you would have needed a paint brush, too?
  6. Push the hi-fi connecting cables through the holes in the box.
  7. If your hands are all black, it serves you right for not waiting until the paint was dry (see Figure 3).
  8. Plug one of the hi-fi connecting cables into the photon gun.
  9. Very carefully, put the barrel of the photon gun down into the neck of the bottle and seal the seal completely with the Plasticine (see Figure 4).
  10. Fix the photon capture () to the other end of the bottle, again using the Plasticine.
  11. Plug the other hi-fi connecting cable into the photon capture () (see Figure 4 one more time).
  12. Very carefully, place the box over the bottle, pulling the hi-fi connecting cables gently to keep everything tidy (see Figure 5).
  13. Plug the A520 modulator into your Amiga's video port and plug the photon gun end of the hi-fi connecting cable into the video out socket along the side of the modulator.
  14. Plug the remaining hi-fi connecting cable into the video in of the television.
  15. Switch on the computer.
  16. Get in sync and enjoy (see Figure 6)!

 

Notes:

  • It may become necessary to adjust the V-Hold of the television to regulate the incoming video signal.
  • Always make sure that the bottle inside the wooden box is kept in complete darkness.
  • Always use an Irn Bru bottle as the other makes of glass bottle do not have the appropriate photon fusion detractor displacement mechanism (i.e. those twisty ridges on the neck of the bottle).

 

That's all for the now. Next month, I'll not be showing you anything at all as by now you should have an Amiga system that beats every other Amiga system in the entire universe (except, of course, mine).

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