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rpiguy9907

Posted Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:54 am

So Sunday I impulse bought a broken 1902 monitor on eBay because my 128 does not like having a monitor that says Amiga on it, hehe (1080). I figured I could at least try to fix it even though I've never attempted a monitor repair before...

It arrived today and it just plain works!

I did a quick test on my C64 and am elated. I never have this luck. Usually if I order something broken it somehow comes even worse than described. I was expecting poisonous spiders or something in this one, lol.
IMG_0914.jpg

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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:23 am

That looks great - congrats! And wow - did you paint the board below your keycaps red? That looks awesome.

I have a 1902A, which has a drastically different case design. The 1902 you have there looks like a re-badged 1080 but with the 1902A guts!

Very cool.

The thing about my 1902A is the colors of the monitor in 64 mode literally pale in comparison to a 1702. The 80-column mode, of course, is very cool and looks nice.

To make sure I wasn't going crazy, I brought a 1702 down side by side next to my 1902A and ran the same game - L'Abbaye des Morts - on both monitors. The 1902A simply didn't even come close in terms of color vibrancy, and even color representation. Sometimes the colors would actually become garbled. The 1702 was arcade quality.

Using a friend's 1902A produced the exact same results.

I love the monitor and the look but it is surprisingly just not as perfect as I think it should be. That being said, your 1902 may be entirely different on the inside and have much better quality. It is a different model after all and could be from a different manufacturer.

Of course, the 1702 is a high water mark and not easy to beat. Maybe it's not entirely fair to compare the two. But when I've got my C128D right next to the C64 on the same table, it compels me to play the C64 games on the C64 way more than the 128D because I want to see it in the best light.

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rpiguy9907

Posted Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:31 am

intric8 wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:23 am
That looks great - congrats! And wow - did you paint the board below your keycaps red? That looks awesome.

I have a 1902A, which has a drastically different case design. The 1902 you have there looks like a re-badged 1080 but with the 1902A guts!

Very cool.

The thing about my 1902A is the colors of the monitor in 64 mode literally pale in comparison to a 1702. The 80-column mode, of course, is very cool and looks nice.
I agree with you 100%

Notice the 1702 parked behind the 1902 :-)

I once bought an 1802 monitor to match the C64C and was SO let down by the picture.

Yes I painted the steel keyboard plate, and also the RF shield to make a Red, White, and Blue C64...

But today isn't as happy as I had thought. I just tried to boot my beloved Chicken Lips Amiga 500 and she's dead Jim, despite paying for a recap!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:38 am

But today isn't as happy as I had thought. I just tried to boot my beloved Chicken Lips Amiga 500 and she's dead Jim, despite paying for a recap!
Oh no! Wow - a recapped 500? That's a pretty rare bit of surgery there. Sorry to hear that. Does she boot up at all?

Very cool 64 mod you have there. <3 I dig that acrylic monitor stand you have, too.

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rpiguy9907

Posted Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:00 pm

intric8 wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:38 am
But today isn't as happy as I had thought. I just tried to boot my beloved Chicken Lips Amiga 500 and she's dead Jim, despite paying for a recap!
Oh no! Wow - a recapped 500? That's a pretty rare bit of surgery there. Sorry to hear that. Does she boot up at all?

Very cool 64 mod you have there. <3 I dig that acrylic monitor stand you have, too.
The monitor stand is a cheapo from Amazon. Just make sure to pay attention to the width. They have a ton of acrylic stands that look wide in pictures and when you actually read the dimensions they are only 15" wide. I think this one is 20 or 22 inches.

I get a corrupted 1.2 boot screen and no disk activity on the A500.

User avatar
rpiguy9907

Posted Wed Jun 17, 2020 5:51 pm

Chicken lips has been fixed!

I thought it was the CIAs but after popping in a new pair things got worse - no boot screen at all.

Turns out it was Agnus. New Agnus fixed her right up.

Man my spare parts are getting dangerously low...

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:23 pm

Congrats on getting her back to good health! I know that feeling of getting low on this chip or that chip. I do my best to try and have 1 level of replacement for most things, which starts to feel almost like a psychological condition.

But, now for an acrylic monitor case! =)

Have you ever seen the Mac SE/30 version someone made?

User avatar
rpiguy9907

Posted Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:12 pm

intric8 wrote:
Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:23 pm
Congrats on getting her back to good health! I know that feeling of getting low on this chip or that chip. I do my best to try and have 1 level of replacement for most things, which starts to feel almost like a psychological condition.

But, now for an acrylic monitor case! =)

Have you ever seen the Mac SE/30 version someone made?
No I hadn’t seen that. It’s very nice!

You’ve got me thinking... the Commodore equivalent would probably be an acrylic PET!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:43 pm

Obsession:
I see your 1702 lurking.

My 1702 has been taking a few seconds after power-on to show me light. Aziz, LIGHT!

I feel like I need a backup 1702. Mine has lasted this long, but it's the one thing I've got in my stable that, honestly, I do worry about on a fairly regular basis. The rest of this stuff? We can find it if we try.





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