Jester Monitor Problem

[rkthomson]

I bought my new Jester 24/48 and was delighted with it for 6 days till I connected a VGA monitor to it. The screen strobed on and off (for about 1 second at a time) after about 30 minutes of usage. It was returned to the supplier and was replaced immediately with another one today (with the next consecutive serial number from the one I returned). It has the same fault as the VGA monitor signal is already flashing on and off. I tested my monitor with a Fat Frog and it remained stable as it always has done after many hours of use. Any suggestions or should I pay for it to be returned to my supplier for a third replacement and hope this one works?

[Paul]

Can you give us the make and model number of the monitor you are using please?

[rkthomson]

Monitor is Phillips 150S3 Model.

This has worked well with my Fat Frog for two years without any similar problems.

[Paul]

The VGA output circuit on the Jester is different to the Fat Frog, so the signal timings may be very slightly different. Every monitor we've ever plugged the Jester into has worked, unfortunately we don't have any Phillips flat screen monitors to try. It's possible that the Phillips monitor doesn't like the timings from the Jester for some reason and so is giving the strobing effect you describe.

 

Do you have another monitor you can try, just to confirm that you haven't actually been unlucky enough to receive 2 faulty Jesters in succession?

[rkthomson]

Do you have another monitor you can try, just to confirm that you haven't actually been unlucky enough to receive 2 faulty Jesters in succession?

 

Tried another Monitor and problem is solved.

My Phillips monitor may be looking for a new home now!

Thanks for your suggestion.

[Johnt]

I have recently bought a jester 24/48 for the school theatre. I also purchased a DGM L-1431W 14" LCD monitor. When I plug in the monitor, the display "strobes" about every couple of seconds. On my computer I have a AvanHard LCD monitor which has exactly the same problem when plugged into the Jester. Both monitors work perfect on the computer. A standard monitor works perfect and so do some of the other makes of flat screen that we have around the school.

My problem now of course is budget. I cannot get the money to purchase another monitor.

I see from a previous entry that this problem has been highlighted before.

Is there, or is there going to be a fix for it?

 

Regards,

 

Johnt

[Paul]

Hi,

 

We've had a number of reports of compatibility problems with certain monitors, and we are investigating, although this is made somewhat tricky because every monitor we've ever tried has worked OK...

 

Until we get any further with analysing the root cause, the best advice I'm afraid is to find a monitor that works, that belongs to someone who's willing to trade.

 

Apologies that we're not able to do any more than that at the moment, however we'll let you know when we have more information.

 

Paul.

[Robin D]

Excuse my butting in, but we have seen similar problems with other LCD screens (Probably from the same factory) when the autoclocking is trying to sync the resolution with the signal from the PC and continually failing and therefore recycles.

 

Most screens you can set the resolution manually so if you know what res' the Jester is outputting, you can set in manually using the following table.

 

Resolution -- V. Freq -- H. Freq

640x480 ---- 59.94 ---- 31.47

800x600 ---- 56.25 ---- 35.16

800x600 ---- 60.32 ---- 37.88

1024x768 --- 60.00 ---- 48.36

1280x800 --- 59.81 ---- 49.702

 

You will have to check the manual for the monitor to see how you set it.

 

I hope this helps ....... Robin

[Johnt]

Thanks Robin for that info. Perhaps Paul can let me know the resolution the Jester is outputting. Can't seem to find anything in the operating manual.

 

Johnt

[Paul]

Page 48...

 

Video Output

15 pin D connector, VGA text output. VGA is non-interlaced, 80x50 visible characters, 640x400 visible pixels, 800x449 total pixels, 31.5kHz line rate, 70Hz frame rate, negative H-sync, positive V-sync, 64 colours, 25MHz dot clock.

[MaxS]

Hi.

 

Seeing as there were already a few problems, I have a few questions.

 

1. What monitors will work exactly? Are Mac monitors or IBM monitors compatible?

 

2. Is it possible to connect a laptop to the light board in order to have the same functions as the monitor?

 

3. How exactly do you install the monitor? Is it a "plug and play" monitor?

 

and lastly

 

4. What exactly do you guys mean with the video outputs? Do you mean you have to convert the video settings of the screen to be compatible with the board?

 

 

Thanks a lot!

 

MaxS

[Paul]

We were fortunate / unfortunate enough (depending on how you look at it) to buy some cheap monitors from the far east recently, some of which were the first ones we've had in our posession which strobed when connected to the Jester or JesterML monitor output. Everything else we'd used to date worked fine.

 

We've tweaked the VSYNC signal timing slightly in the monitor output firmware to give a stable picture on these monitors. This new (V3) monitor output firmware also supports an alternative output resolution (640x480x60Hz) in case you have a particularly troublesome monitor. All new desks will be shipped with the new V3 monitor output firmware.

 

Unfortunately, the monitor output firmware on the Jester/JesterML is factory loaded, and cannot be upgraded in the field over USB. If you are having compatibility problems with a monitor, then give Keith a call in the office (01633-833101) to discuss returning your desk to have the monitor output firmware upgraded.

 

To answer the rest of your questions...

 

1. Any monitor with the right connector that supports the desk's output resolution (see above) should work.

 

2. No you cannot use a laptop as a remote screen for the desk.

 

3. You just plug the monitor in, no drivers etc are required. With the new software (Jester V3.2 and JesterML V2.3) and V3 monitor output firmware, there is a menu option to set the resolution you want to use in Super User / Setup.

 

4. The terms Video / Monitor / VGA all refer to the same thing with the Jester or JesterML.