RickNel
Veteran Member
After I decided it would be too hard to find and fit a 12" CRT, I found there would also be problems getting a LCD display suitable for the 12" aperture in the cabinet fascia.
First attempts were to reuse one of several 15" VGA LCDs I had lying around, thinking I could just configure the display to run a 640x480 window centred in a 1280 wide SVGA screen. I spent a lot of time, and got a lot of advice from these forums, on ways to do it.
The main limitation was that I was committed to a DOS platform and ANSI text mode, so could not use a GUI windowing system from either MS or Linux. If I was willing to use one of those and accept the very long boot times, any LCD display that would fit in the cabinet would do.
I experimented with OpenGem and with DesqView. DesqView provided means to present a sized and positioned window running the terminal task, and DesqView and will also use ANSI.SYS within a DesqView window. But it also imposed its own window decoration scheme and added layers to the boot procedure.
Next I investigated whether either DOS MODE commands, or ANSI.SYS modes, could force the LCD to run a centred 640x80 text display. In theory, and on some displays, this would work. The problem is that every LCD digital monitor has its own programmed response to detecting a low-res video mode. This is programmed in monitor firmware, not in the VGA/SVGA driver of the computer. Any modern LCD is almost certain to stretch a detected VGA display window to fit the detected dimensions of the LCD screen.
After a lot of frustration I went back to online auctions and was lucky to find a 12" LCD VGA display, new old stock, at a very reasonable price. It was sold as a Point-of-Sale cash register monitor.
Unless and until I find someway to rebuild the Soroc with a 12" CRT, this will be the Soroc monitor.
A standard AC Mains > 12v PSU fits in the base of the Soroc cabinet, with a short length of AC cable wiring active, neutral and ground to the connector block from the Soroc's original switch and fuse.
First attempts were to reuse one of several 15" VGA LCDs I had lying around, thinking I could just configure the display to run a 640x480 window centred in a 1280 wide SVGA screen. I spent a lot of time, and got a lot of advice from these forums, on ways to do it.
The main limitation was that I was committed to a DOS platform and ANSI text mode, so could not use a GUI windowing system from either MS or Linux. If I was willing to use one of those and accept the very long boot times, any LCD display that would fit in the cabinet would do.
I experimented with OpenGem and with DesqView. DesqView provided means to present a sized and positioned window running the terminal task, and DesqView and will also use ANSI.SYS within a DesqView window. But it also imposed its own window decoration scheme and added layers to the boot procedure.
Next I investigated whether either DOS MODE commands, or ANSI.SYS modes, could force the LCD to run a centred 640x80 text display. In theory, and on some displays, this would work. The problem is that every LCD digital monitor has its own programmed response to detecting a low-res video mode. This is programmed in monitor firmware, not in the VGA/SVGA driver of the computer. Any modern LCD is almost certain to stretch a detected VGA display window to fit the detected dimensions of the LCD screen.
After a lot of frustration I went back to online auctions and was lucky to find a 12" LCD VGA display, new old stock, at a very reasonable price. It was sold as a Point-of-Sale cash register monitor.
Unless and until I find someway to rebuild the Soroc with a 12" CRT, this will be the Soroc monitor.
A standard AC Mains > 12v PSU fits in the base of the Soroc cabinet, with a short length of AC cable wiring active, neutral and ground to the connector block from the Soroc's original switch and fuse.