LCD monitors drop into legacy CRT applications

Using a novel analogue-digital driver board, Kent Modular Electronics has developed a range of LCD monitors that can interface with any legacy signal and give a full-screen, crisp, bright display.

CRT technology is under siege and falling out of favour as the ubiquitous flat panel steadily gains market share.

Some CRT sizes are nearly impossible to source now that CRT manufacturers see an end to all but large, wide-screen tubes for domestic TV.

(The 12 and 20in colour CRTs so popular during the 1980s and 1990s are examples of tubes no longer produced anywhere in the world).

This is not good news for OEMs and their customers in machine tool control, process control etc who are committed to support their CRT displays for several more operational years.

Many of these old displays were embedded in the control furniture (ie in chassis monitor format) and substitution of a flat panel presents many mechanical problems.

Also, the older the system, the more likely it is that the video signals to the monitor are not of modern VESA standards, making it impossible to achieve a display on a standard flat-panel monitor.

KME was formed 25 years ago to make CRT monitors.

Certain sizes are still in production but markets are changing rapidly to high resolution flat-panel LCD monitors, and KME has a wide range of modern displays to meet this demand.

However, the company has not forgotten its roots and has invested heavily in R and D to develop a range of LCD monitors that are specifically designed to interface with any legacy signal and give a full-screen, crisp, bright display.

The heart of this development project is a new LCD analogue-digital driver board (designated XP5) that forms the basis of the 51UN series.

Several mechanical formats are offered in screen sizes from 8.4 to 21.3in, including desktop, heads for ergo arms, rack-mount and panel-mount.

Special versions are available as complete look-alike CRT chassis with the same dimensions and mounting points (29LW series) and as mini-rack-mount models designed to fit to the existing CRT chassis metalwork by using the CRT lug fixing holes in the chassis (29LV series).

In addition to advanced processors to scale nonstandard resolutions, the XP5 boards also incorporate circuitry to compensate for the low (and noisy) video and sync pulse levels found in legacy installations.

The real breakthrough is that user setup has been greatly simplified over previous models, and KME is predicting an international market for its 51UN series.

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