Why I Love the Commodore 1084S CRT Monitor

Ep 38 : The Commodore 1084S-P, an amazingly versatile CRT from 1988. A look at what makes it great and some unexpected repairs await!

00:00 Introduction
04:53 Recap, New Flyback, and Horizontal Output Transistor
06:15 An Unexpected Failure and Attempted Repair
15:21 A Salute to the Fallen
16:03 Pros and Cons
18:29 Conclusion

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[MrBenedictHeyer]

That Cannon Fodder reference was gold :D

[NozomuYume]

The VCR button provides a crude adaptive scan for a signal with erratic horizontal sync. The most common use for this was for playback from a VCR, as there was always variance in the geometry of the helical scan head between units, and tapes would sometimes develop a physical "curl" on the edges of the tape with age or bad storage. You'd see this most often in tapes where the scanlines wobble to the left and back, and in particular often shear sideways at the top or bottom of the image. Just depress the VCR button and you'll see the image snap into place.

It basically serves a similar function to a digital time base corrector. A real full-frame digital TBC does a better job usually, but the simple circuitry in the VCR button does a good enough job a lot of the time and similar circuitry was included by default in many televisions made after VCRs became popular (only it was always on on the TVs and could not be disabled except from a service menu). Some VCRs also had an "image stabilizer" button that did the same thing, only at the VCR's end.

The button should be left turned off when you feed it a known rock-solid signal like from a computer (in fact the button can mask some technical issues, making diagnosis hard if it's enabled)

[JamieOrlando]

I love my 1084. I got it with my A500 back when I was a teenager and it is still used for that computer. It is a very versatile display and still looks fantastic.

[bigmaxy]

I recently got an A500 and then found a flat screen that took 15kHZ, it's great but now I found a working 1084S and wow, authentic scanline greatness ! Hopefully it hangs in there for a while !

[Unicrontesting]

I've had it happen to me on a 1085S monitor, i pulled of the yoke and cleaned it and picked out the damaged wires, I used a thin layer of epoxy to insulate them where the lacquer had burned off, I had 2 burned trough wires which i soldered back together and used shrinking tube to insulate them. In some mister cores where the screen is more narrow I have a little bit of a small swerve in the edge geometry but its barely noticeable. But I think I was lucky :) but you can always try. I also added a scart connector to a 1084s-p it will need some additional components though, as you will have to let it switch to the scart rgb signal, pin 16 has to connect to a transistor and has to provide 3 volt.

[KingWilliam]

Still have my 1084S. I used it for quite a few years as a tv and now it's back with my pristine Amiga 1200.
A great monitor.

[dave-]

Adrians basement added a scart, you need to solder the jumpers for the sync to work, but all the circuitry is there.

[Lwcash]

So lesson learned; before replacing deflection transistors check the resistance of the deflection coils.
I hope you get this beauty fixed as it is my favorite retro computer monitor. It might be possible to repair the shorted deflection coil by winding new lacquered wire on it. If you use the same gauge and count the number of turns on the old one..

Not an easy job, and a lot of work but it is doable..

[gklinger]

I'm surprisingly bummed out by the failure of your old friend. :(

[TheMrJamu]

Commodore 1084(S)-P and it's sister model Philips cm8833/8833-II are also my favourite monitors. I have five of them :D

[carlwells]

I loved my old 1084S which I used with my Amiga in my Dorm room- I used to plug my VCR into it to watch TV on it as well. Got quite the crowd watching the latest weekly episode of The Simpsons (showing my age abit there!)

[geekwithsocialskills]

Great video! This model of 1084s is my favorite. I love the boxxy case design. It's a bummer is died on you. Hopefully you find a donor CRT in the future.

[KittyFae-]

Apparently the VCR button adjusts the monitor's circuitry to accept video from a VCR, VLP, or Video Camera. At least that is what I saw in my manual for a 1084, interesting. Such wonderful and versatile little monitor, glad to see all the love here! Hopefully you can get it up and running again, best of luck.

[SebastianS]

Because I was short on money during highschool, I was happy to get a used 1084S as color addition to my SM124 on my Atari ST, just had to build me an adapter cable.

[johanliden]

I agree about the design of the casing for the monitor. I love it too! The later rounded casing is not appealing.

[terosaarela]

Thanks for the video! Sorry to see your 1084S failing. I briefly had a 1084 which had a broken power switch.

[minombredepila]

Very nice episode. And sorry for your loss.

[doktor]

I also still love my 1084 and I hope it lives a long time!
Great episode!
Greetings, Doc64!

[sublimemauser]

Also they were sold under the Acorn brand, to be used with late Acorn/BBC 8-bit micros and the Acorn Archimedes

[seanwilliams]

Condolences for your loss - hopefully you will find a way to resurrect your old buddy. :p