How I Replaced My Okuma CRT Monitor with an LCD

As the title states, this thread shows the entire process of replacing my Okuma LB-15 Cnc Lathe CRT monitor with a new LCD monitor.

The problems began a couple weeks ago as described in the link below to another thread I started in this section (Cnc Machining), but felt it best to start a new thread showing the replacement process as someone out there someday may find this very useful in replacing their own CRT, regardless of the type of machine.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...5-cnc-lathe-monitor-issue-not-working-256334/

Even if they do not find it entirely useful to their application, it may just give them the courage to try it as I did even though I was dreading the possibility of everything going horribly wrong.......which seems to be the norm for those of us afflicted with "technically challenged syndrome"......such as myself!!


Day one.......

HELP!! My monitor isn't working. I have work up the wazoo for this machine,...........customers are wanting parts early........... ohhh, and the BEST part is.......it's Friday morning.......F&%K ME!!!


There's no need to fear..........Practical Machinist is here!! Well,.................actually......it's in my office,......on the computer........but you know what I mean!


Anyways, off I go to my office, cursing and grumbling all the way, wishing there was at least a bridge or something high up I could perhaps cross over and jump off..........


But no, I am just not that fortunate and eventually arrive at my desk. As I sit and type explaining my dilemma for the masses to read I am hopeful somewhere out there is my saviour.......other than perhaps, Jack Daniels, or Johnny Walker!.........but I feel this morning if all else fails, they may very well be,...........just the ticket!!!


But alas, the gods (if you so happen to believe in that stuff.....for me, it's just an expression) were smiling on me that morning (or perhaps they were just laughing at me and my pitifully poor luck!) and received some guidance from a fellow member........but not just guidance, no sir.......a step above and beyond, for he had actual experience!


Placing a call to the folks at www.Monitech.com (Ontario, Canada) was the ray of hope I had been looking for. Not only did they have EXACTLY the LCD replacement monitor my machine and control needed, it came in a kit with everything "Plug it in and turn it on ready and 100% compatible guaranteed"!


Somebody pinch me........


Talking on the phone with a gentlemen from Monitech my replacement monitor cost quote was $1,295.00 on sale from $1,395.00. Jokingly I asked if there was any sort of Christmas discount.........there was a pause at the other end of the phone, and for a brief moment I thought for sure he was hanging up on me!! To my surprise he responded with "Well......the best I can do is $1,214.00."


Still not sure if I said this out loud or not, I thought, "Are you kidding me?".....I was just trying to be funny.......but instead said, "I'll take it!"



The transaction was completed, I gave them my UPS shipper number and told them to get it to me pronto!!

This all took place on a Tuesday, late in the afternoon. I was told it could not ship that day, as UPS would be there any moment, but it would go out Wednesday instead. Hanging up the phone, I had that brief glimmer of hope working it's way up from the pit of doom and gloom of which I had been mired in since the the end of the week before!


Thursday morning arrives with no special proclamation. Everyone shows up for work........check!


Customers calling for status on late jobs due to machine being down for last four days.......check!!


Customers placing more orders for work that needs to be done in the Okuma, that includes heat treat, more machining, polishing, then go out for plating, and they want to know if there's any chance it will ship tomorrow.........check!!


Morning comes and goes, and no UPS.........check!! Wait,......WHAT? NO UPS? WTF?


On my way to my office cursing and grumbling again looking for that bridge or high place again to jump off..........DOUBLE CHECK!!!



Poor guy at the other end of the phone gets my wrath..........explains, the monitors are QC checked before they ship, mine failed (for whatever reason) and they could not get another checked and out the door in time for UPS. Ok......I'm not happy about it........but I understand it. I'm not happy about it, but I am thankful it did not show up DOA!


I'm not happy about it, and realize.........nothings perfect, and this stands to reason.......off I go in search of a bridge!!






Friday morning.........I'm happy!!


Here's a pic of all the parts in the replacement LCD monitor kit. LCD monitor, power Adapter & plug, video cable, and mounting brackets.

How much easier does it get?





Same pic, but with the front of the monitor being shown.





One of the things I did when the Okuma service tech was here, was to pick his brain about how the existing unit gets removed.


He actually was very good about it and went in to great detail explaining to me everything I needed to know, and especially what to watch out for.




The first thing needed to be done was to remove the black frame surrounding the monitor and keypad.

This would expose the heads of the screws that hold the entire unit to the control panel itself.








Here's a view from the back of the control. The entire section you see (zinc or cad plated) is all one piece and takes up nearly the entire top half of the control.

This will all come out to access the CRT and all the cables need to be removed in order to do so.







Here's a pic of the cables removed. These were already labeled by the MTB so it was quick and easy for me. Be sure to label wires as you disconnect or take plenty of pics beforehand!






With the frame removed around the monitor and keypad, you can now see the recessed screws that hold the entire CRT & keypad in place. Be sure to remove all the cables in the back before loosening the screws.





To remove the CRT once the screws are removed I would recommend making this a two person job as the whole unit comes out through the FRONT of the control and having all the weight in the back of the unit makes it tip backwards as you try to pull it out through the front. Much easier for someone behind the control to lift the CRT unit in the back to keep it level as it comes out.


A successful extraction!!




Another view from the back.




Here we see the beast itself........awaiting its autopsy!!










With top removed you can see the culprit!!





Since I am not sure how many pictures I can post in one thread...............




To be continued...............

I see that sure enough Okuma couldn't resist using a non standard signal connector. Kinda sloppy looking conversion cord but I guess it will do

With the monitor out of the control now, removing the CRT (in hindsight now at least) was not that difficult, but there were a few head scratcher moments here and there.

I unhooked all the wires and plugs. The only two I really needed to be concerned with were the ribbon wire (video wire) and the power supply wire.

The rest were either part of the CRT assembly or completely unnecessary for the LCD so they were tossed.



Remove the video signal ribbon wire from the CRT and keep off to the side.






Remove the A/C plug and the fan plug and keep those aside as well. For this conversion, there was nothing else to worry with regard to cables or wires.





There was a small bracket in the back of the CRT assembly that needed to be removed as the assembly does not lift straight up and had to be slid back to get the screen away from plastic housing around the front of it.

Once it slid back you had to tilt the front of the monitor up and take it out through the top. It will not come straight out the back due to the framework of the whole housing.





Slide the monitor back and tilt the screen up.






Remove through the top of the unit.





With the CRT removed now you can remove the plastic frame which once housed it. On this control, there are two screws in the top of the frame accessed from the front.





And four screws on the bottom accessed from the inside.




For my application with the Okuma OSP5000 control. I had to remove the two "L" shaped brackets at the top of the window for my LCD replacement to fit properly.
You can see the brackets are interfering the centering of the window in the vertical plane leaving a noticeable gap between the control frame and the LCD.








A pair of pliers grabbing onto them and some up and down movement snapped them right off in no time!





To be continued................

Milacron said:

I see that sure enough Okuma couldn't resist using a non standard signal connector. Kinda sloppy looking conversion cord but I guess it will do

Click to expand...

Yeah Don, my sentiments exactly. Gotta tell ya though, everything was pretty solid (despite its appearance) and assembled with ease. Once it was all hooked up and closed up.......no one will ever be the wiser!

wrustle said:

.....no one will ever be the wiser!

Click to expand...

....We are

Wrustle... Excuse the thread hijack...

Milacron:

How about an Okuma specific forum?

Chazsani

Chazsani said:

Wrustle... Excuse the thread hijack...

Milacron:

How about an Okuma specific forum?

Chazsani

Click to expand...

I think that would be a good idea because it would be the ideal place in which to move this thread. I believe there's a lot of Okuma owners here who could benefit from such a forum section because I see many posts in this general CNC Machining section which are "Okuma specific".

LCD conversions usually need a signal booster and an adaptor to go from whatever crappy old CNC you have to what ever over priced LCD you bought. There really isnt much tech to it. Taht is unless your going from black and white to all out color with flowers and dancing leprochauns.

Speedie said:

LCD conversions usually need a signal booster and an adaptor to go from whatever crappy old CNC you have to what ever over priced LCD you bought. There really isnt much tech to it.

Click to expand...

You have no clue what you are talking about.

Milacron said:

You have no clue what you are talking about.

Click to expand...

Oh just a little, I have replaced 4 screens on 3 different machines. 3 needed a signal booster and all 4 needed a conversion cable.

So Wrustle what is that black box with what looks like an antenna next to it? Or like a lot of your threads is this all we are going to get for the next two months?

Charles

To continue along here and put an end to this before the crowd gets ugly...........thanks for that kick in the pants Charles!




With the CRT removed the rest of the installation proceeded rather quickly with no problems.


We mounted the brackets loosely to the LCD so we could place inside the monitor frame and adjust it to fit.



We had to cut away the bottom part of the left bracket to allow clearance for the video signal ribbon wire.








With the brackets all adjusted and the LCD centered in the opening we drilled a couple mounting holes in the frame and secured it with the provided fasteners.





Wiring the unit was a piece of cake. There were only two to consider and the places they went were obvious. One for the video signal, and the other to the power supply.







Here you see the connections for the monitor.






With everything secured and wired, it's time to mount it back in the control.






Well, the moment of truth is upon us............the monitor is back in the control, and ready for power!








SUCCESS!!!


Man was I happy, let me tell you!! You have no idea how nervous I was pressing that power button!! I thought for sure I'd see a puff of smoke and it would all be over, but not today.......it was MY day!!


Lucky me.....now I get to work Sunday.......wait.......what????........UGH!!!!








Luckily for me........this is one thread that hopefully will NOT be continued!!

Best Regards,
Russ

Really glad that worked out so well for you Russ. However, you're NOT finished with the story yet because you failed to tell the story about how this was all paid for.

Now THAT is an interesting one!

One more note of interest to anyone on the fence about performing this replacement themselves.


It was VERY easy to do and there were NO hoops to jump through what-so-ever despite what some have mentioned here. Apparently the systems they used were not as well designed or set up for the machines they were used on like the one I purchased was.


I have no affiliation with these people www.monitech.com here's their machine list of replacement displays they provide Monitech Products and their display arrived just as promised.........specific for my machine and control and 100% compatible and it was indeed.


I set it in place, connected the wires, turned it on, and it worked. The only thing I had to adjust was to center the image. The guys at Monitech were great.

Thanks again to Chazsani for his recommendation in my other thread. It really helped me out a lot and saved me a lot of time and money.

Best Regards,
Russ

Really glad that worked out so well for you Russ. However, you're NOT finished with the story yet because you failed to tell the story about how this was all paid for.

Now THAT is an interesting one!

wrustle said:

Luckily for all of you........this is one thread that hopefully will NOT be continued!!

Best Regards,
Russ

Click to expand...

Fixt it for you, Russ!

A very official upgrade.


Rex

Speedie said:

Oh just a little, I have replaced 4 screens on 3 different machines. 3 needed a signal booster and all 4 needed a conversion cable.

Click to expand...

I've done at least seven CRT to LCD conversions on controls as old as 1986 and new as 1995 and none of them needed this mysterious "signal booster" of which you speak. One of them could probably have been done with a frequency doubler....is that what you mean by "signal booster" ?

If so, a frequency doubler will only work if the control monitor output is very low...like 15 kHz...as otherwise the resulting horizontal frequency will be too high. Horizontal frequency increased as the years went on so you have to go back to about 1986 for 15 kHz.

Please post a link to a "signal booster" that you used so I can see what in gawd's name you are talking about exactly.

FWIW, the below conversion I did on a 1989 Deckel Dialog 11 control. By 1989 some manuf. were up to 28 kHz horizontal frequency so for this one I was able to use a standard monitor that just happened to go that low. But most standard LCD monitors only go down to about 32 kHz. For one below, just the monitor and custom cable to match the unique Deckel RGBHVB wiring all that was needed...no "signal booster" or anything else.

Mazak Industrial Monitor Replacement to VGA Xvga LCD CRT Video Converter | eBay
Used something similar to this. It was $80 the LCD Tv was 120 the result was priceless. Your right once you double you can get in trouble.

Speedie said:

Mazak Industrial Monitor Replacement to VGA Xvga LCD CRT Video Converter | eBay
Used something similar to this. It was $80 the LCD Tv was 120 the result was priceless. Your right once you double you can get in trouble.

Click to expand...

Ok, that is interesting as it's the first frequency converter I've seen that hints that it can do more than just double the frequency. That inspired me to look for more of these since that is something new... and below is link to one that has more specifics about what frequencies it can modify.

Still, at aprox $300 you might as well just spend another 100 bucks for a Converters.tv monitor that doesn't need the converter in the first place. If you happen to have an ancient color control that is outputing only 15kHz, looks like Converters.tv now has a frequency doubler for only $45...so that might be worth it if you happen to have an LCD monitor lying around of the right size. One problem with using a standard LCD of course are the menu buttons and the extra labor of taking the guts apart to mount it properly. That's why the Converters.tv monitors are usually more cost effective if they have the right size monitor in stock.

Anyhoo, you completely threw me off track talking about a "signal booster" as I knew that had to be bogus....but what you were apparently talking about was a frequency converter.

https://www.converters.tv/products/vga_to_vga/425.html

wrustle said:

One more note of interest to anyone on the fence about performing this replacement themselves.


It was VERY easy to do and there were NO hoops to jump through what-so-ever despite what some have mentioned here. Apparently the systems they used were not as well designed or set up for the machines they were used on like the one I purchased was.


I have no affiliation with these people www.monitech.com here's their machine list of replacement displays they provide Monitech Products and their display arrived just as promised.........specific for my machine and control and 100% compatible and it was indeed.

Click to expand...

Looks great, a little bit 'sawtoothish' but not bad....congrats ! You could have accomplished the same thing for less than $500 (incl shipping) but it would have involved waiting a few more days shipping and some learning curve in figuring out which wire was 'red', which wire was 'blue', which wire was horizontal, etc.* But I don't blame you one bit for doing it the way you did if production was down...I only mention the $500 figure for those that might not be in such a hurry and want to save some money.

*Re signal plug you could have used the plug from the original CRT...or no plug...just solder the wires directly.