What's new
By:
Filters

Unico phoenix monitors - Opinions?

Hi guys!

I received one of the Unico ULM26 monitors on friday and like many of you I am pretty disappointed by how it performs compared to what Unico states.

However I went ahead and designed a full set of legs and even a controller board case in hopes they sort out it's color and weird resolution/scaling issues.



Features:

5 degree tilt for better viewing angle and stability.

Large, thick legs for strength and durability.

Symmetrical monitor placement. Place the display on any side - Horizontal and vertical!

Protective case for the control board. Easy snap lock design to protect it and has cutouts on the back for a pair of magnets. Can easily attach the case to anywhere on the metal chassis.

Captive nut cutouts on the back of the legs. No extra tools needed besides a screwdriver.


Give it a download and let me know what you think.

https://www.printables.com/model/559348-unico-ulm26-monitor-legs-and-control-board-case
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2951.jpg
    IMG_2951.jpg
    270.1 KB · Views: 140
  • IMG_2945.jpg
    IMG_2945.jpg
    212.9 KB · Views: 141
  • IMG_2946.jpg
    IMG_2946.jpg
    297.4 KB · Views: 125
  • IMG_2953.jpg
    IMG_2953.jpg
    118.4 KB · Views: 126
  • Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 12.15.31 PM.png
    Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 12.15.31 PM.png
    51.5 KB · Views: 129
ToddG said:
Hi guys!

I received one of the Unico ULM26 monitors on friday and like many of you I am pretty disappointed by how it performs compared to what Unico states.

However I went ahead and designed a full set of legs and even a controller board case in hopes they sort out it's color and weird resolution/scaling issues.



Features:

5 degree tilt for better viewing angle and stability.

Large, thick legs for strength and durability.

Symmetrical monitor placement. Place the display on any side - Horizontal and vertical!

Protective case for the control board. Easy snap lock design to protect it and has cutouts on the back for a pair of magnets. Can easily attach the case to anywhere on the metal chassis.

Captive nut cutouts on the back of the legs. No extra tools needed besides a screwdriver.


Give it a download and let me know what you think.

https://www.printables.com/model/559348-unico-ulm26-monitor-legs-and-control-board-case
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
What type of connector do you guys figure that control board is using? I need to build myself a longer cable.
 
Here are pictures of the connectors.

I am sure its a JST connector? But not sure which.... I also need to take the tape off of the included male to male cable, on the one end, I have an idea there is something there like a cap or a resister inline.

I will take some pictures tonight...
 

Attachments

  • IMG-7200.jpg
    IMG-7200.jpg
    151.7 KB · Views: 67
  • IMG-7201.jpg
    IMG-7201.jpg
    197.8 KB · Views: 69
Looks like Unico announced on Facebook that they have determined that the real resolution is 768p after speaking with their panel supplier, and people are getting upset at how much lower the resolution is over the original claim of 1200p.

I stand by my original assessment of 960p. Given the size of the panel, 768p resolution would mean that 2 pixels would be over 1.3mm wide, which is significantly larger than what my original (admittedly imprecise) measurement would indicate. There's probably more testing I can do, but I have neither the time nor willpower to do so at this moment. Maybe later down the line.
 
Easiest way to find out the native resolution is to make a BMP image in paint with a 1 pixel checkerboard and full screen it and see if the pixels are getting scaled down or up. Test with HDMI of course so you don't get VGA scaling.
 
Here's a 1280x960 BMP file with a checkerboard pattern. Plug the HDMI cable into a Windows PC and see what the recommended resolution says.
 

Attachments

  • checkerboard.zip
    7.5 KB · Views: 79
mathewbeall said:
Here are pictures of the connectors.

I am sure its a JST connector? But not sure which.... I also need to take the tape off of the included male to male cable, on the one end, I have an idea there is something there like a cap or a resister inline.

I will take some pictures tonight...
Click to expand...
It looks like its 1mm between each pin, and its 10 pins...

I just did some searches for jst 1mm 10 pin 1 meter cable, and came up completely empty. I guess I will have to buy the parts and try to just crimp it myself...
 
andynumbers said:
Here's a 1280x960 BMP file with a checkerboard pattern. Plug the HDMI cable into a Windows PC and see what the recommended resolution says.
Click to expand...

That doesn't work with this display. It's already been noted in the Unico Facebook group that Windows won't display correctly on this display at all. If you select a 4:3 resolution, regardless of what the display aspect ratio is set to, it squashes to the middle of the display. If you select something with a 16:9 aspect ratio is displays full screen, but obviously squashed in a bit to fit.

They claim it's a Windows generic display driver issue. I think it's more cause they hobbled these displays together from random shit and the control board doesn't understand aspect ratios of this panel.

I'm sending both of mine back as this is an obvious amateur hour product and I've spent a bunch of time this week testing and tweaking and i'm ready to cut my losses on them.
 
Last edited:
Oh, that's garbage. They need to fix their firmware. Really a shame because I think this is the first time that you can get a 4:3 aspect panel in such a large size. The problem here is the crappy LCD driver board. It's clear that they are making these to shove into MVS-X cabs and don't really care about the collector/enthusiast community.
 
It's actually jaw-dropping that they know this little about their own product. That they're launching. Waffling from 1200p to 960p to 768p, which is a pretty major product specification and opens you up potential legal fun if intentionally lied about, would be an open and shut termination from any moderately well-run company. Now we know why they aren't trying to sell to the medical sector!

The "firmware update" thing is almost certainly a lie. You'd either have to send the monitor back or be talked through wiring up a serial port, neither of which I see these guys at all equipped to do. I don't see any kind of USB or SD card connector on any of the photos I've seen. I would truly be shocked if it were to ever materialize in any form, even a revision to address the issues seems extremely unlikely. Plenty of products in this industry have died on arrival like this.

Little nitpick, but why is the RGB input connector a CRT yoke connector? Are they just trying to remain compatible with the cabling for the GBS and it's own bad decisions, or is something even dumber afoot here? That doesn't exactly make for a Wells-Gardner drop-in like they're selling these things to be.

Whatever their market is, I don't think arcade operators are going to touch them. At least that isn't their fault, as operators are the scum of the earth and were always going to grab the cheapest 16:9 panel at Walmart and just hacksaw them into their destination cabs as they've already been doing for the last 15 years. You can't compete on price against the unbeatable combo of High-Lag Grandmatron from Best Buy + GBS from Amazon. But it looks like they're trying their damndest to not compete on quality either.

How do these stack up against the 4:3 panels that Vision Pro and Wells-Gardner currently sell? I know they only bother with 20" and not any bigger sizes but now I'm curious.
 
Last edited:
> Unico is the company behind the MVSX arcade cabinets.
This should have been enough information to know that this was just another grift.
 
odd question but what is the actual height and width in inches of the panel?
 
BroadwayJose said:
Thanks for the info and breakdown @ToddG

Is this maybe salvagable with a different driver board?
Click to expand...

I don't know. People in this forum that know way more than us will figured out. In the meantime I returned 3 of the 6 I got. I did find a use for of them in a couple of hs27 dynamos that I didn't know what to do with. I'm keeping one as a back up but that's it. My MAME cab remains using a LG dual up
 
I bought 2 of them - specifically to replace 25" CRT's in an arcade cabinet, running 240p/480i or 480p JAMMA/JVS games.... I think once they get the color/gamma stuff figured out, it will work out well - so am keeping mine.

Call me an optimist!
 
Update: I’ve reached out directly to Unico and I am working with them to fix these issues. This has been an egg in the face moment for them and they are serious about fixing this stuff.

No ETA or timeframe, but it’s being worked on.

Hopefully we can go from lemons to lemonade
 
ToddG said:
Update: I’ve reached out directly to Unico and I am working with them to fix these issues. This has been an egg in the face moment for them and they are serious about fixing this stuff.

No ETA or timeframe, but it’s being worked on.

Hopefully we can go from lemons to lemonade
Click to expand...

Good Luck! I honestly really want them to succeed on these LCDs and maybe even move to 27 and 29s
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top