Oh interesting! Maybe this is the reason why my ColorLink has worked for none of its owners since 1994? I‘ll have to check…!
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E-Machines Futura MX issues in IIci
- Thread starter Hunter259
- Start date
Never mind, took my other (now unused) video card out and it boots A/UX quite happily now. I think we can chalk that one up to A/UX just being picky about things.
I'll have to build this sense code adapter tomorrow to make sure it works on the MX (I'm sure it does)! Absolute genius life saver. I thought I was going to be stuck with this thing only semi-working!
Ha, glad to help out!
I think you should be able to use most sense adapters - the formula is, find the switch setting for Multiple Scan 16” (which gives the diode between SENSE2 and SENSE1, but with SENSE0 grounded), and then remove the switches that are common to 13” RGB (which grounds SENSE0).
For example, on my adapter, Multiscan 16” is 148, and 13” RGB is 14, so I get 8.
That should give you sync on green with the right sense code. You may have to fiddle with other switches to change the sync mode (6 and 7 on my adapter), but often adapters with smaller numbers of switches may hardwire HSYNC and VSYNC anyway, which should work with any monitor.
Oh. My. God. I tried every combination but I expected to see something before the OS booted (I have 128MB in my iici so it takes an eternity to boot) and never did. I let it boot on 678 and boom there it was. 1024x768 millions of colors. You have no idea how mad I am at myself but also ecstatic to see it work! Thank you so much. Hopefully others find this thread with how non-existent details about these cards are!
There's one possible type 0,1,2, or 4 sense code. There's 304 ways to do type 0. 32 ways to do type 1,2,4.
There's four possible type 3,5, or 6 sense code. There's 4 ways to do each type.
There's 29 possible type 7 sense codes. There's 18 ways to do type 7 00-00-00. The rest have 1,2, or 3 ways to do them.
SENSE0 open, diode from SENSE2 to SENSE1 is type 7 11-01-11
type 7 11-01-01 includes another diode from SENSE2 to SENSE0.
See https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/documentation-for-db15-to-vga-adapters.318/post-21288
how on earth did you get that? i have a 10 switch adapter, tried setting it as you said, set the rotary to 4 but the only result is that now it's not even detected on boot.. any other combinations i could try?
hmm.. 678 you say?
679 and 9 by itself only gives me an uninitialised card.
678 however gives me garbled stuff on the second display but it shows up in monitors and the emachines control panel as '1024x768' - no millions of colours though. maybe my card is too crap for that, even tho it's supposed to be a futura sx..
Yeah, per Joevt's post I wasn't 100% correct about some of my other conclusions about the sense codes, but 678 definitely works for me - my card is an SX as well, and can only do 256 colours at 1024x768, though it can do higher colour depths at lower resolutions.
If you're getting garbled video, try other settings on the rotary switch, there's a table of what each switch setting does at https://lowendmac.com/video/futurasx.html. I'm not sure why 1024x768 75Hz is duplicated at settings 6 and 8, or what the "Dual resolution" settings at C-F do, but it might be worth trying a lower resolution.
Do you have the E-Machines control panel installed on your system? This enables the card's acceleration, but for me it caused crashes and video corruption and never worked stably, so I ended up disabling it. Might be worth ruling that out too.
If you're getting garbled video, try other settings on the rotary switch, there's a table of what each switch setting does at https://lowendmac.com/video/futurasx.html. I'm not sure why 1024x768 75Hz is duplicated at settings 6 and 8, or what the "Dual resolution" settings at C-F do, but it might be worth trying a lower resolution.
Do you have the E-Machines control panel installed on your system? This enables the card's acceleration, but for me it caused crashes and video corruption and never worked stably, so I ended up disabling it. Might be worth ruling that out too.
well i tried all the numbers and letters on the rotary dial with the adapter set to '678' but i'm getting nothing. interesting that since removing the e-machines control panel the distortion is gone. still no picture though.. just a black screen indicating there is a video signal, just nothing going through it.
i'm really beginning to think my card is faulty.. it only has one electrolythic cap on it next to the nubus slot, and it doesn't seem to be leaking/bulging but who knows. maybe the vram is faulty. i don't have an oscilloscope to find out.
if anyone wants to buy this card off me and/or trade it for something else send me a DM but otherwise it's going back into the parts bin : )
