Durosity’s conquests and collection

[Durosity]

Hum, I think the stand on mine is similar but different. I'm trying to think how. It's away as sadly the flyback is failing. They're lovely screens. Does your card have enough VRAM to do 256 greys?

Congratulations on the acquisition

This one seems almost unused. No burn in on the CRT when illuminated with my UV lamp.

Alas no, it doesn’t have the VRAM upgrade.. I was wondering about that a while ago with my portrait display card (which is almost identical) but I couldn’t find any documentation of what chips it would use for that upgrade!

 

[mg.man]

no, it doesn’t have the VRAM upgrade..

What cards are you using? A pic will suffice.

 

[Phipli]

Alas no, it doesn’t have the VRAM upgrade.. I was wondering about that a while ago with my portrait display card (which is almost identical) but I couldn’t find any documentation of what chips it would use for that upgrade!

What cards are you using? A pic will suffice.

My source of NEC D41264c-12 chips has dried up - what's left on eBay is a bit expensive in the quantity needed for a card. Probably be cheaper to ask around if anyone has a Toby card you can have and harvest the VRAM from it.

 

[mg.man]

Will -15s work - or are they too slow?

If they'll work, £20 for qty 10 doesn't seem too bad --

https://ebay.io/m/rU3PY6

 

[Phipli]

Will -15s work - or are they too slow?

If they'll work, £20 for qty 10 doesn't seem too bad --

https://ebay.io/m/rU3PY6

Weird, I searched without speed and that listing didn't show.

Yes, -15 parts are fast enough

@Durosity - get them before everyone else does!

(Or steal them from a Toby, because despite what eBay thinks, I don't think anyone truly believes a Toby is worth £20)

 

[Durosity]

Will -15s work - or are they too slow?

If they'll work, £20 for qty 10 doesn't seem too bad --

https://ebay.io/m/rU3PY6

Weird, I searched without speed and that listing didn't show.

Yes, -15 parts are fast enough

@Durosity - get them before everyone else does!

(Or steal them from a Toby, because despite what eBay thinks, I don't think anyone truly believes a Toby is worth £20)

Oh! How exciting. I can't buy anything right now, financially things are rather fragile right now, but I'll keep it in mind for the future.. hopefully things will improve soon. Alas I don't have any spare toby cards that could be used for parts at present.

 

[Phipli]

Oh! How exciting. I can't buy anything right now, financially things are rather fragile right now, but I'll keep it in mind for the future.. hopefully things will improve soon. Alas I don't have any spare toby cards that could be used for parts at present.

Understood

I realise I mean 16 greys instead of 256 (up from the stock 4 greys) - I'm forgetting my TPD characteristics. When I was getting 256 greys it was being driven from a 630 internal video with way more VRAM.

This is my card :

​

This it before being upgraded (4 shades of grey) :

​

Then I upgraded it (set to colours in the photo, but you should set to greys because some "colours" look the same and waste your pallette) :

​

This is the previous sample image again in 16 greys. 16 greys is sort of equivalent to 256 colours in how well it transitions between shades.

​

 

[Durosity]

Yeah that’d make quite a difference. I’d love to upgrade it (and my Portrait Display card).. hopefully one day

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

View attachment 100406
So today I got a Two Page Monochrome Display. I already had the NuBus card and cable, so when the display appeared I snapped it up.

It has a weird base.. it was clearly designed for using on top of the Macintosh II case as it’s the same width and depth, but it’s offset to the side. And even weirder if the monitor is on the left side of the case. It won’t spin round to be straight on with the front of the Macintosh II, it’s like 1-2° off. It’s very weird! But I like it!

The base is set up like that so the air intake vents on the II series cases aren't blocked by the display base. The feet raise it up off the deck so that air is drawn in from all sides to make up for the partial blockage.

 

[Durosity]

The base is set up like that so the air intake vents on the II series cases aren't blocked by the display base

Aha! I knew there had to be some logical reason for it, and sure enough the vents do match up exactly!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That'd be why it doesn't swivel around far enough to use backwards, blocking the vents.
IIRC, they made a version of the base for use with any CRT. They're heavy and the Mac II wasn't engineered to support the weight of a monitor much heavier than the beautiful little 13"(?) Color Display.

A TPD sits much too high atop a Mac II for comfortable use. That base really belongs on the desk. Looks like it fits the footprint of the CRT itself? In this config. the center of the display would be where it belongs.



In the day, you'd put the smaller color display atop the CPU with a TPD on an ergonomically correct tilt/swivel base next to it in a DTP config. Speaking of DTP, IIci was produced far longer than other Macs, well past expected expiration date. Outliving the IIfx and discontinued just 44 days before the Quadra 700 was discontinued!

IIcx and IIci cases were better suited for monitor on top in the case of the little color display putting the center just a tad high, but just fine for spot color with TPD as main screen. They're much too high for a Portrait or TPD to be used comfortably.

 

[Durosity]

That'd be why it doesn't swivel around far enough to use backwards, blocking the vents.

Yep!

A TPD sits much too high atop a Mac II for comfortable use. That base really belongs on the desk. Looks like it fits the footprint of the CRT itself?

Actually, at least for me, it sits at exactly the right height and angle for where I have that Mac positioned. The footprint of the base is exactly the same dimensions as the top of the Macintosh II/x/fx, so along with the gap for the vent Apple clearly intended it to be used mounted upon the top of the computer.

 

[Durosity]

(Or steal them from a Toby, because despite what eBay thinks, I don't think anyone truly believes a Toby is worth £20)

So I've been trying to do a little tidying of my workshop and I've found two toby cards I had no idea I had. Interestingly one is a later revision than the other.. seems to have been made in 1988 and has all the VRAM slots populated with soldered in chips. I think that'll make a good donor card for my portrait and 2 page display cards. There's nothing special I need to know about the transfer is there?

 

[Phipli]

There's nothing special I need to know about the transfer is there?

Pick which eight you take to leave the card working. I believe you want to remove the lower eight? (Not having seen which card you have).

The card will still do 16 colours then. Might be worth adding sockets to it, then you can swap the chips back and forth if you ever need to for any reason. Not that there aren't a massive number of cards more useful and compatible than a Toby (although the late model ones are slightly more compatible with monitors than the older ones - I can't remember, but something like they added support for separate sync instead of just Sync on Green, perhaps also support for 512*384?).

 

[Phipli]

Ah, just realised you're planning to take all 16 chips. I'd still add sockets so you can put them back if you want to for any reason.

 

[Durosity]

Ah, just realised you're planning to take all 16 chips. I'd still add sockets so you can put them back if you want to for any reason.

I imagine that the sockets would probably cost more than those chips that were linked to before.. but I suppose it could be done at some point in the future. Plus it’s only a toby card.

 

[Phipli]

I imagine that the sockets would probably cost more than those chips that were linked to before.. but I suppose it could be done at some point in the future. Plus it’s only a toby card.

Nah, sockets for that aren't bad. Quick look and these are £5 for 20. Probably find something cheaper if I kept looking, or if you buy direct from China.

https://ebay.io/m/uaCbi2

 

[Durosity]

I’ll consider it!