ande765a
Member
Well, I decided to find take my LC 475 out from my closet. While carrying out the old apple monitor, I thought: "I wish I could just hook it up to my LCD screen," and that was what I decided to do.
This is a guide for noobs like myself
I need to convert the signal from the LC to VGA, but is it even possible? I knew a lot of older Macintosh computers used a nonstandard framerate for the video output, so was converting to standard VGA even possible? After a quick google search, I found that it actually was.
To build this adapter you need the following:
a DB-15 male connector. (Was lucky to have a cable with the same type of connector. I just cut of the end)
a VGA cable
Solder
Soldering iron
This was what I found: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA48263
(From Apples website! This must be legitimate information...)
Macintosh LC VGA Connector
DB-15
2 ------------------- Red Video ---------------- 1
1 ------------------- Red Ground ---------------- 6
9 ------------------- Blue Video ---------------- 3
13 ------------------- Blue Ground ---------------- 8
5 ------------------- Green Video ---------------- 2
6 ------------------- Green Ground ---------------- 7
15 ------------------- Hsync ------------------------ 13
12 ------------------- Vsync ------------------------ 14
14 ------------------- Sync Ground ------------------ 10
10 -------------------|
7 -------------------| Connect 7 and 10 so the sense pin ID will equal VGA
But be aware! The pins might depend of which type of VGA cable you are willing to offer. I didn't have ground pins for each video signal and sync, but after some googling about what each pin on the VGA cable did, I solved the problem.
Here is what I found to be helpful:
Next, I uninsulated the wires from the VGA cable to find 9 different and figured out what pins those connected to. (Used a screwdriver with a diode, which lit up when a connection was made through the cable, to test the connected between each pin and the wire coming out in the other end of the cable. I simply held my thumb on one of the wires and on the same time touching each pin with the screwdriver to test for connection. I recommend to write down which wire connects to which) But none of these were connected to to pin 6, 8, 7 or 10.
Hmmm... Wait, they're all ground?
After some looking at what each pin was used for, I found a ground wire, which was connected to one of the VGA pins I had tested for. PIN 5 was my saving!
This was my new way to connect the wires:
2 ------------------- Red Video ------------ 1
1 ------------------- Red Ground ----------- 5
9 ------------------- Blue Video ----------- 3
13 ------------------- Blue Ground ---------- 5
5 ------------------- Green Video ---------- 2
6 ------------------- Green Ground --------- 5
15 ------------------- Hsync ---------------- 13
12 ------------------- Vsync ---------------- 14
14 ------------------- Sync Ground ---------- 5
10 ---------------- |
7 ---------------- |Connect 7 & 10 so the sense pin ID will equal VGA
I used PIN 5 as the ground for all grounds, by connecting all the ground wires to it.
Then the rest was pretty easy. Just soldering the wires from the VGA cable to the back of the DB-15 male connector in the right spots of cause.
Here are some male VGA and DB-15 (DA-15) pinouts:
DB-15 male:
VGA male:
And finally! I got an image!
This is running at 800x600x60 with 8bit color!
(I should mention that when I first connected the LC using my cable, I didn't get any image... But replacing the PRAM battery with a fresh one did the trick! )
Hope this guide was helpful for the people like myself not having too much experience soldering and etc. and not too much a pain for you experienced out there reading this huge post
I just wanted to be very specific.
- ande765a
This is a guide for noobs like myself
I need to convert the signal from the LC to VGA, but is it even possible? I knew a lot of older Macintosh computers used a nonstandard framerate for the video output, so was converting to standard VGA even possible? After a quick google search, I found that it actually was.
To build this adapter you need the following:
a DB-15 male connector. (Was lucky to have a cable with the same type of connector. I just cut of the end)
a VGA cable
Solder
Soldering iron
This was what I found: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA48263
(From Apples website! This must be legitimate information...)
Macintosh LC VGA Connector
DB-15
2 ------------------- Red Video ---------------- 1
1 ------------------- Red Ground ---------------- 6
9 ------------------- Blue Video ---------------- 3
13 ------------------- Blue Ground ---------------- 8
5 ------------------- Green Video ---------------- 2
6 ------------------- Green Ground ---------------- 7
15 ------------------- Hsync ------------------------ 13
12 ------------------- Vsync ------------------------ 14
14 ------------------- Sync Ground ------------------ 10
10 -------------------|
7 -------------------| Connect 7 and 10 so the sense pin ID will equal VGA
But be aware! The pins might depend of which type of VGA cable you are willing to offer. I didn't have ground pins for each video signal and sync, but after some googling about what each pin on the VGA cable did, I solved the problem.
Here is what I found to be helpful:
Next, I uninsulated the wires from the VGA cable to find 9 different and figured out what pins those connected to. (Used a screwdriver with a diode, which lit up when a connection was made through the cable, to test the connected between each pin and the wire coming out in the other end of the cable. I simply held my thumb on one of the wires and on the same time touching each pin with the screwdriver to test for connection. I recommend to write down which wire connects to which) But none of these were connected to to pin 6, 8, 7 or 10.
Hmmm... Wait, they're all ground?
After some looking at what each pin was used for, I found a ground wire, which was connected to one of the VGA pins I had tested for. PIN 5 was my saving!
This was my new way to connect the wires:
2 ------------------- Red Video ------------ 1
1 ------------------- Red Ground ----------- 5
9 ------------------- Blue Video ----------- 3
13 ------------------- Blue Ground ---------- 5
5 ------------------- Green Video ---------- 2
6 ------------------- Green Ground --------- 5
15 ------------------- Hsync ---------------- 13
12 ------------------- Vsync ---------------- 14
14 ------------------- Sync Ground ---------- 5
10 ---------------- |
7 ---------------- |Connect 7 & 10 so the sense pin ID will equal VGA
I used PIN 5 as the ground for all grounds, by connecting all the ground wires to it.
Then the rest was pretty easy. Just soldering the wires from the VGA cable to the back of the DB-15 male connector in the right spots of cause.
Here are some male VGA and DB-15 (DA-15) pinouts:
DB-15 male:
VGA male:
And finally! I got an image!
This is running at 800x600x60 with 8bit color!
(I should mention that when I first connected the LC using my cable, I didn't get any image... But replacing the PRAM battery with a fresh one did the trick! )
Hope this guide was helpful for the people like myself not having too much experience soldering and etc. and not too much a pain for you experienced out there reading this huge post
I just wanted to be very specific.
- ande765a
