IIfx Monitor?

[Tempest]

I just got my hands a nice looking Macintosh IIfx. It has full memory banks (not sure how much) and three NuBus cards in it, but I'm not sure what they do:

1. Says Super Mac Technology 1988 and has a video and s-video port. Obviously a video card of some sort

2. Says National Instruments 1991 NB-DMA2800 on it. Might be a SCSI card

3. Says Asante Technologies 1991 MacCont+ II E Rev. B on it. Might be a network card.

I tried hooking up my Apple Multiscan monitor to the video card and I got nothing, so I tried my Apple IIgs monitor and I was able to get a severely screwed up looking black and white picture that I was able to adjust enough to see the ? Disk image. So I guess this means that it's powering up right at least.

What kind of monitor should I use with the IIfx?

Tempest

 

[bhylak]

http://www.topmicrousa.com/apm1copl14di.html

Thats what you are gonna want to use.

 

[Tempest]

So the Apple Multiscan won't work for this?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

From the Peripherals Links Project:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22newer+technology%22+%22gauge+series%22&btnG=Google+Search

The LinksProj is a stickie topic at the top of the peripherals forum, read the second post. [] ]'>

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

So the Apple Multiscan won't work for this?

The IIfx deserves as large a monitor as you can find, a video card that'll spit out as many pixels a possible and they should be 24bit! IMHO, the only reason to buy ANYTHING as small as a 14" monitor for the fx is to set up a small, 24 bit color monitor/card combo with a 256 level grayscale TPD, as many folks did back in the day. They'd do Page Layout, CAD, HUGE Spreadsheets etc. on the Two Page Display and whatever color work they needed to do on the smaller color monitor.

20" and 21" Graphics Level CRTs went for very big bucks, even used, back in the early '90s. Most IIci DTP workstations were set up with the combo described above. However, anyone who could drop 10 grand on a IIfx (back when that was some VERY SERIOUS $) was likely doing CAD or other serious work and could afford the Big Color CRTs and the Cards to drive them.

The rest of us just drooled on the pages of our Macworld or, preferably, the MUCH better mag, MacUser! )

 

[LCGuy]

2. Says National Instruments 1991 NB-DMA2800 on it. Might be a SCSI card

Being made by National Instruments, I'd take a stab and say that this is a data acquistion card, with the GPIB interface. If you're into computer controlled electronics projects and the like, such a device is very useful. Kinda useless if you're not, though.

3. Says Asante Technologies 1991 MacCont+ II E Rev. B on it. Might be a network card.

Yep, its a network card.

As for the video card, judging by what it did with the Multiple Scan display, it sounds like that card may not be compatible with multisync displays (that is, most displays made after, say, 1993/1994). You'll want to either find a card that is compatible with multisync displays, or find an older fixed resolution Apple display.

 

[Tempest]

Sorry, this is the monitor I have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Multiple_Scan_14_Display

Multiple Scan not Multi-Sync (I was thinking of my other monitor which is an NEC Multisync). I'd like a bigger and better monitor for the IIfx, but this is what I have to work with right now. I guess I need to find a NuBus card that can support it. It's not like I'm going to be doing photoshop on it or anything, just playing games. Yes I know the IIfx is overkill for being a simple game machine, but for $15 I couldn't pass it up.

Tempest

 

[Tempest]

Actually I'm wrong again, it's an Apple Multiple Scan 15av.

 

[H3NRY]

If you are getting a picture on the IIGS monitor, the video card is probably putting out some sort of NTSC TV video. No telling what that SuperMac card is, so unless you can find a manual and software for it, you ought to look for a normal Apple NuBus video card which will work with your Apple monitor. Yeah, I know - $15 for the Mac and maybe as much or more for a video card? :scrambled: A lot of SuperMac and Radius cards were for specific proprietary monitors, though many were capable of multiple resolutions with proper software & inits.

 

[Tempest]

It's a Spectrum/8

 

[LCGuy]

Multiple Scan not Multi-Sync (I was thinking of my other monitor which is an NEC Multisync).

An Apple Multiple Scan display IS a multisync display, a multisync display is any monitor that is not fixed at a certain resolution (unlike the old Apple displays, which were fixed at a certain resolution, and couldn't use any other resolution), just that Apple chose to call them Multiple Scan displays rather than multisync.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

What you need is a "Mac Liberty Adapter", or its equivalent, They plug into any DB-15 Apple Video Port and have either an HD-15 SVGA Connector or another DB-15 Apple Video Port on the other side of their simple, Rotary Dial a/o DIP Switch selectable, sense pin rerouting circuitry.

The adapters, with the HD-15 recepticle output, can masquerade as just about any Fixed Resolution Apple Monitor ever made. Which in turn allows you to hook up just about any Multi-Sync SVGA Monitor that's ever been made to just about any Mac Video Card ever made!

The DB-15 <-> DB-15 version lets you hoodwink just about any Mac Video Card into thinking a Mac "MultiScan" monitor is whatever Fixed-Res Monitor it's expecting to see.

Me likes these sneaky lil' adapters! :evil: :rambo: :approve: )

 

[H3NRY]

A Spectrum 8 and a Multi-Scan monitor ought to work together. Get one of those 15-pin to 15-pin adapters and set it to emulate the basic Apple 13" RGB display to start with. Actually, I'm a bit surprised it didn't work without an adapter.

 

[Tempest]

It could just be a bad card or the card was loose. I know the monitor works though. I'll try again tomorrow.

Tempest

 

[aftermac]

Here's a bit of information I just found:

Q: When I connect my display to my Spectrum card, instead of getting a usable picture, I get a distorted, scrambled image. I know the monitor is supposed to be compatible with this card -- what else do I have to do?

A: SuperMac cards must be configured for the specific display to which they are connected. If you move the card to a different slot in your Mac, connect a different monitor to it, or zap your Mac's PRAM, you will need to reconfigure the card to output the proper signals and timings required by your display. To reconfigure your SuperMac card, hold down your keyboard's Option key at startup. Continue to hold down the Option key until the "Round Robin" configuration cycle begins. When you see an image of a keyboard that is clear, centered, and at the resolution you want to use, press the Space bar. The computer will then restart, and the card and display should now be properly configured.

It's on this page: http://www.vintagemacworld.com/radius/spectrum.html

 

[H3NRY]

COOL! I think I have a Spectrum in my pile o' curiosities, so that's good to know.

 

[Bunsen]

I assume that only works if you have the Radius drivers installed.

You may find more information on your card here: http://www.lowendmac.com/video/

 

[aftermac]

I assume that only works if you have the Radius drivers installed.
You may find more information on your card here: http://www.lowendmac.com/video/

That was my thought at first, but if you read further down the page it mentions using a boot floppy to load an OS so the computer can recognize the option key if you can't boot from your HD.

 

[ppuskari]

Nope, if you can boot and get the machine to start recognizing the adb keyboard for the option key, it does just that. Puts up a rotation of screens and tells you the resolution and bit depth and when you hit the space bar it locks that setting in. Pretty cool feature. I have 2 or three of these boards and had the same issues until I figured out the option thing. No drivers needed at that point. It's got to be in the display card rom that sets up that hook at boot time.

Mine came from a local graphic artist friend back in the day when he upgraded to a Thunder IV... I'm still looking to get that card. One day!