IIsiColorPivotII_PDS_Card_HackProject™

[techknight]

Well the LC card wont go directly into the SE/30 PDS. the wiring is 110% different, However all the signals appear to be the same. So to make this work, I have to make an adapter PCB with the eurocard connectors on each end, and wiring adaptations.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nah! Too complicated for a first run. Just solder all your patch wire connections to the Zener holes and solder cones on the SuperMac PDS adapter card and wire wrap them to the LC board's pins for a quick-n-dirty proof of concept, shouldn't even hurt the NIC!

Just start a freakin' thread already! :lol:

 

[techknight]

And you think thats not complicated? I HATE wire-wrapping. I absolutely despise it. Id rather run a PCB, only because ive ran PCBs who knows how many different projects, company and hobby related.

im just going to make a couple PDS to ribbon breakout boards. This way, I can plug FFC ribbons into the boards. Plug it in 1 set for streight-through, and plug them into another set for PDS to LC.

Ill start a thread when I get started on the project. stop hounding me. lol.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

:lol: Somebody beat you to the punch already, and it wasn't me this time around! ;D

I'll try to get a diagram done before I leave tomorrow and get it posted in uni's pushy thread. If you noodle out the connections, I'm prepared to sacrificially behead (desolder the connector) one of my LC NICs and do a thru-hole<->thru-hole NastyHack.! [}] ]'>

 

[techknight]

:lol: Somebody beat you to the punch already, and it wasn't me this time around! ;D
I'll try to get a diagram done before I leave tomorrow and get it posted in uni's pushy thread. If you noodle out the connections, I'm prepared to sacrificially behead (desolder the connector) one of my LC NICs and do a thru-hole<->thru-hole NastyHack.! [}] ]'>

Yea, well ya know, it happens. You snooze you lose. LOL }

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, if you toss an idea out there in this joint the jackals are on it before the meat from the lion's kill gets cold. It took a while, but look at what has been accomplished in terms of collaborative efforts in just this one thread! [] ]'>

 

[techknight]

But you know what though, I am proud of the people here. They have accomplished things that I only dreamed of, and some of which I started but never finished. That kinda does make me feel tiny as a mouse, but hey at least they got completed by others with the same ambition. Some of the projects I inspired or came up with a couple ideas and never followed through but it still got taken as far as completion. Serial disk driver being one of em, and i remember starting the PS/2 to bus mouse thing, which someone else finished using a different approach.

I remember starting the thing on recapping, and repairing otherwise dead SE/30s from mobo issues, Then look where uniserver took it after i couldnt keep going.

Now I got feelers out there for LC Ethernet, hopefully I finish it, if not, im sure someone else will. After that, Imagine a PDS or SCSI USB host controller? now THAT would be something...

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That was exactly my sentiment, all I really did here was snag an SE/30 card with cable, buy a bunch of cheap IIsi cards, buzz the connections and explore the possibilities. Everything else was done by other interested parties. "Jackals" would be a term of endearment coming from me, sounds like a Paramilitary Technical Special Forces Unit designation a la 68kMLA from my end of things.

I'm proud of the gang here, we've come a long way baby! :approve:

 

[uniserver]

interested parties. "Jackals" would be a term of endearment coming from me

 

[tsillay]

Good Sh*t Guys..!!

I've got a couple of pds riser cards on the way, and one of Doug's rom burners.

Next stop, internal grayscale.. It's gonna have to wait until after the hols for now.

 

[uniserver]

well until techknight does the se/30 greyscale. I got my IIsi back together.

because my AUI port is already in use, i did the second best thing…

doesn't look too bad :lol:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

There's a simple solution to your cabling setup, uni.

If any RCRII/IIsi hacker lacks a MultiSync Pivoting LCD Display, 16" Mac Video is likely your best bet . . .

. . . though there are exceptions! }

Procedure:

1) desolder the ThinNet connector on the NIC's I/O card to free up its hole on the cover plate

2) lop the HD-15 connector off one end of a thin, flexible VGA cable

3) route that cable end through the hole and bend it around/past the NIC's I/O card

I haven't worked out the diagram, but it should be simple enough

4) pull plenty of wire through the access path for elbow room

5) do your Macintosh -> VGA adaptation in-cable, actually ON-cable would be a better description

______solder as many of the stripped, straight thru VGA connections as possible directly to the Pivot Card

______wire sense line jumper Voodoo as needed at the same junction point

6) test until you've got everything set up perfectly

7) pull slack back through the access point until it's just so and strain relieve it with hot glue

Results: a "string" of PDS cards that are linked together by the VGA Cable, but removable from IIsi or SE/30 by pulling the VGA cable through.

If you're anywhere near as irreverent about Mac hardware, peripherals and expansion card as I am when it comes to keeping them stock/pristine, which is a good bet if you've followed this NiC hackin' post to this point, you might also consider using a nibbler on the flat side of the NIC's backplane cover plate so the cards won't be strung together at all, or not. I'll likely wait for a good reason to munch that section out of my NIC's @$$ end.

I've got several of the Asante Mac Con 30ie MCPT cards with the highly valued PDS passthru connector (the SE/30 crowd is in love with these things) and convenient, removable ThickNet passthru section I posted earlier in the thread.

However, I'll almost certainly be using this method with my SSI NIC in the SuperIIsi™ for a variety of reasons. It's a less valuable card because it lacks the PDS passthru, which is a big plus in my application because tall RA connector will not be adversely impacting the level of the cards flat stacked very closely across the solder side of the IIsi MoBo. Its I/O PCB will work out better for the Rocket/SCSI_II DaughterCard installation. It looks like I can cut the large AUI section out of the I/O card PCB for access to the SCSI_II connector and I'll still have the 10bT connector on one side and the VGA Cable conveniently coming out the other side of the )somewhat subterranean) SCSI_II connector.

Dunno, we'll see, this thread started as a single component subset of my SuperIIsi™ project . . .

. . . along with my burning curiosity about proving macmetex' SE/30 compatibility theory . . .

. . . thereby increasing the value of his buckets-o-pivot cards! :lol:

No connection to seller other than as an sometime email pal and obvious seller/customer relationship on eBay, BTW.

 

[techknight]

Greyscale:

the sync signals have to be inverted, so youll need a 74HC04 of some sorts on the H/V Sync going to the monitor. Unless you modify the AB to accept straight signalling.

Also the video amplifier stage is a shunt-peaked based design which will work fine with an analog signal, however, the NAND gate that couples it has to be unhooked, as the NAND gate is digital. greyscale is analog. Once the nand is unhooked from the circuit, and the video amp is coupled directly to the signal coming from the video card, it in theory should work fine. Also the R-G-B signals need mixed with 3 100ohm resistors tied together into the video amplifier stage.

For Added bonus points: Run these signals, including the SENSE signals in analog muxing circuitry employing 4053s. This will allow you to switch the internal greyscale off back into standard on-board video and route to the external video connector. So if you dont want greyscale, you can switch it back to normal and use an external color monitor, by the flip of a toggle-switch.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Are you saying it might be possible to hack the connector cable interface a/o the A/B to output 128 brightness levels on a pixel by pixel basis to the stock CRT cathode board?

Might any of this be useful? http://www.dsbelec.iinet.net.au/amplifoneDB.htm

 

[techknight]

Possible? its probable. Back in 2005 i think it was, I was modifying an SE analog board to run VGA, I never was fully successful because the resonance of the horizontal circuit isnt compatible with the VGA signalling and caused serious linearity issues, but vertical worked. And the picture was perfectly fine grayscale wise with the original video amplifier.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Cool Beans! I might even end up wanting a Grayscale/External Color Monitor (second RCPII/IIsi) SE/30 just to stuff some of my toys into! ;D

 

[techknight]

Grayscale on the Micron Xceed




That shows the schematic of the Micron video board, which would work perfectly if we replicate it.

 

[uniserver]

Awesome.. looks like there there is a cable too...

 

[techknight]

I think the easiest thing for me to do, as I have a scrap plus here, I can use the CRT Socket from the plus, to go to a video amp board employing that circuit. In theory, it should work just fine. As long as I can set the ID codes to 512x342. Since the plus doesnt use a PCB, and only a socket with wires I can use that.

Why is the plus scrap? Well I have another plus, the front has a nice split/crack in it, the flyback anode cap is broken, and most of the caps are bad. So hey, why not?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'm glad I checked every possibility for the RCPII/IIsi on that first page, 12" RGB is turning out to be its hottest feature. I've yet to see any mention of the card at all, other than the radius Vintage Documents page. Nothing about it on LEM and I can't find anything on it on everymac. Has anyone got any kind of info on it?

Found another doozie reviewing the linked page:

Q: What does the "Reduced Mode" option in the Soft Pivot control panel Do?
A: "Reduced Mode" reduces the screen size from 870x640 to 816x640. The altered screen size allows more memory to be allocated to bit depth, thereby allowing for an increase in the amount of colors available. This is not offered if the pivot is connected to an AV-style Macintosh.

I'm in Philly, nowhere near my toys to test this, I'm wondering if we can squeeze 16bit Color out of the Pivot Card at 816x640? It does the 870x640 Portrait Res in 8bit just fine. With the right pivot software, we might coax landscape 816x640@16bit out of the Pivot card and onto a MultiSync CRT or LCD screen, dunno. I'll have to try it out on the 1600x1200 20"MultiSync Pivot LCD, that's pretty darn close to a 3x4 aspect ratio.

Can't even check the card models against the software, AFAIK. I'll be back in the HackLab later in the week.

Can anyone check this out beforehand? :?: