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Information about a Radius FPD SE/30 video card

Juror22

Well-known member
I have a Radius FPD SE/30 video card that I've had for a few years now and I have considered using it (if possible), but I did not know whether it required the use of a Radius monitor or whether it could be used with other monitors.

I've looked in several spots for information, but only found snippets, sales, references to other similar cards and not the information that I'm looking for.
I'll list out the specifics and hopefully someone will have access to the information that I am looking for.
IMG_5316.jpg
On the card it is listed as ASSY 632-0026-A FPDSE30.
The external connector is a DA9 (not a DA 15 like I've seen in various other Radius cards)

Does anyone know what monitors this will work with? (I Assume some form of MDA, EGA, CGA or a proprietary Radius only list)?
What is the pinout/cable descriptions for a suitable cable.
Is there a copy of the "Radius Interface Card Installation Guide" for this card that is available?
Is there any other Radius documentation specific to this card that is available?
 

bibilit

Well-known member
I am not familiar with this card but pretty sure won’t work properly without a Radius monitor hooked to it.
 

Juror22

Well-known member
What about a rgb2hdmi card
I'm building a couple of these and I did not even think of using them to drive the output. That's actually a great idea, because I'm suspicious that bibilit may be correct, which is why I was looking to find the additional documentation. Using the rgb2hdmi devices may be a way around this issue.
 

Bolle

Well-known member
It should be pretty easy to get something out of that card. From the connector it looks like you’ll have Hsync, Vsync and (TTL) video data along with 2 ground wires.

Find out which is which and hook them up to a good multisync TFT and you should get a picture.
HSync and VSync can hook up right away, video data needs some kind of simple voltage divider to get it down to VGA-ish levels and impedance.

I got a Lapis dual page display card for the SE/30 to work with a modern display that way. The card had open solder spots for the resistors to implement the voltage divider on the TTL video signal. I just had to wire it up to a VGA connector and was good to go.
 

zigzagjoe

Well-known member
Back from the dead with this thread.

Pinout (bottommost pin (near "CON1" text) is pin 1)
pin 2 gnd
pin 3 video data
pin 6 sense - pulled up ~4.7k to 5V on the card
Pin 7 hsync
Pin 9 vsync
pin 10 gnd

1710092917828.jpeg

As Bolle said a voltage divider is needed for data. Connect video data to R,G,B lines if you want to display in proper black and white. As expected the resolution is 640*864 B&W

sense line must be pulled to ground (i used a 1k resistor) for the card to detect a monitor attached.
slot id is 9, ROM attached. All GALs are protected and will need to be glitched to dump.
card does not work with either an interware booster accelerator or a diimocache, this suggest that probably few accelerators will be compatible with it.
 

Attachments

  • S27C256 1990 RADIUS INC FPD SE30 U20 297-0121-A V2.1 256K.BIN.zip
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Andy

Well-known member
Ahhh you rock! I have one too and was wondering if i could ever get it to work. Does your card always show up in the slot manager or does it need a monitor connected to it? I've never been able to get mine to show up, so hopefully it's something to do with the sense line.

I assume it needs no drivers cause it's just doing a fixed resolution and bit depth.
 

zigzagjoe

Well-known member
Ahhh you rock! I have one too and was wondering if i could ever get it to work. Does your card always show up in the slot manager or does it need a monitor connected to it? I've never been able to get mine to show up, so hopefully it's something to do with the sense line.

I assume it needs no drivers cause it's just doing a fixed resolution and bit depth.

Yes, it will not show up without the sense line connected in either Monitors or Tattletech. Meant to note that down... if you ground that line, then it ought to show up.
 

eharmon

Well-known member
Back from the dead with this thread.

Pinout (bottommost pin (near "CON1" text) is pin 1)
pin 2 gnd
pin 3 video data
pin 6 sense - pulled up ~4.7k to 5V on the card
Pin 7 hsync
Pin 9 vsync
pin 10 gnd

View attachment 70950

As Bolle said a voltage divider is needed for data. Connect video data to R,G,B lines if you want to display in proper black and white. As expected the resolution is 640*864 B&W

sense line must be pulled to ground (i used a 1k resistor) for the card to detect a monitor attached.
slot id is 9, ROM attached. All GALs are protected and will need to be glitched to dump.
card does not work with either an interware booster accelerator or a diimocache, this suggest that probably few accelerators will be compatible with it.
Are you just casually dropping a cool plasma display in that picture??

I've got a Color Pivot card I really need to reverse engineer. Similar connector but presumably normally has an HD15 on the other end.
 

zigzagjoe

Well-known member
Are you just casually dropping a cool plasma display in that picture??

I've got a Color Pivot card I really need to reverse engineer. Similar connector but presumably normally has an HD15 on the other end.
Hahaha, I wish! No, it's this little NCR POS display and me being too lazy to hook up the other color channels. It'll sync to dang near anything, including compact mac internal video (under protest, but still) so it's great for experimentation.

I've seen this pinout for the color pivot connector but not sure if it's correct.
 
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