Newb Apple II question

[jrwil]

Can I use an Apple IIgs with an Apple IIc monochrome monitor over the IIgs's composite out?

 

[Gorgonops]

Yes.

 

[Themk]

Yes, make sure to set display type to monochrome in the ROM control panel

 

[Gorgonops]

Note that nothing will break (IE, there's no risk of damage) if you don't change the monitor type, you'll just get some extraneous noise from the colorburst signal and a few other effects that will make the screen harder to read.

 

[Themk]

Of course it's not required, but thought it was worth mentioning, I find it easier to read, especially when using GS/OS.

Also of note is that if you don't have a clock battery, your IIgs won't save your control panel settings.

 

[jrwil]

Thanks, everybody, for the responses. I read somewhere that if you do the reverse, i.e., plug a IIgs monitor into a IIc, bad things happen. Ergo, post.

 

[Themk]

It would be rather difficult to plug the IIgs' DA-15 video connector into the IIc's composite video port. Nevertheless, there *IS* a composite pin on the DA-15 connector, that in some *really* weird roundabout way could be used to make an adaptor of sorts, and even then I doubt that the IIgs monitor uses that pin anyway.

 

[jrwil]

Ah. I will not be trying that.  [] ]'>

 

[Themk]

Even if you did try it, the likelyhood of breaking it is next to nil. You would be wiring the composite output right up to its place on the DA-15 connector, the IIgs monitor expects the computer to give that signal, so it just simply ignores it (probably by leaving it N/C)

 

[Gorgonops]

The warning about plugging a IIgs monitor into a IIc exists because the IIc *does* have a 15 pin "video expansion port" on it that you could confuse with a "normal" monitor port and, yes, plugging into that may well let the magic smoke out of either your monitor or your IIgs. The port on the IIc brings out TTL-level signals from several places in the video generation circuitry and isn't suitable for connecting any sort of "normal" monitor directly. The most famous thing sold to plug into it was the IIc's matching monochrome LCD panel, but I also believe that several RGB adaptors existed. Again, though, any such adaptor contains active circuitry.

Obviously terrible things would also happen if you were to plug your IIc LCD panel into a IIgs, but the design of the case would make you have to work really hard to pull that off.

 

[Gorgonops]

Reference:

https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/computer_video/apple-iic-video-expansion/

 

[Themk]

Whoops! I missed that. Thanks Gorgonops.