SE/30 with RasterOps video board

[amedeo_68k]

Hi everybody, I got an SE/30 with RasterOps Colorboard installed.
The first thing I did is to remove the PRAM battery, the unit works, but needs some recap that I plan to do really soon.

I would like to ask an info about the Rasterops (fw 1.3)




I see that internally the metal plate has a spare side for a VGA DB-15 connector




So I would like to redo the board to connector cable installing a standard VGA port.

Does anyone knows the board side pinout ? ( probably I could test the other port and figure out, but may be I need some config resistor to put in ).

One more question, in another SE/30 I have the Asante MacCon with passthrough, so in theory (please correct me if I'm wrong) electrically I could connect both boards, but mechanically they would not fit, at least I would need a L shaped adaptor, ideas ?

Thank you
Amedeo

 

[CompactManiac]

Did you ever figure out what the board side pinout is for the internal cable?
I too have the same RasterOps 264 colorboard in my SE/30 and would like to make a modification.

As far as I am aware this is the pinout for Mac DB-15 and VGA connectors:

Signal	Mac	VGA
Red video	2	1
Red ground	1	6
Green video	5	2
Green ground	6	7
Blue video	9	3
Blue ground	13	8
HSYNC	15	13
HSYNC ground	14	5
VSYNC	12	14
CSYNC	3	NC
VSYNC/CSYNC ground	11	10
Sense 0	4	NC
Sense 1	7	NC
Sense 2	10	NC
Ground	shell	shell

 

[halkyardo]

I have the same card in my SE/30, here's the pinout, copied from some notes I've been accumulating on the card.

Looking at the component side of the card with the PDS connector facing to the left, the pins are numbered as follows:

 ---------------
| 2  4  6  8 10 |
| 1  3  5  7  9 |
 ------   ------

ColorBoard 264 pin	Signal	DA-15 Mac video	DE-15 VGA video
1	Red	2	1
2	Red ground	1	6
3	Monitor sense 1	7	- (note 1)
4	Composite sync	3	13 (note 2)
5	Green	5	2
6	Monitor sense 0	4	Ground (note 1)
7	No connection	8	- (note 3)
8	Green ground	6	7
9	Blue	9	3
10	Blue ground	3	8

Note 1: The monitor sense bits are not compatible with VGA (and are only a partial implementation of the full Mac video sense scheme). The card seems to ignore sense bit 1, and uses sense bit 0 to switch between 15KHz NTSC-like timings (pin 0 floating), or 640×480 67Hz non-interlaced (pin 0 grounded). With its incomplete sense scheme, the ColorBoard can only tell the difference between these two monitor types, and cannot detect the presence or absence of a display at all!

Note 2: Technically, VGA pin 13 is for horizontal sync. Most (but not all) monitors will also accept a composite sync signal on this pin. On some monitors you may also need to connect this signal to VGA pin 14 (vertical sync) or use a sync separator to turn it into true separate horizontal and vertical sync.

Note 3: Pin 8 on the Mac monitor connector is officially designated a no-connect. The fact that it's connected up to *something* on the ColorBoard is interesting, but I haven't traced where it goes to yet.

 

[CompactManiac]

Great stuff - thanks!

I read your notes and laughed especially the bit about the handmade cable!
It's that cable that I think is causing my issue which is I occasionally get a green tinted display instead of beautiful 24 bit colour.
I've confirmed it's not the monitor or the external cable as they both work fine with other Macintosh computers producing a stable colour picture.
It feels like a loose or dry joint in probably the DB-15 end of the cable because when I plug the external cable in again it usually resolves itself.
I got this card second hand almost 30 years ago and I think the previous owner may have tugged the cable at one point and caused a loose or bad joint as it has always been a bit sensitive.

I also share your pain about the card causing the SE/30 to always think there is a monitor connected even when you disconnect the external monitor, leading to the mouse vanishing off screen if you move to where the extra screen used to reside. This is particularly baffling if you haven't used the SE/30 in a long time and have forget it even had the card fitted or which side you positioned the external monitor to reside via Monitors Control Panel.