VGA to DA-15 (Not the other way around) Adapter

[Michael_b]

This adapter should let that work, presuming the card is old enough and it's the Mac version of the card and you're using it in a Mac. (I've been meaning to try this with vtools  and/or my tibook and the  Macintosh Color Display 14/16 or AudioVision 14).

As far as I know, there aren't versions of these with DIP switches.  The regular VGA monitor on old mac adapters with DIP switches are for using multiscan  monitors and non-mac monitors on macs that expect certain sense pin configurations. (Mac II stuff, early LCs, that kind of thing.)

The one I linked was VGA Computer --->  DB15 monitor, not vice versa, and it does have DIP switches.

I should have looked more closely at what I linked, however, as the last photo shows a table with DIP settings - which begs the question, what do the completely "passive" (ie no DIPs) adapters lack that the DIPed adapters provide...

 

[Cory5412]

Ah, my bad, I missed that link entirely.

None of those modes is for a 12-inch adapter.

The thing that I think lets the passive pin adapters work is that newer multiscan macs can still recognize the sense pin configurations of the older monitors. In general this worked with video cards that were for Macs, and I've seen success with that kind of adapter on, say, the portrait display and an early-mid powermac g4. (I don't remember the model, mac84 on twitter was showing it off at some point last year, and I thiink it's in one of their videos.)

That's why you need a Mac specific card from an era when that compatibility was still expected to be present to do it, and why the old fixed-sync displays are, as far as I know, never going to work with modern computers or generic PCs. (Even though using an MCD16 or so would be great as a putty sideboard.)

 

[Michael_b]

Ah, my bad, I missed that link entirely.

None of those modes is for a 12-inch adapter.

The thing that I think lets the passive pin adapters work is that newer multiscan macs can still recognize the sense pin configurations of the older monitors. In general this worked with video cards that were for Macs, and I've seen success with that kind of adapter on, say, the portrait display and an early-mid powermac g4. (I don't remember the model, mac84 on twitter was showing it off at some point last year, and I thiink it's in one of their videos.)

That's why you need a Mac specific card from an era when that compatibility was still expected to be present to do it, and why the old fixed-sync displays are, as far as I know, never going to work with modern computers or generic PCs. (Even though using an MCD16 or so would be great as a putty sideboard.)

I have seen examples of the fixed sync displays working with a modern Mac, however, you have to design a (very simple) active adapter to make it work - here is an example in French.

I imagine that there must be at least one DIP configuration that is functionally identical to the passive adapters, no? Thus making the DIP adapter worth the extra $6, maybe.

OTOH, if I can purchase a cheap passive adapter, would rather just do that. 

 

[Cory5412]

Wild, but, if it was going to work at all that kind of work would be the thing that would make it happen.

What video card are you looking to use it with? Is it the AGP Rage128 or another one? I've been meaning to test the MCD16 with the passive Apple adapter on my G4, mostly because it would be convenient to free up my MS20 for different computers.

One other thing to note is that the 12-inch monochrome  monitor on the French page takes 640x480, the 12-inch color monitor expects 512x384. Mac OS 9 and OS X even from the OSXPPC era will switch (begrudgingly) to that res (I ran a small TV off my tibook that way as a chat window for a while) but I don't know if anything on intel will.

 

[Michael_b]

Wild, but, if it was going to work at all that kind of work would be the thing that would make it happen.

What video card are you looking to use it with? Is it the AGP Rage128 or another one? I've been meaning to test the MCD16 with the passive Apple adapter on my G4, mostly because it would be convenient to free up my MS20 for different computers.

One other thing to note is that the 12-inch monochrome  monitor on the French page takes 640x480, the 12-inch color monitor expects 512x384. Mac OS 9 and OS X even from the OSXPPC era will switch (begrudgingly) to that res (I ran a small TV off my tibook that way as a chat window for a while) but I don't know if anything on intel will.

Looks like the card is a GeForce2 MX from a Quicksilver, which is newer than I remembered. It is a genuine Apple card. 

I’m looking to use the same monochrome display as the French guy, so if the passive adapter doesn’t get things working I’ll use his solution with a modern Mac.

 

[Cory5412]

The passive adapter should work, but "soon" I'll go ahead and pull out my MCD14 (which should have the same or similar modes as the 12-inch monochrome display) and shut down vtools and turn it back on with that display connected to see what happens. I forgot what video card or system mac84 was using.

At worst, there are PCI cards that have DA15 output from the blue-and-white era that were expressly for using it with older displays (it was a side-grade from the rage128 in a couple early edu configs, also had analog video in/out) and the rage128s (both pci and agp) should work with the passive Apple/ATi adapters.