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What is a DIN-8 PDS card in SE-30?

Strimkind

Well-known member
Found this in my latest conquest. Since the HD appears to be dead or missing (not detected and not powering up).

I don't have a photo yet, but I was wondering if anyone knew what this would be used for? I don't have the proper screwdriver ATM to open it up and find out more information.

Any assistance and/or links appreciated. I have googled and had no luck so far.

 

Strimkind

Well-known member
Does it boot off floppy, CD or an external HDD?Got "Gauge Series/SlotInfo?" :?:
It boots from Floppy. Not tried an external HD yet.

I don't have either of those programs on floppy at this moment.

Extra serial ports, perhaps?
Not a Mini-DIN, a full sized DIN (AT keyboard port style).

 

phreakout

Well-known member
The only thing that comes to mind that uses a DIN-8 connector would be either a video connection, like on the Commodore 64 (where the monitor plugs into) or it could be for an amateur radio HF rig, since most of them use an 8-pin DIN-like plug. That's what comes to my mind. I don't even recall serial connections using 8-pin DIN, unless maybe in Europe?

73s de Phreakout (KC8RLU). :rambo:

 

Strimkind

Well-known member
I think that I will have to take it apart. Since no one has ever heard of this card, I should work at getting some good photo's of it.

The guy that sold it to me said that he was told that there was an 'awesome' card in one of them.

I assume this interesting card is just that.

 

mcdermd

Well-known member
Coincidentally, my boss and I were just discussing old Atari computers and he mentioned that they used an 8-pin DIN for an external video connection also. It went to a break-out cable with four RCA jacks on the other end. He plugged his into a Commodore monitor.

 

Strimkind

Well-known member
I've done a bit more google research and the only items that reference the DIN-8 port are either power ports or video.

Most of the video references were either to Atari, Commodore, or Sega MegaDrive/Genesis.

I wonder if this is some kind of Developer card of some kind...pity that the hardware store is closed right now and I can't go buy a tool to open this.

 

Strimkind

Well-known member
Image Alert!

Here is the back of the SE-30. I hope to take it apart in the next week and find out what the card is.

IMG_1557.jpg

 

TylerEss

Well-known member
I've seen a similar connector on an SE at school years back. I was told it was for an early LCD projector panel that sat on the overhead machine.

 

H3NRY

Well-known member
Right. There was an LCD panel that went on an overhead projector, called the Kodak Datashow. I believe it used a DIN-8 to bring the Mac video out. We designed a NuBus video card that put out 512 x 342 monochrome video same as a 9" Mac to use the Datashow with a Mac II. There were a lot of strange video adapters in early days. People wanted to use their Macs with projectors for large audiences, and shooting the screen with a camera pretty much sucked...

 

mcdermd

Well-known member
Atari and Commodore used a DIN 8 cable to output what was essentially S-Video before S-Video was standardized on a 7 pin mini din. The breakout cable went into RCA-style plugs for luma and chroma.

From Wikipedia:

wikipedia.org[/url]"]Before the mini-DIN plug became standard, S-Video signals were often carried through different types of connectors. For example, the Commodore 64 home computer of the 1980s, one of the first widely available devices to feature an S-Video output, used an eight-pin connector similar to the DIN connector on the computer end and a pair of phono plugs on the monitor end. (Also available via third-party vendors was an eight-pin DIN-to-4-pin mini-DIN to connect the Commodore directly to a television.)
Seeing how it was a fairly common at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if that's all that SE/30s card is.

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
I did a bit of googling regarding a Kodak Datashow, and I did find an auction with the nubus card. However it is a dual video port card and not DIN-8.
Note the cable that comes with it terminates to a DIN plug though...

koh014e.JPG


 

Strimkind

Well-known member
Well the mystery has been solved with a bit more googling...and the results are from our own forum!

Here is an older topic from 2007 detailing the same card removed from the SE-30.

So TylerEss was right, it is a LCD overhead projector connection!

Now to figure out what kind of card is in the other unit. Need to grab that slotinfo program when I get a moment and find out!

 
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