pal/ntsc

[Intymike]

So no issue with the av out?

 

Works fine with a LCD display and a B&O PAL CRT. On one of my Amiga CRTs it was only b/w. I have to do further testing. But the picture is almost as good as the output from my RGB Intelli.

[Intymike]

You may be asked to supply schematics and internal pictures of these mods.

 

How's your electrical retro-engineering skills?

 

No engineering skills and I don't want to put apart for now.

[Intymike]

[stc2009]

OK I cannot comment yet on NTSC to PAL RF signal tuning but using a hairdressers' clipper power adaptor I have been able to use a moded INTY2 really well. (and use Gripp's awesome joystick for the first time)

 

I'll try to get photos to prove this but the power and frequency converter (see ebay 221586408290 for reference) works a treat and is available in Australia and the UK. Its not stated anywhere but I checked with the supplier and the unit provides 75W of output power at 110V and 60Hz, which is more than enough for the Inty 2 power pack.

[pimpmaul69]

Nm. Read it wrong

Edited November 13, 2014 by pimpmaul69

[Greg2600]

Would one be able to plug a PAL ECS into a NTSC Intellivision?

[+intvsteve]

Sure. ECS doesn't actually produce any video. The only thing is the power supply for the ECS, which shouldn't be much of a problem. I don't have a brown ECS ( ). Isn't it identical other than the color? Though I do wonder about the clock for the sound chip... not sure about that.

Edited January 5, 2015 by intvsteve

[+intvnut]

Sure. ECS doesn't actually produce any video. The only thing is the power supply for the ECS, which shouldn't be much of a problem. I don't have a brown ECS ( ). Isn't it identical other than the color? Though I do wonder about the clock for the sound chip... not sure about that.

 

There's a clock-out from the Intellivision that drives various clock-driven things in the ECS, particularly the PSG. I think it also drives the UART clock.

[Greg2600]

 

There's a clock-out from the Intellivision that drives various clock-driven things in the ECS, particularly the PSG. I think it also drives the UART clock.

 

so is that a no?

[+intvnut]

 

so is that a no?

 

I'm saying the brown and white ECS should have identical electronics. The different pitch on the PSG should come from whatever type of Intellivision it's plugged into, rather than something different about the ECS itself.

[+Lathe26]

I use my brown ECS with my NTSC Intv all the time.

 

My understanding is that there is no difference between the brown and white ECS hardware other than the cosmetic color change and what power brick came with it (I use my US ECS power brick to power my brown ECS, not the Italian power brick that is incompatible with US power).

 

The only real difference comes from whether the ECS is plugged into a NTSC or PAL Intv. This skews the baud rate of the ECS UART. I believe it gets skewed enough that a tape or WAV file recorded from an ECS on one type of NTSC/PAL Intv can not be read by an ECS connected to the opposite type of Intv.

 

Note: this is just what I've read. I have not confirmed this.

[Greg2600]

I'm saying the brown and white ECS should have identical electronics. The different pitch on the PSG should come from whatever type of Intellivision it's plugged into, rather than something different about the ECS itself.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

 

I use my brown ECS with my NTSC Intv all the time.

 

My understanding is that there is no difference between the brown and white ECS hardware other than the cosmetic color change and what power brick came with it (I use my US ECS power brick to power my brown ECS, not the Italian power brick that is incompatible with US power).

 

The only real difference comes from whether the ECS is plugged into a NTSC or PAL Intv. This skews the baud rate of the ECS UART. I believe it gets skewed enough that a tape or WAV file recorded from an ECS on one type of NTSC/PAL Intv can not be read by an ECS connected to the opposite type of Intv.

 

Note: this is just what I've read. I have not confirmed this.

 

Damn, forgot about the power brick!

[+intvnut]

I use my brown ECS with my NTSC Intv all the time.

 

My understanding is that there is no difference between the brown and white ECS hardware other than the cosmetic color change and what power brick came with it (I use my US ECS power brick to power my brown ECS, not the Italian power brick that is incompatible with US power).

 

The only real difference comes from whether the ECS is plugged into a NTSC or PAL Intv. This skews the baud rate of the ECS UART. I believe it gets skewed enough that a tape or WAV file recorded from an ECS on one type of NTSC/PAL Intv can not be read by an ECS connected to the opposite type of Intv.

 

Note: this is just what I've read. I have not confirmed this.

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is more or less correct. I'm just not sure on the UART.

 

The thing that has me scratching my head is the fact that I decoded a bunch of Italian computer club ECS tapes for another collector, but their pitches and timings matched my NTSC ECS. (300 baud, 2400Hz/4800Hz tones, which work fine with my NTSC setup.) I seem to recall Arnauld's experiments with the tape unit used those same parameters. I don't currently have a disassembled ECS handy to look at, so I don't know if there's a dedicated oscillator on there just for the tape side. But given that 300, 2400 and 4800 are all power-of-2 multiples of each other, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's an oscillator dedicated to the tape unit. And it's something you could do w/out a crystal even and be "close enough."

 

Ian Holborough (IIRC) has pointed out that the on his PAL system, the 1200 baud printer serial port runs at 1341 baud, which is what I'd expect given the 4.0 / 3.5759545 ratio between CPU clocks. I've never actually verified that.

 

In any case, I'm pretty sure the PSG must use the Intellivision-provided clock, otherwise music that uses both PSGs would make you want to claw your ears out....

Edited January 6, 2015 by intvnut