Jump to content
IGNORED

New development: GTIA in CPLD


Simius

Recommended Posts

Got my cable in the mail today (1:1 DB9) and connected it to my 1084s. Sophia jumper 1 open or closed, jumper 2 open. I can see the blue background and the yellow letters, but it's rolling all over the place. Both horizontally and vertically. It seems there is no hsync/vsync.

 

The housing of the monitor says there should be an RGB TTL/Analog switch, but there's no switch! I'm a little reluctant to open up the monitor to see if the solderpads are there :/

 

post-20947-0-16717500-1487867748_thumb.jpg

 

Edit: hmm, the 1084s without a switch should default to RGB analog (for the Amiga)

 

It looks though as somebody dremeled a hole in the back and added the DB9 themselves. The hole looks fuzzy. Perhaps they also shorted the switch to RGB TTL for the C128? Sigh.... guess I have to open it after all or get another monitor. Measured the cable and all pins are connected correctly.

Edited by ivop
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ivop - I have been working through the same issues as you with a Commodore 1084s RGB monitor.

 

To get it to work (Sophia to analog RGB on the 1084s) I built a test rig to be able to quickly try different sync combinations and came up with this:

 

Both jumpers are open on the Sophia board FYI.

 

Connected all pins straight through except no connections for pin 1, pin 6, pin 7 on either side. For pin 8 on the Sophia side (Composite sync) I wired it to pin 9 on the 1084s side (Vsync). Pin 9 on the Sophia side (Vsync) and pin 8 on the 1084s side (Hsync) are not connected to anything.

 

Hope the makes sense. The image seems pretty stable and sharp. Seems a little 'swimmy' but my test rig is not as good as a soldered cable I'm guessing. I have to try it for a while.

 

-Bill

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Connected all pins straight through except no connections for pin 1, pin 6, pin 7 on either side. For pin 8 on the Sophia side (Composite sync) I wired it to pin 9 on the 1084s side (Vsync). Pin 9 on the Sophia side (Vsync) and pin 8 on the 1084s side (Hsync) are not connected to anything.

 

Thanks! I also "breadboarded" the cable and tried all sync combinations and single sync lines, but I kept blanking connected all the time. Guess I could go back and try your suggestion, but I'm pretty content with my current setup, including audio on pin 1, too, which needs a separate connector (or even cable) on the 1084S.

 

BTW I noticed that the Sophia PCB does not fit well in a fully socketed 800XL. It's at a bit of an angle because of the 74LS158 right above it. It only touches the IC housing though, so it doesn't make any shorts. If you add a precision socket to increase the height you can clear the '158, but then it touches the keyboard and the casing won't close properly.

 

For now, I have it plugged in at a slight angle, but I'm thinking about removing the 158's socket.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got mine installed in my 5200 last night, however making a cable is out of my expertise. Would someone who knows how to make them sell me a db-9 to scart cable with the audio wired in per Simius' spec? I reached out to retro_console_accessories but I have yet to hear back from them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got mine installed in my 5200 last night, however making a cable is out of my expertise. Would someone who knows how to make them sell me a db-9 to scart cable with the audio wired in per Simius' spec? I reached out to retro_console_accessories but I have yet to hear back from them.

I messaged her too. Hopefully if others do too the cable will be available soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Question / Clarification about the SCART Spec : pins 2 & 7 are GND on DS9 correct?

 

If so then what exactly is "common shield do not short to GND" mean? Is this for the Audio GND signal? What am I NOT supposed to short to GND?

 

Both pins 2 and 7 on DB9 are GND.

post-26134-0-56510000-1488096657_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was hoping to make some progress for an install today, but looks like whoever did this S-Video mod to my unit did some pretty exhaustive work...I was thinking of keeping it in place, but I think I have to remove some of it since they took some of GTIA pins out....need to save the RGB install sometime during next month when I have a full day off. :mad: :mad: :D :D

5200.JPG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got my SOPHIA boards about a week ago and today I was able to find time to install them in my 5200 and 800XL. Very impressed with the picture quality and I'm really happy to have RGB at last for my A8s. There a few things to keep in mind though.

  • First off, the pins on the SOPHIA board are on the short side and will hardly fit in a conventional socket. I had to replace the GTIA sockets in both systems with precision sockets which fit the SOPHIA like a glove.
  • On both systems the SOPHIA board hit the top of another chip (two in the 5200's case), so I had to remove the chips in question, desolder the sockets and then solder the chips directly to the motherboard. You could avoid this on the 5200 by stacking another socket on the SOPHIA but I think you'd run into clearance issues on the 800XL.
  • I also ditched the DB9 connectors and instead soldered on a female 8-pin mini-DIN jack. This wasn't too hard and I avoided having to drill extra holes since both systems previously had S-video mods. However, if you're installing your video connector on the 5200's expansion port panel, you'll need to splice in some extra wires onto the wiring harness as the one included is kind of short.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>

 

I got my SOPHIA boards about a week ago and today I was able to find time to install them in my 5200 and 800XL. Very impressed with the picture quality and I'm really happy to have RGB at last for my A8s. There a few things to keep in mind though.

 

  • First off, the pins on the SOPHIA board are on the short side and will hardly fit in a conventional socket. I had to replace the GTIA sockets in both systems with precision sockets which fit the SOPHIA like a glove.
  • On both systems the SOPHIA board hit the top of another chip (two in the 5200's case), so I had to remove the chips in question, desolder the sockets and then solder the chips directly to the motherboard. You could avoid this on the 5200 by stacking another socket on the SOPHIA but I think you'd run into clearance issues on the 800XL.
  • I also ditched the DB9 connectors and instead soldered on a female 8-pin mini-DIN jack. This wasn't too hard and I avoided having to drill extra holes since both systems previously had S-video mods. However, if you're installing your video connector on the 5200's expansion port panel, you'll need to splice in some extra wires onto the wiring harness as the one included is kind of short.

Can you post pics of your 5200 install please? I'd like to take a similar approach particularly the 8 pin din.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's an overall view of my install, you can see how I spliced in additional wires since the wiring harness wasn't long enough.
ddiDnNN.jpg

This is a closeup of the 8-pin mini-DIN, it follows the same pinout as the mini-DIN on the Framemeister. Yes I know the capacitor on my audio jacks is crudely wired in but that was done many years ago...
U7nVatt.jpg

And here's my very crude layout of the output connector on the SOPHIA board. I left out the blanking signal, vertical sync and the extra ground signal since they weren't needed on my PVM.
ACkMpRO.jpg

Edited by ApolloBoy
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...