Consolized Virtual Boy anaglyph test partially successful

[tripletopper]

Hello early or today between 2:00 and 3:00 Eastern I did a test of my consoleized Virtual Boy, and a makeshift no solder Jerry rig way to make the left and right eyes merge into an anaglyph picture.

 

I had to use three different VGA to BNC connectors with the red green blue vertical and horizontal all a separate BNC connectors.

 

Then I hooked up BNC connectors the following way.  Left eye gets red vertical and horizontal, well right eye gets green and blue.

 

When I played it it was enough of a success where I actually got something on the TV.  The red image was standing still however the cyan image was rolling horizontally from left to right.  It was also scrolling over once it reached the right hand border.

 

For like maybe two or three seconds I had perfect 3D.  That was when the cyan was really close to the center where the red was supposed to be.

 

So maybe do a couple things I bought some bnc y-adapters, and try plugging in horizontal and vertical sync to both,   and if one of the two TVs has both verticals or horizontals plugged in it said signal out of range reduce resolution.

 

So obviously based on my amateurish knowledge of electronics, if you plug it into two vertical or horizontal syncs it changes the resolution.

 

I also noticed something really weird on my VGA cables that I got back from my professional installer.  One of the VGA pins is missing in all three the same pin in all three if face stuff like a rocket it's in the center column fourth one from the top so just above where the rocket booster.

 

I haven't kept track of all data points, but when I switch the left and the right and when I switch which one gets the horizontal and which one gets the vertical weird things begin to happen like for example the other eye moves, or scrolls from right to left.

 

It's like when you plug a V and H in one device one picture is guaranteed still.  But something weird happens when you split it.

 

Maybe here's an interesting question.

 

Based on what I read of the 15 pins the 15 pins have a red green blue data,  red green blue returns, hsync vsink, since the red green and blue have both outgoing data and incoming returns.  And if I'm correct most of these RF standards are considered two polar meaning there's a regular signal and a ground signal embedded on each of those devices.  And since a lot of these analog standards are cross compatible, maybe there's a way to split the v-sync and h-sync in two separate lanes for two separate directions and selectively hook up resync in and resync out so that the chips get the right signal.

 

Also I noticed the focus bar has been removed on the consoleized Virtual Boy.  No one decided to work on the focus bar because no one was crazy enough to try both eyes at once until I came along.

 

I don't know exactly where to go from here but I know there's very many smart people on Atari age, and I reported the results I got accurately if you put the sink vsync and async into the same device and put the red green and blue straight from one to the other without y splitting  anything, the red picture looks great but the cyan picture scrolls a little bit.

 

Any help? Any suggestions?  How would I split the two elements of the BNC connector?  Am I assuming too much to talk about the two different elements of a BNC connector and trying to split them?

 

By the way if you want to see my test video put on your red and cyan glasses, look for the July 15th video between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Eastern on the following twitch Channel my twitch Channel:

 

www.twitch.tv/tripletopper

[tripletopper]

Since this topic exists, might as well write in it an update 

 

How does RGB Scart work?

 

I see passive $5 adapters. I assume they are GIGO, (leave it untouched). I assume they take a SCART, and separate it into an RGB signal with sync attached to green.

 

A few questions:

1 can RCA cables hold a main signal and a return signal?

 

2.  Is Video sync a return signal that can be mixed with RCA?

 

3 since the main signal and return signal arr both separate lanes, then a passive adapter can act in both directions from SCART to RCA and from RCA to SCART.

 

4.  All I need is one green to hook up.  So it will be synced with the right eye if left is red and right is cyan.

 

5.  All you need is one sync for it to work.  Having 2 causes analog picture errors.

 

Just seeing if RGB SCART is easier to amaglyphize  than VGA.

 

 

 

 

[tripletopper]

Thought of something new.

 

I notice VGA has 15 pins, which may have up to 15 one-way paths if data.

 

Converting it to BNC and back to VGA reduces it to at most 10 paths, and that assumes both paths are used on VGA.

 

I noticed that if i takeout H sync on the left eye and the V Sync on the right eye, I have a slightly rolling picture.

 

Does the Virtual Tap use more than 5 pins on the  VGA.  If so, i think I found a creative way to rid the sync on each eye selectively.

 

I have these 15 pin dual male couplers, which I need anyway to use a merger.  I assume i can needlenose one pin selectively on one side of the "VX adapter" and a different one on the "HX adapter" and have all channels go through except the one on the left eye and the the one on the right, and.

everything else should work.

 

I see female mapping everywhere on the internet, but rarely find male mappings.  Also I remember Bally Astrocade broke convention by using the opposite gendered end (compared to Atari and later others)  to define the pins.

 

If the female pins are labeled:

1  -- 2  --3  --4  --5

--6   --7  --8  --9  --10

-11 -12 -13 -14 -15

 

The the males should be: (if my understadiing of labeling is correct) 

-- --5 --4 --3 --2 --1

10. --9 --8 --7 --6

-- -15 -14 -13 -12 -11

 

If my quick and dirty Google research under "vga pinout" is correct  pin 13 is vertical sync, and 14 is horizontal sync.

 

Maybe that would help.

 

 

[tripletopper]

I bought myself an Extron EDID 101V.  I was hoping to get better sync on this device.  I guess I could go take this to a Best Buy have them run it on their oscilloscopes and see if we can find an analog solution for this.

 

Some of you may know the answer without me describing it but here goes.

 

Obviously I connect the red red of left input to Red of output.  Green and blue of right inputs go into green and blue of output.

 

I got stable pictures the only thing is I got a horizontal hold depending on what I do here.

 

I got a way to plug either one or two vertical and horizontal sink inputs into an output I take a VGA to BNC converter then have a BNC to RCA converter and use an RCA 3-way for both the two inputs and the output.

 

What I plug in both horizontals as well as both verticals, I noticed the monitor goes on when the tube screens are almost meeting with each other.  But the TV says resolution out of range when they drift too far apart.    If I plug in just one horizontal one, whichever ones' horizontal I plug in is stable and the other one scrolls.

 

Someone told me to take it to a Best Buy or an independent repair shop and oscilloscope it and see if there's a regular pattern and he'd be able to figure out what part he need to fix it.  Hopefully this is an external part that would not require any further modding.   Is there a way to fix this without touching the circuitry inside?  

 

What is the EDID device supposed to do?  I heard it takes wonky inputs and converts it to a standard output.  At first I tried to match the input resolution (the wonky one with the weird sync mixed in.) To the output resolution going to the monitor.  Maybe the edited device only works when it's actively transferring from one resolution to another instead of syncing up to same resolution stuff.  It just gets lazy and ignores the same input as output and doesn't do anything at all.  At least I'm hoping that's the $25 answer that will save me from going to a place within the oscilloscope and having them evaluate it.   Will check back in about a few minutes.

 

[tripletopper]

The red is in sync with its vertical and horizontal sink.  The green and blue is in sync with their respective vertical sync.

 

I have to pick one sink or the other or pick one from one and one the other.

 

Probably since it required the less physically least number of physical doodads therefore the last requiring the synchronization connect everything except the red on the right eye and have some intermediary device on the left eyes red that'll sink it with the current signal of everything else.

 

I got a stable green a stable blue on the one that has the vertical and horizontal synced with it.  The red of the left eye scrolls to the right very slowly and drop the line each time it looks like it scrolls across the screen.

 

I know oscilloscopes have variable controls which alter the wavelength and frequency or add multipliers of one or the other or both to make it sync up with other stuff.  I assume you use an oscilloscope to measure what voltage you either add or subtract or do something to with a physical device that does something with voltage to make the the red of the left sync with everything else.  And then someone makes a device that does that one specific thing I plug in on the left of the red.  Either there's one already made or if there's not a standard part hire the guy to build one.

 

So I don't know what I'm doing on an oscilloscope myself but I understand the concept of adding multiplying subtracting and dividing voltage, an electromagnetic waves are considered two-dimensional with a forward moving aspect and a sine wave aspect on the other dimension, indicating a cycle.  

 

Because we started in analog it's easy to continuing analog until we're ready to digitize it so I assume the parts is fairly cheap fairly easy,  fairly easy to diagnose, and if it's wrong it's not going to fry the virtual boy or the house or the monitor it's attached to or short itself out or anything stupid like that.  That is assuming I find someone who knows what they're doing.

 

Know anyone in Cleveland OH who does and knows how to do this right?   I know of a shop in Brunswick Ohio that charges $25 for analysis and estimate and applies that $25 towards labor possibly parts.  If you can't do it yourself, hire someone else to do it for you.