Hi,
I recently received a Commodore A2024 monitor. This is a 15" monochrome/
grey-scale monitor which has a special converter board inside, that
converts the 15kHz video output by an Amiga computer to 31kHz. It also
supports a "tiled" mode, whereby Amiga video frames are combined to
produce a 1024x800 or 1024x1024 pixel image.
Unfortunately the monitor was damaged in transit and the tube is
cracked. However the converter board should be usable. I want to make an
adaptor to connect the converter board to a standard VGA/multi-sync
monitor.
Has anyone on the list connected an old workstation (or maybe an Atari
ST?) with monochrome output to a modern monitor? Those should be
similar.
There should be no problem with the horizontal and vertical scan rates.
I need to look at the board circuitry, but I'm pretty sure the
horizontal and vertical sync signals will be at TTL levels, which is
fine for connection to a VGA monitor.
The monochrome video signal is output on a phono/RCA socket. Inside the
monitor, a coaxial cable goes from that to the PCB at the end of the
tube.
I need to determine the video signal level. Apparently VGA uses 0.7V
p-p, so I might need to add a resistor in-line to reduce the voltage if
it's any higher. Unfortunately I don't have access to an oscilloscope.
Could I just arrange for a full-screen white image to be shown, measure
the voltage using a normal DC multimeter, and multiply up the value
shown to account for the proportion of each scanline corresponding to
sync/flyback?
Once that issue is solved, I should be able to connect the video signal
to the green signal pin of a VGA monitor and get a green picture. In
order to get a grey-scale picture, can I simply connect the video signal
via resistors to each of the R, G and B pins on the monitor connector?
If so, what resistor values would be needed? If not, I guess I could use
or build a 1-to-3 splitter/amplifier circuit, then connect the 3 outputs
of that to the R, G and B lines.
-- M