thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/21/91)
Updates on various: 1. Re: monitors for 3B1, I rec'd a call Sunday and picked up a 14" "paper-white" monitor and will be checking it out on the 3B1 this week. Seems lots of different models from many vendors are available with prices ranging from $80 (for 12") to $99 for 14" and up to a high of $170 for capability up to and including 1024x768. I opted for the 14" unit; weird power cable, but was able to replace it with a standard equipment cord such as is used on the 3B1; now to figure out what the "intensity" signal should be pulled-up/-down to ... the other signals seem OK, but it's clear one needs a 20MHz CRT (the 14" unit is 20MHz) and accepts "singals" (sic) from the "computator" (sic). Sheesh, seems to have instructions translated from Urdu or Sanskrit. The 14" units have tilt-'n-swivel bases and green, amber or white phosphor. 2. Didn't receive a call or delivery Friday from copier service (re: device driver guide), so will check on it today (but today may be a holiday for many companies) 3. found a source of what-could-be LONG keyboard cables for the 3B1; has the "funny" rectangular Berg 8-pin connector on one end and a DB-9 on the other end; will be using this along with my testing of the monitor since I've one 3B1 in a "tower" case. Stay tuned for details. 4. at the same place where I found the cables, also found a HUMONGOUS quantity of the 4.75K 1% resistors as would be used for the DRUN patch; package of 100 resistors for $1.50 in the "machine gun belt" strips. They also have a fairly large QTY of the 3B1 power switch WITH FUSE. If you're interested, this is Weird Stuff Warehouse located at 715 Sycamore, Milpitas CA 95035; 408/434-0931. They'll be moving soon to Sunnyvale CA and want to sell-off as much as possible to lower their moving costs; they still had a few 3B1 keyboards ($10/each) on the floor, may have more in the "back room" (didn't ask). Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
jlw3@cbnewsj.att.com (Joseph L. Wood, III) (01/21/91)
RE: 3B1 Keyboard Cables. This should be included in the 3B1 FAQ list since I seem to answer it every few months or so. I am out of the 3B1 business by now but when I was a 3B1 user I obtained extended 3B1 keyboard cables from: Du Pont Connector Systems E.I. du Pont de Nemours % Co. (Inc.) 515 Fishing Creek Road New Cumberland, PA 17070 Phone (717) 938-6711 What you want is their Latch-N-Lok (tm) cable as specified in the drawing identified as Convergent Assembly 81610 in white but to extend 10. The cable is a straight through, mylar-sheilded, 8-conductor, cable which is perfectly symmectric. For those of you brave souls with an extra cable or two, you could splice two together. I obtained these in lots of 10 to 20 for about $20 each. Joe Wood jlw@mtuxo.att.com
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/22/91)
Arrgh! After several phone calls and whatnot asking about the phone number
I posted for Weird Stuff Warehouse ("... a fax answers ..."), I looked at
the business card again, and ...
OOPS, I goofed, many apologies. Gonna have to stop posting at 3:30am
Their VOICE number is 408/434-0168; the number I posted was their FAX line.
Imagine, if you will, a Day-Glo red business card with flourescent purple ink
on which the FAX number is printed alongside the street address and you'll
understand the ease with which I made the error. :-)
Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/22/91)
Update on monitor project: the paper-white monitor WORKS! No more ugly green. I'll be posting a complete report on this project shortly after resolving a few "details", such as: where does the speaker become relocated how to adjust video width, height, misc. "trim" adjustments, etc. cabling, etc In essense this means we're no longer stuck with the stock monitor. Still have some experimenting since the "intensity" signal isn't connected to anything. For reference, IBM/PC-type monochrome Hercules monitors (720x348) have the following pinnings on the DB-9: (1) ground (2) ground (3) N/C (4) N/C (5) N/C (6) intensity (7) video (8) horizontal sync (9) vertical sync and the 3B1 provides video, h.sync and v.sync which I just connected straight across to the DB-9. Will have to do "something" with the "intensity" and also check cable lengths ... looks like a few nanoSeconds' worth of video signal is coming out of the 3B1 too quickly, but I haven't attempted internal adjustmemts in the monitor yet. The BTC monitor I picked up also has a flat screen, which is a plus I didn't expect. And, BTW, using an external monitor also reduces the load on the 3B1's power supply. Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
rhaar@albert.cs.gmr.com (Robert L. Haar CS50) (01/23/91)
In article <38309@cup.portal.com>, thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: |> Updates on various: |> |> 1. Re: monitors for 3B1, I rec'd a call Sunday and picked up a 14" |> "paper-white" monitor and will be checking it out on the 3B1 this |> week. Seems lots of different models from many vendors are available |>... |> 3. found a source of what-could-be LONG keyboard cables for the 3B1; |> has the "funny" rectangular Berg 8-pin connector on one end and a DB-9 |> on the other end; will be using this along with my testing of the |> monitor since I've one 3B1 in a "tower" case. Stay tuned for details. |>... Thad, all this sounds interesting. PLEASE send more details as you work things out. What kind of tower case are you using? Did you find one that will hold the 3b1 main (metal-enclosed) cabinet intact? If so, what brand? LONG LIVE THE UNIX-PC !!!! Bob Haar InterNet : rhaar@albert.cs.gmr.com Computer Science Dept., G.M. Research Laboratories DISCLAIMER: Unless indicated otherwise, everything in this note is personal opinion, not an official statement of General Motors Corp.
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/23/91)
jlw3@cbnewsj.att.com (Joseph L. Wood, III)
in <1991Jan21.142748.2920@cbnewsj.att.com> writes:
RE: 3B1 Keyboard Cables.
[...]
The cable is a straight through, mylar-sheilded, 8-conductor,
cable which is perfectly symmectric. For those of you brave
souls with an extra cable or two, you could splice two together.
[...]
Surprise, surprise, I've just discovered the standard, coiled keyboard cables
are NOT wired straight-through from Berg connector to Berg connector; one pair
of wires are inverted (akin to how a null modem is wired for RS232). Luckily
my keyboard on the "test" tower system didn't go *P*O*O*F*, works fine now
after switching the two wires on the DB-9 <=> Berg cables I located.
The paper-white monitor works simply fabulously ... it also has a switch to
alternate between "standard" and reverse video. You just wouldn't believe
how much better it is to play the Mahjongg on a white screen with black
lettering ... no more eyestrain, and the tiles' shadows now LOOK like shadows.
Even the "Hic's Amazing Maze" is fantastic in this mode.
I'll be posting complete details of all this stuff shortly after I make the
final adjustments to the monitor. If anyone's in Silicon Valley today and
attends the AT&T UNIX Users' Group meeting, I'll be bringing the system there
along with the monitor and keyboard extension.
Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]jlw3@cbnewsj.att.com (Joseph L. Wood, III) (01/24/91)
Whoops! Guess I should read the fine print on the drawings and not just look at the pretty pictures. The following is from the Wiring Diagram: P1 Color P2 ------------------ 1 white 1 2 orange 2 3 green 5 4 red 4 5 blue 3 6 brown 6 7 yellow 7 8 black 8 Plug 1 Plug 2 8 6 4 2_________________________1 3 5 7 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8 tab down tab up The drawing shows Plug 2 as the one with the longer straight section adjacent to the plug. Hope nobody fried anything with this boo boo. Joe Wood jlw@mtuxo.att.com
jmm@eci386.uucp (John Macdonald) (01/25/91)
In article <38353@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: |Update on monitor project: | |the paper-white monitor WORKS! No more ugly green. [...] Neat. | [...] Still |have some experimenting since the "intensity" signal isn't connected to |anything. [...] Great - let's do grey scale... (10 second pause) oh well, that's not a simple project is it - anybody got a month or two to spare? Perhaps a software controllable screen dimmer and intensity control? Actually, when I think about it, grey scale might be possible. My initial objection was that we'd have to provide 2 (or 4) times the screen memory and then modify the display circuitry to scan it all that much faster and run it through a digital to analogue and use that to drive the intensity. However, it could be done using the current memory interface, by using 2 or 4 adjacent screen bits at a time, and then making them all have the same corresponding grey scale intensity. (This would divide the verticle resolution down by a corresponding factor - anyone for a 25 line by 40 (or 20) column display with nice grey scale? - maybe not.) Oh well, it still looks like too much work for anything that would be useful, unless my ramblings trigger the thoughts of someone who has a better feel for mucking around in the hardware. -- Cure the common code... | John Macdonald ...Ban Basic - Christine Linge | jmm@eci386
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (01/25/91)
Update on external monitor project: I brought the system to the UNIX Users' Group meeting last night (Wednesday) and it generated a LOT of positive response. Everyone agreed that it makes games such as "mahjongg" actually playable! :-) Three people voiced a comment about the monitor that never even occurred to me: noise. With a 20 dB hearing loss, I couldn't hear the monitor's "noise" even at 4am in a quiet room, but those 3 people heard the noise during the "Random Access" session of the meeting in a room with 30-40 talking people when they were within about 3 feet of the monitor. Point being: if there's the SLIGHTEST chance you might be able to hear a noise and that it might be troublesome for you, be SURE to insist upon a "no-hassle, money-back return" BEFORE you buy any monitor. As a caution, please note that NO-ONE in the store where I bought my monitor commented about the noise, so you may need to actually bring a monitor home before you'll notice the noise (to be fair, the store (Fry's) was huge and there must have been 500-1000 people there when I bought the monitor). The person who "blew" his 3B1 monitor last month by plugging the 12-pin Berg connector upside down commented this "external monitor" idea seems like a perfect solution to his problem. And another person commented that the 14" monitor "may" be able to be placed in the 3B1's monitor housing ... this IS interesting, but note that a separate AC power line would have to be run to the monitor (unless one has experience with voltage-multipliers and can adapt the existing circuitry to work with the Philips monitor (as used in the BTC product)). I'll be posting all the details and discoveries within a few days once ALL kinks (except the noise! :-) are worked out to my satisfaction. Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]
Alvin@cup.portal.com (Alvin Henry White) (01/26/91)
All this talk about monitors and projects get me thinking about a couple of things I would like to see. One is involved with the question of can the upc be made to drive two monitors at the same time but having two different pictures. Somewhere long ago I read about an optical illusion experiment that involves making two cones and painting the insides flat black. Where they can be put side by side and at the small end you cut off just enough of the points so that you can put your eyes to the holes like binoculars. At the center of the far end of each cone you put a tiny lite source. like a pin hole of light. When some one looks in there eye can be fooled into thinking that they are looking at one spot with a pair of binoculars. If you then cause the spots to move in some directions you get a 3 D effect. I don't know anything about computer's video programming and hardware that would tell me how to construct such a device. If it worked I was wondering if you put two text strings scrolling accross the screen, first in the same language but then one word in one eye was replaced by spanish or chinese kanji or something like that ... alvin Alvin H. White, Gen. Sect. G.O.D.S.B.R.A.I.N. Government Online Database Systems Bureau for Resource Allocations to Information Networks alvin@cup.portal.com