obrien%obrien.DECnet@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU ("OBRIEN::OBRIEN") (10/23/87)
Larry Campbell offered to consult his tech. reference set for the Rainbow
if anyone needed info. I tried to get to him directly, but my system didn't
like his address. So, I'll try broadcasting it (anyone else who can help,
please join in). I'm looking into connection an NEC Multysync monitor to
my Rainbow. NEC have been really helpful about this - they even tried to
talk to Digital on my behalf but gave up when DEC kept on neglecting to
return their calls - and they've mailed me the OEM technical description
of the Multisync, with pinouts, voltages, etc. Can anyone provide me with
the analogous information for the Rainbow video? I'll post a summary, as
well as a progress report if I get around to doing this project. Also,
is there a way of asking the Rainbow graphics board what its current resolution
is at any time? (very useful when you're trying to READ the graphics memory
for use in an application!).
Jim O'Brien
Department of Chemical Engineering
Yale University
P.O.Box 2159 Yale Station
New Haven, CT 06520, U.S.A.
+1 203 432 4382
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------campbell@maynard.BSW.COM (Larry Campbell) (10/25/87)
First, let me just note that the document number for the Rainbow 100
Technical Manual is EK-PC100-TM-001, and I'm reasonably sure it's
still available from DEC.
Here is the pinout for the video/keyboard connector. I *think* that
pin 1 is the upper left hand pin as you face the rear panel of the
machine, and that the odd numbered pins are the top row and the even
numbered pins are the bottom row. You can easily check this with a VOM.
Pin Description
--- -----------
1 Red shield ground
2 Green shield ground
3 Blue shield ground
4 Mono shield ground
5,6 Ground
7,8 +12V keyboard power
9 Blue video
10 Green video
11 Red video
12 Mono video
13 unused
14 Keyboard received data (data to keyboard)
15 Keybaord transmitted data (data from keyboard)
The video signals are "similar to EIA RS-170", except that "the
composite video (Mono Video) signal on pin 12 is DC coupled and
therefore not in strict agreement with RS-170. To agree with RS-170,
the composite video signal would require a 10 uf capacitor in series
with the output."
--
Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc.
Internet: campbell@maynard.bsw.com 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109
uucp: {husc6,mirror,think}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846