| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 195.1 | Whack answers, and some guesses for the others | PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ | Jeff Lomicka | Fri Aug 12 1988 12:31 | 46 |
| > 1) I have a Microvitech colour monitor which was originally used
> with a Sinclair QL. It has a 7 (or is it 8) pin din on the back of
> it and I am trying to find out how to connect it to my Atari 520STFM
> using the monitor plug. If anyone of you knows the pin connections
> I would be most grateful for any help.
The pins at the Atari end are documented in the back of your Atari
user's manual.
> 2) Is there any danger in formatting disks using a super formatting
> proggy (DCFMTCTR.PRG) using 82 tracks, 10 sectors and the fast option
> which on a single sided drive offers about 408000 bytes ?
Some disk drives cannot access the 82nd track because they do not allow
sufficient head motion. This has caused problems with some copy
protected games.
The rotational tolerances make 10 sector formatting dangerous - if the
floppy spins too fast, the 10th will overun the 1st.
> 3) Using WHACK, how do you get the text size to approximate that
> of a vt220. ie instead of 'gigantic' text which will not allow every
> thing to fit on the screen ?
Now THIS I know something about.
I assume you are on a color monitor. Select "Global set-up" from the
"VT Emulator" menu on the menu bar. Click on "Font 7x7", which will
deselect "Font 7x12". Using the scroll bar to the right of the set-up
form, scroll down the form until you can see the selections for "OK and
CANCEL". Make sure the file name is listed correctly under "Whack's
filename", and select "Save current settings". When you click on "OK",
Whack will patch it's own image to make the 7x7 font the default.
Then exit and go back in, and your sessions will use the small font.
You still don't get a full 24 lines, but you get about 23�. If you
also set the minimum slider width to 0 and make the title bar optional,
you will only miss about two scanlines from the bottom line.
If you don't want to exit and go back in, or if you don't want to
permanantly change the font setting, you can go into the session menu by
pressing the "closer" box on the window, which is duplicated in the menu
bar under the "Desktop" menu.
|
| 195.2 | ...with a little help from my friends | COMICS::DSMMGR | | Tue Aug 16 1988 07:19 | 31 |
| Jeff,
Thanks a lot for all the valuable info you gave me about the questions
I posed, however I am still having problems getting my monitor to
work. I have a bit more info now regarding the pins on the Cub,
the problems arise when trying to connect the Atari to it. I have
read the Atari manual but would appreciate any further help you
or anyone else can offer. Sorry to be a pain.
The pin info I have which I obtained from the manufacturers is as follows :
locating lug
!
V
=== o <--- red
vert sync.---> o o <-- green T.T.L
ground -> o o <--- blue
o
^
!
composite sync.
Please note that T.T.L is written next to the DIN plug.
Once more, my thanks in advance
Jonathan
|
| 195.3 | | SEDOAS::WATT | It's Life Jim but not as we know it | Tue Aug 16 1988 09:13 | 6 |
| If my memory serves me right this monitor needs modifacation before
it can be used on the Atari. It has TTL inputs. I believe it can
be fixed if you write to Microvitec and ask.
Peter
|
| 195.4 | You do get 24 lines with Whack's 7x7 font | PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ | Jeff Lomicka | Tue Aug 16 1988 11:22 | 12 |
| >Then exit and go back in, and your sessions will use the small font.
>You still don't get a full 24 lines, but you get about 23�. If you
>also set the minimum slider width to 0 and make the title bar optional,
>you will only miss about two scanlines from the bottom line.
I guess I don't know as much about Whack as I thought. If you use the
7x7 font on a color monitor, you get a full 24 lines with full-size
scroll bars and titles all around, and there is no need to adjust the
"minimum slider width" or suffer with only 23� lines. I was misled by a
bug in the version I'm running, which has since been pointed out to me
and fixed.
|
| 195.5 | ...re: .2 ..Stuck with a Spectrum rainbow... | LOOKIN::SOWTON | | Wed Aug 17 1988 06:42 | 38 |
|
The bottom line answer to your query is...you have a problem.
Although this may seem slightly negative, it's based on my
experience with the same monitor.
The video output from the Atari is analogue (between 0 and 3v, I
think ) ie..the intensity of the colour is proportional to the
output voltage. However the particular interface in your monitor
is designed to work on TTL logic signals (0 and 5v), ie. you can
only have combinations of Red, Blue and Green. The effect of this
is that only seven colours are available, plus Black and White of
course.
So even if you limit the voltage swing to the maximum of the
analogue signal you would still have the problem of not being able to
display enough different colours to make it useful.
I contacted Microvitec when I was trying to convert my monitor
and they said that there was an analogue interface available but it
would cost 120 pounds. Bearing in mind this represented 50% of the
cost of the monitor, I thought it a bit steep for a board with a
bunch of resistors...
Anyway, to cut a short story long, the way I got round the problem
was to bypass the TTL input and wire directly to the video amplifiers
internally via limiting resistors chosen to give the right intensity
display. These resistors were necessary because bypassing the TTL
input also meant bypassing the intensity control.
I don't remember exact connection details but I could be persuaded
to remove the back and have a look if you like.
Hope this helps...
Bob
|