[rescue] ECL to VGA and pinout (anoybody experience with TenoxVGA + Sun2?)

[Steve Hatle]

Tindie link? I can't find it using various search terms....

Might be useful for my 3/50

Steve
> Walter Belgers via rescue <mailto:rescue at sunhelp.org>
> October 21, 2023 at 4:19 AM
> Hi,
>
> A small update on the ECL to VGA adapter.
>
> I was finally able to figure out a way to hook up the Sun 2/50 to the 
> TenoxVGA adapter in a way it produced reasonable output on a VGA 
> monitor. I originally used an Extron RGB-HDMI 300A to convert VGA from 
> the TenoxVGA adapter into HDMI to feed that into a modern monitor.
>
> I took out the Extron and just plugged TenoxVGA's output into an old 
> VGA flatscreen. That worked much better!
> See https://giga.nl/tenoxvga.jpg for a picture of the screen.
>
> Shameless plug: since I had 10 of them made to reduce costs, I am 
> selling the remaining 9 of them via tindie.
>
> Regards,
> Walter.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
> Walter Belgers via rescue <mailto:rescue at sunhelp.org>
> September 14, 2023 at 1:32 AM
>> On 14 Sep 2023, at 05:01, Chris Hanson <cmhanson at eschatologist.net> wrote:
>> I believe the manual for the TTM194 has the pinouts for both ends of its cable, I'll see if I took a pic of the page(s) if you can't find a copy online, otherwise I can probably dig it out this weekend.
> I saw technical documents, but couldn't find the pinout there, but haven't looked for the normal manual. Thanks for the tip. (I will away for a while so it will be after I return. When I have everything working, I'll mail to the list so the information gets archived.)
>
>> Incidentally, my conspiracy theory about why Atari chose ECL for the mono high-resolution monitor is that they probably got a deal on the mono CRT assemblies from the manufacturer because mono and grayscale were end-of-life for the workstation vendors who had previously been buying them... Hence why even the pinout is identical. (It'd also mean Atari could have prototyped the TT using readily-available Sun displays, without having to wait for their own to be ready.) Anyone with both a working Sun ECL monitor and an Atari TT want to check how they work together? :)
> That would make sense. A bit like how the Vectrex came to be because of a huge pile of surplus vector displays.
>
> Walter.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
> Chris Hanson via rescue <mailto:rescue at sunhelp.org>
> September 13, 2023 at 10:01 PM
> I believe the manual for the TTM194 has the pinouts for both ends of 
> its cable, I'll see if I took a pic of the page(s) if you can't find a 
> copy online, otherwise I can probably dig it out this weekend.
>
> I'm almost certain that I saw the DE9 input on the TTM194 was 
> identical to the DE9 input on the Sun ECL displays (and I'm assuming 
> the Sun cabling is straight-through), so it makes sense that the 
> TenoxVGA would work for a Sun-2 as well.
>
> It's unclear (to me) what you mean by "a sort of vague raster," are 
> you getting an image that's just too far over, or something else? If 
> you connect directly to a CRT or reasonable multisync panel (eg NEC 
> 1990SX), do you get a reasonable image? It could just be that some 
> fine-tuning is needed, perhaps even just with the Extron. It could be 
> that it's detecting the overall resolution correctly, but maybe the 
> specifics of the timing are slightly different between Sun's ECL and 
> RGB implementations, e.g. different size front/back porch, and that's 
> confusing it.
>
> Incidentally, my conspiracy theory about why Atari chose ECL for the 
> mono high-resolution monitor is that they probably got a deal on the 
> mono CRT assemblies from the manufacturer because mono and grayscale 
> were end-of-life for the workstation vendors who had previously been 
> buying them... Hence why even the pinout is identical. (It'd also mean 
> Atari could have prototyped the TT using readily-available Sun 
> displays, without having to wait for their own to be ready.) Anyone 
> with both a working Sun ECL monitor and an Atari TT want to check how 
> they work together? :)
>
> -- Chris
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
> Walter Belgers via rescue <mailto:rescue at sunhelp.org>
> September 13, 2023 at 1:53 PM
> Hi,
>
> I have a few Sun2's and only one working ECL monitor (that needs 
> recapping). Another ECL monitor does not work and I am not 
> knowledgeable enough to fix it.
>
> So I looked into Antoni Sawicki's TenoxVGA project 
> <https://github.com/tenox7/tenoxvga>. I had 10 PCB's made (as 1 is not 
> really cost effective - what is left I will sell via Tindie). But, it 
> has a DB15 input connector that's used on the Atari TT instead of a 
> DB9 connector as used on the Sun2.
>
> I dig a lot of digging and there's not much information. It took some 
> time to get the schematic from the TenoxVGA and it doesn's say what 
> pin is what, but to an extend that can be deduced from looking at the 
> schematic. My guess:
>
> Sun DB9
> 1 +ECL
> 6 -ECL
> 5 GND
> 3 HSYNC
> 4 VSYNC
> 8 SYNC return
>
> DB15 TT (input on TenoxVGA)
> 4 +ECL
> 9 -ELC (goes to GND via resistor)
> 5 GND
> 10 GND
> 15 SYNC return (goes to Vcc and GND both with resistors)
> HSYNC 13
> VSYNC 14
>
> DB15 VGA (output on TenoxVGA)
> 1, 2, 3 RGB (hooked up to +ECL)
> 5, 10 GND
> 6, 7, 8 GND (RGB return)
> 13 HSYNC
> 14 VSYNC
>
> I made a DB9<->DB15 cable, crossed my fingers and hooked it all up. 
> The is an image! So a) the PCBs work b) the sync signals are coming 
> through.
> But, the image show a sort of vague raster in the background. There's 
> a bright vertical line at the beginning of the scan lines (the image 
> is too far to the right). I am using an Extron RGB-HDMI 300A to get a 
> 'clean' VGA signal I should add. (That detects the correct resolution 
> coming in.)
>
> Does anybody have experience using the TenoxVGA on a Sun2 and can 
> confirm the pinout?
>
> Walter.
>
>
>
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