What all is involved to convert a U.K. STe to U.S.?

[bfollowell]

I'm tired of waiting/looking for an STE here in the U.S. I'm considering purchasing a U.K. unit and converting it.

 

Anyone familiar with the process, help me to understand everything that would be involved and make certain I haven't forgotten anything.

 

First up would be swapping for a modern 120V capable power supply. Second would be swapping U.K. TOS for U.S. TOS. Third would be swapping for a U.S. keyboard.

 

Lastly would be the PAL/NTSC issue. It seems like I read somewhere that the video circuitry is capable of producing either signal and the OS tells it which to output, so switching it from PAL to NTSC may be as simple as swapping the U.K. TOS for U.S. TOS. Is anyone able to confirm that?

 

Have I forgotten anything?

 

Thanks.

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

PAL/NTSC : it will output 60 Hz video by default when you replace TOS to US . But will work only in RGB mode. Composite or RF will not work, better said will be B/W and maybe out of sync., because color encoder will be still for PAL - would need to replace more components for NTSC. Not recommended, since RGB will give best quality.

There is slight diff. in 32 MHz crystal freq too, but that affects only some really timing sensitive programs - demos mostly.

Keyboard is same except caps, their layout.

[bfollowell]

1 hour ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

PAL/NTSC : it will output 60 Hz video by default when you replace TOS to US . But will work only in RGB mode. Composite or RF will not work, better said will be B/W and maybe out of sync., because color encoder will be still for PAL - would need to replace more components for NTSC. Not recommended, since RGB will give best quality.

There is slight diff. in 32 MHz crystal freq too, but that affects only some really timing sensitive programs - demos mostly.

Keyboard is same except caps, their layout.

Thanks for your reply.

 

The modulator issues wouldn't be an issue for me as I'd use the monitor output and use the ST with my NEC LCD monitor. I'm sure most of my use would be gaming. I've never had any interest in the demo scene at all.

 

As far as the keyboards go, I know the U.K. has an extra key compared to the U.S. and some keys are in different locations. Would that be affected by changing to U.S. TOS? The two easiest differences that come to mind are the @ being above the 2 in U.S. and the " being above the 2 in U.K. and # being above the 3 in U.S. and £ being above the 3 in U.K. Would these change to their U.S. counterparts after switching to a U.S. TOS, therefore just requiring a key cap change, or is the key mapping inherently built into the keyboard itself? Also, the U.K. has the extra key I mentioned between the left shift and the Z key, which doesn't exist on the U.S. keyboards.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

TOS is what converts so called scan codes - codes of physical keys to letters, numbers and other. There are different tables for each language, region (UK and US for Engl.) . So, will have those #, @ ... on correct place for US layout. Extra key on UK keyboard between Lshift and Z is present on German too, and if I change TOS to German with UK kb. or versus it works with new layout.

+ I know what talking, I worked on TOS mods, and know exact differences in code and tables, + schematic is same for all kb. Extra key will probably do nothing with US TOS .

[bfollowell]

Excellent! That's the way I had imagined it might work, but it's great to learn that it does from someone with personal experience with it. Thank you for confirming.

 

[Ute]

I have converted two different STE's that I got from ebay UK. I replaced the power supplies, replaced one with the US TOS, and left one with the UK TOS.

 

I use a cable that converts the mointor output to Scart and then a Scart to HDMI converter. For whatever the reason, the video looks better on the UK TOS Machine, so I prefer to use the UK one.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

10 hours ago, Ute said:

I have converted two different STE's that I got from ebay UK. I replaced the power supplies, replaced one with the US TOS, and left one with the UK TOS.

 

I use a cable that converts the mointor output to Scart and then a Scart to HDMI converter. For whatever the reason, the video looks better on the UK TOS Machine, so I prefer to use the UK one.

UK TOS will run it at 50 Hz refresh rate, while US at 60 . And total vertical line number is lower at 60 Hz, so pic (active part without borders) is higher by 60 Hz .  Of course, there are small programs for changing refresh rate after boot - Desktop, or in boot self.