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Any way to improve XEP80 composite video output?


YSG2020

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What kind of display are you trying to use it with? It's designed to be used with monochrome monitors that do not try to derive a colour picture from the signal.

 

The XEP 80 is "compatible with a "composite" video monitor and will show a picture, but the signal is high enough resolution that using a composite input in a colour monitor will probably be blurry with lots of colour artifacting. The closest you could get is by connecting the XEP-80's output to the Luma input of a colour monitor with an S-Video input (with no Chroma input)

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You know what would look awesome... An XEP80 with the TTL mod done, and then adapted to an ominous looking TTL orange/red gas plasma display like on the IBM P70.  I'd love to see someone figure this out.   It would be the ultimate super rare holy grail vintage monitor setup on the Atari XEP80.  If someone can do this, please post photos and a how-to for the TTL adapter to the IBM gas plasma screen.

 

gas plasma.JPG

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10 hours ago, YSG2020 said:

You know what would look awesome... An XEP80 with the TTL mod done, and then adapted to an ominous looking TTL orange/red gas plasma display like on the IBM P70.  I'd love to see someone figure this out.   It would be the ultimate super rare holy grail vintage monitor setup on the Atari XEP80.  If someone can do this, please post photos and a how-to for the TTL adapter to the IBM gas plasma screen.

 

gas plasma.JPG

I had an IBM "Portable" PC with an Orange screen like that, wish I had removed the screen when I dumped the PC

It was always crisp and clear.

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Hmmmm,

 

there are various topics here at AA about the XEP-80 and some of them list some software (most of the time: AW 80). Here are the few XEP-80 programs I know, maybe someone can enhance the list:

 

- XEP-80 disk (DX 5087) with drivers and sources (by Atari)

- Atari Writer 80 (by Atari)

- Turboword (by Micromiser): Abbuc PD 707

   (you must be logged in to download this)

- Silent Butler 80 (by Atari): AA topic

- several PD and demo disks: Abbuc PD 0471

(Info-Disks with TB XL, Bibo-DOS and other stuff for the XEP-80)

 

Anything else ? I do not own an XEP-80, so I only list here, what I have read...

See also subject 6.1.2 of the A8FAQ.

 

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Does Last Word support the XEP80 for editing or only for print preview or not at all?

 

Also, yes those gas plasma displays are super rare now and very collectable. They are the same screens used in pinball games but nobody makes one anymore as a computer monitor display.  All of the old ones are either TTL or proprietary connections - Very hard to hook up to them without an array of adapters and video processors to match. I’d buy a P70 just to rip the screen off it though if I could find one cheap and working! Other than the IBMs they came only on a few select Toshiba and Compaq ‘portables’.  Prone to burn in, but essentially a miniaturized  Nixie tube monitor.  There’s nothing vintage-retro computing cooler than that. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any XEP80 experts here that might know a cure for this display I’m getting out of my XEP80 composite into a converter box and then out to SVGA monitor. Thx for any suggestions to fix.   Would the TTL mod on this xep80 for this samsung 763MB monitor possible fix this I wonder?  The monitor specs say it can accept a TTL vertical sync as an option.  ???

4CEF45FA-3D9A-439F-9B19-FB3712EA29CD.jpeg

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OK, hooked the XEP80 to my Samsung LED TV using the composite out on the XEP to the Component (green) in on the back of the TV, and it miraculously works just fine and I have a sharp clear black and white screen, albeit the screen offsets are off and need adjustment to fit the entire 80 column screen properly centered.  It's interesting that the component green signal adapted is the correct composite signal the XEP80 uses... Is this a Luma only signal on this line?  So, the XEP80 is confirmed working.  The question now is, how do I get the composite out of the XEP, separated to component (green) signal and then into my SVGA monitor I am using with the Atari?   Would a component to SVGA adapter cable work possibly, or do I need yet another powered converter box to accomplish this?

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Bob and Stephen I think you both nailed it. I checked the frequency and sync polarity’s on both my Older multisync crt monitor and my new led tv, and it turns out the newer tv has over 3 times as many frequency sync and polarity option resolutions avail than the old multisync monitor, which is ironic.  It would appear the old crt just isn’t wired for the particular frequency, resolution, and sync polarity match that the XEP80 is outputting, which is a shame , because it is a flatscreen aperture grill crt similar to a trinitron which was of the highest quality when it was new. Guess I need to get a Sony PVD or Commodore monitor instead. Bummer.  

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7 hours ago, bob1200xl said:

I believe that horizontal offset is due to the wrong sync polarity

Somewhere a Star Trek writer is tickled pink that for once, reversing the polarity is an actual thing.

 

Yes, I'm aware it can apply as a concept regularly in electronics. And often when involving power is a bad idea, actually, which is why it was always so amusing to me when it came up on scifi shows. Sounds so much better than did you plug it in the right way though.

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On 2/16/2020 at 2:38 PM, Mathy said:

Bob Woolley describes a TTL mod for the XEP80 on page 16 of Atari Classics Volume 2 Number 6

 

Does anyone have the details of that mod?

 

I tracked down the article to the San Leandro Computer Club(SLCC) - Atari Newsletter 1988.

 

I found a scan of the news letter at the Internet Archive

 

But the scan isn't very good, apparently we have to:

 

* The wiring required is: (from the bottom of the XEP80 board)

* Pin t and 2 of 9 pin socket to pin ? of U6.

* Pin 7 of 9 pin socket to the pad 1/4 inch to the left of pin 8 of U6. (This pad is the same distance to the LEFT of pin 8 as pin 7 is to the RIGHT of pin 8*)

* Pin 8 of 9 pin socket to pin 9 of U6,

* Pin 9 of 9 pin socket to pin 10 of Ud

 

 

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