Apple IIc (PAL) RGB adapter

[potatohead]

Mine arrived in great condition!  Spent this evening making a cable to go from the 9 pin connector the card brings out to the //e back panel and to the RGB inputs on my PVM, and it worked first time!

 

I have yet to use this great CRT display with anything other than composite and S-Video.  It does both of those well, but there is something about how this era looks and feels when running an RGB signal. 

 

I have a FastChip [65816 version] in slot 3, Super Serial in 5, CFFA 3000 in 7.  Seems to work great!  Thank you!  This little card is awesome!

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by potatohead

[Yalush]

Hi !

Really interested in the adapter for Apple IIc PAL...

can you please send me more details and price ?

can you ship to Israel ?

If so, please add me to the list...

 

Thanks !

[YannAros]

@Yalush, I still have enough parts to build some, I'll contact you when I will have checked the shipment costs to Israel.

What kind of technical details are you looking for?

 

The adapter cable is plug and play and is looking like this :

You can switch from B&W to Color using a switch located in the connector on computer side.

All native Apple II modes are displayed in colors, there are no new modes.

[micheledipaola]

Hey @YannAros any chance another IIc PAL board (and cable ?) can be assembled and shipped to Italy? That would be great. Thanks in advance!

[YannAros]

@micheledipaola, I can make one for you, I will need 1 or 2 weeks to have yours ready.

In the Apple 2c version everything is in the cable, the electronics is in the small box on the Apple 2c connector side.

I'll contact you by PM when I will have it ready.

[dir_marillion]

That's really great !!

Please add me to the waiting list for an PAL Apple IIC. 

 

 

How will you contact me when ready ? via message or email ?

Thank you very much.

[YannAros]

14 hours ago, dir_marillion said:

That's really great !!

Please add me to the waiting list for an PAL Apple IIC. 

 

 

How will you contact me when ready ? via message or email ?

Thank you very much.

I'll contact you via PM, I have one ready

[odingalt]

On 12/15/2021 at 2:28 AM, YannAros said:

Some news, I made a mistake with the first boards but it could be corrected :

 

 

Thanks for a great project hoping to get IIC NTSC to work with A2M6014 monitor (RGB AppleColor monitor).

 

Question,

 

-I am assembling v1.0 board, but I cannot locate R38.  I think I am blind.  Maybe I order the wrong PCB.  If anyone has advice, thank you.

-H2 and H3 header.  Is it slide switch, or can it use jumper?  What is its function?

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by odingalt

[nick3092]

4 hours ago, odingalt said:

Thanks for a great project hoping to get IIC NTSC to work with A2M6014 monitor (RGB AppleColor monitor).

 

Question,

 

-I am assembling v1.0 board, but I cannot locate R38.  I think I am blind.  Maybe I order the wrong PCB.  If anyone has advice, thank you.

-H2 and H3 header.  Is it slide switch, or can it use jumper?  What is its function?

 

H2 is a switch for color/mono and H3 is a switch that changes the consecutive bits detection by one clock tick.

[YannAros]

Hi,

 

For H2/H3 I'm using slide switches but jumpers will work as well.

 

R38 is a pull up that was introduced in V1.1 as an improvement to cope with some Apple 2c revisions having a weak SYNC signal.

  

 

[potatohead]

15 hours ago, nick3092 said:

H2 is a switch for color/mono and H3 is a switch that changes the consecutive bits detection by one clock tick.

I am very happy you added that one. One selection on that switch looks really good, the other one doesn't. Maybe it varies by machine, but I had to actually use the switch to get the best display.  (Pictures above.)

 

So far I have used this card with a pvm that takes a direct RGB input, and one of those arcade to VGA devices, and it works great on both.

 

The other thing I did which ended up working a lot nicer than I thought it would, it's just set the black and white switch to Black and white, then unplug the blue for a nice Amber display.

Edited October 4, 2023 by potatohead

[odingalt]

Yanni, what a project!

 

Success!  My A4S4000 have a strong sync (picture does not move), My A2S4100 have a weak sync (picture is "wavy" like the ocean).  I will have to try the v1.1 mod to fix wavy signal on A2S4100 (buffer SYNC and add pull-up resistor).  The attached photo is the picture on A2M6014.

 

I am debugging an issue.  This is the video test on MECC Computer Inspector.  I see extra "brown" color bands/streak in the test image, does anyone know the cause?

[YannAros]

Nice soldering job, I'm not so patient and accurate, I do not mount the components myself.

I have to scratch my head to find out what can cause the brown lines you see, I'll think about it.

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by YannAros

[odingalt]

5 hours ago, YannAros said:

Nice soldering job, I'm not so patient and accurate, I do not mount the components myself.

I have to scratch my head to find out what can cause the brown lines you see, I'll think about it.

 

I will keep thinking too.  I have added a video of the behavior.

 

10 HGR

20 HCOLOR = 3

30 HPLOT 0, 20 to 100, 20

RUN

 

https://streamable.com/lghf5m

 

(In middle of video, change switch from COLOR to MONO, wait, then MONO to COLOR)

 

The problem maybe specific HGR mode, does not seem to occur in GR mode.

Edited October 6, 2023 by odingalt

[odingalt]

On 10/6/2023 at 5:45 AM, YannAros said:

Nice soldering job, I'm not so patient and accurate, I do not mount the components myself.

I have to scratch my head to find out what can cause the brown lines you see, I'll think about it.

 

Sorry I am not much help.  Here is some good reading:  https://www.freepatentsonline.com/4631692.html  (Video 7 RGB adapter USPTO patent information)

 

I will search for a logic analyzer to purchase.

[YannAros]

Is there any change when you play with the potentiometer (R22)?

 

I would start looking at the ouptut of U6 (pin 3 to 6) and check if any is giving a signal when pixel should be black.

If yes go to output of U4 and check the same (pin 3 to 6).

If again you see weird signals go to input of U4 (pin 11 to 14).

 

With this information we will be able to look further for the root cause.

 

Looking at the color you see (brown) I suspect sothing allong the Signal chain leading to O1:

O1(U10, pin3)  <= C1(U6, pin6)  <= V1(U4, pin6)  <= B1(U4, pin11)

Check especially R16, bad soldering of this one could explain the issue, a bad value (too high), also.

[odingalt]

8 hours ago, YannAros said:

Is there any change when you play with the potentiometer (R22)?

 

I would start looking at the ouptut of U6 (pin 3 to 6) and check if any is giving a signal when pixel should be black.

If yes go to output of U4 and check the same (pin 3 to 6).

If again you see weird signals go to input of U4 (pin 11 to 14).

 

With this information we will be able to look further for the root cause.

 

Looking at the color you see (brown) I suspect sothing allong the Signal chain leading to O1:

O1(U10, pin3)  <= C1(U6, pin6)  <= V1(U4, pin6)  <= B1(U4, pin11)

Check especially R16, bad soldering of this one could explain the issue, a bad value (too high), also.

You are correct, to focus on O1 C1 V1 B1 chain (it shares the colors for brown).  I built a second adapter.  Problem solved!  So we can safely blame my soldering skills :-).  I will reflow the old board, I bet it will fix it.  Sorry for bothering you. 

 

Your project is amazing and will make lots and lots of Apple IIC owners very happy!

 

I still bought a Logic Analyzer, LA1010, I am interested in watching all the bits move :-). 

[YannAros]

Nice to see one working, the first one isn’t far from, you should be able to fix it, and now you can compare the signals from the ones of a working one too, it always helps.

Keep us posted on the progress.

 

PS : for people in Europe I have some adapter available, just pm me if you’re interested 

[odingalt]

On 10/10/2023 at 11:21 AM, YannAros said:

Nice to see one working, the first one isn’t far from, you should be able to fix it, and now you can compare the signals from the ones of a working one too, it always helps.

Keep us posted on the progress.

 

PS : for people in Europe I have some adapter available, just pm me if you’re interested 

Reflowed whole board - Fixed!  Cold solder joint - R21!  Signal chain O4 C4 V4 B4.  Brown. Browwnn.. BROOOWWWN gone!!!   Success.

[sjwaller]

@YannAros - I'm also interested in an A2CRGB Pal adapter if there are any left?

Edited October 21, 2023 by sjwaller

[YannAros]

10 hours ago, sjwaller said:

@YannAros - I'm also interested in an A2CRGB Pal adapter if there are any left?

Hi,

 

Yes I still have some adapters, I’ll contact you by PM.

 

 

[offby-wan]

@YannAros If you have any adapters left for the Apple IIc, I'm also interested.

[YannAros]

@offby-wan I've sent you a PM

[scottinNH]

Also interested, and in any level of completeness. For Apple IIc. Even if just a raw PCB that gets me over the hurdle.

 

Or I could benefit just from a patient explanation how I get the boards from EasyIDA (the project link), to the PCB order system.

 

I've only ordered boards from OSH Park before, not anywhere else as I'm not good with these programs or knowing much about the exported files. My concern is I'll make mistakes exporting, and lose money or cause a defective board to be produced.

 

The actual soldering looks easy enough... some through holes and none of the SMT stuff seems to have underneath-pads, and I shouldn't have trouble shopping the BOM at Digi-Key or Mouser.

[scottinNH]

Also: I do have a 15KHz Mac RGB monitor MO401, just sitting here doing nothing.

I already know the IIc can not talk to any "M" monitor, but curious if this board could bridge the gap?