[Coco] other use for fpga rgb converter

Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus) retrocanada76 at gmail.com
Tue Oct 28 14:29:19 EDT 2014


The boards are easy to assembly using protoboard, but you would like
something from OSH Park to be good-looking with the altera, also for the
durability and noise reduction. I will try to make a design that would look
nice one top of it :)

You can order your altera de0-nano. I'm finishing the design, I need to
make some tests with the Coco2: YEAH! I want to make the component video to
vga as well from the 6847 :D

If you really want to contribute: Soon I will release the eagle files and
then you can order it from osh park. The minimum batch is 3 boards and I
just need one for me. It will probably cost no more than 20 dollars per PCB.

Felipe.




Luis Felipe Antoniosi



On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Oct 2014, Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus) wrote:
>
>  I'm finishing the board in eagle to be used with the Altera DE0-Nano. It
>> will include a RCA for the composite video, a coco3 rgb connector and a
>> generic RGB IN for CSync in an VGA connector. So if your computer has
>> separate hsync/vsync you should use the COCO3 port, if it has CSync you
>> use
>> the RGB IN. And the RCA for Apple ii.
>>
>> I won't be able to use cheap altera boards from ebay because they don't
>> have a 16-bit SDRAM.
>>
>> I am very limited on the choice of alteras, it must be Altera Cyclone IV.
>> I
>> tried compiling for Altera II or III but it was a no-go for the PLL.
>> Cannot
>> change the PLL speed. So I must stick the the cyclone IV. The cheapest
>> cyclone IV on ebay costs around 30 dollars. Adding a SDRAM would increase
>> the price to 10 dollars (plus the work soldering these small legs).
>>
>> For 79 you buy an DE0 Nano development. Also it has way more quality. Also
>> my PCB won't have any SMD so it can be assembled by any one with a cheap
>> soldering iron.
>>
>
> Doesn't bother me at all.  If I add up the money and time I've expended in
> a fruitless effort at getting clean video conversion I could buy a dozen
> DE0 boards - maybe more.
>
>  And honestly I don't want to expend money buying a board that would may
>> not
>> work, doing more prototypes, etc. I have already spent too much money on
>> retro computing so now I'm very low profile.
>>
>
> I would like to put my money where my mouth is and contribute towards your
> development costs.  Anyone else want to join me in stepping up?
>
> If you will allow me to do this, please contact me privately with a PayPal
> address?
>
>  The problem with my board is that switching from one computer to another
>> you need to fine tune the variable resistors. So it's not a plug and play
>> solution, you should keep it for one computer.
>>
>
> I plan to buy several if the results are anything like what you've showed
> in your YouTube videos.
>
> Once boards are available, I plan to talk at length about this on
> comp.sys.apple2.  There's an avid community of A2 users facing the same
> challenges as I am:  dying CRT monitors and/or insufficent space to set
> them up.
>
>  I would need a help for any engineer with video expertise, how do I
>> normalize different video voltages ?
>>
>
> Gene Heskett has forgotten more about video than I could hope to know in
> two lifetimes.
>
>  Should I use transistors ?
>>
>
> On the inputs?  Probably a question for folks smarter than I (Gene?)
>
> Steve
>
>
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>
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