My summer project: A colour Stacy

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derkom
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by derkom »

@Atarian Computing I feel like what you are looking for is probably possible here. By adjusting the min/max width/height in the Geometry menu, I'm able to get the RGB2HDMI to output only the picture area with no borders, and the height is perfectly filling the 800 lines of output. What I haven't been able to figure out is how to get the width to fill the full 1280, but I think I just haven't hit the perfect setting to make everything fall into place. I think it's here somewhere, and your goal is attainable. So go build your RGB2HDMI! :lol:
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

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Of course I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to hook up the new (is it still new after nearly a year?) LCD panel and see how things are looking in the real Stacy lid.

First, colour mode, with borders deliberately cropped (probably will want to create some custom modes for borders/no borders later):

IMG_20210325_184015.jpg
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And second, mono mode, also with no borders, and with the odd vertical lines still present:

IMG_20210325_185319.jpg
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In both cases, the artifacting seen in the desktop pattern is present in person, but far less pronounced than it appears in the photos. Some more fine tuning of the clock can probably fix that, but I won't try until I have a less precarious setup. Even as it is, both colour and mono modes look very good (minus the stripes in mono of course).
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by Atarian Computing »

Thank you so much for the detailed report. This gives me hope and excitement to try it out. I probably won't be able to have a go in a while though. I'd like to finish my current project, a Mystic Colour Classic to be my 040 MagiCMac system. Still waiting for parts. But I think in a couple of months I should return to the STacy. Will eagerly follow your progress in the meantime. Cheers!
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

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Over the past few days, I have mostly completed replacing the OSSC with a RGB2HDMI, which seems to be a better solution for this setup, in particular because of its greater flexibility in scaling the output to match the partially-masked LCD screen. That's a lot harder to do well in the analogue domain on the OSSC, but was pretty easy on the RGB2HDMI.

rgb2hdmi-1.jpeg
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This is the buffered shifter tap. I had to solder the ribbon cable directly on, because there isn't room for headers here. I did use 90° headers, rotated 90° from normal orientation, one on top, one on bottom, for the HSYNC and VSYNC connections.

rgb2hdmi-2.jpeg
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New video cable routes underneath the PSU and disk cage. Disclaimer for @PhilC: That's not his shoddy soldering work on the TF536. That was me, back when I was figuring out that I'd blown up my CPLD. :)

rgb2hdmi-3.jpeg
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RGB2HDMI lives right in front of the disk cage, where the OSSC used to be. There's acres of empty space there now! The extra purple wires coming off the RGB2HDMI will eventually hook up to a button panel in the old TOS access door on the bottom, so the RGB2HDMI can still be controlled after everything is closed up.

rgb2hdmi-4.jpeg
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Plugged in and powered up. Right now it's getting its power via the shifter tap, but since I already have a 5 VDC connector there for the former OSSC, I plan on changing the end over to a micro-USB and supplementing power to the RGB2HDMI that way. I don't want to be pulling all the power through the shifter socket if it's not necessary.

rgb2hdmi-5.jpeg
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And it works! :cheer:
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PhilC
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by PhilC »

@derkom thanks for the disclaimer :lol:

Will it be lighter or heavier than originally?
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by derkom »

PhilC wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:33 pm Will it be lighter or heavier than originally?
I haven't really pondered that. I'm guessing lighter, because the switcher board and Lightning+Cloudy+Storm probably weigh something close to what the old PSU weighed, but the RGB2HDMI and CosmosEx almost certainly weigh less than the old SCSI drive+controller, and the modern LCD definitely weighs less than the original one.

I will certainly weigh it when all is said and done. One thing's for sure, it'll still weigh more than my MacBook. :lol:
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by Darklord »

The STacy has always been a "luggable", not a portable.... :)
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

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Finally time to find out how warm this thing gets with the lid mostly reassembled (the back is in place, but not snapped shut)...

screentemp.jpeg
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Yes, that's what the inside of my head looks like, too. :?

I noticed when I first started work on this that the LCD controller board's processor gets pretty warm, and I've just been hoping/assuming this whole time that it won't be too warm inside the Stacy lid.

After about 30 minutes, the processor is up to 50°C and the rear of the LCD panel 36°C. Nothing to be concerned about there, but we'll see how things are after a couple of hours. I'll probably still stick a heatsink on the processor.

Edit: Seems it settles at 52°C on the processor and 39°C on the rear of the LCD panel, so these temperatures will be fine.
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by Darklord »

That LCD screen I played around with from those earlier posts
when I was playing around with a color screen also got a little
toasty. After leaving it on for 4-5 hours or so, you could feel
the warmth through the lid.

Like you, I don't think it's anything to seriously worry about
though...
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derkom
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Re: My summer project: A colour Stacy

Post by derkom »

Darklord wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:23 am That LCD screen I played around with from those earlier posts
when I was playing around with a color screen also got a little
toasty. After leaving it on for 4-5 hours or so, you could feel
the warmth through the lid.
In my case, almost all the heat is coming from the LVDS controller board. The panel itself barely gets warm. With the numbers I read yesterday (using thermocouples taped onto the controller CPU and onto the back of the panel), I think it's probably a non-issue anyway. The panel is rated for environments up to 50°C, and that's ambient, not taped right onto the back of the panel, and the LVDS controller for environments up to 40°. I didn't have a third thermocouple to read actual ambient temperature, so it might be wise to do another round of testing before I get to the point of closing things up.

I could feel a warm spot on the back of the lid where the LVDS board CPU is, which I consider a good thing, since that's heat sinking into the outside. I've been wondering if I should stick a thermal conductive pad between the rear of the PCB and the case, to try to draw even more heat out that way. The plastic case isn't an ideal heatsink of course, but every little bit helps.
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