SUMMARY: Connecting SS1-monitor to 3/50 ?

From: Tom Lislegaard (tl@cmi.no)
Date: Sun Aug 18 1991 - 10:38:52 CDT


I asked whether you can connect a SS1 type monitor to a sun 3/50, perhaps
with a converter of some sort.

There are certainly differing opinions on this. Responses are divided 50-50
between "this should work without problems", and "impossible - at least
without relatively expensive hardware".

Those who have actually tried something like this all belong to the
latter group, so I guess thats it. I enclose one response to represent the
correct answer below.

Also thanks to the following

        Thomas Weihrich <Thomas.Weihrich@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de>
        jan@eik.ii.uib.no
        David Fetrow <fetrow@biostat.washington.edu>
        kpc!kpc.com!cdr@uunet.UU.NET (Carl Rigney)
        kevins@Aus.Sun.COM (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
         rwolf@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca (Robert J Wolf)
        mikem@juliet.ll.mit.edu
        Fereydoun Tavangary 503-627-6717 DS 50-662 <ft@sparky.labs.tek.com>
        jxh@icdwest.ICD.Teradyne.COM (Jim Hickstein)

 -tom
CCCCCCCCC I +-----------------------------------+
C |Tom Lislegaard tl@cmi.no |
C MMMMMMM I |Chr. Michelsen Institute |
C M M M I |Dept. of Science and Technology |
C M M M I |N-5036 Fantoft, Bergen, Norway |
C I |Phone: 05 574013 Fax: 05 574001 |
CCCCCCCCC I +-----------------------------------+

From: jxh@icdwest.ICD.Teradyne.COM (Jim Hickstein):

  I went through this recently. No, you can't connect the DE-9 to the 13W3
  because the electrical levels are not compatible. The DE-9 is ECL levels,
  and the 13W3 is... well, not. I had tried to upgrade a 3/75 to a 4/40,
  which entails keeping the monitor, but Sun had to ship me a special S-Bus
  board with a DE-9 on it: the ECL monochrome frame buffer board. It's
  usually $1000 (!) although it can also do hi-res (1600x1280?).

  So, no, a cable won't do it. You may find some external box that converts
  levels, but I doubt that it would be cheap, and it sounds like you need
  it converted in the abnormal direction (3/50 to 13W3 monitor). Good luck.
  --
  "Neither can His Mind be thought to be in Tune whose Words do Jarre;
   Nor His Reason in Frame whose Sentence is Preposterous."
  Jim Hickstein, Teradyne/Attain, San Jose CA, (408) 434-0822 FAX -0252
  jxh@attain.teradyne.com ...!{decwrl!teda,apple}!attain!jxh



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