On Sunday, April 13, 2003, at 03:22 AM, Gary Dean Hildebrand wrote:
> Doc Shipley writes:
>> Hi.
>> I ran across an Amiga 2000 yesterday, with the front of the case
>> silk-screened "Video Toaster Powered". No cables, keyboard, docs, or
>> anything else, but the price was right.
>
> You're kinda SOL without a keyboard as a PC keyboard will not
> interchange. You can get an adapter that translates the keycodes from
> PC to Amiga and then use a cheap PC keyboard for about the same price
> you'd pay for an Amiga 2000/3000 keyboard. The mouse is incompatible
> as well, and if you had the keyboard you could work around that.
I have a keyboard that belongs to the other 2000, and several mice.
What I don't have is the cables for the Toaster.
>> The motherboard is probably junk. The battery has leaked and
>> etched a pretty large area, plus the GVP 030 accelerator (A3001) has
>> dumped rubber sludge on the board. The rubber button on the back of
>> the board *melted* and ran like hot fudge.
>
> Does it boot up -- should give you a picture of a hand inserting a
> workbench 1.2 or 2.x disk out both the RGB and the composite video
> jacks.
Haven't powered it at all. I want to at least get the rubber sludge
off the board first, and replace the onboard battery. I'm much more
concerned about the etching around the battery than anything else.
>> The Video Toaster boardset is labeled v1.0, but there's a sticker
>> that reads "Eval Board 08/90" It's cabled to a Faruodja Labs board,
>> a "Y/C Separator Board"
>
> That gives you s-video output --- seperates the chroma from the
> luminance information, like on S-VHS recorders. A bit better video
> quality doing things this way..
So if I can find docs for that board, I can get output with a
standard S-video cable?
>> http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/photo.pl?id=ycp100 Also installed are
>> 2 ISA cards by RGB Computers and Video.
>
> These are probably TBC's needed for two tape inputs for the Toaster.
> They only got DC power from the ISA buss.
Ah. I kind of thought that. It's an AT card-edge, which would be
incredibly slow graphics.
>> http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/photo.pl?id=amilink The short card
>> I have has only 3 BNC connectors - positions 1. 3, and 5, and the
>> long card has only the bottom two.
>
> Got me there.
They're definitely some iteration of the Amilink set. I wonder if
they are the CI set, which only supported one particular VCR.
> The connectors on the Toaster should be Inputs 1-4 , preview, and
> video output top to bottom. All inputs have to be sync timed to the
> #1 input, which is the reference that the Toaster works from. The
> monitor has to be RGB, attached to the DB23 ouput connector.
> Composite video is available at the RCA jack, but is not color encoded
> (b&w)
OK, thanks. This means that I can attach my 1084 to the standard
connector, without any cabling for the Video Toaster, right? The
documentation to the OpalVision card in the other A2000 warns against
that, so I didn't want to experiment much.
>> Are there docs for the original VT? Software?
>
> I don't have copies yet, but it is out there. You can get a CD ROM
> from Newtek for $100 that has all the versions of the software.
Oh, yeah, I saw that on their website. I can get a later-rev Video
Toaster off eBay, with software, documentation, and cables, for much
less.
Speaking of revisions, does the fact that it's labeled an eval board
mean anything? In terms of drivers and software, and in terms of value?
> Stick with the native gfx for general futzing/games/etc. The
> Opalvision and other gfx boards just provide greater resolution/color
> resolution, and usually feed a VGA/SVGA mornitor. Native video mode
> is NTSC rates RGB analog output. You'll soon find out why Amigas
> needed a flickerfixer.
BTDT, with the flicker.... The OpalVision is 23-pin RGB output, and
so far I haven't found anything to gripe about with it.
>> Any docs or software at all for the Amilink setup?
>
> I'm sure there is -- might check aminet.org for anything pertinenet.
I wasn't able to resolve www.aminet.org, and it was down last month
too. Know of a working mirror?
> I think GVP-M still has those SIMMs available, as they used those in
> quite a few of their products. They ain't cheap.
'Fraid of that. I'm terribly tempted to shift some chips around. I
know the Derringer supports a 50MHz CPU....
My mix & match options are to run the GVP '030 with its 8MB, plus the
8MB on my other GVP HC+8 hardcard, or to swap the 50MHz proc onto the
Derringer with its 16MB, giving me a total of 24MB. I'm just not all
that thrilled with the way the Derringer sits on the board.
Any opinion there?
>> Thanks. Any pointers or help would be appreciated.
>
> Glad to help out there. I have 15 Toaster cards here collecting dust
> . . . . .
Cables? Later revision?
Thanks again for the information. Every Little Bit Helps. :)
Doc
Received on Sun Apr 13 2003 - 04:01:01 BST