Atari 130XE with VBXE upgrade?

[slaapliedje]

I managed to go for it and get a fully upgraded Atari 130XE system. The guy I had do the work did a topnotch job on it, and I’ve been running it with the GBS-8220, but I know eventually VGA monitors will disappear on us, so I wanted an OSSC, plus from everything I’d heard a lot of the Atari/Amiga systems just shine when you use proper RGB (like SCART). So I ordered a SCART cable for both my Atari Jaguar and the Atari ST (because the DIN13 for the VBXE ‘should’ have the same pinout as the ST.)

Now I’ve tried a DIN13 to VGA cable that Best Electronics sells. As long as I have a VGA monitor that supports 15khz refresh rates, then it works without any other help. I tested it on the GBS and it works fine. I have tried this exact same cable combination on the 130XE’s new video port and it also works fine. When I connect it up to the OSSC through this cable it looks pretty terrible, with flickering lines on the screen.

I’ll put this in bullet points, since I don’t think I described it well.
Atari 130XE
1) OSSC: DIN13 -> VGA = Corrupted screen
2) OSSC: DIN13 -> SCART = No SYNC
3) GBS-8220: DIN13 -> VGA = clearest screen so far.

Atari 1040STe
1) OSSC: DIN13 -> VGA = Good quality screen, medium resolution is almost perfect (seems a little bright and some text fading (very common for medium resolution on non-ST monitors))
2) OSSC: DIN13 -> SCART = Best picture I’ve seen outside of old Atari ST monitor. Medium resolution looks fantastic! Low resolution on game menu looked like it had some screen tearing / vsync issues, but that could easily be my monitor (Dell S2716DG).
3) GBS-8220: DIN13 -> VGA = About the same, perhaps a little less ‘clean’ of a display over the OSSC.

[slaapliedje]

Quick note, to be fair, I think the color is correct on the OSSC over the GBS for those two screenshots.

[BuckoA51]

Flickering lines could be due to lack of low-pass filter on AV3 input. How did you connect to SCART? Is it possible your SCART cable is not carrying RGB correctly?

[slaapliedje]

The SCART cable is working fine for the Atari ST.

This first image is using the same cable combination as the first picture in the first post

This is using the SCART cable on the Atari STe.

From what I looked on the pin configuration of both the VBXE and the 1040STe, they should be pretty much the same, I think some of the audio isn’t connected, and the monochrome / high resolution pin, though even that I think works because on the 8-bit it actually makes it go black and white, which I did not expect to happen.

I just updated to firmware 0.79a as well. I haven’t tried the 8-bit since, but the output looks the same on the STe.

These images do go with what you said about AV3, does look like it’s caused do to a filter missing.

[BuckoA51]

Is the DIN13 on your 130XE wired for composite sync or separate sync, maybe that’s the issue?

[slaapliedje]

Looks like it’s a separate sync, since from what I could find, it looks like the Atari ST’s Composite Sync is on the second pin.

http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/interfaces.php#ATARI_VIDEO_INTERFACE

Composite Sync isn’t connected on the 8bit, so I’m guess that’s probably the issue.

[BuckoA51]

Bit of a thread necromancy but, just wanted to say I got my hands on an Atari 800xl with VBXE fitted. I had our technician wire the output for composite sync into SCART and I’m feeding that into AV1 on the OSSC. The picture is fantastic, no trace of noise at all. Screenshots are coming once my capture setup is re-built.

[STNoob]

Could you do a screen shot of the Atari ST in Hi-res mode? Do you have the correct cables?

[slaapliedje]

Does someone make a SCART for the ST that will flip to Hi-Res mode?

Looking forward to the VBXE w/SCART pictures! I have to look again at which pin I need to wire up, shouldn’t be too hard for me to do, just haven’t done it and wanted to make sure it worked.

[STNoob]

I’m not sure it would work. I was planning to send everything over a VGA cable, rather than SCART.

[BuckoA51]

Could you do a screen shot of the Atari ST in Hi-res mode? Do you have the correct cables?

I don’t have an ST sorry.

I’m not sure it would work. I was planning to send everything over a VGA cable, rather than SCART.

All resolutions are supported on SCART on the OSSC. In some cases using SCART in for 31khz sources can be better too (e.g Dreamcast).

[nmalinoski]

I’m not sure it would work. I was planning to send everything over a VGA cable, rather than SCART.

All resolutions are supported on SCART on the OSSC. In some cases using SCART in for 31khz sources can be better too (e.g Dreamcast).

I second the use of SCART when using the Dreamcast with the OSSC. It doesn’t require any additional configuration on the OSSC (DC will have the wrong aspect ratio over VGA without additional config), and I think it’s simpler to fit into any setup that already uses a SCART switch.

[slaapliedje]

Here’s some tests with my 1040STe.
All of these are through VGA (since I don’t know how to get to high resolution through the SCART)
First picture is with the Best Electronics cable to VGA to OSSC;

Second Picture is with the Ube Switch; http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=30521

Notice that the second picture (while still having lines through it) is much clearer. Not sure if this is because it’s just this tiny box between it and the OSSC, and the other one has a female VGA end so it needs a VGA cable in between or the OSSC is just that nice?

Both of them look to need to be adjusted, the lines usually represent the hsync/vsync being off a bit. I noticed there are settings in OSSC for this, but I didn’t spend much time yet figuring them out.

Last image is the frequencies that are being used.

[BuckoA51]

Try.. V Active 400 (if your display will tolerate it).

Then adjust H.Samplerate until the stripes disappear.. might work 🙂

[slaapliedje]

So for the lines, they pretty much disappeared after I switched on ‘Allow upscale 2x’

Then after tweaking around with other settings, we have success! You can’t see it with the lights off, but there is about .5 inches on each side that are black that I couldn’t quite get rid of, but I’m sure if I tried harder… but there you have it, 55″ LCD TV with Atari ST in Hi-Res through VGA.

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