Atari 130XE with VBXE upgrade?
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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.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.
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.
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.
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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