Just received mine today and it's an awesome device. Attached it to my Tandy 1000EX and the picture is razor sharp and intense. Love the menu system, took just a few minutes of tweaking to achieve perfection. Thank you for making this available.
I just ordered one. Thanks. Nobody else has any in stock but yours seems to be the better option in any case. I only need it for digital inputs, PET, C128, MDA, CGA
D'oh I just got my MCE2VGA V2 last week. Haha Well I went ahead and ordered one of these too. Good to have options. I saw something similar'ish to this at VCF West based off the same project but building one was looking a bit daunting. Another great solution and another great video! Thanks (for taking my money) :D
Sorry about that, I have been evaluating the RGBtoHDMI for some time now, and the final nail was the recent price hikes. I had kept the MCE2VGA's as cheap as possible, but the Waveshare FPGA board which is the heart of the system, more than doubled in price. The RGBtoHDMI uses less expensive (for now) parts, so I really couldn't justify the needed price increase for the MCE2VGA.
@@TexElec Thanks so much for the reply :D :D :D and seriously, no apology needed. Technology and incredible open source projects march on. (Not to mention this dang chip shortage issue) I'm honestly happy to have both options for doing TTL shaped things, especially CGA/EGA along with a few other things. You have my deepest thanks for all the cool stuff you make that makes my life as a vintage computer enthusiast a whole lot easier. Please keep taking my money! haha. And please keep up the amazing work!
Thank you very much Kevin! I love this board, will you consider make the extension to Apple //e or //c interface? Or the existing PCB already have the pin to connect? I have a little difficult to build the 12bit extender (CPLD), and the document is not very friendly for me, I describe myself a little bit better than beginner in electronics. Also bunch of little cables flapping in the breeze is not a good style. Looking forward to get your new card.
Yes, you can use this board with an adapter. I'm all thumbs at making cables, so it may not be something I can do. I actually need to find a power supply for my IIc, but I do have a bunch of IIe's assuming any of them still work. I'm not personally much of an Apple guy, but I do have some and I will work on them as soon as I can get some time.
@@TexElec Thank you very much for considering, the Apple ][ community is okay but not large enough to make sophisticated new hardware, comparing to Commodore community.
Ooh, might have to get one of these. Any chance you would consider doing a run of the general purpose 12-bit versions at some point as well? Doesn't seem to be anyone making those at the moment (just the system specific ones like Amiga, and maybe a couple others).
Yes, I'm already considering a few options for an easier cable setup. We could also make the existing PCBs, and you could supply your own Pi. I'm sure a lot of folks already have one or two. I have a ridiculous number of Pi's myself. :- ) The Zero is weird, but I actually have to pay WAY more to buy them in bulk. It's actually cheaper to buy them one at a time, so the shields may be a much cheaper route too.
@@TexElec Yeah, I've already got a couple Pi Zeros floating around here somewhere. I just suck at SMD soldering, otherwise I'd definitely order some of the 12-bit PCBs and populate them myself. Hoping some one like yourself (not necessarily you, just somebody - anybody!) will manufacture and sell them eventually.
Very interesting converter. Have you tested it with Hercules Graphic Card (HGC)? I know some cards like de first one you used in the video can be set to HGC.
Do you have a tutorial, anywhere, showing how to set the geometry correctly? I'm having a bit of trouble setting it for the text modes on my Tandy 1000 SX.
EGA is a 6-bit TTL source. In other words, you have 6 TTL signals coming from the source which are either a 1 or 0. 2 bit per color gives you a total of 4 reds, 4 blues & 4 greens. 4^3=64 max colors. EGA usually supports 16 colors, but that was due to limited RAM. The RGBtoHDMI itself can support up to 12-bit TTL which would give you 16 of each color or 16^3=4096 colors. The RGBtoHDMI can also sync multiple video rates, so it can connect to many video ICs directly, such as the Amiga or the Atari ST bypassing the analog circuitry in the system and extracting the bits exactly. It's a very wide-open project, but it will take some wiring to adapt the card for each system. I guess to answer your question, I'm refering to the fact that just because it will support EGA, etc and is a 9-pin connector, you could actually make your own custom cables for other scenarios, and plug them into this board. So long as the source is 6-bit or less.
Huh. It's interesting the device has those mode switching delays with CGA; the H/VSYNC should be the same for all CGA modes (although I suppose it would be *theoretically* possible for someone to mess with the 6845 registers and foul that up) and so far as I'm aware it only supports 2 dot clocks, one of which is an integer division of the other. I guess it must have to hunt back and forth between 7.16 and 14.318mhz instead of "jumping" straight between them? (Or just double-sampling the lower resolution?) Not that it should matter much in the real world. Have you considered selling the board otherwise populated but minus the Raspberry Pi and SD card? I bought a Pi Zero a few months ago intending to build one of these myself but "life happened" and I haven't had the time or patience to wade through all the confusing options there are for cooking one up. Strongly tempted to buy one from you anyway, mind you, but... ;)
Yes, we should have a few more listed in the next day or two. Sadly, we cannot get Raspberry Pi Zero''s in any qty as of this post. It's why we had to raise the price, and even with that, it's still hard to get them.
Just received mine today and it's an awesome device. Attached it to my Tandy 1000EX and the picture is razor sharp and intense. Love the menu system, took just a few minutes of tweaking to achieve perfection. Thank you for making this available.
Great to hear confirmation, 1000EX is exactly what I wanted to capture! Now to find a raspberry pi for a reasonable price!
Just received mine yesterday. Very nice board. Attached to a Leading Edge Model D. Thanks Kevin for all the hard work done on this project!
I just ordered one. Thanks.
Nobody else has any in stock but yours seems to be the better option in any case.
I only need it for digital inputs, PET, C128, MDA, CGA
D'oh I just got my MCE2VGA V2 last week. Haha Well I went ahead and ordered one of these too. Good to have options. I saw something similar'ish to this at VCF West based off the same project but building one was looking a bit daunting. Another great solution and another great video! Thanks (for taking my money) :D
Sorry about that, I have been evaluating the RGBtoHDMI for some time now, and the final nail was the recent price hikes. I had kept the MCE2VGA's as cheap as possible, but the Waveshare FPGA board which is the heart of the system, more than doubled in price. The RGBtoHDMI uses less expensive (for now) parts, so I really couldn't justify the needed price increase for the MCE2VGA.
@@TexElec Thanks so much for the reply :D :D :D and seriously, no apology needed. Technology and incredible open source projects march on. (Not to mention this dang chip shortage issue) I'm honestly happy to have both options for doing TTL shaped things, especially CGA/EGA along with a few other things. You have my deepest thanks for all the cool stuff you make that makes my life as a vintage computer enthusiast a whole lot easier. Please keep taking my money! haha. And please keep up the amazing work!
Thank you so much for this. It truly is the best solution at the moment and will help a lot of people.
Thank you very much Kevin! I love this board, will you consider make the extension to Apple //e or //c interface? Or the existing PCB already have the pin to connect? I have a little difficult to build the 12bit extender (CPLD), and the document is not very friendly for me, I describe myself a little bit better than beginner in electronics. Also bunch of little cables flapping in the breeze is not a good style. Looking forward to get your new card.
Yes, you can use this board with an adapter. I'm all thumbs at making cables, so it may not be something I can do. I actually need to find a power supply for my IIc, but I do have a bunch of IIe's assuming any of them still work. I'm not personally much of an Apple guy, but I do have some and I will work on them as soon as I can get some time.
@@TexElec Thank you very much for considering, the Apple ][ community is okay but not large enough to make sophisticated new hardware, comparing to Commodore community.
Ooh, might have to get one of these. Any chance you would consider doing a run of the general purpose 12-bit versions at some point as well? Doesn't seem to be anyone making those at the moment (just the system specific ones like Amiga, and maybe a couple others).
Yes, I'm already considering a few options for an easier cable setup. We could also make the existing PCBs, and you could supply your own Pi. I'm sure a lot of folks already have one or two. I have a ridiculous number of Pi's myself. :- ) The Zero is weird, but I actually have to pay WAY more to buy them in bulk. It's actually cheaper to buy them one at a time, so the shields may be a much cheaper route too.
@@TexElec Yeah, I've already got a couple Pi Zeros floating around here somewhere. I just suck at SMD soldering, otherwise I'd definitely order some of the 12-bit PCBs and populate them myself. Hoping some one like yourself (not necessarily you, just somebody - anybody!) will manufacture and sell them eventually.
Is there any speculation on when the analog version might be coming to market?
Very interesting converter. Have you tested it with Hercules Graphic Card (HGC)? I know some cards like de first one you used in the video can be set to HGC.
Looks good. Would this work on an original Atari 800 computer?
Any idea when you will have these in stock again?
Do you have a tutorial, anywhere, showing how to set the geometry correctly? I'm having a bit of trouble setting it for the text modes on my Tandy 1000 SX.
6-bit TTL? You mean for EGA or something else
EGA is a 6-bit TTL source. In other words, you have 6 TTL signals coming from the source which are either a 1 or 0. 2 bit per color gives you a total of 4 reds, 4 blues & 4 greens. 4^3=64 max colors. EGA usually supports 16 colors, but that was due to limited RAM. The RGBtoHDMI itself can support up to 12-bit TTL which would give you 16 of each color or 16^3=4096 colors. The RGBtoHDMI can also sync multiple video rates, so it can connect to many video ICs directly, such as the Amiga or the Atari ST bypassing the analog circuitry in the system and extracting the bits exactly. It's a very wide-open project, but it will take some wiring to adapt the card for each system. I guess to answer your question, I'm refering to the fact that just because it will support EGA, etc and is a 9-pin connector, you could actually make your own custom cables for other scenarios, and plug them into this board. So long as the source is 6-bit or less.
Any plans to make an enclosure for these? If not, do you have 3d printer models so I can arrange to have an enclosure printed?
Huh. It's interesting the device has those mode switching delays with CGA; the H/VSYNC should be the same for all CGA modes (although I suppose it would be *theoretically* possible for someone to mess with the 6845 registers and foul that up) and so far as I'm aware it only supports 2 dot clocks, one of which is an integer division of the other. I guess it must have to hunt back and forth between 7.16 and 14.318mhz instead of "jumping" straight between them? (Or just double-sampling the lower resolution?) Not that it should matter much in the real world.
Have you considered selling the board otherwise populated but minus the Raspberry Pi and SD card? I bought a Pi Zero a few months ago intending to build one of these myself but "life happened" and I haven't had the time or patience to wade through all the confusing options there are for cooking one up. Strongly tempted to buy one from you anyway, mind you, but... ;)
How about adding an audio pass-through into the hdmi output?
What/where is the music at the end of the video from please ?
Will this work with PCjr?
Of course! It's just standard CGA. I meant to show it in the video, and forgot to do so.
Are you hoping to have these back in stock sometime soon?
Yes, we should have a few more listed in the next day or two. Sadly, we cannot get Raspberry Pi Zero''s in any qty as of this post. It's why we had to raise the price, and even with that, it's still hard to get them.
@@TexElec That is wonderful to hear! I will definitely be getting a couple.
1:19 to get to the start of the video. That was way too long. 10 second intro max.
I'm only showing the "long intro" once. I paid for that song after-all. :-) I plan to shorten it way down from here on out.
@@TexElec The entire intro could be your channel intro video; it's a good length for that.