C128 80 col to S-Video

[Blacklord]

As I'm currently 80 column monitorless (bad English I'm sure) since my 1081 finally died & while I'm waiting to find a multisync monitor that I can use on all my classic computers, I decided to invest in an S-Video cable as a temporary measure.



Works well, though of course it only displays in glorious black & white. The picture is nice & clear on my 66cm TV - actually looks better than on the old 1081 (sans colour of course). Once i find where the digital camera is holidaying, I'll grab a couple of shots.

Anyway, it'll do as a temporary measure.

Added bonus is that I can see what the PC5 is doing as well as it shared the same monitor.

cheers,

Lance

[hydrophilic]

Maybe I should start a new thread because this is about 80-col to RCA/Composite instead of S-Video, but since this is about the same issue, monochrome display of the 80-column on a TV, I thought I'd just put it here.

My C128 arrived yesterday and today I opened it up and tested it out.  The seller told me it didn't come with video cables but that's OK because I don't have my 1902 monitor any more so I knew I'd have to rig my own cable.  After testing the 40 column mode and sound with a cable I already had, I decided to test the 80-column mode.  I looked for my old 80-column cable but couldn't find it.  So I 'built' my own 'cable'.  Here's the steps to build your own in about 10 minutes, dirt cheap.

1. Get a set of RCA (phono-plug) audio/video cables.  I used these because I have several laying about (but only 1 S-Video cable which is currently in use).
2. Cut off the video (yellow) connector on one end (preferably with wire cutters and not a pocket knife).
3. Strip 3 cm (1 1/4 inch) from the cable you just cut.
4. Twist / braid the ground wire strands together into a 'solid' wire.
5. Strip 2.5 cm (1 inch) from the inner cable.  This is to leave 0.5 cm insulation before the ground wire.
6. Fold the inner 2.5 cm wire strands in half and twist them into a 'solid' wire.  This is to make a thicker 'wire' since the inner part of the cable is much thinner than the outer, ground.  Also there will a small hump/ring at the end of your 'solid' wire when finished.  You should try to flatten it as much as possible, but mine worked with a quite noticable hump/ring.
7. With the computer off, insert the short/inner cable into pin 7 and the longer ground into pin 1, preferably in that order.  The short one you folded in half should have no problem.  The longer one may 'shed' some 'fibers'.  If so, remove them or re-twist your wire and try again. Looking at your RGBI connector the pins are like this:
5 4 3 2 1
 9 8 7 6
Or for the numerically challenged:
x x x x G
 x x S x
With G being where you insert the ground/outer wire, S where you insert the short/inner wire, and x where you don't insert anything.  As an added note, Abacuss books' C128 Programming Secrets has the pinout backwards :mad:
8.  Closely inspect your connection to make sure no metal wire (strands) are touching the metal case of the computer RGBI connector, and that the exposed parts of the two wires are not touching each other.
9.  Optional, but recommended.  Insert the audio (white) cable into the RF out located adjacent to the RGBI port, and tape the cable to the video 'cable' you just made.  This is to provide 'strain relief'.  It works remarkably well as I was constantly moving the computer around while testing without loosing the connection or getting any flicker on the video.
10. Connect the opposite end of your video cable (yellow) into the 'video in' of your TV or other video device.  Leave the white one disconnected (there is no audio out from the RGBI port so you need a seperate connector for sound).

All done.  Turn on your TV and 128 and enjoy nice tri-chrome (black, gray, white) video!

Honestly I was amazed at the clarity from my TV with this simple 10-minute hack.  Better than VIC but of course lacking color.