GBS-8220, 23DB Connectors and Leads

[hot trout]

Firstly I just want to say sorry for asking all this again. I know this has been covered quite a long time ago and I have been reading all the threads here that I could find on the subject. I just wanted to ask some questions fresh to make sure it is still the current line of thinking.

1. Is the GBS-8220 still the best board to use for running old Amigas on modern monitors?

2. Is this still a 'build your own' project or does anyone sell these already made up?

3. Can someone supply the required Amiga to GBS-8220 lead already made up or do I need to make my own?

4. If making my own can anyone sell me or show me where to buy a D23 Female connector and hood?

Maybe this is all old news now and some members have a better solution?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by hot trout

1. Is the GBS-8220 still the best board to use for running old Amigas on modern monitors?

No, that would be the Indivision series. However the GBS's are great boards for their cost.. I'm pretty happy with the one I have.

Originally Posted by hot trout

2. Is this still a 'build your own' project or does anyone sell these already made up?

I've seen them sold on e-bay as complete a few times, but I'm not aware of anyone who's consistently making them. So "build your own" as far as I know.

Originally Posted by hot trout

3. Can someone supply the required Amiga to GBS-8220 lead already made up or do I need to make my own?

I'm sure you can ask around. You can ask here and/or on Amibay and might be able to find someone. If you know anyone who can solder, it's really easy. Just 5 wires.

Originally Posted by hot trout

4. If making my own can anyone sell me or show me where to buy a D23 Female connector and hood?

Amigamaniac was selling them (I got mine from him) and I've seen them posted on Amibay...

I'm actually surprised that Amigamaniac or some of the other guys aren't offering this as a "service/package" yet....
But it's really not that hard to do... Even I did it.. ;-)

desiv

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by hot trout

Firstly I just want to say sorry for asking all this again. I know this has been covered quite a long time ago and I have been reading all the threads here that I could find on the subject. I just wanted to ask some questions fresh to make sure it is still the current line of thinking.

1. Is the GBS-8220 still the best board to use for running old Amigas on modern monitors?

2. Is this still a 'build your own' project or does anyone sell these already made up?

3. Can someone supply the required Amiga to GBS-8220 lead already made up or do I need to make my own?

4. If making my own can anyone sell me or show me where to buy a D23 Female connector and hood?

Maybe this is all old news now and some members have a better solution?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I have the pinout for this board, and also some 23 pin connectors and hoods, i can post the pinout to you later this weekend

[amiman99]

The converter is labeled pretty good
All pins are on Amiga side:

PIN 3 RED
PIN 4 GREEN
PIN 5 BLUE
PIN 10 CSYNC
PIN 19 GND

Edit: one more thing, if things don't work, press the "Auto" button, to find the signal.

[hot trout]

Thank you guys for your responses and also desiv for your straight talking answers. Good to know that this board is still the way to do things. I am now happy to order one of the GBS-8220 boards from ebay and hopefully kipper will be able to send me a connector and hood in exchange for some paypal cash.

Can I ask, do you guys make the lead up by cutting the end off an existing VGA lead or do you solider straight onto the board?

I ask because I want to be able to disconnect the Amiga and connect other old computers EGA and consoles etc as well.

If anyone has any images of their projects that would be a help.

Many many thanks already.

p.s. Is this the board I need?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1809119379...84.m1423.l2649

[desiv]

Originally Posted by hot trout

Can I ask, do you guys make the lead up by cutting the end off an existing VGA lead or do you solider straight onto the board?

No, no messing with VGA at all.
The GBS has a VGA plug (or 2 if you get the 8220) and you just plug a cable from that to the monitor.
There is also a header that goes to the Amiga.
The GBS (at least mine and all I've heard about) comes with a plug for that header with some wires. I just soldered the the 23-pin plug to the end of those wires and was good to go.

Originally Posted by hot trout

I ask because I want to be able to disconnect the Amiga and connect other old computers EGA and consoles etc as well.

Not sure about EGA. Haven't looked into that.
But you could either just get multiple headers and solder different ends on those, or you could go from the header to a plug you make. Then from the plug you make, you can have different cables going for different machines and just plug in the one you want at the time.
I know at least someone did that for his case for it. Not that he's using multiple machines, but he went from the header to a plug in his case. Then his Amiga cable went from the DB23 to the a plug end for his case.

I'm only using my Amiga, so I haven't tried that.
I am using the VGA end on a KVM tho. So my monitor is for my Amiga, or my PC or the 2nd monitor for my work laptop. (and one free for project PCs)

Originally Posted by hot trout

p.s. Is this the board I need?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1809119379...84.m1423.l2649

Not sure about the seller or anything, but that looks like an 8220.
I think the only difference between the 8200 and the 8220 is the 2nd VGA port, which I believe is just for cloning (the same image would be on both screens). I have an 8200 and it works fine..

desiv

[amiman99]

I want to add something...
I put mine GBS in a standard box and wired the input to 9pin connector and made it compatible to 1084 monitor pin out.
I can use standard Amiga monitor cable with my box, no need to hunt down hard to find connectors.
See pics

[hot trout]

A very good idea and I was thinking of somehting similar myself. Can I ask why the blue input provided just in front of the header can not be used?

What type of connector is it?

[amiman99]

The VGA input you see is for 31khz video input.
For 15khz input, you need to use provided cable and use composite sync. Also, you can use the connector with 5 pins (R, G, B, GND S) with Amiga.

[johnim]

have a look here too

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...hlight=gbs8220

[hot trout]

Originally Posted by amiman99

The VGA input you see is for 31khz video input.
For 15khz input, you need to use provided cable and use composite sync. Also, you can use the connector with 5 pins (R, G, B, GND S) with Amiga.

Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense now. Looking forward now to getting this little project up and running.

[Johan1973]

Thanks for bringing this subject up again, I have been looking to order one of these to just test around, and as I was going to research the subject, I find this thread where I get a quick answer. It is the next best thing to Indivision.

Since I do hardware builds, I will make some nice box for it. If you have problems figuring out how to wire it, I can make a guide, but it is fairly simple. Or I can do the wiring for you, as long as you pay for parts and shipment back to you.

To make Make it possible to use all screen modes, I figured I would just wire up a VGA cable along side the cable that feeds the board, and connect it to the VGA input. However, I just have to ask, does the board auto switch between inputs, or can you manually select which input that should be used?

[johnim]

hi

can you manually select which input that should be used?

a switch for manually select which input

[hooverphonique]

be careful with EGA.. most of them output digital signals (TTL) which may not be compatible with that 82x0 thing..

[Johan1973]

That is good then. It wont flip out because I wire it up to be able to run 31khz modes as well

Originally Posted by johnim

hi



a switch for manually select which input

[hot trout]

Johan,

Instead of me buying the parts on ebay and making it, would you be interested in making another for me and I will pay you instead?

I also want to repeat that I also found the help here superb, my questions were answered very quickly and professionally. Thank you all.

[Johan1973]

I have checked around, and there is some interest in having these built. So I will order one and see what I can do, find a good design. Then I will buy some more boards and do some of these to sell, will not be expensive, parts + shipping + small fee for the work of soldering and working on the boxes to install the boards. I will post a message on this forum when the boxes will be available.

[hot trout]

Get in. Looking forward to this. Only problems is I might not be able to wait.

[Johan1973]

Originally Posted by hot trout

Get in. Looking forward to this. Only problems is I might not be able to wait.

I understand you. I will see if I can order two boards for prototyping then. If the design turns out ok, I can sell you one rather quickly. The longest delay will be delivery of the boards to me.

Biggest issue will be finding 23 Pin Dsub connectors. I can always cut 25 pins to 23pins, but that does not look so nice.

[Johan1973]

Hot Trout: It might be best if you go ahead and get yours from where you can get it the quickest, because delivery time will be rather long. About a month and a half before I have the boards, and then about a week or so to make the prototypes.