Indivision ECS and Picasso II

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Is that a pin setting/jumper on the Picasso II?

Resistor on PII needs to be removed for it to work with modern LCD monitors.  See this thread for more details:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=51133

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Just to follow up on this old thread, I've now bought a second PII, this one a Rev. 1.6, still no dice. Neither a 1.4 or 1.6 PII will work at all when Indivision output is plugged into its input port. The screen stays black until the Indivision is unplugged. Both PII's otherwise work fine.

I'm beginning to think there is a fundamental incompatibility between the output on the Indivision and the input/pass-through port on the PII.

I can't really be the only one who's ever tried this, can I?

Should I just keep throwing money at graphics cards and hope one works? Maybe I'd have better luck if I can find a PII+ or a Spectrum? Or should I just give up and buy some kind of external monitor switch, dashing my dreams of the perfect A2000? LOL.

On that note, anyone want to buy a couple Picasso II's? :p  (j/k until I can get this resolved)

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Bumping this thread of mine since I had a few minutes to play around with my Miggy tonight.  Anyone successfully gotten an Indivision ECS to work with any sort of monitor switcher?  I got one response in another thread that even external switchers don't work.  I'm looking for any confirmation that someone has gotten Indivision ECS output to work with the internal monitor switcher in a Picasso II, PII+, GVP Spectrum, Domino, or Piccolo SD64.
 
 ...Probably not applicable to the monitor switches built into the CV64/3D or PIV, since they have their own scan doubler modules, and even if I could afford one I wouldn't want to "break" one of these cards by separating it for ZII.

I don't mind my unique dual monitor Amiga, but, you know, being able to use just one monitor would be nice.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Know it's of no help, but if you've got space for two monitors that's gotta be the way to go. That's what I'd do.

At my office I do, but I'm thinking eventually I'd like to take this system home, hook it up to my TV, maybe take it to user group meetings, etc.

Meh, maybe I'll just get one of these, like we have for all our work computers:

http://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-24-995-006

I gotta admit, that would look pretty swank sitting on top of an A2000.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

For the heck of it, just tried opening a 320x200x16 color screen on the Indivision and seeing if that would pass-through the PII. No overscan, no nothing. Still no luck, as soon as the cable is connected between the two the screen goes black.

In other words, even if I have a PII screenmode selected and displayed, and nothing coming from the Indivision output, just making that physical connection between Indi output and PII input blanks the PII screen. *sigh*
 
 Need to try ordering that shorter cable.  Someone over on Amibay reports that their GVP Spectrum works fine.  Anybody have one of those they want to sell, or loan me for testing?  Haha.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I already clipped the resistor on both PII's, it was the first thing I did before installing so don't know if it would've made a difference. Thinking about a sound bar too, low priority, LOL.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

My theory is that the reason for your problems might be because the Picasso II pass-through expects a signal with the same frequency as old style scandoublers. But have in mind that this is just a theory I have, for I'm no expert on this matter.

I've tried this. Indivision has a "1.00" mode and a "1.25" mode. In 1.00 mode it outputs a 60Hz (NTSC) signal. 1.25 mode is a multiplier, and outputs at 75Hz. Same thing happens with PAL (50Hz and whatever 1.25 of that is, LOL). Tinkered with the output settings of the Indi for a while, couldn't find anything that worked.

1' cable arrived today. Still no difference. I noticed on boot-up that Workbench displayed for a split-second (using a PII screenmode) then went black and the monitor entered powersaving mode, until I removed the cable going between the Indi and the PII passthrough, at which point Workbench immediately shows up.

Might swap the other PII back in and try with this cable also, just to make sure I'm not losing my mind. Next step might be... I don't know. Pull the Indi ECS from my A500 and test with that one? I've heard GVP Spectrum works, if anyone has one the want to loan me? :roflmao:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well, damn. So I started recording a video to try to explain the issue I was having better, and it seems like I may have figured it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fO4z18HBy0&list=UUf87dyQP0Q50Tmy-H7zqqIQ

It looks like when the Amiga is using the PII to display an image, the Indivision is still outputing some kind of signal. So that's why my screen when black when I plugged in the pass-through - it was trying to display whatever minimal signal the Indi was sending.

I found one thread that mentions this sort of, here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65148

Possible solutions:

- find some sort of software to completely disable Indi output when the PII is on. Maybe a setting in P96, or something in CGX (as mentioned in the above thread). Don't really want to switch to CGX now that I've got P96 working...
- find a video card that ignores this non-signal the Indi is sending out (possibly @matt3k's GVP Spectrum?)

Any other ideas? I'm getting there, I think, sorry for the long rambling video, LOL.


Edit - On second thought, I don't think that is the case, because then when I have an Amiga screenmode displaying through the Indi, if I plug it into the PII it should pass it though. Gaah, this is getting way more complicated than it needs to be.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

OMG.

VICTORY.

How do I make that font size bigger?  

After struggling with this for what feels like months, I finally have it working.  With significant help form Matt3k and even an email from Jens, I now have my Indivision ECS working with the pass-through connector on a GVP Spectrum.  It is everything I'd hoped it would be, and feels great to finally have completed the project.  I think now I'm finally "done" with my A2000.  I was just browsing the web, looking up articles on Wikipedia, then jumped right into a game of Turrican II, smooth and flawless.

Maybe I can finally close the case up?  I think it's been months since I last put its lid on.  Although I would like to replace my 4MB GVP simm's with 16MB modules, and I'm sure there's a few more things I can add...  hehe.  :lol:

I think I will just go to sleep now before I break something or come up with any other crazy ideas.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

OMG.

VICTORY.

How do I make that font size bigger?

After struggling with this for what feels like months, it looks as though I finally have it working. With significant help form Matt3k and even an email from Jens, I now have my Indivision ECS working with the pass-through connector on a GVP Spectrum. It is everything I'd hoped it would be, and feels great to finally have completed the project. I think now I'm finally "done" with my A2000. I was just browsing the web, looking up articles on Wikipedia, then jumped right into a game of Turrican II, smooth and flawless.

Maybe I can finally close the case up? I think it's been months since I last put its lid on. Although I would like to replace my 4MB GVP simm's with 16MB modules, and I'm sure there's a few more things I can add... hehe. :lol:

I think I will just go to sleep now before I break something or come up with any other crazy ideas.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Something like $500 worth of Picasso II's shipped to the States from Europe, yeah, pretty much. Waiting to hear back from Matt3K if he wants one to complete our deal. I just got tired of beating my head against the wall with them. They work fine, just not in conjunction with the Indivision. That being said: The email I got from Jens suggested connecting a couple pins together on the PII to make it work. It was pretty technical stuff but it looks like the Spectrum already included this fix, so once I got that working I didn't investigate further. Maybe someone more daring than me will try it in the future?

Amiga. What can I say? It's a labor of love. Including all the head-beatings against the wall.