Anyone else given this a shot?
After finding
Stephane Guillard's page about this modification (and having recently picked up a CV64/3D and scandoubler), I decided to go ahead.
The picture quality of this unit (with a 17" IBM Trinitron) is absolutely amazing. Amiga games look stunning. It doesn't flicker-fix, but I suppose there's little need for laced modes with a video card.
A few notes/things I did differently:
Instead of modifying the scandoubler, I found a square file the EXACT width of the PCB. I then carefully filed out a nearly perfect notch at the back of the video socket. (That took about an hour.) It worked great, and the socket is still very strong with no flexing. My reasoning here was that a socket is relatively easy to replace, whereas a CV64/3D scandoubler is not.
Right now I have a temporary wire carrying the 28 MHz signal to the video slot, but will eventually remove the motherboard and solder in a small wire underneath. (I think this is the "cleanest" method, and once again no soldering on the unit itself.) Using a piece of STP wire might be a good idea, as the signal seems susceptible to interference.
Something else to point out, 28 MHz is not at pin 6 of the CPU socket, but pin 9. I'm *real* glad I RTFMed before doing this, or I would have applied +5v instead. :-o
One strange problem I encountered -- after about 10 - 15 minutes of operation, the display would develop ripples, intermittent blanking, and finally... no video. I eventually tracked the problem down to some noise from my IVS Vector '030 card (only after it warms up). There is a row of through-hole capacitors on the unit I will probably replace, as it seems a likely a failing cap could cause some interference issues. If not... that's OK, as the card will hopefully be replaced soon with something a little faster. Anyway, this problem drove me nearly insane, almost two hours before finally figuring it out.
Anyhow, just thought I'd share that this mod is fairly simple, very little surgery involved (all easily correctable) and provides a FANTASTIC picture with a good monitor. Cheers to the above gentleman's website for the great idea. :pint:
