[ On Sat, November 7, 1998 at 10:38:51 (-0500), der Mouse wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: What are you using Sun3's for
>
> > I used my Sun 3/60 with its built-in bwtwo (i.e. hi-res 1600x1280)
> > monochrome display daily for several years (until the machine konked
> > out) as my primary workstation.  I now use a sparcstation-1 with a
> > bwtwo frame buffer card (501-1419) and the same CRT.
> 
> You mean one of the monitors with a DB-9 connector?  Those are
> electrically compatible with the 13W3 found on SS1 bwtwos?  You happen
> to know the pinout required for an adapter, or somewhere to get
> adapters pre-made?  I have some 1152x900 Sun-3 monitors sitting idle;
> I'd love to be able to hook one up to my SS1+'s bwtwo.

Yeah, my monitor is the good old "Model M" (Sun part # 365-1047-01, 19"
mono monitor (Motorola L7201SY01) 1600x1280 DB9).  I don't imagine it's
electrially compatible with any card with a DB-13W3 connector.

My SS1's bwtwo frame buffer (an SBUS card) has the same DB-9 connector
and is for all intents and purposes [i.e. OS drivers and video output]
identical to the onboard bwtwo's that Sun-3's have.

The messages NetBSD gives for it are:

    bwtwo0 at sbus0 slot 1 offset 0x0: SUNW,501-1419, 1600 x 1280 (console)
    bwtwo0: attached to /dev/fb

The Sun hardware reference calls this:  "mg1 framebuffer SBus"

These cards are supposedly fairly widely available -- probably even in
lots of junk boxes (if you can find junk boxes with SBus cards in them!).

The only thing you're likely to find that'll work with your 1152x900
(greyscale?) monitors is either a CG3 (or CG6 or better) SBus card (should
be lots of CG3's available too), or maybe an MG2.  The MG2 has a
DB-13W3 as will the CG3 and CG6.

> (And incidentally, you mean you found a monitor capable of both
> 1600x1280 and 1152x900?  I thought the 1600x1280 monitors couldn't do
> 1152x900.  Maybe I'm confusing it with some other incompatability.)

Nope.  So far as I know it only does 1600x1280.

I had the monitor on a Sun-3/60M for a long time and when it finally bit
the dust (probably power supply -- it got way hot all the time), I was
able to find the SS1 and bwtwo/mg1 quite quickly -- just before my head
started to ache so much from the colour screen on my NCD that I couldn't
work with text-based stuff any more.

Actually I had another identical monitor before, but it died and luckily
I found this one -- I think I have enough parts to make another working
one now from three more carcasses (that I *think* are all the same mfgr),
so hopefully I can hold out until I can get an even better display device.

> Me too.  Though I wish I could find a truly hi-res display.  (I don't
> consider it hi-res until pixels are small enough that I can't readily
> tell when a single pixel gets incorrectly turned on or off.  The
> 1600x1280 displays are medium-res to me - only about 100dpi.)

I agree 100%!

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
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