AppleColor 100 RGB Monitor Alternatives

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AppleColor 100 RGB Monitor Alternatives

So I have an AppleColor 100 RGB/80 Col card for my A2E but I (sadness) no longer have the monitor that went with it.  I've seen them up for sale for big $$$ in the past (in fact, there's one on eBay available right now for 700$, which is a little bit more than what I'm willing to spend at the moment, although I am severely tempted).

 

What I'm curious about is if anyone out there has come up with any sort of other alternatives for a monitor to use with that RGB card.  I've read about people modifying the card in order to use the Apple 2 GS color monitor, but I'm not sure I really want to take that step yet... has anyone made/purchased some sort of converter that goes from that RGB card to either VGA or HDMI?

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Digital RGBI

The Apple IIe AppleColor 64k 80 Column RGB card output is digital RGBI at 15.7 kHz, the same format as IBM CGA graphics. Sync is done differently, however: IBM CGA uses (+) positive horizontal and vertical sync; while the AppleColor card uses (-) negative composite sync.

 

The card's pinout is given in the Apple II FAQ:

1.Shield Ground
2.Green
3.Comp Sync (-)
4.N/C
5.Red
6.Ground
7.N/C
8.N/C
9.Blue
10.Intensity
11.N/C
12.N/C
13.Ground
14.N/C
15.+5v (when a jumper is installed on the card)

 

This can be converted into the sync format expected by a CGA monitor using two chips and a few other components. Here is one design: http://knut.one/A2E-CGA.htm

 

The recent CGA-to-VGA converters like the MCE2VGA may be adaptable to the AppleColor RGB signal. I haven't looked to see if they can handle (-) composite sync but it is possible.

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Didn't the 8-Bit Guy do an

Didn't the 8-Bit Guy (youtube channel) do an RGB hack on a CRT television that had on-screen menus?

I wonder if that would work...

 

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Yes he did ... It is a two part thing.

I found the link here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLz6pgvsZ_I 

but I am not sure if the level of the signals from the CGA like Apple Card are usable for a TV as input.

Is that RGBI ??? Like the Commodore 128 with TTL - Levels ?

Then a RGB mod of a TV will definitly not work. 

You may look for a RGBI to SCART adapter or search for a Commodore 1084s monitor. 

The 1084s has a RGBI input. I am absolutely sure that, there are a lot of RGBI to RGB things out there. Most of those are for the Commodore 128 but if the signal levels and timing is the same as CGA ... I do not see a problem.

 

Most adaptors consist of some logik chips to combine the sync and colour signals that, then get feed in a resistor network for converting the TTL to analog.

 

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