PE+ Ceronix, Inverter board

[CerTech]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Howdy Chris,

Sadly I am strictly LCD, I haven't touched a CRT in about 15 years or so. I can't contribute much personally on the CRT front, but I dig up some old Ceronix CRT training and materials every now and again. I know the CPA1492 is still landing on workbenches to this day. I'll look into getting any worthwhile and missing docs uploaded.

For anyone interested Ceronix does have an archive of some of the older products here: https://www.ceronix.com/lcd-specs-manuals-schematics/ I imagine most of it has made it to the NLG File System as well.

[Chris-socal]

Anthony, the training documentation in good resolution would be great. And/or a comprehensive flow chart. Especially for the 1492s….there are still thousands of those in use and every once in awhile we get one that defies logic!

Im happy to help with uploading, PM me and I will get you my email address.

Chris

[Stayouttadabunker]

Oh boy....what an awesome link! TMI TMI !!!   
Welcome to NLG CerTech!
I only have one 492 left these days but wow...that info would of sure been in handy back then!!

[Chris-socal]

One of our members attended the training and kept the paperwork, he posted some of the pages but the scan quality was really low and you couldn’t read a lot of the text.
I always wondered how the techs who said “no cartoon, found some obscure capacitor was out of tolerance “.
I think they knew exactly where to probe with the scope and noticed anomalies.

[jay]

What we really need is a small circuit board that can do the video inversion.
This will allow us to use any LCD to replace the older 1492's

[CerTech]

Here is a link to some of the older training materials in the meantime. https://www.ceronix.com/technical-workshops/

@Jay

Inverted video is a topic that gets brought up in engineering every so often. I think we're the last place on the planet that still offers factory new inverted video solutions (Happy to be mistaken about this). Finding a scaler IC that is still in production and supports inverted VGA is rarer than rocking horse dung.

[Stayouttadabunker]

OMG...you just brought up memories of me messing around with some cheap video invertor for weeks back around 15 years ago and I couldn't do it.
I tried everything I knew, played with every setting and harness configuration.
I eventually tossed it all in the garbage.
Still have the videos of it on youtube...haha...>>>

https://youtu.be/7AsEvNSCpj4?si=5-IxDchuCtgT_4Ig

https://youtu.be/25qkE6ZcBHc?si=jZ0D0kCJUk8jGMWg

[Chris-socal]

Isn’t there a jumper on the board that inverts the video?
I just had one yesterday that had non- inverted colors.  I returned all jumpers to IGT (Q,S,X,Y) and the colors inverted.
At least on the 1492. I can’t speak for any others.

[jay]

Yes that works for a Ceronix Monitor.

Now grab an old Dell 15” lcd monitor with a vga cable.
We need to invert the signal from the PE+ before it gets fed into the LCD.

Or we need to harvest the inverter circuitry from a retired 1492 and reuse it for the LCD.

[CerTech]

Or we need to harvest the inverter circuitry from a retired 1492 and reuse it for the LCD.

Has this been done? I'd love to see a photo or a guide for that kind of that setup, sounds like a pretty neat mod/project to do.

[Chris-socal]

Yes that works for a Ceronix Monitor.

Now grab an old Dell 15” lcd monitor with a vga cable.
We need to invert the signal from the PE+ before it gets fed into the LCD.

Or we need to harvest the inverter circuitry from a retired 1492 and reuse it for the LCD.

Oh right! I understand what you’re trying to do now. Im a bit slow to the draw, LOL
I going to reach out to Aaron Reed, the designer of the TPG, it has a color inverted option, he might have some ideas on how to make an inline inverter. It “sounds” so easy! .
We should also split this convo into Monitors so the welcome wagon topic doesn’t get muddied!

[jay]

This was split .....

[Chris-socal]

 Aaron at TPG found this thread on KLOV. Unless there is something fundamentally different in the signal used in slots, there are already a few options.
1. Hantarex Polo included a schematic for an inverter in one of their manuals. Attached
2. A member at KLOV made a PCB and had them for sale. Pic attached. I sent an inquiry to him to see if he still has them available for sale. Pic attached of this too.
3. Mikes Arcade sells an inverter board with audio amp for around $50. https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=NININVAMP

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/nintendo-inverter-board.502289/

When I pondered this, my simple mind said “run it through an inverter IC”, we have all probably probed one of them…pin 2 high, pin 3 low. I just don’t understand the other needs of the circuit to function correctly.  My concern was validated when someone said speed is important when selecting an IC….thats when the conversation went over my head.

If anyone here is interested in one of the pre-made boards let me know, I can consolidate our orders.

Chris

[jay]

If these work - I would be happy to be first in line.....

[Chris-socal]

Iwill update if I get a response. Idid get a response from the member who posted the picture and he doesn’t have any available.

[LuckyDog]

If anyone here is interested in one of the pre-made boards let me know, I can consolidate our orders.

Chris

I'd be interested if available

[jay]

I think we need to get 1 and test it.
I can throw a few bucks in for seed money.

[Chris-socal]

So far over 20 views on my KLOV post but no responses.
We might have to design our own board and have it printed.
Does anyone here have any experience building a circuit board? I know there are places we can have it printed but it had to be designed first.

[LuckyDog]

I'd be willing to chip in.

Have designed a few boards in my day.  I could layout the board, but I'd need a working circuit.

[jay]

We can always start with a bread board and then worry about professionally etched ones once we have a working circuit.

I’m having a buddy over tonight for dinner and he is pretty good at circuit design.
I will see if he is up to the task.