[HN Gopher] Medusa is a device that allows connecting of old com... ___________________________________________________________________ Medusa is a device that allows connecting of old computers to modern displays Author : doener Score : 55 points Date : 2022-04-11 20:37 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (medusa-sc.org) (TXT) w3m dump (medusa-sc.org) | olsonjeffery wrote: | I bought an Apple ][e recently at an estate sale. Loved playing | with it and worked fine at the sale, but failed (monitor is fine | but main board no longer turns on, no hard drive grind on | startup, etc) after ~15 minutes of use. I found some | troubleshooting manuals and got, then replaced, a bunch of main | board chips. Still no luck, so I replaced the PS. | | So I'm giving up my sunk costs on getting this actual Apple ][e | into working shape, but I've decided to settle for hollowing it | out as a sort of classic computer arcade cabinet? (with the help | of a apple-keyboard-connector-to-USB dongle I found online), | putting in a rpi4, and perhaps running an emulator to start | (since I'll be specifically reharnessing the original keyboard). | This means I'll trash the main board (and perhaps disk drive | enclosure, which I have no use for) and also need to find a | flatscreen to very safely and carefully put into the A2M2010 | monitor enclosure after removing the CRT component (lovely green | phosphors, sad I won't get to see more of it). | | Anyways, all of this is to say that this device is lovely and I | might get when if another piece of classic hardware falls into my | possession. :) | vitaflo wrote: | Ditch the RPi4 emu idea and get a Mister FPGA. It's wonderful | for retro computers as well and arcade and console games. | andrewstuart wrote: | Don't trash it - many vintage computers need simple repairs | before they'll work. | | Spend a few hundred dollars and find someone to recap it and | get it going for you again. | | An old Apple 2 is a classic machine - it shouldn't be trashed. | At worst sell it on to a collector for parts. | EvanAnderson wrote: | Please don't "trash" old parts! There are people who will pay | you for the parts (and some will even come and take them off | your hands so you don't have to mess with shipping). Apple | IIe's and Disk II's aren't particularly rare, but there aren't | ever going to be any more made. | jacquesm wrote: | If you're in Europe I'd be happy to repair it for you, using it | as an enclosure is a real waste. | bingaling wrote: | don't trash it, put it in a closet for a while until you want | to (or find someone who wants to) learn electronics | troubleshooting. | | You'll regret trashing it in a few years. | rbanffy wrote: | Lotharek does some really awesome stuff. | | It'd be really cool if a device like this tried to simulate the | CRTs that would be connected (blur, diffusion, persistence, | composite color artifacts, etc) to the vintage equipment. With | that, it'd be perfect to restore old equipment where the | irreplaceable CRT needs to be replaced. | ksaj wrote: | It is strange that there are no pictures of this device. However, | with the (brilliant) name, I can easily guess what it looks like. | | There have always been adapters and multi-adapters because of | hand-held video recorders, various entertainment units, and even | overhead displays. Even HDMI comes in Standard, Dual, Mini, Micro | and a specialized Automotive connectors. | jhgb wrote: | > It is strange that there are no pictures of this device. | | You'd be petrified to see it. | iamevn wrote: | Looks like there's some more info here: | https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=135 | vinayan3 wrote: | The price point is pretty step at $169. | ksaj wrote: | I thought that at first. But if you need to translate | between a lot of the devices this would work with, you | might spend more than that on all the different adapters. | | For someone with a lot of retro gear mixed in with new gear | (like me), it's probably not such a bad price. Especially | businesses that digitize home videos etc. | | I wonder if there is surge control on the inputs. The | number one reason I have to replace video adapters is the | input buffer frying. Ironically that often results in a | not-blue screen of death. | madengr wrote: | sbierwagen wrote: | Welcome to short-production-run hobbyist electronics. The | stuff you see at Walmart is cheap because they make 50,000 | at a time. | Animats wrote: | There's a video, but it's half an hour of calibrating a pick | and place machine.[1] | | [1] https://youtu.be/IAsJbZpvYHU | kurthr wrote: | Man, it doesn't even cover CGA displays (200x160,16 color)! | browncalms wrote: | foodstances wrote: | See also the RGBtoHDMI: | https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI/wiki | a_t48 wrote: | Trying to figure out how this is different from an OSSC - I guess | it gives you composite/svideo - the big question in my mind is if | it's easier to configure. The OSSC is powerful, but there's a lot | of fiddling around with the raw primitives defining the input and | output signals (which can be a good thing, if you're into that). | throwaway81523 wrote: | This is nice, but how about a way to connect modern computers to | old displays? I have several really nice displays (mostly in old | laptops, but also an SGI 1600SW) that it would be great to have a | DVI or similar input for in one way or another. | thorncorona wrote: | Your laptop monitors probably use lvds/edp to interface with | the motherboard. You can buy a converter to displayport for | those. For your old monitors that use non-standard interfaces | you should just buy a new one. Acquiring a converter will be | expensive and time-consuming. You might as well just buy a new | Dell ultrasharp, which is guaranteed to be much nicer. | throwaway81523 wrote: | The idea is to avoid a big chunk of e-waste from disposing of | a perfectly good monitor. Of course the converter introduces | electronics of its own, but it's a much smaller thing than a | new Dell Ultrasharp, and hopefully much less expensive as | well. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-04-11 23:00 UTC)