Atari ST to VGA adaptor

Atari ST to VGA adaptor

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Claes Holmerup - 17 Aug 1998

You can use an SVGA monitor with an adaptor cable (which is rather easy to assemble) to get a monochrome picture. Some VGA monitors _may_ work, but all SVGA (or multiscan, multisync or whatever) should work as far as I know.

Here's how you make your adaptor:

Atari (13-pin DIN)             SVGA (15-pin HD D-type)
------------------             -----------------------
11 (Monochrome output)         1,2,3 (Red, Green, Blue inputs)
12 (Vertical sync)             14
9 (Horizontal sync)            13
13 (Ground)                    4,5,6,7,8,10,11
4 (Monochrome detect)          short to ground (as above)

The trick here is that the monochrome signal is fed to all the inputs on the SVGA-monitor, which gives you a very nice monochrome picture. Even though the monitor in fact is a color monitor, you won't be able to see a color picture because of the construction of the computer (and the monitor).

If you get your hands on a monitor which handles frequencies down to 15kHz, it's a whole new deal - then you should be able to build yourself a cable with a switch between mono and color (a little more complicated, involving a 4-way switch, but possible all the same).

Just about no modern monitors go lower than 30kHz, so in most cases there is no other choice than mono - but since most useful programs (IMHO) run in monochrome, it's the best alternative anyway...

Good luck! Claes claes.holmerup@mailbox.swipnet.se [1]

This will only give you ST-HIGH but at least you don't need a real Atari monitor then.

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