Re: videx video card or getting lowercase display on a II+

[heuser.marcus@freenet.de]

On Jul 7, 1:49 am, Knut Roll-Lund <kr-l...@nogarbage.online.no> wrote:
>
> I'm considering to buy a Videx Video Card for my II+ on eBay but is has
> no videocable. There is a 5 pin connector there, so it would probably be
> possible to make the necessary cable. I have searched on the net and
> have found no description of the cable or even a photo of the card with
> the cable. Could anyone explain what the pinning for the cable is?

AFAIK there a basically two well known Videx video cards:

The Videoterm which is probably *the* standard for 80 column cards
on the II/+ and which got cloned very often.
Secondly there is the Ultraterm with higher specs and much rarer on
ebay.

AFAIK a genuine Videoterm card should have the video connector in
the upper "left" corner (keyboard end of the card).
It has 5 pins with a gap between 4 and 5. The board also should have
markings as which pin has which function.
You should simply connect a RCA equipped cable to VIDEO and GND.
Ignore the +5, +12 and LIGHTPEN pins, obviously.
If you get a Videoterm clone or Videx deviated from this layout in
later
revisions things might look different.
I can mail you schematics of the Videoterm if you need/want them.

The connector of the Ultraterm looks the same but I'm not completely
sure of its functionality as I have no schematics and board layout
pictures.


> The II+ now works fine and I just got a 16K card as well as the SSC I
> got earlier and the disk II card it came with. Also got a joystick for
> it. It is a real beauty except that some silly programs write numbers
> and signs instead of lowercase on the screen...

I can't help you with the other approach but I can say this:
Once you got lowercase you wouldn't want to get back (except you
are a severe case of a "retro extremist" - but then you should get
an Apple I ;-).

bye
Marcus