About 15 years ago I decided to make myself a high quality test pattern generator, using an old Commodore Amiga A1200.
I built it into a rack case, along with an old PC power supply, a modified Amiga A520 PAL modulator and a surplus video camera viewfinder CRT, which was driven by a PCB from an old B&W monitor.
A momentary pushbutton was wired into the former left mouse button. This allows the user to cycle through the patterns stored in the memory. The selected pattern is displayed on the camera viewfinder CRT, and output is provided on the rear panel in the following formats:
- Modulated RF - provided by the existing A1200 RF modulator.
- CVBS video - provided by the existing PAL encoder in the A1200.
- S-Video - provided by the added and modified A520 PAL encoder.
- RGB - provided by the existing video out socket that was extended to the back panel
- Component - provided by an added circuit, which converts the original RGB signal.
Originally I had an old hard drive attached to the inbuilt IDE interface that automatically booted the Amiga straight into an image viewer program called 'ppshow' which displayed the images stored on the hard drive. Later I replaced the hard drive with a compact flash card from an old camera. I'm able to fit quite a few patterns in the tiny 8MB card.
Patterns included the following:
- PM5544
- PM5644 (widescreen PM5544)
- PM5540
- Colour bars
- Multiburst
- Comb filter test
- Luma/Chroma delay test
- Zoneplate patterns
It's not necessary to do all these modifications to have an Amiga work as a test pattern generator. As a minimum all you need is a standard A1200 or A4000, preferably with Kickstart 3.1 ROMS (3.0 causes slight cropping on the left of the picture) It's also possible to use a bootable floppy to store the patterns on, however you are limited to a maximum of 5 or 6 patterns.
These patterns are not suitable for earlier Amiga models such as the A500 or A2000, as these cannot display enough colours or have the required 'super high res' screen modes (1440 x 582) that these patterns require.
If anyone is interested, I can provide the files for you to create a bootable Amiga hard drive or floppy.
That is most impressive.
I had an Amiga many years ago, but the kids took it over. I still wonder what happened to it.
Well done for a clever and well implemented project!
John
That is most impressive.
I had an Amiga many years ago, but the kids took it over. I still wonder what happened to it.
Well done for a clever and well implemented project!
John
Thanks, John.
It's amazing what can be built up from those spare bits and pieces hanging around, I just had a thought too.
For those people into 405 line TV, I know that these Amigas have programmable line and frame rates. It could be possible to force them to output a 405 line video signal. Unfortunately I don't have a 405 line TV to try this out on.
What an excellent idea, great attention to detail and a very professional looking unit. Thanks for sharing it with us. ?
p.s.
viewfinder on the front and the selectable option was a neat touch.
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For those people into 405 line TV, I know that these Amigas have programmable line and frame rates. It could be possible to force them to output a 405 line video signal. Unfortunately I don't have a 405 line TV to try this out on.
You could program the timebases on the Commodore PET as well. This was done by using the POKE command to change the values in specific memory locations.
As the PET had a built in CRT and associated circuitry, this meant that you were directly modifying its line and frame scan rates. Not sure how much truth there is in it, but I once heard that if you set the line scan rate to a setting where the LOPT was particularly inefficient you could cause it to overheat and sometimes catch fire. There are times when I wish Windows had such a feature!
John
Anno Domini is probably playing tricks with me now, but ISTR that the A4000 could be coupled to a Questech Charisma to create custom versions of the CLEO* patterns...
(*CLEO = Curvi-Linear Effects Option)
You could program the timebases on the Commodore PET as well. This was done by using the POKE command to change the values in specific memory locations.
As the PET had a built in CRT and associated circuitry, this meant that you were directly modifying its line and frame scan rates. Not sure how much truth there is in it, but I once heard that if you set the line scan rate to a setting where the LOPT was particularly inefficient you could cause it to overheat and sometimes catch fire. There are times when I wish Windows had such a feature!
John
Indeed there was a 'killer poke' that reputedly could damage later models of the Commodore PET.
The early versions of the PET used a number of TTL logic chips to generate the sweep signals for the inbuilt monitor. Also these early models had slow video RAM access. It was found that typing 'POKE 59458,62' sped up this memory, though 'sparkles' appeared on the screen.
Later versions of the PET has faster video RAM access as well as a CRTC chip which generated the sync and blanking signals for the monitor. The POKE mentioned above now had no effect on speed, but there was now an unwelcome effect on the retrace signal that was fed to the monitor electronics.
I think Commodore fixed the problem fairly quickly as I have a late model PET, and typing the killer poke does nothing to the display.
Incidentally, I did have first-hand experience of a self-destructing Windows PC. I had just assembled a new PC, and on powering it up for the first time, I noticed that it was dead. As I reached over to switch it off, there was a loud bang, something whizzed past my head, and the PC beeped and started to boot! I found that an electrolytic capacitor had blown itself off the motherboard. Presumably it was a short circuit, and after it had removed itself from the motherboard, the short was also gone....
Ah yes, the IBM instruction set. I remember others such as PED (punch and eject disk) and the classic for anyone who ever tried to use tapes with an IBM system, WWLR (write wrong length record). If only there had been a RWLR.
Here's a more complete list:
http://ruthless.zathras.de/fun/top-secret/NewOpCodes.txt
"The golden age is always yesterday", Asa Briggs.
I spent many years playing with amigas, started with a 500 then the tragic CD32, then a 1200 with blizzard 12060, then a 4000.
Very happy times, even built the 1200 into a mini case years before they were widely converted. They were used for rendering some of the first CGI graphics shown on film and television I believe. The A1200 is still in the wardrobe, I wonder if it still works.
I spent many years playing with amigas, started with a 500 then the tragic CD32, then a 1200 with blizzard 12060, then a 4000.
Very happy times, even built the 1200 into a mini case years before they were widely converted. They were used for rendering some of the first CGI graphics shown on film and television I believe. The A1200 is still in the wardrobe, I wonder if it still works.
It might be a good idea to check it out. Quite a few of the later model Amigas like the A4000 and A1200 had surface mount electrolytic capacitors that are prone to leaking electrolyte, causing corrosion on the motherboard.
Video Toaster anyone?
The capacitors all seem to be ok, it powers up but wont read anything from the floppy, and the hard disk isn't spinning either. Been asleep too long.
I have had old hard disks that will not spin. The fix I found is to remove the unit from the case and power it up. They usually spin without a data cable connected. Hold it up in one hand and tap on the corners with your knuckle so that the case rotates sharply in alternate directions around the platter axle. This often frees them up.
I must have been thinking on the same line, its sitting on a hot water bottle presently I was then going to give it a tap when its nice and warm.
Warming them up also helps but a little tap and a few minutes of spinning is best so that it warms itself up.
You wouldn't like what I've seen done to older Mac hard drives, where the things are slammed flat onto the bench to free them off... 
Once had a disk-based video keyer come in for repair. The heads had jammed at one point on the disk, and stayed there... until they cut their way through the aluminium platter 
I used to do similar to some huge full height ( physically) SCSI drives I used to maintain. Always getting frozen by the heads in the park position. My hard drive in the Amiga is now working, the floppy however is still refusing to read disks, I suspect it has dirty heads. Now where do I get a floppy cleaner disk these days
I would guess that FDD cleaning kits are NLA but there is always a strip down and manual clean to fix the problem.
If you can strip down far enough to get access to the heads, you can get away with a piece of tissue, or blotting paper, soaked in methylated spirit and very carefully work it back and forth in the gap between the heads.. I've had to do this on odd occasions, and has always been very successful.
Marion
All done and working, thanks for the Tip Marion.
