User avatar
jrobbins70

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 1:18 pm

Hi all. Long time Amiga owner (since 1986), first time poster here.

I have an amiga 3000 with a picasso ii card. I cannot for the life of me get it to display anything.

My question is this: is the passthru cable between the amiga to the Picasso II special? I have been using a simple VGA cable from the amiga to the picasso and the picasso to the VGA monitor. No screen ever. Otherwise the amiga 3000 to VGA works fine (with flicker fixer turned on).

I have a 25mhz Amiga 3000 with buster 11 with no other cards installed.

Thank you.

J

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:53 pm

Hi J - Welcome.

Are you using P96 drivers?

User avatar
jrobbins70

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:33 pm

I have no drivers installed. Do I need them for the picasso ii to work? I thought I could just plug it in and the passthru would at least work?

Please let me know if I should install drivers before the card.

J

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:41 pm

According to a friend of mine who has a few Picasso cards, "It should pass through no matter what" regardless if you've installed the drivers yet or not.

Another friend asked, "Is the resistor near the relays burnt on the Picasso?"

Can you take a photo of the Picasso board and post it here, so some folks can look at it in detail?

User avatar
jrobbins70

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:42 pm

I had to remove the resistor since it was smelly and I read that it should be removed if the monitor sends 5 volts along a certain line.

Is the pass thru cable just any VGA cable or is it special? I don't have it. I just use a regular VGA cable.

J

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:00 pm

More questions:
Do the relays in the Picasso make any clicking sounds?
Is the Display Enhancer on the A3000 enabled?
What happens when the video cable is plugged directly into the 15 pin VGA port on the A3000?

User avatar
jrobbins70

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:21 pm

The relays make click sound when I run the debug program.

Yes, display enhancer is enabled on the a3000.

If I plug the monitor directly into the VGA port on the amiga it works fine. If I plug the monitor directly into the picasso's output port I see nothing, ever.

J

User avatar
jrobbins70

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:27 pm

Here are a couple screenshots of the card and debug program output.

What frequency does the Picasso II output on? 31khz VGA or 15khz amiga? My monitor won't do 15khz.

J
Attachments
image1.jpg
image0.jpg

User avatar
AXm77

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:50 pm

jrobbins70 wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 1:18 pm
...
My question is this: is the passthru cable between the amiga to the Picasso II special?
...
No, it is regular VGA cable. Did you verified if one for passthru is OK?
jrobbins70 wrote: I have no drivers installed. Do I need them for the picasso ii to work? I thought I could just plug it in and the passthru would at least work?
For just passthru, you don't need drivers. It will work as you expected.

How do you connect it together? Top port (next to two relays) is a monitor port, bottom one is for passthru signal (from Amiga).

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 27, 2020 11:16 pm

From my friend Christian:
I would suggest to check the output on the Picasso when native Amiga video is passed through. With a white background R,G,B shoukd approach 0.7 V and the sync lines (H and V) should be neither at 5V nor 0V. Logic probe would be great for checking sync signals. Maybe one of the relays is not properly switching the sync signal(s). I saw a post a while ago where someone had issues with the relays on an early rev 1.0 or 1.1 Picasso (which used different relays than later versions)
Hope that helps.





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