Hi guys
Recently i found ADLink PCIe-7350 which is High-Speed Digital I/O Card. Since this card TTL 5V compatible i was qurious is it possible to capture signal from EGA/CGA video cards.
Today i finished small app (which is just proof-of-concept) that captured and decoded signal from OAK EGA card.
http://f5soft.com/pics/2020-01/EGA1.jpg
I can see some jitter...
EGA dot clock is 16 MHz, that PCIe-7350 apparently works at 50 MHz - still not enough?
Żywotwór planetarny, jego gnijące błoto, jest świtem egzystencji, fazą wstępną, i wyłoni się z krwawych ciastomózgowych miedź miłująca...
Internal clock of PCIe-7350 can generate any clock frequency of 100 MHz / N, where N is any integer from 2 to 65535. So there is no chance to tune it to exact EGA frequency. Currently it runs on 50MHz so some pixels captured 3 times and some 4 times.
PCIe-7350 can also use external sample clock. I think it's possible to sample EGA clock directly from a feature connector. In this case PCIe-7350 and EGA card should work synchronous.
If not then maybe later i'll make up some algorithm to remove jitter.
If i succeed with external clock then basically i can read (and maybe write) any TTL devices like EGA/CGA/Mono card or ISA bus and so on.
If anyone interested i'll keep this thread updated.
BreakPoint wrote on 2020-01-10, 15:26:PCIe-7350 can also use external sample clock. I think it's possible to sample EGA clock directly from a feature connector.
Now that's an idea to put one of the RCA connectors on EGA to use - make a plug for the FC that routes the pixel clock to the RCA...
Żywotwór planetarny, jego gnijące błoto, jest świtem egzystencji, fazą wstępną, i wyłoni się z krwawych ciastomózgowych miedź miłująca...
In general thats a very interesting idea. But looking at the price of the PCIe-7350 it seems not to be very attractive. Are there no cheaper cards on the market that are suitable?
If you are looking for a new card then price gonna bite 😀 I guess it's around 2000-2500USD.
I got mine from ebay for 200USD. I think more cards still available from same seller. But card came with no accessories and drivers. Manufacturer charges insane amount of money for original cable and terminal board. So i found VHDCI 68 SCSI cable on flee market for 10USD and ordered terminal board from AliExpres for 16USD. Everything fits perfectly.
Only problem that drivers for card missing digital signature. I'm not sure is it possible to install not signed driver on Win10. I'm using Win7 so it's not a problem for me.
Some news about my project for those who interested. Now I can capture and playback 60fps real-time!
https://youtu.be/OSgZG68K-Lo
PS. Sorry for video quality.
