AFAIK only the early Orchid's had mechanical relays. Later revisions of the card removed them. I have unfortunately never heard one in action, sounds cool on a Retro PC. Nglide or Dgvoodoo could implement this super easy, just play a sound file before running a game, however would anyone really want that on a modern system? Plus, it'll be coming out of the speakers not the tower 🤣 .

True, you could have two variants, one with the sounds one without. Oh I thought the Voodoo 2s had them also? My Asus Essence STX does the same thing when W7 loads. Also Nglide does it run in SLI configuration? I ran F22 Lightning 3 recently and saw that it was running in SLI mode?

TBH, I prefer electromechanical relays over solid state ones for purely technical reasons. Sure, the moving parts might be a con, but those relays aren't all that hard to replace, and I believe the passthrough quality losses often seen with Voodoo1 cards can be attributed to those SSR:s. If I remember it right from those days, the Orchid cards with electromechanical relays had superior image quality in passthrough mode.

It would be great if we found a better relay for the voodoos , one that does not degrade image that much. I wonder if a newer and better replacement exists nowdays...

Actually, the mechanical relay Righteous 3D is rather damaging to the signal. A typical Voodoo2 is noticeably sharper at 1024x768 and above.

Unfortunately, I haven't used any other Voodoo1 cards.

simstar wrote:

hi,

Do you remember the clicking the 3Dfx cards made whenever they were made active?. My Righteous 3D did this. Did the other cards do this also? I wonder if the developers could implement this on nglide or dgvoodoo? Sound very neat and retro.

From what I understand, the Orchid Righteous 3D was the only Voodoo to have a mechanical relay. I own one myself and just last week I got to install it in my DOS\9x gaming system and heard it click on for the first time. It works beautifully, and its really awesome to hear a very mechanical, physical sound like that to tell you "Oh yes, this game is 3D accelerated!"... its very unique.

I don't know if any other cards of different types ever did this, but I'm pretty sure that only the earliest Righteous 3D did and I was very happy to hear the click the first time, telling me I had one. 😀

It is quite unique, yes. All part of the nostalgia.

swaaye wrote:

Actually, the mechanical relay Righteous 3D is rather damaging to the signal. A typical Voodoo2 is noticeably sharper at 1024x768 and above.

Unfortunately, I haven't used any other Voodoo1 cards.

Well, in my experience, the Voodoo 1's with SSR:s are even worse. Got a Diamond Monster 3D in my socket 7 rig now, and there are diagonal lines moving slowly across the screen in passthrough mode, which usually is a sign of interference from other components. Tried everything, even made my own passthrough cable. I'd put my guess on SSR:s leaking through from the primary side causing it.

VGA/analog interference is not exactly uncommon though. I've certainly seen plenty of the diagonal line stuff. We've had a few threads about it, including even G400 cards with it.

I can't spot a real difference between the Righteous 3D and my other v1's.
V2 is a tiny bit better but that has nothing to do with the relay, they are made a bit better i think.

The clicking sound is nice but it does sound like something that would wear out much quicker. But hey, it still works so i guess it was a fine choice they made back then.

My Diamond Multimedia Voodoo 1 has that mechanical relay click as well.

notsofossil wrote:

My Diamond Multimedia Voodoo 1 has that mechanical relay click as well.

Interesting, I own some of those and I never noticed relays like the Righteous 3D... I'll have to check mine over more closely!

I can't imagine how relays cause any noise. They're pretty much static. Sure the lower image quality is a pure technical problem ?
As far as I know, sometimes the bandwith/quality of a VGA signal is limited by the manufacturer to comply to local regulations.
Since the older one is affected, maybe regulations had been relaxed a bit later or they improved shielding.
But I'm not an experienced 3DFX user, only had a Banshee and a Voodoo1 so far. So maybe this isn't the case here.

Can a high quality mechanical relay be soldered in, on those V1's that do not have mechanical relays?
Might be a silly question.

You can get relays in either a dip or surface mount flat pack.

I have had non-mechanical relay V1's in the past, as of now I only have one Orchid.
I was just thinking in the cool-factor of having two identical ones, were the relays have been swapped on one of the cards.
I don't know... Might be an insane idea, having an original non mechanical and one modded with mechanical.

brostenen wrote:

Can a high quality mechanical relay be soldered in, on those V1's that do not have mechanical relays?
Might be a silly question.

The card would have to be able to supply enough power for the relay coils for that to work. My guess is that those SSR:s are FET based, which with some simplification means they just need voltage, no current, to switch. There's no knowing how much current the control circuitry can supply, as none is needed in the original configuration.

You could always keep the SSR:s, and use them to switch a power source for mechanical relays, which in their turn switch the video signal. That would mean serious modifications, daughterboards, etc though.

True, but isn't this a bit of an overkill ? I don't know much about SSR:s, but true relays aren't always that power hungry.
An average mechanical miniature or DIL/DIL relay requires very little current, maybe 10 to 50mA ?
Anyway, its wise to be careful here. In case of doubt read the datasheets and check how much the installed solid state relay requires in comparison to the mechanical one.
Its also important to make sure whether the desired mechanical relay has a diode in parallel built-in or not.
As for the daughter board.. I've got an idea. You can glue the relays on the back of the VGA connectors. They're fitting in size. 😉
Only drawback: The wires. They may degrade quality if they're to long.
Btw, the Righteous 3D uses two relays, G5H-2 and G6H-2 from Omron. Or similar ones, like a pair of Nais TO2-5v.