Re: New Monitor: Spot Killer & microprocessor issues

I don't have much to offer in terms of circuit design, but I sure would love
to be able to position and size the display from the front of the monitor.
That would be killer!

Hey, perhaps I could design the CPO for the digital pot controller board! ;)

You guys are awesome. Keep cruisin' !
-roy-

----- Original Message -----
From: Clay Cowgill <ClayC@diamondmm.com>
To: <vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 1999 7:25 PM
Subject: RE: New Monitor: Spot Killer & microprocessor issues

>
> > Clay, do you still want a micro on board?
> >
> Well, it's certainly not required. But it does fall into my "gee-wiz that
> would be neat" category. ;-)
>
> > If so we need to hash
> > out what exactly it will do. The amp has a shutdown (mute) mode
> > that could be activated if we had a good reason to use it. Let's
> > re-iterate the microprocessor function again.
> >
> Ok. I can think of a variety of functions that would be nice and are handy
> to implement on a microcontroller. (The AVR's have onboard EEPROM which
is
> kinda slick...)
>
> 1) smart and/or adjustable spot killer with variable stages of shutdown
> (guns off, defl. amp off, power off)
> 2) smart diagnostics (display quadrant of failure-- probably most
pertinent
> to discrete designs)
> 3) Time in use/time since service (hour meter saved in EEPROM)
> 4) Temperature monitoring (use LM75 or something)
> 5) Fan control/additional cooling (either PWM or just a 2N7000 to click on
a
> fan)
> 6) soft size/center control & front-panel controls (digital potentiometers
> on input op-amps)
> 7) presets for size/center (once again by EEPROM settings)
> 8) "Vertical in Horizontal" mode (digital pots automatically adjust
display
> to a vertical aspect ratio on a horizontal monitor-- good for Tempest on
> Major Havoc or Tac/Scan in a StarTrek).
> 9) test display? (draw an "X" or something on the screen with a couple
caps
> or PWM D/A?)
>
> > I am a little
> > concerned about the support it will require in terms of buffering,
> > power supply, crystal, and cost increment.
> >
> I'll be a few bucks for sure. Depends on functionality required/desired.
>
> > On the other hand,
> > it could be made to be a solder-in option or better yet, a daughtercard
> > like you are famous for could offload all of this functionality
> > to a second design!
> >
> That's a good idea. I agree that it might not be smart to burden the base
> design with the smart-functions. On the other hand, I think it would be
fun
> to make the add-on available as an upgrade for extra functions... I could
> do a couple different versions too-- one that's "supervisor only"
> (spotkiller, temp monitor, time-meter) and one that has a remote-control
> board for screen adjustments from the front panel, BIST, etc.)
>
> > The daughtercard sounds viable, if we can
> > agree on a good cheap and physically stable thus reliable connector
> > to use for it.
> >
> In the case of the microcontroller controlled size and center controls I'd
> need to be able to intercept the input signals. Depending on the desired
> feature-set of the supervisor board we might just look at something like a
> 16 pin? (2x8) .1" header ($0.15-0.20?). In the "default" configuration,
> ship with shunts that just connect the signals across the connector-- to
use
> the daughtercard remove the shunts and plug in the daughtercard:
>
> x-in --o o-- x-out
> y-in --o o-- y-out
> r-in --o o-- r-out
> g-in --o o-- g-out
> b-in --o o-- b-out
> +v --o o-- +v
> gnd --o o-- gnd
> -v --o o-- -v
>
> Any buttons, fan connectors, temperature sensores, etc. could be on
another
> connector on the daughtercard that goes to a remote control panel that you
> could mount behind the coin-door or someplace easily accessable. (Since
> I've got digital pots on the daughtercard the "remote control" board is
only
> digital so we don't have to worry about picking up noise or attenuating
the
> analog signals with a bunch of wiring...)
>
> The shunts across the +v, -v, and gnd wouldn't be needed, but probably
> should be included just for the sake of consistency.
>
> I'd even pay for the connectors and shunts-- in order to be able to do a
> daughtercard for it later. ;-)
>
> -Clay
>
>
>
Received on Tue Nov 9 20:32:37 1999