Re: A little ZVG (and ZVT) update

From: Mark E Davidson <mark_at_basementarcade.com>
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 13:17:21 EST

Ok,
    Last question and then Ill shut up.
     Being a hardware guy, I passed on getting a ZVG when they came out.
I never run Mame or other emulation, and don't want to (although feeding
a computer into a vector monitor is soooooooo cool. :-)
    So, Will ZVT be offered as an upgrade kit and a "all in one"
configuration? Or will we need to buy both separately? I only ask as if
it is only an upgrade kit then it would make sense for me to get the
available ZVG, now and wait for the reset, spacing my payments towards
my end goal out. (man is suck being unemployed) :-)

I too have a pile of monitors I would love to bench test so Im sure I
was one of the 3-4 people who said "sign me up" for the ZVT

-=Mark=-

Zonn wrote:

>On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 22:03:27 -0800, Mark E Davidson <mark@basementarcade.com>
>wrote:
>
>
>
>>Ok, I don't mean to be boring ether, But the general chat sort of leads
>>to ZVT relying on ZVG. Is this the idea behind the project? I thought
>>ZVT was a stand alone unit
>>
>>
>
>It was going to be but after doing a little survey of interest on the ZVT, we
>got about 3 or 4 responses. Even tripling that, and then comparing it to the
>amount of work to design the stand alone ZVT PCB, and then to have a minimum
>order run, it didn't matter how we worked the numbers, it just isn't economical
>to build a ZVT from scratch.
>
>We still want to build a ZVT however, (I have a growing number of dead vector
>monitors in my garage that could really use ZVT!), so what we're going to do is
>take an off the shelf development platform, add an LCD display, a few switches,
>and place it and a ZVG in a box similar to the one shown on the website, and
>build a stand alone ZVT in a box.
>
>The off the shelf development boards I'm looking at are at
>http://www.futurlec.com/DevelopmentBoards.html. Their prices are great! (You
>can't even buy the parts of the boards for the prices they sell the whole
>things.) They're based in Australia but seem to ship from NY. But they do take
>a while to ship (2 to 3 weeks). I'm looking at the AtMega or AT90S8535 boards
>as two possibilities. They also sell a LCD module for $11. (If anyone knows
>any better deals on AVR development boards with plate through holed prototype
>areas, let me know.)
>
>A ZVG isn't needed to run a Cinematronics monitors, so I'm going to wire up a
>connector on the development board to connect directly to a Cinematronics
>monitor and write firmware to directly drive the Cinemonitor (I had "proof of
>concept" firmware running a Cinematronics monitor before we started work on the
>ZVG).
>
>So for a Cinematronics monitor you can go out and get $25 ~ $50 worth of parts
>(depending upon things like the price of the case, whether you have switches,
>etc.), download the firmware from the website, solder a connector to the AVR
>development board, a few switches and you'll have a ZVT for a Cinemonitor.
>
>For the analog monitors you'll need a ZVG, which, when not being used for the
>ZVT can still be usable as a ZVG. "It's two, *click*, two boards in one!" (You
>have to have been born before the 70's to remember this commercial. :-)
>
>Since we're doing pretty well selling Component Video Switches we can afford to
>drop the price of the ZVG to $249.
>
>This would place the price of a ZVT at around $300, with way better specs! The
>original design was going to be a 64x48 end point grid, the ZVG allows for a
>1200x900 grid of endpoints! It also includes linearity and pincushion
>correction that the ZVT would not have had. And not to forget vector game
>emulation using the ZVG as a ZVG.
>
>-Zonn
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>** To UNSUBSCRIBE from vectorlist, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the
>** message body to vectorlist-request@synthcom.com. Please direct other
>** questions, comments, or problems to vectorlist-owner@synthcom.com.
>
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** To UNSUBSCRIBE from vectorlist, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the
** message body to vectorlist-request@synthcom.com. Please direct other
** questions, comments, or problems to vectorlist-owner@synthcom.com.
Received on Wed Mar 12 07:15:16 2003

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Fri Aug 01 2003 - 00:34:23 EDT