RGB Digital Prism - User Manual 1.1
Contents
1. an interesting thing occurs the usefu resolution is decreased to 140H x 190V This occurs because of the way in which the NTSC monitor or TV set works In effect the color monitor interprets the signal such that every two dots represent one color dot Since there ar four possible combinations of two binary quantities i e 00 01 10 11 there are four possible colors that can be produced But wait doesn t Apple advertise the Apple II and II as having six Hi Res colors Yes they do but what they didn t tell you is that ther are certain restrictions to the use of the six colors The Apple engineers figured out a way to use that eighth bit of every display byte to 1 3 give the Apple II and II a more versatile and more confusing color display When the eighth bit of a byte is turned off the four possible colors are black white violet and green When the eighth bit is turned on the color choices are black white blue and orange You can see that you cannot mix green and blue or green and red in the sam byte nor can you mix violet and blue or violet and red in th same byte Remember I said it was more confusing With double Hi Res graphics on the Apple IIe you can now have a horizontal resolution of 560 dot positions on monochrome monitor When this signal is applied to NTSC monitor a doubley curious thing happens while you might expect2. the solder side of the card The set of connectors on the solder side is the on designed for the RGB extender The connectors on the chip side are for the Ramworks 512K or 2 Meg piggyback cards and are NOT compatible with the RGB card Line the RGB extender and the Ramworks up so that the the chip sides of each card face in the same direction Line the connectors up so that all pins on the RGB card will slide into a slot on the Ramworks card and gently push the two together until they are mated and will not go any further Whil the power to the Apple IIe is still OFF gently push the Ramworks card back into the auxilary slot on the Apple IIe motherboard Rout the video cable out of one of the holes in the back panel of the Apple IIe s case Us the mounting hardware which consists of a flange and two screws to mount the connector to the Apple s back panel Connect the cable to the cable coming from the RGB monitor See diagram on page five for more information Insert the ProDOS disk supplied by Applied Engineering into the boot drive Now turn on the power and enjoy a Hex Stand off Apple Connector Rear Panel Mounting Plate Cable CONNECTOR DETAIL Panel Connector RGB Signal Cabler RGB Card RGB Card Apple lle power supply Ramworks Card Ramworks Card 2 USING THE When
3. 5 4 3 2 1 O O O O O O O O 9 8 7 a VERT SYNC INTENSITY HORIZ SCNC N C DB 9 IBM Compatible Connector NEG N C GROUND RED N C SYNC GREEN GROUND 7 6 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 5 V N C GROUND N C NC INTEN BLUE switched SITY DB 15 Apple Compatible Connector 16 TROUI PROBLEM No image on the screen get a syntax error when I use the RGB commands from BASIC The screen flickers or rolls BLE SHOOTING SOLUTI Ch ON eck and make sure that all cables are hooked up properly Pay special attention to where th th e ribbon cable plugs into e header on the RGB card make sure the cable points in th the RGB card e direction of the chips on Make sure that you have BRUN th e file B RGB HIRES before you try to use any commands of the ampersand Also make sure you are using the commands with the correct parameters Make sure that the cables are snugly connected and that the horizontal and the proper posit 17 vertical on the RGB moni hold tor are set to tions
4. mode The text color selected via the Text Color Switches will still be in effect in the 80 column mode The Applied Engineering RGB Software To allow you to use the card from Applesoft Basic Applied Engineering has supplied with the RGB extender software that will extend the command set of Applesoft Basic This command extension uses the well documented ampersand hook Each of the commands used from Applesoft must be preceded by an ampersand amp character This ampersand character tells the Applesoft interpreter to use the Applied Engineering software to execute the command which On the disk is When this program RGB routines into follows a binary executible file called B RGB HIRES is BRUN it will load the Applied Engineering memory and set th ampersand hook so that any command preceded by an ampersand character will be executed by the RGB software other ProDOS disk RGB On the disk will automatically is a good idea for any disk which will be used primarily for RGB graphics The following is This file B RGB HIRES can be moved to any and BRUN to provide the Applesoft extension for we supplied to you the program called STARTUP run B RGB HIRES when the disk is booted This a list of the commands their usage syntax and the required parameters for each amp DG amp CLEAR amp TEXT amp HUE X This command is used t
5. to get a horizontal resolution of 280 dots get four colors the horizontal resolution for color stays at 140 dots but because the NTSC monitor now interprets four dots as one color dot you now have the possibility of 16 colors there are 16 possible combinations of four binary quantities The video generation circuitry the Apple IIe mother board changes the information in the Apple s Hi Res display memory into an NTSC compatible video signal It is the job of the circuitry on the RGB extender to convert this same information the Apple s memory into the RGB signal which is actually three signals for red green blue and send this signal to the RGB monitor Even though the RGB xtender uses th same area in the Apple s memory for its display data not all programs that use this area of memory for their display area will work with the RGB extender Recall that in explaining the command amp DG in the section on the Applied Engineering software we mentioned that if you did not use the amp DG command the software would still draw on the Hi Res screen but no image would appear on the RGB monitor This is because the RGB card must first be turned on before it will convert the information in memory into an image Th sam is true of commercially available software packages If a program writes to the Hi Res screen but does not turn on the RGB card the R
6. to include the AUX extension after the filname which follows the POKE 16299 0 This convention must used if the file is to be readable by the Beagle Graphics program Sample Programs Here is a short program which will draw random colored dots on the RGB screen 100 amp DG 110 amp CLEAR 120 amp HUE RND 111 15 130 amp DOT AT RND 111 139 RND 222 189 140 GOTO 120 In line 100 we use the amp DG command to turn on the RGB card In line 110 we use the amp CLEAR command to clear the RGB screen Line 120 sets the color to a random number between 0 and 15 Remember that the Applesoft random number generator returns a random number between 0 and 1 then multiplying this by 15 will yield a number between 0 and 15 after truncation to make it integer quantity Line 130 plots a dot in the chosen color at a random location Note that the first coordinate X coordinate is between 0 and 139 and that the second coordinate Y coordinate is between 0 and 189 Line 120 simply puts us in an infinite loop The only way to terminate this program is to hit reset or use Control C 11 Now we will change the program a little so that it draws random colored lines instead of random colored dots The program looks like this 100 amp DG 110 amp CLEAR 115 amp DOT AT 69 94 120 HUE RND 111 15 130 LINE TO RND 111 139 RND 222 189 140 GOTO 120 You wi
7. 0 dot positions Each of the dot positions on the screen represents one bit of information in the computer s memory Each horizontal row of 280 dots is created from the information in 40 bytes of the computer s memory You might wonder how 40 bytes of eight bits each makes 280 dots per row instead of 320 dots per row The answer lies in the fact that only seven bits per byte actually displayed on the screen The eighth bit in each byte is used for special purposes which will be discussed later The Apple IIe has many improvements over the Apple II II one of which is the double Hi Res graphics mode which allows us to have a monochrome resolution of 560H x 190V In order to get 560 dot positions per horizontal row we need extra bytes of memory for the extra information on the screen The Apple IIe was designed so that extra memory in an auxilary bank plugged into the auxilary connector could be interleaved with the regular Hi Res display memory For the Applied Engineering RGB extender the memory already exists on the Ramworks card For the Apple IIe doubl Hi Res every other byte used for screen display every other seven dots comes from either the main or auxiliary memory When the regular Apple Hi Res graphics signal is applied to an NTSC color monitor or a color TV set through a video modulator
8. GB monitor will not display an image In order for an image to appear two conditions must be met 1 there must be information in the Hi Res display area of the Apple s memory and 2 the RGB card must be turned on See Appendix B for information on turning the card on from assembly language 14 APPENDIX A RGB H When the fil B RGB HIRES on the disk named RGB in front of at 2000 The 5 character a hexidecimal number This RES ROUTINE LOCATI ON ProDOS file buffers and the Basic Interpreter and then copies Hi Res software into that S99FF The setup routine also installs the ampersand vector APPENDIX B USING THE RGB EXTENDER FROM ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE In order to turn on the RGB extender following instructions must be included in your program These instructions must be STA LDA LDA LDA LDA LDA this sequence of instructions card is turned on and will be form an image on the RGB monitor is run it loads a number means that it is setup routine makes spac between th the space This space runs from 9200 to from assembly language the C OD SCO5E SCO5F SCO5E SCO5F SCO5E used in this unbroken sequence When has finished executing the RGB using the Hi Res display area to 15 Appendix C RGB Pinout Diagrams RED GREEN GROUND P GROUND u
9. RGB DIGITAL PRISM USER MANUAL APPLIED ENGINEERING P O Box 798 Carrollton Texas 75006 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE STATEMENT Warning This equipment has been certified to comply with the limits for a class B computing device pursuant to Subpart J of Part 15 of the FCC Rules RamWorks D P RCB option FCC ID EYW5QGAERGBOPT INSTRUCTIONS TO THE USER This equipment generates and uses radio frequency nergy and if not installed and used properly i e in strict accordance with the operating instructions may cause interference to radio or television reception It has been tested and found to gt comply with the limits for class B computing device pursuant to Subpart J of Part 15 of the FCC Rules which are designed to provide reasonable protecton against such interference when operated in a residential installation If this equipment does cause interferenc to radio or television reception which can b determined by turning the equipment on and off the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient the receiving antenna Relocate the equipment with respect to the recerver Move the equipment away from the receiver Plug the equipment into a different outlet so that the equipment and receiver are on a
10. d along the upper part of the back edge of the card and has 10 pins This connector is meant to be used with IBM compatible monitors and is connected via a ribbon cable to a 9 pin D type connector which will plug directly into the cable of an IBM compatible RGB monitor INSTALLING THE RGB EXTENDER ON THE RAMWORKS CARD CK K k CK k k k k C CK k Ck Ck C KKK KKK k k amp Ck Ck Ck Ck Ck Ck CK Ck Ck Sk k Ck Sk S Ck k KKK KKK X X o NOTE Never attempt to remove or insert cards in any slot of the Apple IIe while the power is turned on Doing so could cause damage to both the Apple motherboard and K the card KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK C amp k k k k k k amp amp amp Ck k k Ck k k Ck Kk lt lt lt lt KK Turn the power to the Apple IIe OFF Remove the Ramworks card from the auxillary slot The Applied Engineering RGB Digital Prisim 15 provided with cables that will allow you to use it with both IBM compatible RGB monitors and Apple compatible RGB monitors Remove the cable which will NOT be used with your monitor and save along with its mounting hardware in a safe location Plug the RGB extender into its connectors on the Ramworks card Notice that on the Ramworks card there are two sets of connectors one set on the chip side of the card and one set
11. different branch circuit If necessary consult your servic representative for additional suggestions The manufacturer is not responsible for any radio or TV interference caused by unauthorized modifications to this equipment It is the responsibility of the user to correct such interference IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT CABLES AND CONNECTORS This product was FCC certified under test conditions that included use of shielded cables and connectors between system components A shielded cable is one that uses a metallic wrap around the wires to reduce the potential effects of radio frequency interference It is important that you use shielded cables connectors to reduce the possibility of causing interference to radio television or other electronic devices TABLE OF CONTENTS CHOOSING AN RGB MONITOR INSTALLATION OF THE RGB EXTENDER USING THE RGB EXTENDER Text Color Switches and Color Mapping Switch Text Modes The Applied Engineering RGB Software Sample Programs AN RGB TUTORIAL What is RGB Double Hi Res On the Apple IIe APPENDIX A RGB Routine Locations APPENDIX B Using the RGB Extender from Assembly Language APPENDIX C RGB Connector Pin Outs TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE Welcome to a new world of exciting RGB color Applied Engineering RGB Extender Card Features 100 compatible
12. e given to the disk file which is created and it may also be a string literal or a string variable All of the commands listed above may used ither from the immediate execution mode or in an Applesoft Basic program To use the commands Applesoft prompt the command plus from immediate mode i e when you have the simply type ampersand character and any required parameters To use the commands from BASIC simply put an ampersand as the first character in the 10 command line and then use the command with any necessary parameters of course NOTE The Applied Engineering amp LOAD and amp SAVE commands use file format which is compatible with the format specified by Apple Computer Inc however a program sold by Beagle Bros Software called Beagle Graphics uses a different file format If you wish to load a picture in the Beagle Graphics format use the following commands from Applesoft Basic 100 POKE 16299 0 110 PRINT CHR 4 BLOAD PICTURE AUX 120 POKE 16300 0 130 PRINT CHR 4 BLOAD PICTURE If you wish to save a picture in the Beagle Graphics format 100 POKE 16299 0 110 PRINT 5 4 5 PICTLJRE AIJX A 2000 L 2000 120 POKE 16300 0 130 PRINT CHR 4 BSAvE PICTURE A 2000 L 2000 Of course th file name can be anything you want it to be but you must remember
13. ess while the card is installed in the Apple and may be changed while the card is in operation If you do not like the text displayed in blue you can change the colors now Dip switch 4 is the COLOR MAPPING SWITCH Some monitors which use the 9 pin D type cable have different color maps than others In order to get the proper colors on the screen the switch might need to be switched in one direction or another If the colors you See on your screen do not agree with what they should be try flipping the COLOR MAPPING SWITCH the other way Remember also that color names are a very subjective thing and that different monitor manufacturers use different phosphors in their picture tubes If the color names do not agree exactly with what you think they should be even after trying the COLOR MAPPING SWITCH in both directions the problem might be in the type of phosphor used in the picture tube of your monitor Text Modes Once you have the text colors set the way you like them you can continue on with the Applied Engineering demonstration programs To return to the menu from one of the programs simply press escape Tf the Applied Engineering RGB extender works in the 40 column mode what happens when I switch to the 80 column mode you might wonder A simple experiment will show you that the RGB extender will function in 80 column mode as well as in 40 column
14. expression The allowed range is 0 15 gt which corresponds to the colors as shown below 0 BLACK 8 BROWN 1 RED 9 ORANGE 2 DARK BLUE 10 LIGHT GREY 3 LAVENDER 11 PINK 4 DARK GREEN 12 GREEN 5 GREY 13 TAN 6 BLUE 14 AQUAMARINE 7 LIGHT BLUE 15 WHITE This command is used to change the color of the background The screen will be cleared to the last color chosen using the amp HUE command Please note that anything on the screen will be be cleared this command works like clear except that it clears the screen to the last chosen color instead of black There are no required parameters This command is used to plot a dot of the chosen color chosen using amp HUE The parameters X and Y can be numeric literals Applesoft variables Or valid arithmetic expressions The allowed range of x is lt 0 139 gt and the allowed range of Y is 0 189 gt This command draws a line in the present color from the last point plotted to the location specified by X Y The range and type of the parameters is the same as that for the amp DOT AT command This command is used to load a picture from the disk to the RGB screen fname gt is the name of the file to be loaded and it may be either a string literal or a string variable This command is used to save a picture from the RGB screen to a disk file fname gt is the name which will b
15. ll note that this program looks a lot like the previous one except for the addition of line 115 and the change of the command in line 130 from amp DOT AT to amp LINE TO The addition of line 115 is for the purpose of giving the amp LINE TO command a place to start when drawing the first line Subsequent lines are drawn from the last plotted point which in this case is the position the last amp LINE TO command was given as its parameter The net result is that the program creates a sequence of random lines that are connected head to tail to give a random path around the screen The third example program will give a random set of lines that are not connected as the last ones because the third program will give each line its own starting and ending points This program looks like this 100 amp DG 110 amp CLEAR 120 HUE RND 111 15 130 amp DOT RND 111 139 RND 222 189 135 amp LINE TO RND 333 139 444 189 40 120 This program differs from the first one only in the addition of the line numbered 135 It draws a line from the point plotted in line 130 with the amp DOT AT command to the position specified by the parameters It is different from the second program in that it insures that each line has its own starting point it does not use the ending point of the last line drawn Studying these sa
16. mple programs will help you to better understand the relationship of the two commands amp DOT AT and amp LINE TO AN RGB TUTORIAL What is RGB RGB is a type of graphics system that provides a much sharper image than the regular Apple II graphics display The letters RGB stand for Red Green Blue and refers to the way in which the electron guns in the picture tube of the monitor are controlled 12 Recall that in the picture tube are thre electron guns one for each of the additive primary colors red green and blue In the regular Apple II graphics system the signal to a color graphics monitor is an NTSC composite video signal which means that the information for control of all three electron guns has been combined into one signal In the RGB system the information for the three guns is sent on separate wires one for each electron gun to the RGB monitor Thus because of incompatible signaling standards to use the RGB card you must have an RGB monitor Double Hi Res on the Apple IIe In order to understand how the RGB card produces images on the RGB monitor we must first understand how the Apple Hi Res and double Hi Res modes work Hi Res graphics on the Apple II and II has a resolution of 280H x 192V when viewed on a monochrome black and white monitor Each horizontal row on the Apple II II shows 28
17. o turn on the RGB card If this command is not used the RGB routines will still draw the double Hi Res screen but because the RGB card is turned off nothing will appear on the RGB screen This command requires no parameters This command is used to clear the screen When the RGB card is turned on with the command the screen is not cleared this will sometimes result in garbage on the screen and will sometimes display the last picture that was on the screen Use the amp CLEAR to clear the screen to black This command requires no parameters This command is used to shift back and forth between the text and graphics screens on the RGB card The RGB card will display both modes of text 40 column and 80 column in addition to the RGB graphics If you were in 40 columns before you went to RGB graphics amp TEXT will return you to 40 columns if you were 80 columns then you will return to 80 columns This command requires no paramaters This command is used to set the color which will be plotted on the screen by the next plot command DOT LINE TO Once the color is set using amp HUE it will remain that color until you change it The parameter X may be a numeric literal a number an Applesoft 9 amp BKGND amp DOL AT X Y amp LINE TO X Y amp LOAD lt fname gt amp SAVE lt fname gt variable valid arithmetic
18. ve sync and some use positive sync f your monitor will not properly sync up try pushing the Sync Selection Switch in the opposite direction A table for the Sync Selection Switch is shown below Switch 3 Sync Signal OFF NEGATIVE ON POSITIVE Note to turn the switch off push down on the side marked OPEN Text Color Switches and Color Mapping Switches When you get the proper messages the first thing you will notice is that the RGB monitor displays the same thing as the regular video monitor except that the RGB monitor displays it in a blue color Except for the color the screen format is the same as the regular Apple screen format 24 lines of 40 charaters each If you do not like the screen text display color you can change it to one of three other colors by using the Text Color Switches which are switches 1 and 2 of the dip switches Only switches 1 and 2 of four dip switches will affect the text color A table for the Text Color Switches is shown on the next page Switch 1 Switch 2 Text Color OFF OFF WHITE OFF ON BLUE ON OFF AMBER ON ON GREEN Note to turn the switches off push down on the side marked OPEN The settings on the Text Color Switches have no effect on the other operations of the RGB extender the Hi Res 808 graphics will work the same no matter what the switch settings of the Text Color Switches The switches are easy to acc
19. with Apple IIe hardware for graphics and text modes Four color switch selectable color text blue white amber or green in either 40 or 80 column mode True RGB reproduction of Apple IIe double density modes Works with BOTH Apple compatible AND IBM compatible RGB monitors NOTICE THE ROB CARD DESIGN AND LAYOUT WERE BOTH COPYRIGHTED 1984 BY APPLIED ENGINEERING THIS MANUAL Is ALSO COPYRIGHTED HOWEVER APPLIED ENGINEERING AUTHORIZES OWNERS OF THE RGB CARD TO MAKE A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES FOR THEIR OWN USE CHOOSING AN RGB MONITOR One of the features of the Applied Engineering RGB Digital Prisim tm is its ability to be used with both Apple compatible RGB monitors and IBM compatible RGB monitors To facilitate use with both types of monitors the Digital Prism includes two connectors along the back edge One connector is the 16 pin connector found along the lower part of the back edge and is the exact same connector as the one on the original Applied Engineering RGB Option for the Ramworks tm card This connector is used for Apple compatible RGB monitors and is connected via a ribbon cable to a 15 pin D type connector which plugs directly into the cable of an Apple compatible RGB monitor The second connector which is new on the Digital Prisim and was not included on the original Ramworks RGB option is foun
20. you have completed the installation of the RG APPLIED ENGINEERING RGB EXTENDER B extender and turned on the power to the RGB monitor and the Apple with the Applied Engineering boot disk which is a ProDOS disk named RGB in the boot drive you will first see the ProDOS startup message then you will see the Applied Engineering startup message this is not what you see then turn off the power and check to see that the card is properly installed and all of the cables are properly connected f you are using a monitor that requires th ribbon cable with the 9 pin D t connector and if the picture is rolling and not getting proper sync then you will want to try changing the SYNC SELECTION SWITCH which is one of the dip switches located on the end of the Digital Prisim card which is closest to the keyboard of the Apple lie when the Digital Prisim and Ramworks are correctly installed in the computer There are four dip switches mounted in a red rectangular plastic enclosure The Sync Selection Switch is switch 3 of the dip switches When the Sync Selection Switch is pushed so that it is down toward the side marked OPEN NEGATIVE SYNC 15 selected When the switch is flipped the other direction POSITIVE SYNC is selected Some monitors that use the 9 pin D type connector use negati
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