I thank many colleagues who offerred responses and advice on finding a FP
monitor for Octane. Most of them dealt with O2 and fuel, and they found in
general FP monitors can be used straight-forwardly out-of-the-box. My
Octane does not have a D-15 VGA connector, however. Rainer Haessner told me
my plug is 13W3, and I need simply a 13W3 -> VGA cable (see below). He even
provided a vendor for that cable. I find his reply consistent with most of
others' in that there should be no problems in connecting FP monitor with
SGI machines, and addressed my concern about the connections.
I also considered purchasing the FP monitor from places that specialized in
SGI or SUN products. The www.xsnet.com quoted me a remarketed 18" for about
$1,000, and the SGI sales could not offer any. They said FP monitor does
not work well with the Octane and tried sell me a 22" CRT for $1,195
instead.
I am listing all the responses below:
--------
there is no special problem. The Octane usually gives a video signal
with 72 HZ refresh rate and a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels.
If you need a slightly modified refresh rate by any reason, type
as root
/usr/gfx/setmon 60HZ
##follow-up
>I noticed the Octane's connector to monitor is of the type that is fairly
>wide with 2 coaxial ports on one side and 1 coaxial on the other, in
between
>there are 2 rows of pins (5 each with two pins removed on one).
>
That's a so called 13W3 plug. Your octane seems to be rather old,
because newer Octanes are equipped with the well known high density
VGA plug.
Anyway, what you need is a simple 13W3 -> VGA cable.
Have look here:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/monitor_cables.html#bnc
It's the cable 530-BNC-VGA.
But I assume you have a better supplier nearby to your
location.
It's a pity. I have unused 13W3 -> VGA adapters, which enable
the usage of common VGA cables. Now I am in Providence
and I could give you that cable. Unfortunately it's too late
for this action now.
Anyway have many success. You really don't need more than
that special cable.
--------
I think the O2 has a VGA connector. Just grab a monitor off of
someone's desk and see if it works. I seem to recall doing that and it
worked perfectly. If it doesn't then you have to find the specs for the
O2 and find out the details of its graphics. You do need a 17" or
larger monitor that supports high-res.
--------
We have gotten our flat panels from XS international www.xsnet.com
They were for our O2's on the instruments - and did require an adapter -
but work very nicely. They can probable help you out.
---------
I don't know about octanes, but the O2's and fuel's have regular SVGA
connectors. We use ViewSonic 15", 17", and 19" with them, and never had
a problem (except one of the 10+ monitors we have failing due to a bad
power supply). Any flat panel that can do SVGA should work, but do
check the refresh rates - I remember that the SGI refresh rates are
very high (compared to PC video cards), and some monitors may have
trouble with that.
The 17" ones are relatively inexpensive, too. Around $300, but you can
probably get them cheaper.
---------
I have 2 Bruker NMRs with SGI O2 computers. I have placed a NEC MultiSync
LCD 1550X monitor on one, and a NEC MultiSync LCD 1980SX on the other.
These monitors worked first time with no adjustments or adapters when I
replaced the old monitors with them.
---------
I don't have an Octane, but have put flat panels on all my O2s. I
just bought Samsung SyncMAster 191T models and they work fine in
analog mode.
---------
I believe SGI uses "sync-on-green" and most Sony flat panels support
that. I bought an 18" Sony for an indigo2 and it worked great straight
out of the box.
---------
Thanks again.
Hsin
-----Original Message-----
> From: Hsin Wang [mailto:wang_at_mail.csi.cuny.edu]
> Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 12:58 PM
> To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org
> Subject: Finding a flat panel monitor for Octane
This is not directly related to NMR, but I thought perhaps I can find
answers here. We have a SGI Octane computer which we wish to find a flat
panel monitor to use with. Does anyone know any flat panel monitor that is
compatible? Any adaptor needed? Thanks.
Hsin
--
Hsin Wang, Ph.D.
NMR Facility Manager
College of Staten Island
2800 Victory Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone: 718-982-3809
Fax: 718-982-3910
Email: wang_at_mail.csi.cuny.edu
Received on Mon Apr 18 2005 - 10:13:36 MST