When your SGI monitor croaks,
David Vander Velde (dave@kunmr.chem.ukans.edu)
Tue, 09 Jun 1998 21:25:22 -0500 (CDT)
retrieve this message--here are two totally painless ways to replace it
with much cheaper and readily available monitors.
1. The SGI video connector contains 3 RF connectors and 10 pins.
However, the 10 pins turn out to be totally optional, if you connect the 3
lines to the RGB inputs of a multisynch monitor that recognizes "synch on
green." For about $70 you can buy an adapter cable, marketed for Suns but
evidently compatible with SGIs, that attaches to the existing monitor
cable and terminates in 3 conveniently color coded BNCs. (You could also
build your own for next to nothing.) I tried this on an Indy and an
Indigo II, using an AcerView 99c 19" monitor that had BNC inputs as well
as the standard DB-15 connector, and it worked immediately with no
tweaking of either the monitor or the workstations. Whether or not a
direct connection to a DB-15 connector would work probably depends on
whether the monitor of your choice will recognize synch on green coming in
on the DB-15 connector, or can be instructed to.
2. Some older SGIs (e.g. Indigos with 8-bit graphics) had an additional
DB-15 connector which is in parallel with the other one. For those
workstations, connecting a multisynch monitor directly to that connector
also works.
Dave Vander Velde, University of Kansas