Anonymous
> What is the pinout of the 15 pin connector used by the VR201?
It requires an RGB monitor of the DEC VR-241 variety. Somewhere, there's a file on how to use an NEC 2A on the Rainbow. You'll also need the color cable, which has a block on the end with three short, color-coded BNC lines and an RJ-11 jack for the keyboard. I'm not sure if any other RGB monitors of later vintage will work. Also, be advised that under most DOS apps, you'll see a green screen, as the green and monochrome lines are shared. You might ask publicly about other monitors. By the way, the Rainbow's output is RS-170, aka NTSC, so if you can dope a way to mix the lines to a single output, you could use an NTSC-type monitor, like a TV with a video-in jack. If you do figure how to do this, please let me know!
See old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj
| Pin Number | Signal | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red shield ground | Shield ground for color monitor cable |
| 2 | Green shield ground | Shield ground for color monitor cable |
| 3 | Red shield ground | Shield ground for color monitor cable |
| 4 | Mono shield ground | Shield ground for composite video coaxial cable |
| 5,6 | Ground | Video, data, and power ground |
| 7,8 | + 12 V | + 12 V power to monitor and keyboard |
| 9 | Blue video | Color video signal from graphics option |
| 10 | Green video | Color video signal from graphics option |
| 11 | Red video | Color video signal from graphics option |
| 12 | Mono video | Composite B/W video from the video processor on the system module |
| 13 | No Connection | Not used |
| 14 | Keyboard received data | KBD RXD Serial data transmitted (output) to keyboard |
| 15 | Keyboard transmitted | KBD TXD Serial data received data (input) from keyboard |
Looking at the back of the system unit, the video port would be pinned thus:
1 8 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 9 15
You can probably infer the cable connections from the above.
Anonymous