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#1
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VGA signal fading
I'm looking to create a VGA fader - I have a projector that takes a VGA
signal from a PC, but I want to be able to fade that signal down to black between projections, manually using a slider. I know there are production items out there but they are in the region of upper hundreds and over-spec'd for what I need. I just need to be able to fade in and out one input. I cant find, on a brief hunt, the VGA signal spec but I would guess its got a sync line and 3 AC signals for pixel brightness. I hear it may be ~0.7v p-p but i dont have that confirmed. Would it be fairly simple to create a variable gain amp to maintain 1:1 or lower gain to fade the signals to black without losing sync with the projector (it pops up a blue screen when the cable is unplugged). Obvioulsly one amp on each analogue line. Any hints/pointers would be of great help! J |
#2
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VGA signal fading
"Coyoteboy" wrote in message ... I'm looking to create a VGA fader - I have a projector that takes a VGA signal from a PC, but I want to be able to fade that signal down to black between projections, manually using a slider. I know there are production items out there but they are in the region of upper hundreds and over-spec'd for what I need. I just need to be able to fade in and out one input. I cant find, on a brief hunt, the VGA signal spec but I would guess its got a sync line and 3 AC signals for pixel brightness. I hear it may be ~0.7v p-p but i dont have that confirmed. Would it be fairly simple to create a variable gain amp to maintain 1:1 or lower gain to fade the signals to black without losing sync with the projector (it pops up a blue screen when the cable is unplugged). Obvioulsly one amp on each analogue line. I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. |
#3
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VGA signal fading
"Charles" wrote in message
... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. VGA is analog. -- Brian Gregory. (In the UK) To email me remove the letter vee. |
#4
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VGA signal fading
"Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote in message ... "Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. VGA is analog. Yes it is. But how about the synch pulses? Decreasing amplitude might reduce contrast to a point, but then synchronization will be lost. |
#5
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VGA signal fading
On Tue, 29 May 2007 17:04:30 -0400, "Charles"
wrote: "Coyoteboy" wrote in message ... I'm looking to create a VGA fader - I have a projector that takes a VGA signal from a PC, but I want to be able to fade that signal down to black between projections, manually using a slider. I know there are production items out there but they are in the region of upper hundreds and over-spec'd for what I need. I just need to be able to fade in and out one input. I cant find, on a brief hunt, the VGA signal spec but I would guess its got a sync line and 3 AC signals for pixel brightness. I hear it may be ~0.7v p-p but i dont have that confirmed. Would it be fairly simple to create a variable gain amp to maintain 1:1 or lower gain to fade the signals to black without losing sync with the projector (it pops up a blue screen when the cable is unplugged). Obvioulsly one amp on each analogue line. I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. |
#6
Posted to alt.electronics
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VGA signal fading
I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. |
#7
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VGA signal fading
"Charles" wrote in message
... Yes it is. But how about the synch pulses? Decreasing amplitude might reduce contrast to a point, but then synchronization will be lost. Why would one even think about fading the sync pulses? They're on separate lines in the VGA connector. -- Brian Gregory. (In the UK) To email me remove the letter vee. |
#8
Posted to alt.electronics
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VGA signal fading
"Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. I'm concerned about shorting the signals to ground. I'll experiment with a cheap video card and see what is required to pull the signal low without a full short. It'd be fairly easy to set this up with a set of digital pots too, is my thinking, and enjoy the lack of mechanical failures (as a version2). |
#9
Posted to alt.electronics
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VGA signal fading
"Coyoteboy" wrote in message ... "Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. I'm concerned about shorting the signals to ground. I'll experiment with a cheap video card and see what is required to pull the signal low without a full short. It'd be fairly easy to set this up with a set of digital pots too, is my thinking, and enjoy the lack of mechanical failures (as a version2). http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/digi_pot/ Good luck and don't worry about shorting to ground with a potentiometer (unless the load on the wiper arm is a short). |
#10
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VGA signal fading
On Thu, 31 May 2007 01:02:40 +0100, "Coyoteboy"
wrote: "Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. I'm concerned about shorting the signals to ground. I'll experiment with a cheap video card and see what is required to pull the signal low without a full short. It'd be fairly easy to set this up with a set of digital pots too, is my thinking, and enjoy the lack of mechanical failures (as a version2). That reply leads me to believe you have not a clue about what you are doing. Best just buy the setup in this case. If you can't wire up a set of potentiometers this is beyond your abilities. |
#11
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VGA signal fading
On 31 May, 13:27, PeterD wrote:
On Thu, 31 May 2007 01:02:40 +0100, "Coyoteboy" wrote: "Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. I'm concerned about shorting the signals to ground. I'll experiment with a cheap video card and see what is required to pull the signal low without a full short. It'd be fairly easy to set this up with a set of digital pots too, is my thinking, and enjoy the lack of mechanical failures (as a version2). That reply leads me to believe you have not a clue about what you are doing. Best just buy the setup in this case. If you can't wire up a set of potentiometers this is beyond your abilities. No, I can manage potentiometers, just worried about damaging other equipment should failure occur (shorting through the wiper while at full scale for example) - hence my original suggestion of a seperate signal amp which would be sacrificial in that instance. It was, however, ~1am while i was writing it and it didnt come out quite as I had planned it in my head so I can see why you thought that |
#12
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VGA signal fading
On 31 May 2007 06:13:07 -0700, CoyoteBoy
wrote: On 31 May, 13:27, PeterD wrote: On Thu, 31 May 2007 01:02:40 +0100, "Coyoteboy" wrote: "Charles" wrote in message ... I don't think you can gracefully fade a digital signal. Standard VGA is analog, not digital. A quick version would require a triple ganged pot, perhaps 150 ohms each (one for each color signal). I guess three sliders with some sort of homemade handle to gang 'em together might do just fine. That makes sense. I'm concerned about shorting the signals to ground. I'll experiment with a cheap video card and see what is required to pull the signal low without a full short. It'd be fairly easy to set this up with a set of digital pots too, is my thinking, and enjoy the lack of mechanical failures (as a version2). That reply leads me to believe you have not a clue about what you are doing. Best just buy the setup in this case. If you can't wire up a set of potentiometers this is beyond your abilities. No, I can manage potentiometers, just worried about damaging other equipment should failure occur (shorting through the wiper while at full scale for example) - hence my original suggestion of a seperate signal amp which would be sacrificial in that instance. It was, however, ~1am while i was writing it and it didnt come out quite as I had planned it in my head so I can see why you thought that I can't imagine how it would fail... High end of pot to the video card, low end to ground, wiper to monitor/projector. Any failure there would be rather unusual, to say the least. That said, I've not seen any VGA outputs that won't survive some abuse such as shorts. They are not high current devices... I don't think an additional amplifier is worth the effort, afterall it could be the failure point! |
#13
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VGA signal fading
I can't imagine how it would fail... High end of pot to the video
card, low end to ground, wiper to monitor/projector. Any failure there would be rather unusual, to say the least. I was thinking if you had it faded "up" and then accidentally shorted the wiper you could blow the card, im unaware of the protection on VGA cards and overly aware of the lack of care/knowledge of students when handling hardware so I like to be extra specially sure it cant cause damage, especially as it may end up being used with something other than a basic PC etc, or even have a bored idiot pushing the end of a biro into it. I just like to cover my back! That said, I've not seen any VGA outputs that won't survive some abuse such as shorts. They are not high current devices... I don't think an additional amplifier is worth the effort, afterall it could be the failure point! Thats the kind of info I needed really, I know they arent high current devices but I've blown a few low current devices in my time with stupid mistakes and accidental shorts - the input device *could* be a custom-built high-end machine and I dont want to be liable for replacing the card, but as you say its not overly likely to fail. I'll knock one up at the weekend and let you know how it goes on. Cheers J |
#14
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VGA signal fading
On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:42:32 +0100, "Coyoteboy"
wrote: I can't imagine how it would fail... High end of pot to the video card, low end to ground, wiper to monitor/projector. Any failure there would be rather unusual, to say the least. I was thinking if you had it faded "up" and then accidentally shorted the wiper you could blow the card, Just as likely as shorting any vga cable, right? im unaware of the protection on VGA cards and overly aware of the lack of care/knowledge of students when handling hardware so I like to be extra specially sure it cant cause damage, especially as it may end up being used with something other than a basic PC etc, or even have a bored idiot pushing the end of a biro into it. I just like to cover my back! That said, I've not seen any VGA outputs that won't survive some abuse such as shorts. They are not high current devices... I don't think an additional amplifier is worth the effort, afterall it could be the failure point! Thats the kind of info I needed really, I know they arent high current devices but I've blown a few low current devices in my time with stupid mistakes and accidental shorts - the input device *could* be a custom-built high-end machine and I dont want to be liable for replacing the card, but as you say its not overly likely to fail. I'll knock one up at the weekend and let you know how it goes on. Cheers J |
#15
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VGA signal fading
Just as likely as shorting any vga cable, right?
True, of course you're right. Only if there is another box between the short and the dead item, the blame (by the unknowing) may lie with the box, not the short. It seems the general public assume that each box will be a protective buffer for the item behind it. I dont like the idea of being the person who has to argue it. If it were my own hardware for use in my house I'd not even have questioned it! |
#16
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VGA signal fading
On Tue, 29 May 2007 19:34:29 +0100, Coyoteboy wrote:
I'm looking to create a VGA fader - I have a projector that takes a VGA signal from a PC, but I want to be able to fade that signal down to black between projections, manually using a slider. I know there are production items out there but they are in the region of upper hundreds and over-spec'd for what I need. I just need to be able to fade in and out one input. Where are you?!?! |
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